The Sacred Sound: From Singing in Pagan Temples to Religious Chanting and Recitation

What would happen if we lost our voices, or if we regressed to the ages before the invention of "languages"? You might think we would revert to sign language and body movements to communicate with each other. My answer is different: we would lose social life, and with it, faith. At the very least, communal prayers in the temple, church, and mosque would disappear. Yes… this would happen. How would the choir chant behind the priest? Who would unify the "chorale" in Georgian music? And by what means would the Imam lead the multitudes of worshippers in bowing and prostration?

But first: was there communal prayer before the emergence of the Abrahamic religions? What was its means? And how were rituals performed?

Here, we must look at both the Sumerian civilization and ancient Egyptian civilization. The historical conflict that revolves around "the beginning," greatness, influence, and extension remains ablaze. In Sumer, a written prayer on clay tablets dating back to 2600 BC was discovered, addressed to "Ninhursag," the mother of the gods. This prayer – according to archaeologists – was recited by priests in temples in a loud voice and echoed by the common people in communal prayer, accompanied by certain rituals including the burning of incense and singing. It was an invocation and supplication, saying:

"O Ninhursag, O mother of the gods, You who grant life and nourish what is in the womb, Bless our land and bestow water upon our fields, May flowers blossom in your steps, and grant our people fertility and peace."

Of course, that was not the only Sumerian prayer that reached us; rather, there are more addressed to a number of other deities of that era. As for Egypt, where the gods also multiplied, although ancient Egyptian religion is unique in terms of the depth of faith and the special relationship between the worshipper and their deity, and more clearly, ancient Egyptian belief included the unseen, resurrection, and a largely comprehensive monotheistic immortality that surpassed others. Indeed, we can claim that the ancient Egyptian established with their god – in addition to supplication and respect – a strong bond of friendship and a daily, unbroken connection. The Egyptians also recorded their prayers, and fortunately, some of them have reached us almost complete, such as the "Pyramid Texts" dating back to 2400 BC, as well as a prayer to Akhenaten which stated:

"You appear in the horizon, O living sun,

And when you rise, you fill all the land with your beauty, O you who grant life To everything, and nourish mankind like a mother."

Researchers also discovered drawings on the walls of the Bhimbetka caves in India, which they estimated to be ten thousand years old. However, other Egyptian drawings appeared dating back to 3300 BC, more than five thousand years ago, showing how women worshipped by dancing or performing "ritualistic movements" in which the woman raises her abdomen towards the deities to bless her fetus, then leans with her chest to bless breast milk, with her feet remaining steady.

In this case, we are not talking about the oldest civilization, but about "ancient worship rituals." Why? Because they are clearly linked to contemporary art. It seems that every progress achieved by humanity was linked to and arose from two main sources: religion and its rituals, and the military and its mechanisms. Today, we talk about the relationship of religions to the development of the arts, especially singing, which began with the divine and the sacred, so that the human voice became a means of worshiping the gods, accompanied by religious rites performed in temples, of which the ancients left us their could mean traces, monuments, or effects depending on context, here I'll use traces), the words of supplications, and those ritualistic movements that we can see in the customs of primitive tribes around the world in Africa, Australia, and South America, as well as with the "priesthood" system in - could mean positivist, man-made, or established depending on context, here I'll use established) religions widespread in East Asia.

Singing and Dancing in Ancient Religions:

Affirmation or denial will not help in confirming or refuting the worship rituals of the people of bygone civilizations. Archaeology has undoubtedly confirmed that music, dance, and singing were worship rituals that varied from one civilization to another. For example, in the temple of "Hathor," the goddess of love, music, and joy in ancient Egyptian religion, prayers were held accompanied by ritualistic singing recited by the priest in a distinctive voice and echoed by the multitudes of worshippers after him. Some of these prayers were accompanied by drumming on tambourines and clapping. As for the "servant women" or priestesses of the temple, they performed expressive ritualistic dances depicting what the worshippers requested, such as the descent of rain, the growth of crops, or the blessing of fetuses and children. Naturally, the priest would seek the best voices that would please the "gods" through the approval of the worshippers. Of course, "men of religion" used some games and tricks to dazzle and control the masses. It is established that the priests of ancient Egypt employed "acrobatic" tricks to enchant the eyes and minds of the onlookers, including, for example, moving statues of the gods from a distance via thin wires difficult to see, or through one of the priests speaking through a pipe invisibly, so the listeners would imagine that the voice came from the sky and that the god was speaking to them, causing them to experience a tremor of faith, belief, and obedience. In return, the priest always obtained unlimited privileges, vast wealth, and slaves who desired to increase their level of faith in hopes of a prosperous life on earth as well as in heaven, thus making it easy to harness the people to serve the goals of the temple and the palace – an ancient technique that continues for control and directing public opinion.

