Smells and Bells

While reading the chapter “Celebrating Religion and Nation; The Festivilization of the Qur’an,” I found myself thinking, ‘isn’t this a little sacrilegious?’ Making Qur’anic recitation into a huge competition (into many huge competitions)? As Rasmussen puts it, the “Festivalization” of religion demonstrated in these recitation competitions combines religion and state authority. “Islamic arts…” Rasmussen argues, “are manifested as authentic Indonesian national praxis” (126). This along with state and corporate sponsorship of these recitation competitions had me thinking that this kind of recitation no longer seems very religious. I thought, if this kind of traditionally religious practice is being performed for monetary gain, personal glory, or upward social mobility, it cheapens or erodes the original intent of the practice. But thinking more specifically in terms of the sensory information we’re focused on in this class, the acts of learning, performing, and perfecting Qur’anic recita...

     In the second chapter of "Women, the recited Qur'an, and Islamic music in Indonesia", Anne Rasmussen begins her analysis of the Islamic soundscape and the community of voices that contribute to the "tapestry of loose free-meter heterophony emanating quasi-simultaneously from numerous sources". Her work highlights the sense of community fostered by Islamic traditions and rituals, and here takes a closer look at the nature of recitation and the significance of the ear to religious ceremony. Before reading this excerpt, I had no idea how tightly linked the Qu'ran was to oral tradition. My perception of any ancient religious text is that such a text must have been written down to prevent the mutation of the scriptures over time. However, Rasmussen tells us this is not the case for Islam and the Qu'ran. According to Rasmussen's citation (Nelson), the Qu'ran did "not exist to preserve against change; it is taken for granted that oral tra...

One of the biggest reasons I have committed my life to music is because, for me, music is spiritual. In particular, the human voice carries a significant power to promote spiritual experiences through triggering emotional responses. When listening to someone sing, have you ever felt the hairs rise on your arms, the back of your neck or a tingling rise up your spine? The opportunity to connect with another person so deeply as to elicit a response like that is precious. This level of connection is rare. The rarity, and the power of this kind of connection is why I seek to both find and create it. Over the course of my life, I have discovered that there is a sensitivity required to experience this level of connection from another's voice and I that the performer is also required to share this vulnerability. In Anne Rasmussen's Women, and Islamic Music in Indonesia  she discusses how expert Qur'an reciters use ornamentation and the "breaking" of the voice stylistica...

What struck me most, in pages 125-165 of Anne Rasmussen's book, was the idea that "although Islam is the third largest religion in the United States after Christianity and Judaism... Muslim America is multicultural. There is no single or even predominant cultural model for religious rituals, clothing, food, or music for Muslims in the United States" (128).  This was a novel idea for me, because, as Rasmussen also states, there is a larger journalistic view that presents Islam as one united culture, which has permeated America's thoughts on Islam. This was interesting to me because, although it is clear to me that there are no unifying standards on Islamic music, music itself seems to be unifying, in a very global way. This does not just apply to Islam, although I believe that music does bring a lot of Muslims together, no matter what kind of "music" calls them ("music" can be anything,  recitation or not). Rasmussen says she was able to spend a lot...