The Art of Music in Asian Christianity

international journal of asian christianity 1 (2018) 290-306 brill.com/ijac

Verena Grüter Augustana-Hochschule Neuendettelsau/Germany [email protected]

Abstract

From the very beginning, music has played an important role in shaping the theological and spiritual identity of Christian churches in Asia. While the topic of music and spirituality has been addressed practically and in musical theory, the question of Christian identity through music has attracted seemingly very little attention in theological research. By way of example, this paper discusses six types of Christian music styles in Asia and analyses their connection with theological identities of the respective communities.

Keywords

Soundscape – musical heritage – contextual Christian music – Dalit folk music – praise and worship music – transformative potential of musical performance – aesthetic demarcation

Introduction

Asian Christianities emerged in the midst of the multifaceted soundscapes of Asian cultures and religions: The Syrian orthodox songs of the first Christian communities in south India rang out surrounded by the Brahman recitals of Vedic scriptures and the sound of drums and reed instruments of the Hindu temple orchestras. And while the Jesuits in the sixteenth century in Japan sang their Roman Mass in Latin, surrounded by Buddhist monks practicing their Shomyo-recitals, Hudson Taylor in 19th century China intoned his revival songs in the midst of pentatonic scales played by bamboo flutes in Chinese folk music.

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Wherever Christians practice their faith in different cultures of the world, they hand down consigned music and also create new musical styles. Musical performance is an indispensable part of worship. Moreover, musical performance in liturgy is a powerful instrument, which shapes the theological and spiritual identity of Christianity in a given context. In my paper, I shall explore six different uses of music in Christian worship in Asia. In doing so, I do not mean to present an elaborate typology of liturgical music. Rather, I intend to present these different types of liturgical music by way of example in order to initiate more in-depth field studies on the question of how theological and spiritual identities of Christian communities in Asia are shaped by musical performance. As musical performance plays an important part in the construction of religious and cultural identity,1 I would raise questions concerning the role that liturgical music plays in the formation of religious and cultural identities of Asian Christian churches. Starting from personal experiences, I shall take up recent theories on music’s role in the formation of collective identities and raise the question of music’s role in the formation and transformation of religious and cultural identity from a new perspective. Finally, I shall come to consider the special contribution of Asia to the ecumenical horizon of Christian music.

Orthodox Liturgies, Latin Masses and Lutheran Chorales: Aesthetic Demarcation of Difference

In August 2017, I visited the city of Tranquebar in South India with a group of students from the theological faculty of the University of Göttingen. As we soon noticed, the musical heritage of the first Lutheran missionaries Bar- tholomäus Ziegenbalg and Heinrich Plütschau, dating from 1706, is still vivid in the liturgical practice of the Tamil Nadu Evangelical Lutheran Church. We visited the ancient New Jerusalem Church, built by Ziegenbalg himself, to attend a worship service. The liturgy we witnessed was very similar to the liturgies celebrated in our own churches at home, and the songs were mainly traditional Lutheran chorales or revival songs. Students felt reminded of very traditional worship services in which they had assisted in Germany, too.

1 Georgina Born/David Hesmondhalgh, ed., Western Music and Its Others. Difference, Represen- tation, and Appropriation in Music (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 2000).

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Questions may be raised as to why this congregation clings to these types of songs while other Christian churches in Asia decades ago have adopted more contextual liturgical music as will be shown below. Singing the traditional chorales, this congregation performs its Lutheran identity brought about by the German Lutheran missionaries three hundred years ago. In this case, the con nection between the musical practice and its reproduction by this congregation can easily be traced back to the mission history. This congregation obviously affirms its own Lutheran identity by performing the traditional liturgy and songs, thus distinguishing itself from the socio-cultural and religious context in which it represents a minority. It seems appropriate to ask whether this liturgical practice is still in line with Ziegenbalg’s and Plütschau’s attitude, who decided to sit with the indigenous people and study the Tamil language from them in order to build schools where their children would be taught in their mother tongue. Listening to the people in order to speak their language and sing their melodies albeit with Christian texts has been a Lutheran attitude from the beginning. However, a congregation sticking to the traditional liturgical music raises the question of whether this distinction from the context means an attitude that includes a certain depreciation of the surrounding culture. It seems rather that the liturgical performance marks and reinforces the boundaries between the congregation and their socio-cultural surroundings. The case of the congregation in Tranquebar is no single experience. Accord- ing to Swee Hong Lim,2 Christian congregations in Asia prefer to cling to their musical heritage wherever they are in a minority in order to express their religious and cultural difference from the surrounding society. This is true, he affirms, not only for Lutherans, but also for nearly all other traditional main- line Christian denominations all over Asia, especially the orthodox churches. Performing the traditional music of their respective denomination, Christian congregations in religiously minoritarian contexts underline their differing identity.3 Lim argues that differentiation of identity by music presents a neces- sity of Christians in a minoritarian situation: “First, with Christianity remaining a marginalized faith tradition and the in situ culture fully integrated with the extant dominant non-Christian faith,