The Mediation of the Shaman and Devotional Dance:

It is fascinating that many primitive tribes in Australia, South America, and of course in sub-Saharan Africa, still worship the "totem," which is an animal or plant that the people have deified throughout their history. It may be a fox, a monkey, or any other creature, believed in its influential and responsive spiritual power capable of healing, bringing wealth, or assisting in hunting and in the fertility of women and crops, and in bringing rain. Approach to it is made through the village sorcerer or the tribe's shaman, who is also a person with special characteristics, able to make spiritual contact with nature, balance cosmic forces, and harness them to serve the king and the people.

The shaman performs his rituals secretly and also in front of the public who participate with him in performing the dance movements and in the ritualistic singing, so that the sorcerer and the bewitched merge into a state of ecstasy resembling a "trance," leading certainly to rapture, purification, and adding a sense of the power of the group and the necessities of faith. From this, the myth is created, soaring and forming a "collective consciousness" that unites believers and binds them to a common destiny, and of course creates a national and religious "identity," a state created by a talented person capable of attracting the masses and connecting them to him, especially if his prayers actually met with some kind of response, such as the fall of rain, the healing of a sick person, or abundant harvest seasons.

The Function of Rhythm in Collective Action:

"Rhythmic order" begins with heartbeats, the movement of waves, the running of horses, and surprisingly, infants respond to rhythm and melodic sounds. With the discovery of their ability to move, stand, and walk, they begin to produce some movements and sounds that resemble dancing and singing, which indicate their happiness. Satisfaction is rhythm, while anger, even at this young age, means randomness and unrestraint. Rhythm is prayer, and screaming is unrestraint.

Workers, soldiers, sailors, the masses at musical concerts and football matches, worshippers, listeners to church choral singing, and followers of the great reciters of the Holy Quran; all of them need rhythm, that which expresses their unity and harmony together, regulates their emotions, makes them forget individuality, and connects them to the "collective." It also drives them to focus, ignites emotion, and helps them remember, and even regulates the directions of their movement as a human group, large or small.

Rhythm may begin with regular clapping, drumming, the rhythmic voice, and the chanting of the masses. This happens in communal prayers, choral singing, the cheering of crowds in football stadiums, gasps of approval, and groans of anger. It is known that the great Egyptian Quran reciters in the "State of Recitation" use musical modes and employ them emotionally to indicate the meaning of the verses.

From the Temple to the Theater:

It is natural that there will always be a "runaway slave" who deviates from the masses and follows his own desires, even if he does not realize it at first. We may disagree about this vision, but the rituals of art are linked to the rituals of worship. Each originated from and was influenced by the other. The religious joined the ranks behind a spiritual leader, and those who found spirituality in deviating from the norm became messengers of art in its various directions. They discovered within themselves an energy greater than employing it in one direction, and a greater ability for individuality and creativity, and an unlimited energy that grants them freedom, pleasure, and purification, and creates around them disciples and followers of another kind. It is as if man united with heaven and went beyond it at the same time. Religion deliberately preserves the balance of humanity and sets rules and frameworks for it that prevent unrestraint and protect society from evils, warning of reward and punishment in the afterlife. At the same time, man himself rebelled and went beyond what he believed in to produce "spiritual forces" of another kind that move in any direction that pushes life towards progress and discovery, in a constant struggle between the possible and the more possible. Thus, the sacred sound went out from the temple to the theater, and in both places, "sound" created a transparent spiritual connection that feels, hears, and sees, and leads development and establishes human existence on this earth through the push and pull between the necessities of faith and the inevitability of art, and the reproduction of each from the other.

Lead Image: Paolo Martiz's "Singing to Mary" - 18th Century, Italy