The aesthetic and the sacred

Assigned readings

Please read the following.

Festivals of Dhrupad in Northern India

Intrinsic Aesthetics in Balinese Artistic and Spiritual Practice

Tarab in the Mysic Sufi Chant of Egypt (pass briefly over descriptive sections; focus on the role of tarab aesthetics in mystical practice)

This coming week we'll also continue our discussions of last week's readings, which are closely related, so please bring them along.

Listenings, viewings

Example of Balinese Barong/Rangda ritual possession music Gamelan Pelegongan - Sisyan, Danse Des Apprenties-Sorcieres Du Theatre Exorciste Calonarang

Example of dhrupad, as performed by the Dagar brothers. Fifteen generations of Dagars have sung India's dhrupad devotional music. Rag Kambhoji: Alap is followed by Rag Kambhoji: Dhrupad in praise of Krishna.

Excerpt from a performance by Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami. Read notes for this example.

Listening: (delayed from last week)

• Examples of Temiar ritual music and soundscape
• Examples of pentecostal preaching style and music

We will watch some videos on Tuesday, including:

• Excerpts from Mystic Iran (delayed from last week)

plus:

• Footage of the Rangda/Barong ritual dance (Bali)
• Dhrupad performance
• Shaykh Yasin al-Tuhami

Discussion about this topic

Hi. I just read the discussions over the last 2 sections, and I thought I'd respond here to keep it going (talk about techno-schizophrenia, but I have a feeling the different section topics are going to coalesce into some common themes of interest).

~ Chris: wow, thanks for the nudge to Tuck's article on Tagore! Such echoes of Kalil Gibran (sp?), and Tuck was very tasteful in his treatment of such wise poetry. Two things:

1) the failure of language to adequately represent religious (or even mundane) experience is also signified in Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze (philosopher) and Guattari (psychiatrist) whose praxis techniques consisted in de-designated collaborative writing and the occasional Turret's syndrome of quoting from Antonin Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty in the most unprovoked places amidst their heavily theoretical exegesis (quite a frustrating read for many, but a great Preface by Foucault--though not nearly as poetic nor spiritually palatable as Tagore, of course!).

2) If the 'sacred' is not exclusively dependent on codified text, then I see no reason why glossolalia cannot be considered both what you described: a) a recitation of the sacred by the grace of the Holy Ghost, and b) a human (Christian +) exercise/facility of bypassing the brain filter to more fulfillingly express religious experience. Writing or code-defining often feels like it 'kills the experience', but poets such as Tagore don't subordinate experience to the pen--rather the pen is subordinate to the divinely inspired heart-mind. Sonic resonance is also another technique to bypass the brain-filter and make a direct-connect to the divine, hence probably our common interests in music.OK--so there's

3) Thanks for the clarification about 'speaking in tongues' according to the Pentecosts--a white male and a black female from one of the Pentecostal churches came to my door this past summer and after I described some of my pro-creative-devotioanl activities to them, the woman murmered this term and they walked away. I thought it was an accusation of what I more readily identify with as syncretic and indigenous influences... Maybe it was, but at least you have helped me to recognize that there are common phenomenae and a common relation to noumenae (viz. speaking in tongues as channeling divine) shared by Christian and indigenous religious practitioners.

~Andre: Those conspiracy nuts and alien disc/orbs paralleling Ezekiel--would you believe that, in my small interpretive understanding, a corresponding yet distinct account of those orbs is also alluded to in Falun Dafa (-a Holy Book of the Buddha School but not 'Buddhism')? The main text (Zhuan Falun)is considered very Sacred and Great by its true practitioners, but you'll want to read the preparatory introduction to the West "China Falun Gong" first, if you're interested. (Geez, who needs Art Bell when..)

~Cari: I checked out those Taize mp3 samples--sounds a lot more professional and counterpoint-based than what I noticed in the Sufi chants, but I hear the meditative togetherness and it is beautiful.

~Jordan: Thanks for standing fearlessly alone in democratic-poetic contradiction to the norm. (Hey! I do my best! [Chris, you put up an article I put up last week!]--Jordanv 10:02, 16 February 2006 (MST)) FEEL FREE TO SPLICE YOUR RESPONSES IN THIS--PICK A SYMBOL FOR YOUR BRACKET~--Kreisha 07:25, 14 February 2006 (MST)