2 Swee Hong Lim, “Asian Christian Forms of Worship and Music,” in: Felix Wilfred, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 524–538. 3 Lim, “Asian Christian Forms of Worship and Music,” p.532 “This scenario [South East Asian countries championing politically certain faith traditions, vg] alludes to the fact that Chris- tianity is a minority faith tradition in this region [South East Asia, vg] as it is in other parts of Asia. It is therefore readily shaped by this mindset in its worship forms and musical expressions; namely, the need for identity differentiation. The implication of this mindset is the purposeful disassociation of worship and church music practices from the in situ culture. Faith and culture are typically juxtaposed and not integrated.”

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Christianity would be hard-pressed to differentiate itself from the other religious traditions. Therefore, drawing resources from the same cultural resource will be most difficult if not impossible. Second, with the long-standing defer- ence afforded to the Christian tradition provided by Western missionaries, it would seem rather unbecoming to the populace to now abandon this valuable heritage and replace it with local expressions that were deemed unchristian in the first instance. Such a dramatic shift can only lead to confusion in Christian identity formation.”4 Lim’s statement seems to depart from the theory “that music reflects or enunciates underlying social relations and structures”.5 The above mentioned Christian churches in Asia, then, seem to use liturgical music as an aesthetic boundary marker in order to express their socio-religious identity, which is predefined by historical processes of tradition and includes value judgements concerning the surrounding culture. Post-colonial approaches might question this mindset for possible colonial attitudes regarding the surrounding cultural and religious context. Moreover, more recent theories of music’s role in form- ing socio-cultural identities turn the question around. As it has proved difficult in the past “to trace the links between a musical form or practice and its production or consumption by particular social groups”, new theories of music propose “that music ‘reflects’ nothing; rather, music has a formative role in the construction, negotiation, and transformation of sociocultural identities. In this view, music engenders communities or ‘scenes’; it allows a play with a performance of and an imaginary exploration of identities. Its aesthetic pleasure has much to do with this vicarious exploration of identities.”6 On the ground of this theoretical approach, the question towards the use of liturgical music in Asian Christianity should be reformulated: How does liturgical performance engender Christian communities in Asia? How can the role of music be described in the construction and transformation of Asian Christian identities? When is music used as a boundary marker for existing sociocultural and religious identities? And what are its societal effects for the Christian communities? In return, the current liturgical and musical practice should be investigated to interrogate the connection between theological and musical or liturgical developments with regard to their interplay in the formation of collective religious identities. But this goes far beyond the purpose and possibilities of this article. Instead, I shall restrain myself to a more descriptive approach. Hereafter, I shall describe, by way of example, some characteristic liturgical music styles practiced in Asian Christian communities. The examples

4 Lim, “Asian Christian Forms of Worship and Music,” p. 534. 5 Born/Hemsondhalgh 2000, Western Music and Its Others, p. 31. 6 Ibid.

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294 Grüter arise from different theological and denominational shapes of Christian communities as well as from different socio-cultural music styles. These include liturgical music inspired by contextual and liberation theologies as well as contemporary worship music and rap, avant-garde art music as well as interreligious dialogue in music. Far from representing either liturgical or ethno- musicological categories, my examples would rather show the broad musical horizon of Asian Christianity.

