Smells and Bells

      School's Out.    It's been four months since my first blog post on the senses, and I still sit in the same "sea of smells" as before, although perhaps it’s a bit mustier. But, if I've learned anything, it's to appreciate the less pleasant sensations. A monolithic sensory palette is no palette at all, and as such, I wish to spend my last blog post meditating on a new sense, one with much more potential for linguistic expression: hearing.    Around me, dozens of sounds swirl around my head. Heavy feet stomp from above, creaking the hundred-year-old wood. A door slams, followed by sharp, clear laughter reminiscent of wind chimes. Cars rumble alongside the buzz of crickets and thick summer heat. And in the distance, I hear the faint mumblings of Kendrick Lamar's new album. With sound, the unseen world becomes realized, and I find myself able to connect with it beyond my physical limitations. In this sense, I ground myself into a universal narrat...

I will admit that the concept of musical theory does not excite me. I've never truly had the patience to try to understand how songs and recitations are structured and formatted. However, I will admit that I somewhat enjoyed learning more about Quran recitations. To begin with, the concept of 'music' does not differentiate the concepts between "songs, instrumental music, or musical function" (Rasmussen 26). What that means to me is that anything capable of making a sound could be considered 'music'. However, what particularly caught my eye was the explanations of aurality and orality. Aurality being defined as awareness of the way sound is experienced. Take for example, a heavy metal fan banging their head up and down in rhythm with the song. The aggressive sound making the listener respond to it in a somewhat aggressive manner. Image courtesy of www.ultimateclassicrock.com Orality on the other hand is the activation of the text into a measured and m...

It seems to me that one of the most "visible" aspects of a religion is that faith's music. The popular views, regardless of their correctness, held by the larger Western public imagination informs many people's knowledge of different religions, and may constitute the limit of somebody's knowledge of a faith, depending on exposure. Much of Anne Rasmussen's book deals with how Muslim men and women interact with devotional music and one another in the context of music. One of the most visible and stereotyped Islamic musical practices comes in the form of the Sufi whirling dance, performed by both men and women in the Sema ceremony. The dance involves spinning around for extended periods of time. Practitioners whirl and listen to sacred music in order to lose their ego or sense of self. While Sufis constitute a relatively small proportion of the Islamic ummah , their dramatic dance and distinctive clothing captured the Western imagination. This whirling ritual h...

When re ading  Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia , I was struck by the importance of song. How a song sounds can communicate a lot, even before looking at the songs lyrics (if it has any). What is it about certain genres that does that? I'm not sure but I would really like to know. It's pretty well known that songs in a major key sound happier and more upbeat than songs in a major key, but that doesn't explain the differences between things like hymns and punk rock. To my ears hymns have always sounded joyful but reverent. Perhaps that has something to do with how many people typically sing them at the same time and the environment in which they are sung. Although, I think even without those things the songs would still have some aura of calling to a higher power.  At the same time, it is hard to escape the message conveyed by harsher genres like hard rock or punk. Without hearing the lyrics many of the songs already seem like a rebelliou...