(no subject)
sound is important to me.
from about ages 2 - 9 i lived on the ground floor of an apartment that was directly across the street from a church. my bedroom faced the street and church. for years after we moved out of that apartment, i'd wake up hearing the melody that the church bells played every morning. i can still recall it. couldn't tell you the last time i actually heard it, outside of my head or my humming.
almost a year ago to now (feb 07), i went to mali, west africa to study abroad for three months. my home stay family lived on the corner of rue lycee propser kamara and mosque kalapo. that's what i'd tell the taxi's when i occasionally took them. the mosque was walking distance and i soon realized that i would be woken up every morning by the 4 or 5 am call to prayer. i suppose i felt about the first prayer the way you feel about any alarm-clock sound - a little resentful even if as a melody you like it. the first prayer was eerie and strong and long and loud. the other prayer that i heard every day occurred in the evening, after i came home from school, so either 4ish or 6ish. usually when i was outside bucket showering. this one was beautiful. melodic. soothing. maybe because i was showering. it was cleansing and calming and beautiful, like a shower at the end of a long hot day.
the muezzin (person chosen to lead the prayer call) for mosque kalapo had a beautiful voice and melody. during our village stay, i lived with a family whose house was also by a mosque. i didn't enjoy the sound of the prayer calls nearly as much. i missed the voice of mosque kalapo's muezzin. and now that i am back in the states, oceans away, i miss it again. not just any prayer calls, but the beautiful, strong, eerie, soothing ones that came from mosque kalapo.
the first time i heard busta rhymes' new song 'a-rab money,' the radio dj was questioning if maybe it was racist. busta responded to this line of criticism with a remix attempting greater cultural sensitivity. instead of 'a-rab' it was now 'arab.' instead of a gibberish excuse for arabic on the chorus, the remix changed the hook to be entirely arabic - pronunciation skewed, but more or less the opening lines of the koran. the song and remix sparked many responses from muslims and non-muslims, arabs and non-arabs. some criticized it for mixing islam with music. granted i know very little of the religion, but this surprised me as my experience in a predominantly muslim country had been so full of music, including what i consider to be the music of the prayer calls.
i just read an article about muslim punk rock http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23muslim.html and apparently there is a developing genre of muslim hip-hop as well http://www.muslimentertainment.com/introducing-hip-hops-songs-of-praise/.
then there is ron browz and arab money, which may mean well but remains sorely misguided (hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2zTDSVu2GM and here it discussed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbkBuGJghX0)
i guess i need to learn more about viewpoints concerning the use of arabic or koranic verses in music. mostly, i just wish i could hear again what i heard every day from mosque kalapo. sounds are important to me, and i miss these ones.
from about ages 2 - 9 i lived on the ground floor of an apartment that was directly across the street from a church. my bedroom faced the street and church. for years after we moved out of that apartment, i'd wake up hearing the melody that the church bells played every morning. i can still recall it. couldn't tell you the last time i actually heard it, outside of my head or my humming.
almost a year ago to now (feb 07), i went to mali, west africa to study abroad for three months. my home stay family lived on the corner of rue lycee propser kamara and mosque kalapo. that's what i'd tell the taxi's when i occasionally took them. the mosque was walking distance and i soon realized that i would be woken up every morning by the 4 or 5 am call to prayer. i suppose i felt about the first prayer the way you feel about any alarm-clock sound - a little resentful even if as a melody you like it. the first prayer was eerie and strong and long and loud. the other prayer that i heard every day occurred in the evening, after i came home from school, so either 4ish or 6ish. usually when i was outside bucket showering. this one was beautiful. melodic. soothing. maybe because i was showering. it was cleansing and calming and beautiful, like a shower at the end of a long hot day.
the muezzin (person chosen to lead the prayer call) for mosque kalapo had a beautiful voice and melody. during our village stay, i lived with a family whose house was also by a mosque. i didn't enjoy the sound of the prayer calls nearly as much. i missed the voice of mosque kalapo's muezzin. and now that i am back in the states, oceans away, i miss it again. not just any prayer calls, but the beautiful, strong, eerie, soothing ones that came from mosque kalapo.
the first time i heard busta rhymes' new song 'a-rab money,' the radio dj was questioning if maybe it was racist. busta responded to this line of criticism with a remix attempting greater cultural sensitivity. instead of 'a-rab' it was now 'arab.' instead of a gibberish excuse for arabic on the chorus, the remix changed the hook to be entirely arabic - pronunciation skewed, but more or less the opening lines of the koran. the song and remix sparked many responses from muslims and non-muslims, arabs and non-arabs. some criticized it for mixing islam with music. granted i know very little of the religion, but this surprised me as my experience in a predominantly muslim country had been so full of music, including what i consider to be the music of the prayer calls.
i just read an article about muslim punk rock http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/us/23muslim.html and apparently there is a developing genre of muslim hip-hop as well http://www.muslimentertainment.com/introducing-hip-hops-songs-of-praise/.
then there is ron browz and arab money, which may mean well but remains sorely misguided (hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2zTDSVu2GM and here it discussed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbkBuGJghX0)
i guess i need to learn more about viewpoints concerning the use of arabic or koranic verses in music. mostly, i just wish i could hear again what i heard every day from mosque kalapo. sounds are important to me, and i miss these ones.