Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia

Download or read book Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia written by Anne Rasmussen and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2010-08-23 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women, the Recited Qur'an, and Islamic Music in Contemporary Indonesia takes 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.