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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Islamic Vocal Art |
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| tawbah |
| 07/04/03 at 18:31:08 |
| BBC Radio 4, Sounding the Divine Programme 3 (aired July 2, 2003) With the new religion of Christianity spreading across Western Europe, followed by the rising faith of Islam, James O'Donnell finds out how different cultures and communities began to express their faith through chant. (Duration: approximately 14 minutes) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/sounding_divine.shtml James O'Donnell: It is more beautiful than all the bells in Christendom. What is it about the sound of a single unadorned human voice that is so profoundly moving and uniquely able to touch the heart? [Yusuf Islam: Adhan] Tim Winter is lecturer in Islamic Studies at the faculty of Divinity in Cambridge University. Tim Winter: What it evokes is a kind of nostalgia, it's a kind of longing, it's a yearning, it's an aspiration. The Muazzin is saying "Come to prayer, come to success." Everybody knows it means come back to God. You were with God before you were ensouled in the world, that is your homeland, that is where you're being called to return. [Quran: Wa kadhaalika ba'athnaa... ] James O'Donnell: Sheikh Hamza Yusuf is a leading Muslim theologian and lecturer at the Zaytuna Institute in California. Hamza Yusuf: The sound of the voice is the symbol, and that is our call to prayer, and it's not a church bell, it's not the ram's horn of the Jews, it's the human voice. So when the Muadhdhin calls others to listen, "idhn" in Arabic is the ear, and the Muaddhin not only announces but he also causes the ear to hear the call. And so there is this penetrating voice "Allahu Akbar." [Quran: Fee kitabil... ] James O'Donnell: The highest art form in Islam is calligraphy in which the beauty of the script is seen as a reflection of the written word of God, Allah. The human voice then becomes in a sense a sounding form of calligraphy and its ultimate place in religious expression is the chanting of the Quran, the most sacred element of Muslim life. But to chant the Quran takes years of training. [Quran: Fa laa... ] Tim Winter: There are academies in the Muslim world where they take you through for eight or ten years the basic rules of Quranic recitation. It's an enormously sophisticated theoretical world with its emphasis on rhythms, on modes (the major the minor and other modes), on vocal embellishments and ornaments, grace notes and on cultivation of the strength and the volume and consistency of the voice using many of the tricks evolved quite independently that great opera singers would have been taught in the West. Hamza Yusuf: We believe that the Quran is the uncreated word of God. So we have a very specific way of speaking of the Quran. We do not describe the Quran as prose, nor is it poetry. It is unique. That is why the way it's chanted and recited is also considered unique. [Qari Khalil al-Husary: Iyya kana` budu wa iyyaka... ] There is a grief style called Al-Huzn where it's almost very mournful to listen to it and it's often used for verses that relate to very profound mournful things such as the hellfire. There is also a very elevated type of recitation that is very joyful and delightful. The reciter will always use his voice to enhance or embellish the actual meaning of the verse and this is a science that's learned in which the Egyptians are particularly adept at it but in many other countries as well. [Turkish Sufi Ceremony: Bismillahir Rahman ir Rahmanir Raheem... ] James O'Donnell: This is the closing sequence of a Sufi ceremony in Turkey. [TSC: Hu wallau lladhi la ilaha illa hu... ] The reciter of the Quran expresses spiritual ecstasy in a remarkable vocal display unlike anything we might hear in the West. Complete with swooping lines and extremes of vocal range. [TSC: Hu wallau lladhi la ilaha illa hu. Al Malikul Quddus Salamul, Muminul, Muhayminul, 'Azizul, Jabbarul, Mutakabbir.] Although we might not understand the words, the sound of this chanting can move our hearts. Afterall, a beautiful song sung in another language can still affect us even if we don't know the exact meaning of the text. Hamza Yusuf: It's believed that the sacred sound of the letters have an impact on the soul and on the heart. For instance, after the first short seven verses of the Fatiha, the very first extensive chapter of the Quran the Baqara (the Cow) begins with "Audhbuillahi min shaytanir Rajim, Alif Lam Mim." These three sounds Alif Lam Mim are actually letters. Nobody knows what they mean but it's a belief that they do have a meaning because there's nothing in the Quran without meaning. But the fact that God -according to the Mulsims- sent letters down as part of the revelation, the very sounds of those letters have a meaning. There is a theory about these sacred sounds that the entire universe is actually built upon these sacred sounds. James O'Donnell: Despite the extraordinary vocal acrobatics and sheer breadth of the emotional expression found in chanting