One of the first ideas that came to mind for my audio scripts was something to do with Qawali. I remember having conversations about Qawali music briefly with my family – they talked about it with such passion, it piqued my interest. I loved the rhythm and raw authentic energy – but never really connected to it, mainly because the lyrics were difficult for me to understand.
Fast forward a few months, and I started getting really into Turkish Ney music from the whirling dervish videos on youtube – I began to lookup more forms of Islamic music after a few aural culture lessons and once again stumbled upon Qawali – this time a video in Morroco with the group Fana-Fil-Allah.
I think as someone who is both a part of the culture that produces Qawali as well as someone who is also very detached from, It will be very interesting to see what direction I take in terms of expository or performative reflection. I will also need to consider how my own cultural biases will come into play when talking about music and culture as a whole. In this way, I believe I can be ethnographically accurate, as well as informative.