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Listening to Qur’anic Voice: Musicality of Sound and Meaning in Sūrat al-Fātiḥa
Abstract by Omer Es On Session IX-26  (Language and Libraries)

On Saturday, November 4 at 3:00 pm

2023 Annual Meeting

Abstract
This paper argues for the inherent musicality of the Qur’anic voice by examining tonal patterns in form, rhythm, and inherent melody within Sūrat al-Fātiḥa, the first and most frequently recited chapter of the Qur'an. It explores how aural structures alternate through tension and resolution, forming progressions. In addition, it establishes a connection between tonality and semantic tension and resolution, shedding light on the relationship between sound and meaning and the aesthetic experience of the Qur'anic voice. Western Qur’an studies treats the Qur’an as a written scripture, often eclipsing the aesthetic significance and rhetorical affect of its orality. Although contemporary literary scholarship, notably the work of Angelika Neuwirth, emphasizes the orality of the pre-canonical Qur’an, compositional analysis focuses on demarcating the sūra (chapter) structures, treating it as a written text. A few scholars, such as Kristina Nelson and Michael Sells, offer insight into the Qur’anic progression through musical tonality, employing the twin notions of tension and resolution. Despite absence of theorization and systematic application, this intrinsic musical foundation holds potential for an oral approach to Qur'anic discourse. Tonal music theories operate through tension and resolution. Inextricable from tonal motion, conventional rhetoric, such as in European, Arabic, and Indian tonal music, is to end with a return to the root tone of the scale for resolution. Beginnings are often associated with indeterminacy as the listener transitions into a new temporality with limited formal expectations. Middles convey relative tension and resolution through contrasts, variations, and climaxes. Accordingly, this study proposes to hear the sūra structure in musical space-time. It examines the verse-by-verse alternations of aural-cum-semantic tension and resolution and the synchronous emergence of introductory, developmental, and cadential structures. The discussion centers on the progression of Sūrat al-Fātiḥa in sound and meaning through semantic and aural elements of tension and resolution. The analysis suggests that the Qur’anic discourse moves from tension to resolution in sound and meaning, marking a distinct compositionality in the sūra as a unit.
Discipline
Art/Art History
Language
Literature
Other
Religious Studies/Theology
Geographic Area
Islamic World
Sub Area
None