Chanting devotions

Discussion about this topic

RE: Frishkopf article/audio samples and liner notes

A helpful selection of distinct styles and sources of chanting devotions from Islamic religious performance traditions. My favourite is Track (11)--the Sufi Dhikr with inshad--as it is very lively, is fully participatory, utilizes 'vocal/breath percussion' (which remind me of some Angolan/Capoeirista traditions I know of), and the arrangement does not sound so much rehearsed, as it sounds like these men have been prayer-singing together for a long time (notice the changes in tempo cued only by a single hand clapper--who is likely also a singer).

The unity of the diverse voices (even during the tempo changes), the exchanges and interchanges, the call-answer and overlap, and the vocal percussion are very interesting to me, as I feel this is a musical demonstration of prayerful collective-music-making where 'the leader' is only subtly remarkable--more like a 'guide' or 'facilitatr' than a 'leader' (compare for example to track 4's call and answer--Q:How easily can you tell which voice is the leader in these two tracks?).

I also really like this Track (11) because it resonates with the musical circles and collectives I have worked with in the past, both in form (music/chant)and in content (prayer-full, traditional or imagined). This style seems to emphasize the importance of participation and of mutual support (rather than any kind of grandstanding), which I feel contributes to the cohesiveness of the group, both in music and in spirit. One way to by-pass the proverbial performer-audience dichotomy is to get your audience to fully participate--the performer, then, just facilitates! (Funny though how the more you get the audience involved, the more the performance is perceived as 'entertainment' which suggests some loss in artistic authenticity and dignity. Some people attach good connotations to 'entertainment', though, such as 'accessible' maybe.) ~~namaste, Kreisha

Assigned readings, listenings, viewings

Islamic. Please read my survey of inshad dini (Islamic hymnody in Egypt). Then read listening notes for corresponding audio examples. You may also listen to a typical mawlid and read the associated album notes. The mawlid is a celebration of the Prophet Muhammad's birth, including devotional singing; it is frequently recited in the mystical orders of Islam, the turuq Sufiyya - in this case the Hamidiyya Shadhiliyya order of Egypt.

Hindu. Please read Slawek's Popular Kirtan in Benares For audio examples of various kinds of Hindu devotional singing (including kirtans and bhajans) see [1].

Baul. The Bauls ('madcaps') are a little-known group of itinerant musicians from Bengal, whose religious tradition draws upon Buddhism, Tantra, and Vaishnavism, and is close to mystical Islam as well. Please read Capwell's Popular Expression of Religious Syncretism. Listen to two Baul songs performed by Subal Das Baul and his ensemble:

• Gyan Anjana Nayane Dao. Text by Radhashyam Gonsai, 1960. Instrumental accompaniment: Khal (two-headed drum), Dhotari (lute typical of west Bengal), Ektara (a single-stringed instrument most emblematic of the Bauls; made of a gourd, it is said to be descended from the gopiyantra, the instrument used by the gopis, Krishna's cowhered maidens), Duggi (small round drum).

• Joga Bole Sonre Madha Bhai. Same instrumentation, plus harmonium.

Optional supplementary readings:

• You may like to read about another Hindu devotional genre, the bhajan.
• For further background on the Bauls, see another article by Capwell.
• For an overview of the religious songs of Nobel-laureate Rabindranath Tagore (whose spirituality was powerfully influenced by both Hinduism and the Bauls) see The Religious Motif in the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore

Your selected readings

Include here articles about devotional chant - intoned religious texts apart from the recitation of Divinely-given ones. Try to cover (collectively) as many religious traditions as possible. Follow your citation with a capsule summary.

Jose Maceda, Chants from Sagada Mountain Province, Philippines Maceda speaks on the daily musical life in the mountain province in the Philippines. "Musical life is in connection with daily activities—dance, play, political, etc. There are various chants for different occasions, identifiable by tune/melody." This particular article analyzes the text and melodies (musical analysis) of seven specific chants recorded by Mr. Alfredo Pacyaya from this province, but played in the United States in 1956, and are currently housed at the University of Chicago. --Stella 21:39, 29 January 2006 (MST)

Precontact Music in Hawai'i by Elizabeth Tatar Tatar's article examines records of Hawaiian chants collected by Helen Roberts (1923) and Dr. Kenneth Emory (1933), along with spectographic, manually transcribed and linguistic analyses to explain why 19th Century performances sound so drastically different from contemporary performances. Her analysis indicates that "a chant phonology existed alongside a speech phonology, phonemically the same, but phonetically different", with noted variances in type, style and quality of 'mele' (chant). Tatar concludes that "if a Hawaiian musical trait found in chant appears in similar form over a sufficiently wide area of Eastern Polynesia, it is probable that it existed in precontact times."~~Kreisha

• Attempt at audio sample/web-site [2]--Kreisha (signature button still not working for me!)