Decolonization and Liberation – The Role of Contextual Vernacular Music Styles for Theology and Spirituality in Asian Christianities

Beginning in the sixties of the twentieth century, the processes of political decolonization within the ecumenical movement brought about the emergence of contextual theologies and at the same time harsh criticism of the work of European and American missions. Besides theological education, the development of contextual music and liturgy became the focus of attention.7 In the wake of theological decolonization the insight grew that contextual theologies need contextual liturgies in order to take root in Asian Christian congregations. The creation of the East Asian Christian Conference Hymnal in 1963, edited by the theologian Daniel Thambyraja Niles (1908 – 1970) from Sri Lanka and accompanied by the Committee on Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches, was a prominent attempt to renew liturgy and music. Niles was among the first theologians who recognized the high importance of contextual liturgical music in order to transform traditional missionary theology into contextual theologies and forms of spirituality. The follow-up version of the hymnal, commissioned by the Christian Conference of Asia (cca), was elaborated by a committee of the Asian Institute of Liturgy and Music (ailm), edited by James Minchin, Francisco F. Feliciano (1941 – 2014) and I-to Loh (born 1936) and in a trial edition published for the cca’s assembly in 1990.8 The hymnal’s finite version of two thousand with the title Sound the Bam- boo entails more than three hundred songs from twenty two countries in forty four languages for the Christian liturgy. The melodies of the hymns are mostly derived from Asian folk songs or composed by native musicians, albeit thus

7 Cf. Feliciano V. Carino: “It has been said and has been in so many ways historically estab- lished that movements and institutions are remembered less by their legacy of words as they are by their legacy of music and songs. (…) In the life of the Church, we are defined and known most forcefully by our hymns,” in: Sound the Bamboo: cca Hymnal 2000, (First Print- ing 1990) (Hong Kong: Christian Conference of Asia, 1990). 8 Ibid.

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The Art Of Music In Asian Christianity 295 reflecting the theological dogma of incarnation.9 The editors express their wish that this hymnal might enhance a “culturally sensitive mission, inclusive and varied styles of worship, and respectful interaction with their [the Chris- tian churches’, vg] society’s blend of ethnicity, aspiration (religious or secular), language and culture.”10 These words reflect the post-colonial turn in mission theology championed by the ecumenical movement in the course of the decolonization processes after both the World Wars in the second half of the twentieth century. Thus, the hymnal is the musical expression of the postcolonial turn in mission theology. It aims at the transformation of liturgical performance among cca’s member churches towards contextuality and ecumenicity. The editorial suggests that the venture of producing this hymnal has engendered an overwhelming reper- cussion among Christian communities in Asia.11 To my knowledge, up to now there has been no thorough investigation on the issue of the reception of the hymnal and on the question of how the performance of the songs included in Sound the Bamboo has transformed the identity of Christian churches in Asia. It would be more than adequate to undertake such an investigation in order to prove the influence of liturgical music on the Asian Christian identity. However, the effort of the Christian Conference of Asia was to employ vernacular music styles in order to engender ethnic Christian communities. The case of Tamil folk music performed by Dalit communities shows how folk music can also serve the purpose of liberation. Together with my students, in Au- gust 2017 I visited the Tamilnadu Theological Seminary (tts) in Madurai/South India. The morning devotion started outside the chapel. A group of students performed a Dalit folk dance and accompanied themselves with parai drums, typical in Dalit folk music. Later in the chapel during liturgy, they continued performing dances from the Dalit folk tradition. The liturgy was celebrated

9 “We still crave good texts that evoke, with fresh power and poignant imagery, the God made flesh in Jesus.” Francisco F. Feliciano/James Minchin/I-to Loh, Preface, in: Sound the Bamboo: cca Hymnal 2000, vii. 10 Francisco F. Feliciano/James Minchin/I-to Loh, Preface, in: Sound the Bamboo: cca Hym- nal 2000, viii. 11 “‘Sound the Bamboo, cca Hymnal 1990’ was produced and launched as a trial edition in time for the 9th cca Assembly that was held in Manila, Philippines. Since then it has been used extensively in cca events and gatherings and often in the life and worship of many groups both in Asia and in other parts of the world. Its value as an expression of Christian life and witness, and for the enrichment of Christian worship in Asia has been more than tested and received. It is most appropriate, and an achievement of great proportions, that ten years later, in connection with the 11th Assembly of the cca, ‘Sound the Bamboo, cca Hymnal 2000’ is produced and launched as a more definitive version of the hymnal.” Feli- ciano Carino, Sound the Bamboo: cca Hymnal 2000, vi.

