The Sema ceremony is a worship ceremony. It includes many formal sections, and symbolizes the souls journey to god. Within the Sema ceremony, music plays a big role. Music is what seems to guide the ceremony to some degree. This can be seen in the way they dance within the ceremony. It is all guided by the music they play. The music has a calm and easing type of energy to it, which is also translated in the dance that is done during the ceremony.
In many way The Sema ceremony tradition and the tradition of gospel music share some similarities. They both share the fact that they are used in religious ceremonies. They both use their music to “speak to god”. Some difference include the fact that gospel music includes vocals a lot of the time, while in the Sema ceremony, there wasn’t any vocals. Another difference can come from the commonality of each type of music. With a song like Amazing Grace, it is wildly known and many people are familiar with it. With the Sema ceremony, it is not as widely known and familiarized to everyone.
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I agree with you as well! I agree that the music is actually calm and easing type, but it also mentioned that the dance is whirling around in order to “speak to God”. I feel like that is very complex dance because the dance can make one dizzy especially because their eyes are opened while they are going in circles. Also I agree that Amazing Grace is widely known as compared to the Sema ceremony and it is crazy because amazing grace came out in 1779, as compared to the Sema ceremony that was formed in 1312 in Turkish city, but I guess it wasn’t announced fully till the 2000’s which may be another reason.