Yale Journal of Music & Religion Volume 4 Number 1 Voice, Media, and Technologies of the Article 4 Sacred 2018 Sonic Liminalities of Faith in Sundanese Vocal Music Sean Williams Evergreen State College Follow this and additional works at: https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/yjmr Part of the Ethnomusicology Commons, and the South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Williams, Sean (2018) "Sonic Liminalities of Faith in Sundanese Vocal Music," Yale Journal of Music & Religion: Vol. 4: No. 1, Article 4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17132/2377-231X.1091 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. It has been accepted for inclusion in Yale Journal of Music & Religion by an authorized editor of EliScholar – A Digital Platform for Scholarly Publishing at Yale. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Sonic Liminalities of Faith in Sundanese Vocal Music Sean Williams Sundanese sung poetry of West Java, Indo- markers, it is no surprise that the national nesia, has long represented a rich set of elite motto “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” (Unity in values that often reflect Hindu, Buddhist, and diversity) is based on the lived experience of its animist ways of understanding the world. In a citizens. In their introduction to Divine region known for its current adherence to Inspirations: Music and Islam in Indonesia, Islam, the continuing presence of songs that coauthors/editors Anne K. Rasmussen and directly reference Hindu deities and narratives David D. Harnish note that “[some com- from hundreds of years ago seems like both a munities] embrace unique mixes of select startling anachronism and a commentary on Islamic principles with Hindu-Buddhist or the ways in which song can transcend con- indigenous animist practices.”2 Though Islam temporary religious and political identities.