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296 Grüter throughout in Tamil and the congregation sang Christian hymns with Tamil folk melodies. While the Christian Conference of Asia employed vernacular music styles in search of a genuine spiritual expression of Asian Christian churches, the spiritual practice at tts aims at the liberation of outcast people supporting them to raise their voice in the society as well as within the Christian church. Zoe Sherinian, associate professor and chair of ethnomusicology at the university of Oklahoma, herself a percussionist and filmmaker, studied the performance of Tamil folk music and the theo-musicology of Rev. Dr. James Theophilos Ap- pavoo, called Parattai (1940 – 2005). In her book Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Lib- eration Theology12 Sherinian highlights Parattai’s Dalit musico-theology, thus demonstrating how “the indigenization of Christianity through musical style, theology, and language […] direct[s] the purpose of religious discourse back to the social emancipation of the poor and oppressed in this world and in this time period” and how, simultaneously, “the process of social identity reforma- tion for Dalit Christians [works] through the transformative and recreative power of music in the performance context.”13 Being himself a Dalit searching for liberation from the status of an outcast in Christianity, Parattai looked for Tamil folk music as a means of liberation of the Dalits. He used Tamil folk music to raise awareness of their status among the Dalits themselves. Playing the parai drum plays a special role in this effort, given the fact that this drum is usually played by Dalits during the funerals of caste people. This drum, therefore, is seen as a polluted instrument which caste people would avoid even touching.14 Tamil folk music was devalued by upper-caste people even in church. There- fore, Dalits who had successfully reached an economic middle-class status usually had assimilated the upper-caste devaluation of Tamil folk music as “degraded”.15 Instead, they had turned to hegemonic culture through the study of South Indian classical music. This makes it evident, that “values and aesthet- ics play a significant role in creating opposition between classes and economic inequalities”.16 This is especially true for the performance of music. In my opinion, Parattai’s approach is nothing less than a performative turn in Dalit liberation theology. In order to raise consciousness on the injustice of

12 Zoe Sherinian, Tamil Folk Music as Dalit Liberation Theology (Bloomington: Indiana Uni- versity Press, 2014). 13 Sherinian, Tamil Folk Music, 2014, xii. 14 Sherinian, Tamil Folk Music, 2014, p. 13. 15 Sherinian, Tamil Folk Music, 2014, p. 40. 16 Sherinian, Tamil Folk Music, 2014, p. 25.

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The Art Of Music In Asian Christianity 297 the caste system among Christians, Parattai strove to overcome cultural hegemony regarding music, and created Christian liturgies drawing upon Tamil folk music. In this way, he addressed the “class shame” of middle class Dalits, challenging them to acknowledge their ancestry by joining the performance of Dalit folk music. The lyrics of the liturgical songs were developed by Dalit groups, referring to their Bible classes and experiences from their daily life. Performing these songs and liturgies with middle-class Dalits, Parattai had to modify the lyrics of some liturgical pieces, avoiding expressions from the daily life of Dalits that seemed ‘indecent’ to middle-class members. But the single fact was that they performed the music that was meant for transformation of their consciousness towards the oppression of Dalits even within Christian churches. Parattai not only lifted the self-esteem of Dalits making them perform their music during Christian liturgy, but also at the same time provoked criticism among middle-class Dalit Christians regarding the prevalent theology that si- lenced the injustice and oppression of Dalits. Here, the performance of Tamil folk music enhances the necessary self-criticism of Christianity towards the disguise of injustice and oppression by traditional theology. It is a “sounding liberation theology”, which reminds Christians all over the world of a specific mechanism of oppression: the Indian caste system. Having said that, Zoe Sherinian in her analysis of Parattai’s work goes beyond the Indian context, referring to the United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance 2001 in Durban/South Africa where Dalit activists used their parai drums in order to raise their voice. In the eyes of the whole world they challenged the Indian government and the un to recognize caste discrimination as a viola- tion of human rights. The powerful performance of Dalit drums challenged politicians to work for human rights. In turn, New Testament scholars, are challenged by Dalit theologians to re-read the Gospel. And while Indian Chris- tianity is prompted to overcome the injustice of the caste system within their own churches, ecumenical theology takes up the defiance to rethink its attitude towards marginalized people in church and society. Musical performance in liturgy, thus, does not only form the identity of the acting congregation. It, more significantly challenges the identity of the whole Christian church.

