The Sema Ceremony is worshipped by Mevlevi, which places “a strong emphasis on music, which sends the practitioner’s physical body into a slow dance of graceful and ecstatic turning” connecting their soul with God. The effect that music has on the audience is bonding the people together. The performance is usually performed in Turkey, first starting with meditation, and then transitioning into dancing. The performers usually follow a recommended fast for several hours and then begin to rotate into short twists, dancing in a pattern they were taught. The instrument that is typically used in this performance is at least one singer, a flute player using neyzen, a kettledrummer, and a cymbal player. 

In relation to this, Gospel music, such as the Amazing Grace, has some similarities to the Sema ceremony. One similarity is that both are in relation to God. A difference between the two would be that Gospel music such as Amazing Grace requires vocals while in the Sema Ceremony, there are no voices in it. Another difference would be how known each music is, where Gospel music may be more well known than the Sema Ceremony. A similarity between Amazing Grace and in the Sema Ceremony, is that they are both at a slower tempo and rhythm but Amazing Grace is acapella.

The role music has on the Sema ceremony is it helps them worship while the performers are dancing. In the video, I saw the music guiding the way the dancers move and the dancers depending on the music. The music may be hard to follow for us, who don’t know about it, but for the people who understand it gives them a sense of peace. The effect music has on the listeners body and mind is it takes them to a place of worship and honoring God. They kind of forget where they are and the song takes them to a different place.  

A song similar could be Amazing Grace sung in many churches all around the world. Amazing Grace is sung to remember how they were before they met God. Both songs serve as worship and to take you to a different place. They both are sound to remember God and to show reverence towards something greater than them. It gives them a form of remembrance and praises to God. The difference is that in the Sema ceremony people were dancing while normally for Amazing Grace people don’t dance to it. This demonstrates that there are two different kinds of worship with singing or dancing. 

Music plays an important role in the Sema ceremony, I feel like that the music that plays within the Sema ceremony creates a different atmosphere for the listeners and watchers. Without the music, the ceremony won’t be as intriguing and less meaningful in my opinion. After watching the video “The Mevlei Sema Ceremony” music created a different vibe to the ceremony, the dancing with the music goes perfectly together and I feel like all religious ceremonies should have music. In other worship ceremonies, such as church. Church music is about worshiping their religious god, the message is important because the message should be remembered and one of the ways to remember words is by singing. The more you sing a song, the more you remember the lyrics. The lyrics stay attached to the listeners ears and makes them think about what the music is trying to tell them. The differences between both these religions is the music, from what I know most church music nowadays contain only vocals meanwhile Mevlevi music only contains instrumentation.

Music in Sema ceremonies plays a very important role. Participants in this ceremony believe that dancing this slow dance of graceful and ecstatic turning “experience direct spiritual union with God.”  The dance symbolizes the soul’s journey to God. Kyrie Eleison, a chant done in Christain masses. Most chants were done by clerics. According to them, plainchant was a “tool for connecting with the sacred.”  This chant is a symbolic representation of the holy trinity, therefore during mass setting this holy and heavy environment. These two traditions are similar as they both include music that is supposed to make them closer to God, however, the Music in Sema ceremonies is accompanied by dance, while the Christain chant is not. The chant is monophonic while Mevlevi has a drone and is more instrumental. 

Music and worship are tied to each other throughout most of human history. Hymns and pieces sung and performed during worship happen even today. Two examples of such pieces include “Amazing Grace” and the music of the Mevlevi. Amazing grace was made in the late 1700’s by an Englishman named John Newton. He wrote it for a competition and he only wrote the lyrics, the melody that is associated with the song commonly came later, according to the textbook. It is probably the most Christian hymn, and it resonates with many for the lyrics, which show redemption and improvement of the person through faith. The mevlevi originated in the late 1200’s as a sub-order of the Sufi branch of Islam, according to the slides. This tradition combines song and dance. The song itself has two parts, the first relying on the flute and improvisation on the performers part. This leads to the Pesrev, which stands to contrast to the first part, at it is not improvised and has a very strict form and meter. It also uses the flute, in addition to the drum, cymbal and string instruments.

