Advertise on ChoralNet
Interfaith holiday musicDate: September 8, 2010
Any suggestions? I am looking for Muslim and/or interfaith
mixed choral works to include in a "carols around the world"
program for an a cappella pro chamber chorus. As "light" is a
common holiday theme, I would guess there are some pieces by
composers of middle eastern (Muslim and Jewish) descent I'm just
overlooking.
Thanks, Scott Replies (9): Threaded | Chronological
Larry Smith on September 8, 2010 1:31pm
Transcontinental Music is a great resource for Jewish music - especially liturgical music. The Chanukkah celebration is all about light, so you should have some success there - althought the High Holy Days for the Jewish faith are actually right now. You may have trouble finding truly Islamic music because singing, as I understand it, is not part of Islamic worship. You may find some Middle Eastern poetry set to music by western composers. the poet Rumi is a particularly fine poet representing the Sufi Muslim tradition, which does encourage singing and dancing as expressions of faith. You might find some songs with the theme of light in that regard. There is a very nice arrangement entitled "Your Fragrance", a Rumi poem set for a capplla chorus by Ed Henderson. I like it very much and have done it with my choir. It has a definitive middle-eastern "feel" to it but the text is rather ambiguous - could be sacred or secular. earthsongs is usually a good source for music of other cultures usually written by composers from that culture.
Grace and peace,
Larry Smith
MIssouri Baptist University
smithl(a)mobap.edu
on September 9, 2010 9:08am
Not directly related to light, but for a finale, I'd highly recommend Elliot Levine's "There is No Fear in Love" which features five different languages each singing their own special melody in beautiful counterpoint. Elliot encourages groups to compose more verses with other languages. The text is "There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out fear." (John 4:18) Big hit every time I've done it - I usually have the audience learn and sing the English melody and the choruses sing the Spanish, German, Latin and French. Depending on the nationality of the foreign exchange students I have, I add a verse or two - most recently Arabic. Available from Shadow Press or Elliot Levine (member of the Western Wind - find them on the web). Elliot would also be a good source for Jewish music.
Blessings and peace,
Beth Good
Westmont Hilltop High School
Johnstown, PA
on September 9, 2010 10:20am
Trying to have an interfaith balance in choral music is a fool's errand -- Christianity has six centuries of choral tradition while other faiths have little or none, and certainly non-Christians don't have "carols". I don't think there is any Muslim choral music, and Muslims generally frown on singing worship music in a secular concert; here's a ChoralNet resource on this topic.
ChoralNet's resources have some suggestions for Chanukah music, and Jewish music in general.
on September 9, 2010 11:10am
Hello Scott,
That's truly wonderful that you want to do an Interfaith program. As Larry said, it's extremely hard to find Muslim music since it's not part of their worship.
Luckily though, the Baha'i Faith originated in Iran, so it has quite a few pieces in Arabic and Persian so you can increase the variety of your songs that way.
1) Here is a Baha'i prayer, sung first in Arabic then in English. This song was arranged for choir with Western harmonies: http://www.manifoldmelodies.com/scores/God_is_Sufficient.pdf
The story of this song is very powerful. Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, was imprisoned along with other followers of the new Faith in the "Dark Pit", a horrible dungeon in Tehran. The prisoners were placed in two rows, facing each other over the stocks in which their feet were held. The air they breathed was foul; the stone floor was covered with filth and infested with vermin and no warmth relieved the dungeon's icy gloom. Baha'u'llah related how He taught his fellow prisoners to sing verses in response to each other. One row would sing, 'God is sufficient unto me; He verily is the All-Sufficing!', and the other would reply, 'In Him let the trusting trust."
This song is based on a poem by Dr. Habíb Mu'ayyid and is a spiritual quest for guidance from ‘Abdu’-Bahá, the grandson of the Founder of the Bahá’î Faith, to whom Bahá’ís turn to as the perfect exemplar.
3) Ek hi Ped (Ye are all Leaves of one Tree)
The music for this Hindu piece “Ek hi ped ki tum ho pal” was written by internationally renowned Indian composer Ravi Shankar for the dedication of the Bahá’í Temple in New Delhi in 1986.
All files are also available at: http://www.manifoldmelodies.com/bahai_music.htm where I will be adding some other pieces soon. Feel free to visit every now and then to see what’s new.
Also, if you need help with pronunciation of any of the texts, feel free to contact me directly either by email or at 847-224-9996.
I would love to hear from you regarding your final program!
Lorraine
p.s. As "carols" are specifically Christian, you may wish to change the title to "spiritual [or scared] songs from around the world".
on September 9, 2010 11:44am
Hello again Scott,
Oh, I almost forgot a gorgeous piece!
This Is the Day: This extremely beautiful piece with gorgeous harmonies was written by Stanford E. Scriven (Facebook Page) with words from the Baha'i Writings. It can be purchased at Santa Barbara Music Publishing where a sound file of a wonderful rendition is also available. Enjoy!
Lorraine
p.s. This young man has also has written some beautiful Christian pieces as well. For example: "Christ the Appletree" (sound file available on his FB page)
on October 28, 2010 1:53pm
There is a young man named Hossein Janmohamed who has created a gorgeous arrangement of a Muslim chant with Dona Nobis Pacem, its absolutely gorgeous and very accessible, I think it would go beautifully with a Christmas season program. He probably has other choral arrangements that may interest you as he founded and directs Canada's National Ismaili Youth Choir. On the net you can find him at: www.myspace.com/husseinjanmohamed
on October 28, 2010 7:26pm
Amy Stephen writes:
"There is a young man... who has created a gorgeous arrangement of a Muslim chant with Dona [nobis pacem]... I think it would go beautifully with a Christmas season program..."
I respond:
If I've understood you correctly, this is a Muslim chant to which a Christian text has been underlaid. Perhaps it is a melody that many Muslims would recognize as their own. If so, many or even most of them might find it deeply offensive. If I heard a traditional synagogue chant -- say, "Kol nidre" -- as the music for, say, "Stabat Mater" I would experience it as at best in poor taste and at worst as an attempt at focused evangelism, akin to the American Board of Missions to the Jews or Jews for Jesus, notorious for co-opting Jewish symbolism in order to separate Jews from their traditions. Please be careful with this.
If I've misunderstood, please forgive me.
on October 29, 2010 12:20pm
I agree that different religious faiths and their followers have different levels of tolerance and sensitivity towards combining elements of different liturgical practices. I've always wondered if any Christians were upset in the 19th century when musicians at the large Jewish Synagogues of Europe took movements from Handel oratorios and substituted the words of Hebrew prayers. Think of the Hallelujah Chorus with the words for Aleinu or Adon Olam. This was a common practice, but I've never seen any information about how these hybrids were received, either by the Jews who heard their choirs singing Hebrew prayers to Christian music, or by the Christians, some of whom might have taken exception to substituting a Jewish text for a Christian one.
on October 29, 2010 4:04am
On the theme of "light", I can offer Sheena Phillips' I shall light a candle which combines a Bengali folk song (".. but I have little understanding, I don't know which way to go, I don't know the way of life") with words from the apocrypha (II Esdras 14:25) "I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out". SATB a cappella, words Bengali and English, duration 3 minutes.
John Wexler
Edinburgh, Scotland
|
Help support ChoralNet by buying via these links
|