Contemporary Worship Music

Quite contrary to the use of vernacular music styles runs the trend of the praise and worship music, also known as contemporary worship. Starting in the late

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298 Grüter sixties and early seventies of the twentieth century in the usa, in England, Africa and Australia, it soon reached Asia.17 The charismatic movement originally was an expression of the search for a Bible based spirituality, including a simple life-style in the discipleship of Jesus Christ. The worship music of the sixties and seventies in the us, drew from different trends, such as the songs of the civil rights movement, gospel, soul, urban folk, rock and pop. However, pop has become the pervasive style in worship music, spread by a globally acting Christian music industry, which has increasingly become subject to the constraints of economic globalization:18 As worship music has to sell, the productions succumb to mainstream market trends, which lead to the adaptation of mainstream styles. Contemporary worship music, therefore, adapts those styles that are most popular. Despite the trends towards more differentiation and a self-critical attitude in the worship scene found in some productions of the new century,19 global players in the Christian music industry continue disseminating a global monoculture of worship music. Among the dominant producers of this kind of music is the Australian Hillsong Church.20 It operates in Asia and also worldwide. By way of example, I refer to Hillsong’s life concert in Jakarta in 2015:21 The song texts are throughout in English, the music style is rock-pop. The title of the concert “No other name” expresses an exclusivist Christian theology, which in the majoritarian Muslim context of Jakarta sounds like a challenge to all non- Christians. This adversely affects the efforts of Indonesian Christian churches

17 Sooi Ling Tan, “Lobpreismusik weltweit – Theologie und Spiritualität eines musikalischen Genres aus asiatischer Perspektive,” in: Jochen Arnold/Folkert Fendler/Verena Grüter/Jo- chen Kaiser (hrsg.), Gottesklänge. Musik als Quelle und Ausdruck des christlichen Glaubens (Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2013), pp. 225–246. 18 Guido Baltes, „Worship-Musik im europäischen Kontext,“ in: Jochen Arnold/Folkert Fendler/Verena Grüter/Jochen Kaiser (Hrsg.), Gotteskläng, pp. 247–260. 19 Cf. Michael W. Smith, Worship, 2001, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnK24NOtYN8> [accessed on February 6, 2018]; The narcissism inherent in quite a lot of worship songs has become the target of humorousself-criticism: Sunday’s Coming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys4Nx0rNlAM> [accessed on February 6, 2018]; Me Worship for a Me Church : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dvVp0Nxjo> [accessed on February 6, 2018]; Wrong Worship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJp98hoqy5I> [accessed on February 6, 2018]. 20 Tanya Riches, “06 Next Generation Essay: The Evolving Theological Emphasis of Hillsong Worship,” (1996–2007). Australasian Pentecostal Studies, [S.l.], Dec. 2010. Available at: http://aps-journal.com/aps/index.php/APS/article/view/108/105.> [accessed on February 6, 2018]. 21 Cf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFqbfVTARxU> [accessed on February 3, 2018].

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The Art Of Music In Asian Christianity 299 towards peaceful coexistence and practical cooperation with their Muslim neighbors.22 There is no doubt, that this kind of music has already become a hegemonic music style, booting out contextual and more differentiated kinds of music. Especially from the ecumenical movement, questions are raised concerning the theological tendency to surpass real suffering, injustice and violence. In general, the socio-political contexts of Christian churches and their cultural identity in worship music while creating a global monoculture.23 Even from within the worship music scene, self-criticism is growing, targeting theological one-sidedness and lack of theological profoundness and social responsibility, as well as a complete disregard for the cultural plurality and contextual diver- sity of world Christianity.24 Contemporary worship music, therefore, should be critically questioned in terms of the forms of collective and individual Chris- tian identities that it enhances in minoritarian situations.

Christian Youth in Asia Searching for Their Own Music

The most powerful expressions of the musical youth culture are in the musical styles of Hip-Hop and Rap. Originating from Jamaica, Hip-Hop soon developed into the favorite medium of Black emancipation in the usa.25 Its

