Music and Morality: Listening to Dangers Inherent in the Cosmos
Ann E. Lucas
Chapter from the book: Lucas, A. 2019. Music of a Thousand Years: A New History of Persian Musical Traditions.
Part of
Chapter from the book: Lucas, A. 2019. Music of a Thousand Years: A New History of Persian Musical Traditions.
This chapter looks at the second category of writing that address music form the time of the twelve-maqam system: writing about music’s morality. The focus of this chapter is writing about spiritual listening (sama‘) found in handbooks for Sufism. These texts often contain specific sections describing the moral value of music in connecting listeners to God, when used properly, and the moral peril of music for listeners when it is used improperly. These discussions tie the morality of music to its inherent cosmic power aligned with understandings of music as a natural phenomenon discussed in chapter 3.
Lucas, A. 2019. Music and Morality: Listening to Dangers Inherent in the Cosmos. In: Lucas, A, Music of a Thousand Years. California: University of California Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/luminos.78.d
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Published on Nov. 1, 2019