Women, the Recited Qur&39an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia [Hardcover]

Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Contemporary Indonesiatakes readers to the heart of religious musical praxis in Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world. Anne K. Rasmussen explores a rich public soundscape, where women recite the divine texts of the Qur'an, and where an extraordinary diversity of Arab-influenced Islamic musical styles and genres, also performed by women, flourishes. Based on unique and revealing ethnographic research beginning at the end of Suharto's New Order and continuing into the era of Reformation, the book considers the powerful role of music in the expression of religious nationalism. In particular, it focuses on musical style, women's roles, and the ideological and aesthetic issues raised by the Indonesian style of recitation.

Anne K. Rasmussenis Associate Professor of Music at the College of William and Mary.

Rasmussen has written a classic study of the world of Islamic soundscapes, performances and forms of musical piety in that most complex of societies, Indonesia. With great sensitivity, an alert musical response to players, reciters and audiences, a keen practitioner's ear and eye for subtlety as well as for the complexities of 'noise', she changes common assumptions about Muslim music and, not least, gender in changing Islamic ritual cultures. Her own political awareness and her professional as well as personal relations with women Qu'ran reciters contribute to an exciting an original volume that I recommend to any one exploring the riches of Islamic performances and debates in the contemporary world. Michael Gilsenan, author ofLords of the Lebanese Marches: Violence and Narrative in an Arab Society

List of Illustrations
Note on Transliteration and Translation
Preface and Acknowledgments

1. Setting the Scene
2. Hearing Islam in the Atmosphere
3. Learning Recitation: The Institutionalization of the Recited Qul“®