22 Jozef Mepibozef Nelsun Hehanussa, “Theology of Encounter: Churches in Indonesia in a Multireligious Context,” in: Verena Grüter, ed., Wegkreuzungen. Interkulturelle Theologie und kontextuelle Herausforderungen, Missionswissenschaftliche Forschungen Neue Folge, Vol. 34, (Neuendettelsau: Erlanger Verlag für Mission und Ökumene, 2017), pp. 67–85. 23 Terry MacArthur, Let the Nations sing! – Lasst die Völker singen!, in: Jochen Arnold/Folk- ert Fendler/Verena Grüter/Jochen Kaiser (hrsg.), Gottesklänge, pp. 261–274. 24 Tan, Lobpreismusik, p. 245, prompts Christian musicians as well as theologians to com- bine Biblical spirituality and artistic authenticity in the creation of Christian music. Baltes, Worship-Musik, p. 298, appeals to representatives of worship music to reconsider their concept of world mission and give equal importance to the aspect of Christian social ethics to their song texts. 25 Mark Coleman, Playback: From the Victrola to mp3, 100 Years of Music, Machines, and Mon- ey (Cambridge, ma: DaCapo Press 2005), p. 135; ”Hip Hop is an aspect of Black culture that has its roots in the African-American tradition, rising out of New York to conquer more or less the entire world. It initially consisted of the four elements of mc-ing (formerly mc meant Master of Ceremonies, but within a hip hop context it has come to mean a ‘rapper’ – someone who uses a speaking voice to articulate a message rhythmically, with or without music); dj-ing (‘disc jockeying’ or spinning records for the backing music); writing (graffiti); and bboying (breakdancing). It is common to hear people use the terms ‘rap’ and ‘hip hop’ interchangeably, but the legendary mc and hip-hop artist krs-One was

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300 Grüter revolutionary spirit made it attractive for young people all over the world, so that Hip-Hop soon emerged as a medium of opposition to class hierarchies and social injustice even among Muslim musicians.26 Young Christians in Asia copy these styles creating new fusions between vernacular music and culture on the one hand and international music on the other. By way of example, the performance of Mera Yesu by Shreya Kant and Issac Daily27 shows how young Punjabi Christians perform their vernacular identity in combination with the worldwide style of rap. The song Mera Yesu is sung in Punjabi with vernacular musical paradigms, while the rapper chants a creed to Christ in English. De- spite the fact that rap originally is of critical character, the theological content of this song is evangelical. However, the group addresses their mates in their maternal language and vernacular music style while at the same time bridging their identity with an internationally prevalent music style. It may rightfully be asked as to whether the performance of this combination of a vernacular music style with the internationally spread rap is a way of claiming a Christian identity beyond the narrowing dynamics of either walking into the trap of vernacular constrictions or being wrapped up in a globalized monoculture.

Asian Christian Art Music – Going beyond Folkloristic Borders

In order to give a push to the creation of contextual Christian music and educate a theologically and musically trained leadership for the Christian churches in Asia, the Anglican church musician Francisco Feliciano (1941– 2014) founded the Asian Institute of Liturgy and Music (ailm) in Manila/Phil- ippines in 1980. Feliciano wanted his students to draw upon different music styles from Asia as well as from Western traditions, thus creating new Asian Christian art music, combining musical parameters from Asian and from Western music. ailm’s curriculum, therefore, includes the study of ethnomusicology, besides Western art music. In his own compositions, Feliciano addresses topics of Filipino history and society.28 His mass composition Missa

right when he suggested that ‘rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live’. As a consequence, hip hop has moved beyond the initial four elements to embrace a whole lifestyle.” 26 Cf. The female Muslim Hip Hop Duo Poetic Pilgrimage, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=unx0ulQXUss> [accessed on February 3, 2018]. 27 See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5NxUZhYu-g> [accessed on February 3, 2018]. 28 Cf. the booklet of the cd Missa Mysterium 1997, Ode Record Company, Auckland, New Zealand, cd manu 1540: “Notable among his works are the Filipino opera, La Boba Negra, the ballet Yerma; orchestra pieces, The Transfiguration, Voices and Images. His two recent

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The Art Of Music In Asian Christianity 301

Mysterium29 relates the suffering of the Filipino people to the framework of a traditional catholic mass liturgy. While the narrations draw upon the Filipino context, related in the language of Filipino, the musical features are inspired by 20th century Western art music as well as by specifically Filipino musical expressions. In an interview with Francisco Feliciano during my visit to ailm in 2008, Feliciano looked upon his personal journey as a composer, as a struggle for liberation from the hegemony of Western musical paradigms.30 Although a thorough analysis of this composition would push the boundaries of this article, the musical result, however, shows impressively the transformative power of musical performance. The bitter fate of the Filipino people is presented in the form of a Catholic mass. Beyond individual life with all its errors and contingencies, the historical destiny of the Filipino people is es- teemed as worthy to be related in the overarching Catholic mass liturgy, thus, bringing its suffering to the knowledge of worldwide Christianity. In Latin America, similar projects have been the Misa Popular Salvadoreña31 and the Misa Campesina Nicaraguënse,32 both of which, are projects of liberation theologies. While these compositions make use of folk music styles and instruments, Feliciano throughout his Missa Mysterium throughout applies parameters of high culture art music. By these means, he creates a composition which brings the merger of Eastern sound and Western influences to an audience used to conventional classical music.33