    Some similarities between these two include the use of them. Both are used in religious ceremonies and are meant to honor a higher power. In “Amazing Grace” this is seen in the lyrics, which state that the faith saved them. In the Mevlevi, it is through the dance. They dance with their right palm up, to receive God’s blessing, while their left palm is downward, to send power to the earth. Meanwhile, some differences include the dance itself. When performing Amazing Grace, there is none, only the singing and music, while the Mevlevi use dance as well in their tradition. 

The music and dance of Mevlevi Sufi ,which is the sub-order of Sufi branch of Islam, plays an important role in its connection with god. For music the role it plays in the Sema ceremony is the “strong emphasis on music, which sends the practitioner’s physical body into a slow dance of graceful and ecstatic turning”(textbook). Since the Sema ceremony “symbolizes soul’s journey to God”, the different sections all have different music to symbolize the ones journey to god. The music supports the dances that take place in each section of the journey for example in the beginning of the dance arms crossed mean the “oneness with god” until the journey is complete.

For Buddhism, the musical practice that takes place for ceremonies involved mostly vocals. To be specific, they’d do chanting which is said Tom be the gateway for a spiritual experience. With the monk’s text with the chanting, each syllable has its own meaning and together represents a whole message. These traditions are similar to how in the Sema ceremony each dance step represents part of a journey similar to how in a monk’s text each syllable represents a meaning. The differences are in how these traditions are carried out one dance and the other by chanting.

The Mevlevi Sema Ceremony is a Sufi ceremony that symbolizes stages on the path to accessing God. The music allows the listeners to “experience direct spiritual union with God” and “symbolizes the soul’s journey to God.” It also has a combination of religious elements and it is performed with traditional Mevlevi music. Many turkish communities have this type of ceremony, but now it is mostly in Konya and Istanbul. Also, this is strictly a “whirling dance” where they “rotate on their left feet in short twists using their right foot to move their bodies around the left foot.” Also as the instruments/music is playing, the listeners have their “eyes open, but unfocused so that images become blurred and flowing.” This helps having direct contact with God.

Amazing Grace is gospel music played mostly in the church. The music helped to keep people self-aware and more connected to their spirituality. It is a song for forgiveness and redemption from God regardless of sins committed. This is also a very religious piece of music. It has also been played at funerals to show that forgiveness from God while someone may have passed can actually bring comfort to another. Also, in some parts of the song, the afterlife is talked about, which may be another reason why this is also played at funerals. 

Some similarities were mentioned when it was talked about how it is a religious piece of music worshipping of God. Also, both of the pieces of music have a slow rhythm to it and even a slow tempo. Both of this music is played to ask for forgiveness or just including the people who believe in God. Also, the difference I noticed were that there was no voice, only instruments used in the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony as compared to Amazing Grace which only had voice and lyrics without having instruments played. Amazing Grace dealt more with asking for forgiveness while Mevlevi Sema Ceremony had more to do with a spiritual connection with God.

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. 

The role the Sema ceremony plays is the role of meeting their soul with God. There are people that come together and sing praises to their God. In the music of the Mevlevi Sufi order they dance to experience the direct spiritual union with God. There are two parts of the Sema ceremony. The first part is Taksim which is “improvisation on ney (flute) outlining the maqam (scale) used in the rest of the ceremony free meter. The second part is Pesrev where “composition, not improvised strict form and meter ney, plucked and bowed string instruments, drum, cymbal”. They use this ceremony to get closer with God, and have fun and celebrate. This is all part of the Turkish tradition and it is supposed to be a lively, upholding ceremony. 

When someone thinks of Christian music, most likely the first song they might think of is Amazing Grace. It is very popular amongst Christian gospel music and is used for many things in their religious aspects. Coming from experience Amazing Grace is one of those songs that could be used for various amounts of things like prayer, worship, dance, offering. It could even just be used as background music to set the mood for the sermon. 

The Sema ceremony and Amazing Grace have some similarities that include the way they use the music. Both use their music to get close to God in some type of way. Although Amazing Grace could be sung without instruments, they are still used with background melodies accompanied by piano and someone singing. Just like the Sema ceremony, Amazing Grace could be used as a dance song as well, people usually compose body worship to help show the emotions from the past through dance and music to create a stronger bond and feeling towards their God and Jesus.