Music and Spirituality—Introduction
نویسنده
چکیده
Across time and geography people have known the power of music for evoking the gods and acquiring spiritual insight. Whether arising as a textless chant by a single voice or a percussive auditory event for ritual dance, music in its various modes is a virtually ubiquitous companion to religious and spiritual practices. Not only a constant accompaniment to one's spiritual trek, musical compositions from the great oratorios of Handel to the soundtrack to the movie trilogy Lord of the Rings also serve as powerful metaphors and inspirations for that journey. In previous research I have suggested that one of the reasons for the power of music in the spiritual realm is related to the very nature of sound [1,2], of which music is one of its most refined genres. This is based upon the presupposition that different senses provide different epistemic experiences. As a distinctive avenue to knowing, hearing enables the human imagination and thus the religious imagination to grasp and experience the transcendent in a unique and spiritually prized manner. For example, sound experiences are by their very nature transitory. While a sculpture can sit in a museum or even outdoors for centuries without requiring anything to sustain its beauty, sound only exists if it is being produced in the present—either by live or reproduced sound production. A record, cassette, CD or even musical score is not " music " the way Michelangelo's (d. 1564) David is a sculpture. The great Tuscan artist carved David and then let it stand for over three centuries outside in Florence's public square without any substantive care. Maria Callas' (d. 1977) performance of " D'amor sull'ali rosee " from Il Trovatore, however, can only be experienced if you were present for a performance of it, or if someone plays a recording of the same in the here and now. Sound is an immersion in temporality. Because of that, sound has an inherent dynamism about it. While using hammer and chisel on a piece of marble is certainly dynamic, once the piece is sculpted the dynamism emanating from the piece is all but muted, and the fundamental dynamic responsibility lies with the observers of the piece in the process of reception. Sound on the other hand embodies movement. While there are " light waves " they are much too fast for human's to perceive their movement. Sound waves, on the other hand, move at …
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تاریخ انتشار 2015