works are music dramas: Sikhay sa Kabila ng Paalam, a social commentary with national hero Jose Rizal’s last poem as a point of departure, and Ashen Wings, a music drama on the Kalingas of Northern Philippines caught in the whirl of development activities.” 29 Cf. Fancisco F. Feliciano, Missa Mysterium, 1997. 30 Cf. My interview with Francisco Feliciano in: “Das Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music, Filmdokumentation eines Besuchs in Manila von Verena Grüter”, dvd, in: Verena Grüter/ Benedict Schubert (Hg), Klangwandel. Über Musik in der Mission (Frankfurt am Main: Ver- lag Otto Lembeck). 31 Donna Peña, El Salvador con la Misa Popular Salvadoreña por Guillermo Cuéllar (Chicago: gia Publications, 1995). 32 Misa, Campesina Nicaraguense por Carlos Mejía Godoy (Managua/Nicaragua : Taller de Sonido Popular, 1975). 33 Cf. Francisco Feliciano, nat’l artist for music; 73, in: Inquirer.Net, September 20th 2014, http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/172330/francisco-feliciano-natl-artist-for-music-73/: [accessed on June 21, 2018]; “Like most pioneering artists, Feliciano was in search of an audience exposed mostly to conventional music. He discovered his own brand of music after reflecting on his Filipino roots. (…)The National Artist Award was a balm to his weary spirit. He wasn’t known in wider music audiences but perceptive listeners singled him out as one of the few composers whose creativity was a tribute to the Filipino ability to merge Eastern sound with Western influences.”

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302 Grüter

Feliciano’s composition illustrates exemplarily the transformative power of musical performance. Filipino and Western music are mutually transformed, striking up a new and unique musical paradigm. Performing actors are also being transformed, bringing Filipino cultural heritage and socio-political context to a level of internationally performed conventional music. And, last but not least, the respective audience is transformed into temporary participants of the Filipinos’ fate: Listening to this piece, auditors can temporarily explore the Filipino identity, trespassing the thresholds of their own identity and consti- tuting a new collective identity.34

Interreligious Encounters in Music

Feliciano’s approach was not only within musical parameters. In his own compositions, he also drew upon religious literature from non-Christian sources. This initiative clearly owes its inspiration to the dialogical turn in the late sixties and early seventies of the twentieth century, inspired by the Vaticanum ii35 and the Guidelines on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies by the World Council of Churches.36 Following Felix Wilfred, the Catholic Church in India had turned to liturgical inculturation long before Vaticanum ii.37 I want to show Feliciano’s compositional approach by way of an example, choosing a composition based on a poem by Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore. In his collection of verses called katha, Tagore tells the story of a poor girl who by offering her only piece of cloth to Lord Buddha lives out the Bud- dhist ideal of renunciation. The following verse within the poem works as a kind of refrain:

O Serene, O Free, In thine immeasurable mercy and goodness Wipe away all the dark stains From the heart of this earth.38

34 Cf. Victor Turner, “Frame, Flow and Reflection: Ritual and Drama as Public Liminality,” in: Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 6 (1979), 465–499. 35 Peter C. Phan, “Asian Christian Spirituality,” in: Felix Wilfred, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 510–523; 515. 36 https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-programmes/interreligious- dialogue-and-cooperation/interreligious-trust-and-respect/guidelines-on-dialogue-with -people-of-living-faiths-and-ideologies> [accessed on April 8,2018]. 37 Cf. Felix Wilfred, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Christianity in Asia, p. 527. 38 The Complete Works of Rabindranath Tagore Published by General Press, 4228/1, First Edition: (February 2017), 88.

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Feliciano’s composition39 consists of three voices, each of them repeating only one line of the poem to the same recurring melody, while a drone holds both the basic tones during the whole piece. Renouncing all musical complexity, this modest, transparent composition thus reflects the Buddhist ideal of renunciation praised by Tagore’s verses. When this composition was performed during the interreligious music festival Musica Sacra International 2006 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kaufbeuren/Germany, it unveiled manifold interreligious and intercultural layers:40 The Christian symbols in the church may evoke different interpreta- tions together with the musical performance. They can be interpreted as symbols of colonial power that continues to overshadow the encounter between Christians from Germany and people from other faith traditions.41 At the same time, Christian symbols may be perceived as identity markers inside a Chris- tian church, which opens up to shelter adherents of other faiths in a gesture of hospitality.42 The context of the interreligious festival, thus, sets the framework for temporarily trespassing neatly circumscribed identities in order to allow for a temporary collective identity, which is differentiated in itself. Interreligious encounters in music present special challenges and, at the same time, offer unique possibilities since this is a field that is sparsely re- searched.43 The vulnerability Hans-Jochen Margull (1925 – 1982) stated for interreligious dialogues in general44 becomes even more tangible in aesthetic experience. As aesthetic experience touches several layers of human

