Music and Religion

Music and Religion

     I am extremely delighted to present my blog regarding this distinct topic of "Music and Religion" as I am brought up in a very traditional background of Tamil culture, following the worldly religion of Christianity, I feel proud and extrovert as Tamil is my Mother tongue, which is one of the ancient languages in the world which has the archeologic record of 300 BC old. However Music and religion are closely linked in relationships as complex, diverse, and difficult to define as either term in itself. Religious believers have heard music as the voices of gods and the cacophony of devils, praised it as the purest form of spirituality, and condemned it as the ultimate in sensual depravity; with equal enthusiasm they have promoted its use in worship and sought to eradicate it from both religious and secular life. Seldom a neutral phenomenon, music has a high positive reflexes in the religious sphere. Christian music, for example, includes not only Gregorian plainsong, Palestrina masses, Protestant hymns etc., but also, resonant basses of the Russian Orthodox choir, the ornate melodies of Greek Orthodox chant, and the percussion-accompanied dances of Ethiopian Coptic worship.

      As I was brought up in a Tamil Christian culture, I have more interesting things to share in this blog about how music and culture go together in a unique way different from other cultures.

      We use many Tamil Christian song books, however during the ceremony we use 2 authorized hymn books, called "Keerthanai"( Meaning - “Songs of Praise”) comprising  448 songs and “Paamalai”(Meaning - "Garland of songs"), comprising of 410 songs. They are mostly collections of indigenous hymns written by Protestant Tamil Christian poets. While a few of them are translated from other languages, most of them are originally composed in Tamil. The Keerthanai form includes classical Raga (mode) and Thala (rhythm). Each Keerthanai and Paamalai song follows a unique Raga and no other song has the same Raga. This is one of the most fascinating features of Tamil Protestant Christian Keethanai and Paamalai songs. The number of songs sung at a particular ceremony depends on the duration of the service. Usually, a regular ceremony at a church would be for 2 hours including 4-5 songs sung. Also, the songs sung relates to what the message was intended to be delivered by the priest that day.

    Every church have their band team with volunteers playing the instruments and as well as a singing choir team. The songs that are intended to be sung for that day is displayed in the hall of gathering. The choir team take the lead of the songs and the entire gathered public would join them along. Most of the songs are very melodious and help us get rid of the mental stress and bring in a divinely feel when sung along with the instruments like Keyboard, Violin, Guitars, Shakers etc., which gives a unique sense of closeness to god. Especially, the Shaker is one of the most important instruments in any worship song.

    Each Keerthanai and Paamalai songs are penned or written with 3 distinct phrases. They are Pallavi, Anupallavi and Charanam. Pallavi is the opening paragraph followed by Anupallavi which the mid phrase that is usually 4 lines long and then followed by the Charanam (2-3 sub phrases). Every time a phrase in Charanam is complete, the Anupallavi is sung back. If a song doesn't contain an Anupallavi, then Pallavi is sung in between phrases of the Charanam.

   Here is one of my favorite worship songs in Keethanai.

  













From the above song we can see that the first four lines is the Pallavi and is followed by 4 phrases of Charanam. This is a typical example of how a Keerthanai song looks like.

    It is quite interesting to know how Music and Religion infused in different cultures go unique within a country or community. We hence realize, how musical styles pre-fused in Tamil language form a unique identity unite the people towards worshiping their religion.