~~ how mortifying! I am terribly sorry Jordan. It is either a really good article (sort of) or perhaps I just was not paying too much attention the other week. Hey Kreisha, I'd like to know more about noumenae -- thanks for your commennts. ~~CBIEL ##HEY CHRIS!## The first canonical distinction I encountered that classified "noumenae" (plural for noumena) from "phenomena(e)" was by Emmanuel Kant (pronounced more like "cunt" than "can't", circa. 1880)in his Italic text'Prologomenae to Any Future MetaphysicItalic text'He was a pivotal Dutch (German?) philosopher who, according to the Philosophy program at the University of Guelph, basically spawned the 'modern' evolution of 'epistemology' and 'metaphysics' as fields of study in the discipline of philosophy. "Noumenae" is the term used to denote the metaphysical realm or 'realm of ultimate reality'(knowledge of which can only be directly known by [the impersonal]God, according to Kant), while "phenomenae" is the term used to denote the empirical or perceivable realm (limited by our senses, i.e. human perceptual apparatus). CONTEXT: Kant's interpretive paradigm is primarily in response to the 'immaterialism' or 'idealism' of the Enlightenment Period (18th Century European)circulating in the works of philosophers such as Sir George Bishop Berkeley (--noumenal conflation with phenomenal and gross 'appeals to authority'), as well as to the scientistic Rationalism (16th Century European) of Descartes (mind-body bifurcation-'split'), and of course, we're still dealing with Plato's codificatin of Socratic oral tradition with the separation and subordination of the 'passions' to 'reason'. (Dualities appear institutionally entrenched in European philosophical texts). Back to the 21st Century (Western Syncretic), I see Kant's division of the phenomenal-noumenal realms as equivalent to the Deconstructionist argument (Derridas? Levi-Strauss? Saussure?) that "signifiers (or 'signs'= words, symbols, perceived objects) signify only other signifiers (viz. ideas or perceived concepts) and never the signified (viz. 'noumenae')". Both Kant and the Decons would limit human understanding to human (intellectualized) perception, thereby rendering impossible any direct 'knowledge' of noumenae. OUr readings on music, trance, glossolalia, possession and healing would suggest that their is a degree of porousness to this 'phenomenal-noumenal' distinction which, I believe, hinges on our ability to personally experience 'God' (RE: In Hinduism, the Atman-Brahman relation is consonant, not dissonant), e.g., via musical performance/composition/devotion/ritual. One question I would ask Kant/Decons: "Is human experience [merely] perceivable?"~Grace, --Kreisha 22:37, 23 February 2006 (MST)

Just a note on the word beauty. I conducted a search of JSTOR using the words religion, music and beauty and received articles from roughly 1910-1950ish. There were few (none? cant remember) articles from the last decade. I just find it kind of interesting how scholarship evolves and take the lack of "beauty" in very recent articles as an indication of the focus of studies conducted today as compared to yesterday. Maybe people dont think religion is beautiful anymore. Maybe "beauty" is less important or quantifiable(?).

~ I'm not particularly surprised at that... The word 'beauty' is far too subjective to suit scholarship in a society that values objectivity as the only legitimate source of knowledge.--Gloria 13:57, 23 February 2006 (MST)

1. Don't forget, some of the journals don't allow on-line access for the last 5 years (e.g., Ethnomusicology)--Michael said the library should have up-to-date editions..wonder if there is on-line index? Maybe beauty has/can be resurrected as an acceptable theme?~--Kreisha 22:37, 23 February 2006 (MST)

(PS: Have any of our readings on sacred texts said anything about "scholarliness is next to Godliness"? RE: 'objectivity'--the Copernican Revolution (intellectual resulting from astronomical)happened in the early 1800s or was it the late 1600s? Anyhow, if empirical scientists can admit that "the Earth revolves around the Sun" and not the other way around--which they used to believe--and that the scientist's bias precludes the hypothesis [viz. scientists looking for constanst a,b,c with variables l,m,n will bring measuring apparatus to test only for such hypothesized constants/variables, which biases increased likelihood of finding said c/vs while generally eliminating finding radicals e.g., x,y,z, much less alters like 7,11,13 or yellow and red, unless 'by accident']...well, _We_ are the 'scientists' of today: Find what you are looking for, and look for what you have [not] found. ~Au courage--Kreisha 22:37, 23 February 2006 (MST) legitimacy is often itself subjective)

Your selected readings

Music-Reform in the Catholic Church by Henry This reading touches on some of the themes that were brought up in the other readigns, such as distinctions between sacred and secular music and what is considered appropriate and ideal in a sacred context. The importance of focusing on God through the sacred text is prevalent and contrasts starkly with Sufi emotional expressivity, for example. It essentially outlines the do's and dont's for this religious group's sacred music, namely idealizing holiness, beauty, and universality.--Gloria 23:26, 12 February 2006 (MST)

The Duality of the Sacred and the Secular in Chinese Buddhist Music by Li Wei This article distinguishes between music in general (yue)as secular music leading to moral degradation or 'sense-pleasure', and religious music known as tianyue (music of the heavens) and fanbei (monastic chanting) in codified Chinese Buddhist literature. Wei explores this orthodox internal division of music and contrasts the (possibly Confucian-influenced classical aesthetic) Buddhist prohibition against non-Buddhist music with the actual practices of Chinese Buddhist nuns and monks who have been influenced by Western liberalism, classical music and mass media. While Wei refers to the "ancient Chinese Buddhist ideology of music" as the belief in the power of Buddhist chant to affect not just social but also spiritual and physical capacities (RE: Austen's 'perlocutionary' and 'illocutionary' consequences of speech), this essay is primarily concerned with the impact of globalization and with the socio-political and historical changes in the Chinese Buddhist attitudes towards music. Of interest, in his conclusion Wei counter-poses the liberalizing influence of the West on Buddhist attitudes towards non-Buddhist music, with the increased promotion of Buddhist music in the global public domain as a possible sign of "creating new traditions in religious expression".----Kreisha 04:35, 14 February 2006 (MST)