39 See, The ailm Collection. Hymns, Psalms and Songs for Worship. vol. i. Asian Institute for Liturgy and Music (2005), 121. 40 See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xeTLPS9U80&list=RD1xeTLPS9U80&t=113> [accessed on January 31, 2018]. 41 Bärbel Wartenberg-Potter, former Lutheran bishop in Germany, in an interview expressed her surprise that members of non-Christian faith traditions performed in the church un- der a Christian cross in spite of the colonial use of the Christian faith in the past. Cf. Ver- ena Grüter, Klang – Raum – Religion- Ästhetische Dimensionen interreligiöser Begegnung am Beispiel des Festivals Musica Sacra International (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 2017), p. 257. 42 The term hospitality has served in order to coin a model of interreligious encounters. In the debate of whether non-Christian music may be performed in Christian churches, the metaphor shelter in order to describe the church’s function in a multi-religious concert is prominently used in order to give a positive connotation to the encounter of the Christian symbols in a church and the performance of non-Christian music. Cf. Grüter Klang – Raum – Religion, p. 240–243; p. 255–257. 43 See Grüter, Klang – Raum – Religion, 2017. 44 Hans-Jochen Margull, “Verwundbarkeit. Bemerkungen zum Dialog,” in Evangelische The- ologie,34. Jg. (1974), 410–420.

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304 Grüter consciousness, its impact on the personality is different from an encounter on a merely cognitive level. Aesthetic experience by music besides cognitive un- derstanding comprises also sensuous perception and action. Musical sounds in all known religious traditions, therefore, serve to embody religious experience beyond cognitive convictions.45 The question, whether assisting a non- Christian musical or ritual performance can lead to a religious experience still remains to be discussed.46 Undoubtedly, in many cases such an experience evokes in the listener a positive emotional response in the shape of affection for the musical performers and the recognition of their profound humanity which overcomes all adversity.47 Theologians and musicians from Asia, thus, not only contribute authen- tic expressions of contextual theology and spirituality to World Christianity, they also call upon Christians within and outside Asia to relate to their non- Christian neighbors through their musical practice, thereby allowing for the vicarious exploration of religious and cultural identities.

Conclusion

There is no doubt, that the above presented efforts to create different music styles for liturgical use in Christian communities in Asia reflect the main theological developments on an ecumenical level. This is so far as these musical styles respond to the different theological approaches which formulate Chris- tian identities in Asia. However, turning the question around by asking for the way liturgical and musical performances engender Christian ‘scenes’ in Asia might allow new insights on the role that music plays in the life of the Chris- tian church. Taking up this new perspective would mean to start from the aesthetic experience people enjoy performing their liturgical music. A thorough field research could bring about interesting insights concerning questions of the pervasiveness of contextual liturgical music among Christian communities in Asia and their impact on the construction and transformation of theological identities. Other questions of interest would be regarding the effects of praise and worship music on the one hand, and interreligious liturgical music on the other on the identities of Christian communities in minoritarian situations.

45 Cf. Isabel Laack, Religion und Musik in Glastonbury (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2011). 46 Cf. Grüter 2017, p. 210–217. 47 Grüter 2017, p. 188.

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The aesthetic pleasure music provides both in performance and in listening presents a major factor in the construction and transformation of individual and collective religious identities. It, therefore, would be worthwhile to en- courage research in this area and to promote the production of Christian liturgical music in Asia.

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Discography

Carlos Mejía Godoy, Misa Campesina Nicaraguense, Taller de Sonido Popular, Mana- gua/Nicaragua, 1975. Francisco F. Feliciano, Missa Mysterium – Mis ng Sambayanang Pilipino 1997, Ode Re- cord Company, Auckland, New Zealand, cd manu 1540. Guillermo Cuéllar, Misa Popular Salvadoreña, 1995 gia Publications, ionc. 7404 S. Ma- son Ave., Chicago, il 60638.

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