Chant as the Articulation of Christian Aramean Spirithood

Abstract

For Urfalli Suryanis, an ethno-religious migrant community from Turkish Urfa/Edessa, chant is of paramount importance. Using Syriac, the fugitive Christians who escaped post-WWI persecution continue to practise this ancient oral musical tradition in their new home in Syria. This minority group has a communally agreed conception of identity that should be understood in its proper set of terms. Their conception of Suryaniness may best be seen through particular chants from the Edessan school of Syriac chant they practice in St. George’s Syrian Orthodox Church of Aleppo. Focusing on an example from Great Lent, this chapter traces the local terms of an Urfalli Suryaniness that is believed, lived, constructed, and performed, around a unique blessing. The chapter contextualizes expressions of Suryaniness in the local terms of being and belonging, where the Suryani ideal is manifested in the combination of demographic existence and a performative reconstructive process that relates to faith, place, time, history, memory, and language.

Growing up Christian and Nepali: negotiating belonging through music inside and outside the Church in Nepal

“…This literature demonstrates that part of belonging to a Christian community involves identifying with a culture beyond it. Recent research on Christian congregational music shows how examining musical style in congregations can reveal how local Christians identify with wider cultural settings (egButler 2019, Jarjour 2016, Sherinian 2014). Here, creative acts are one way to constitute belonging.…”