the Quran, it is not regarded as music as such, more a hightened form of speech. The awareness of the effect music can have on human mood and character has resulted in one of the fiercest debates in Islam, stemming from its early days, on the permissibility of music, not only in worship but in every other part of life. Hamza Yusuf: Out of a type of spiritual courtesy the Muslims have never called the chanting of the Quran music. Although any great musician who has ever heard great chanters of the Quran knows very well that they're using highly sophisticated musical principles but there is a type of courtesy with the sacred book that it's not associated with music in that way. The debate in Islam about music stems from the power of music over human souls. It's related to what was known in platonic thought as the ethos theory, and that was that music actually did have a profound effect on the human soul and also the association with music with intoxicants, which is still very much part of our modern society. In the early stages of the debate there were clear distinctions between sacred and profane sounds. Do they open our souls to higher states or do they close them to those higher states and open them to lower states? This is really at the crux of the issue. James O'Donnell: But this ambiguity, this unique and strange power inherent in music has been put to some extraordinary uses. Tim Winter: One of the ways in which sound was made use of by the religious in classical Islam was in the treating of illnesses, particularly mental illnesses. If you go to what's left of traditional Ottoman hospitals today you can see that there were often quite splendid chambers which were for the performance of chamber music. The doctor would bring in the mental patient and his symptoms would be described to the musicians, and they would play or they would sing a particular mode or type of music that would untie the knots in his soul, as they put it, or possibly chase out the demons that were inhabiting that person. [Chamber Music] This is a tradition that continues until today. It's a particular genre of Islamic music that is specifically for the healing of mental disorders and for the settling of people who have been traumatized by war or bereavement. To this day in Turkey there are ensembles and you can even buy their music on CD, who specialize in the traditional art of healing souls. James O'Donnell: Although Muslims don't sing together during formal worship, (the five daily prayers in the mosque) in a more informal setting they do sing and quite a bit. Nasheeds and Qasidas, in other words what the Christian church might describe as sorts of hymns, form a very important and rich part of everyday Muslim expression. Tim Winter: Islamic Civilization, starting with the example of the Prophet himself, has cultivated poetry. When you think of names of like Jalaluddin Rumi for instance who's now apparently the best selling poet in America, whose poetry is often sung collectively. If you go to some of the Mosques of Bradford or any part of this country where the Punjabi traditions are very strong, you will hear some of the most extraordinarily beautiful collective singing in Urdu or Punjabi or sometimes Gujarati. Music of a very high quality, completely unadorned, they don't even have accompanying drums. Usually the theme is the Prophet, the love of the Prophet, the ascension of the Prophet, the intercession of the Prophet, the birth of the Prophet, these are the great themes of Muslim religious singing. This tradition of singing comes right from the founding moments of Islam. The first thing that the Prophet heard as he entered the city of Medina was little girls from the tribe of Bani Najjar banging tambourines singing the full moon is rising over us. [Yusuf Islam's Tala 'al badru 'alayna … ] The Prophet was welcomed to his city by song, by a religious chant, and he very much cultivated the arts of poetry in the city of Medina because he knew that this was one way of popularizing the new monotheism and moral code amongst the Arab tribes. Hamza Yusuf: In Morroco there is a very famous and beautiful song and it's sung in this kind of daija: Ana maliki aishasha 'alay ya minni... They'll do that at weddings and everybody joins in because they all know the words off by heart. We would say in modern parlance "don't worry be happy" it's kind of a Moroccan version of that Al Capolo? song made popular in America. [Morrocan Music] [Yusuf Islam song: Alla humma, Salli 'ala... ] James O'Donnell: Hearing the chanting of the Quran has brought home to me once again the extraordinary versatility and power of the human voice with its almost infinite range of expression. Wherever we are, whether in a mosque in Turkey or in a synagogue or even somewhere in Westminster Abbey, it is the sound of the human voice that reaches us in a way that no other form of music is able to. We don't even need to understand the words. The true meaning comes from the heart of the singer straight to the heart of the listener. |
| 07/04/03 at 19:46:55 |
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