Can Art Ever Be Just about Itself?--Nick McAdoo This article has a more theoretical approach to the aesthetic and non-aesthetic in music (but he also talks about other art forms). There's no real emphasis on any one religion but his ideas can be applied to anything we cover in class. He discusses aspects of language, audience expectations, and the link between what is 'aesthetic' and 'non-aesthetic'. It's a good article and I think I'm going to read it a few more times so that I can wrap my brain around some of his thoughts.--Bkey 13:01, 14 February 2006 (MST)

Some Observations on the Aesthetics of Primitive Chinese Theatre Yu Quiyu This article examines the primitive forms of Chinese theatre that have been rejected and despised by twentieth century social reformers for their "backwards" shamanistic activities. The plays generally center around the exorcisms of the ghosts of the old year in preparation for the coming of the new at the New year's festivals (other themes involving historical figures later deified are also significant). The author focuses on many aspects of the performance, including the transformation the performers go through when putting on the sacred masks of the gods, the staging, and the ritual vs. entertainment aspects of the genre. Also noted, particularily in the staging aspect, is the inclusion of the audience and the community as a whole which speaks to our discussion of the social aspects of ritual. The stage of the drama can encompass entire villages and often characters will go through the village acting out their role or conceal themselves within the audience. The main theme of the article however, is that primitive theatre is an aesthetic activity that is bound within a ritual framework.--KellyM 11:32, 15 February 2006 (MST)

From Tranformation to Desire: Art and Worship after Byzantine Iconoclasm, Charles Barber This article discusses perception of Byzantine art (specifically icons) and how the art has become a transparent medium in religion. Barber instead focuses on the formal structure of the art instead of their liturgical function and suggests that after iconoclasm the conception of Byzantine art as object, arguing for a separation of art and worship.--Lpauls 20:25, 15 February 2006 (MST)

Religion and Art by Martin Conway This article, though not particularily specific in any one viewpoint, adds to our previous readings on this topic as an overview. It ties several of the ideas together, and helps to underline the idea that Art, Science, and Religion have only become seperate entities in the last hundred years or so. The author attempts to argue that religion and art are 'hand in hand', disregarding the idea that "Religion has been the operative force, and art its tool." --Kristen 22:52, 15 February 2006 (MST)

Rosalind Hackett-- Art and Religion in Africa: Some Observations and Reflections This article speaks on religious expression through art in Africa, as well as the discourse on interrelationships between the two. Hackett draws from different African regions. Areas covered include “Art as Category and Lived Experience and Art and Religion: Human Interfaces with the Divine.”--Stella 00:04, 16 February 2006 (MST)

The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music by Jay R. Howard and John M. Streck

The article explores the world of contemporary Christian Music as both a part of secular pop culture and as a separate entity. Most written positions describee the industry in two ways: one, that Christian music has been co-opted by mainstream pop culture and two, that it has the potential to challenge capitalist idelogies. The two positions, the authors agree, are both representative but do not give the full picture. Borrowing from H.R. Niebuhr, they situate Christian music into three main categories: Separational, Integrational and Transformational. They also discuss 'music as evangelistic tool' and the co-opting by many Christians of pop stars who may or may not be christian -- and the old "Rock music: good or bad?" debate. ~~CBIEL

The Council of Trent Revisited, by Craig A. Monson

I found this article partly in response to Gloria's "Music Reform in the Catholic Church." The current aesthetic in Roman Catholic Church music was pretty much begun in the 1560's at the Council of Trent. At that time in music history, polyphony was becoming very complicated, which often obscured text, and many instruments were introduced into the church. This article discusses the ideas and positions of the church fathers, and how the Council effected the development of the Church's music. --Meghanbowen 10:42, 16 February 2006 (MST)

[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-0206%28199512%2938%3A3%3C43%3ATAOUII%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q The Aesthetics of Ugliness in Ibibio] I just finished writing up a long explanation, but then forgot to save it before signing in, so now I'm a little unimpressed with myself. I finally found an article that I think suits our topic, but at the same time I'm a little hesitant to post it. It was interesting to read, at least at first. Inih A. Ebong looks at aesthetics in a slight topsy-turvy fashion as he considers what he describes as the "aesthetic paradox of ugliness" within Ibibio dramatic arts. Ebong looks at the place of ugliness in the context of the dramatic arts, particularily physical and psychological ugliness and suggests that it is a mechanism of catharsis, but more to bring a greater sense of moral awareness and social responsibility. While I found it interesting to read about the physical examples of grotesque masks and puppets, what Ebong describes as psychological uglyness is rather obscene and pornographic, full of negative connotations towards women. Ebong explains that they are "socially and morally repugnant and disagreeable in the actual and normal processes of daily interactions and transactions between members of the society, but aesthetically very appealing, inoffensive and agreeable in performance situations." (p51) Even so I found it difficult to read about them. ~--Cari 21:31, 19 February 2006 (MST)