A Sema Ceremony (also known as ‘Sufi Ceremony’) is a worship ceremony. In a Sema Ceremony there are many formal sections that take place. Also, to add on, Sema Ceremonies symbolize a soul’s journey to God. Often this happens in a Church in which there is a lot of music and dance. It is a very cheerful moment to experience. In the Sema Ceremony you experience direct spiritual union with God. Usually Ceremonies like this happen in Turkey. This concept was brought out in Turkey and is still very well-known in Turkey. These ceremonies usually start off by a form of meditation. After there would be dancing, to cheer up the moment and give everyone enlightenment. The dancers who dance at Sema Ceremonies always fast for many many hours before the actually ceremony. It is just a tradition that they do. The dance that is done in a certain manner, and not just any steps and movements. (What to Expect in a Sema Ceremony)

Amazing Grace is a very talented and well-known piece of Gospel music. This music piece is very religious and is usually played in a church prayer. Which is similar to a hymn. (Story of Amazing Grace) This song is fully dedicated when people worship to god. In Amazing Grace singers usually have instruments, and they sing to it in a specific way and there are multiple people singing. Something similar between both of these pieces of music, Sema Ceremony and Amazing Grace, is that they both worship God, with a bunch of people that have there full trust in God and worship him only, as well as both pieces of music are religious. Both songs have a very slow rhythm and tempo to them.

Even though there are a few similarities between both of the pieces of music there are also a lot of differences that come with it. Some of the differences that can be between these two pieces of music is that In the Sema Ceremony there is an instrumental piece that is being used, in this ceremony there are no voices that are there. Whereas in Amazing Grace, It is the total opposite and there are no instruments that are being used. And an amazing grace there are only people singing with no instruments at all. As learned in class, usually songs like this are referred to and “Acapella”. 

The role of the Sema ceremony is for a person’s soul to meet with God’s. This highly symbolic ceremony contains music that support this role. There are two parts of music in the Sema ceremony. The first is the Taksim or improvisation on the a ney, or flute (Mevlevi Slides). The second is the Peşrev which unlike Taksim is not improvised. It is composed. In combination with symbolic dance moves and the flute, the “divine is made manifest in the world” (Music and Spirituality). In short, the music in the Sema ceremony has the purpose of bringing a person’s soul into the divine presence of God reflecting “the ideal of surrendering one’s individual identity to the all-encompassing universalism of God” (Music and Spirituality).

With relation to Buddhist chants, gospel music, and Western art music in the Christian church, this Mevlevi music is comparably more calculated in its symbolism. Every dance move down to the direction the palms are facing has symbolism and purpose. The music has sections that each represent a particular moment in the history of their religion.

Specifically compared to gospel music, Mevlevi music in the Sama ceremony has no words. There entire song is instrumental while in gospel music, there is usually a choir. Another obvious difference would be the difference in religion. Mevlevi is a mystical branch of Islam while gospel music is from Christianity. In terms of similarities, they are both forms of worship to God. They both have symbolism whether in forms of lyrics, dance, or sections they both intended to bring people into the presence of God.

The music of the Mevlevi Sufi correlates with dance to represent a connection between dance and religion. “A posture meant to represent the oneness of God”. Their actions are represented through a religious aspect and show how their movements show God sending his blessings. This type of music excites the listener and helps them become engaged. As mentioned in the slide we are able to, “Experience the direct spiritual union with God”. The Sema worship ceremony itself symbolizes the soul’s journey to God. This relates to the idea of mind over the matter since at the moment of the ceremony we put our mind and thought into worshiping and connecting to God. The music helps us get that closer connection to make it more powerful and meaningful. There are two parts of the ceremony which involves the Taksim and Pesrev. Overall, the music itself is very calming which helps people form a better connection and really focus. There spiritual energy throughout the dance enhances for better worship. 

The music I choose is gospel music and the example is “Amazing Grace”. Worship in this music is performed in many different contexts and styles. Gospel music itself is pretty easy to learn when it comes to the words and its melodies. This song is particularly very connected to the Christian church. Both of these pieces are used in worshipping and strengthening faith. Both of these songs consist of a slow tempo. Both pieces are very different. In Mevlevi Sufi the dance consists of a lot of movement and I’ve realized it’s mostly men in the video. Usually, when we picture people singing amazing grace it’s very slow and powerful with not a lot of movement. Amazing Grace consists of no musical instruments, it’s known for its a cappella and it’s lining out style. Mevlevi focuses on God’s blessings and Amazing Graces emphasizes the thought of being found and letting go of our mistakes.  

As described within the powerpoint that was uploaded, the Sema ceremony symbolizes soul’s journey to god” and by listening it through, it invites listeners to get “excited” with the integral part of the song, the instruments, which include flutes, drums, cymbals, and different types of string instruments that make up the melody of the song. As the dancing that goes along with it is “a slow dance made up of graceful and ecstatic turning” it goes to show how close they feel with god, spiritually, as they perform.

Amazing Grace is a piece of Gospel music that also tends to be religiously significant(for example during church prayer) as a well known hymn. A like minded characteristic between the two pieces (Amazing Grace and the Sema Ceremony) is that they’re both characterized as religious, as they pertain to the worship of God, and belief in him. In the chapter Music and Spirituality, the origin of the hymn stems from a man by the name of John Newton”after surviving a violent storm at sea, converted to evangelical Christianity.”

From my experience, Amazing Grace is usually a piece in which singers are unaccompanied by instruments/instrumental, and each singer holds a different place within the song, holding different notes. This is because of the way it is performed, usually within a church (Christians/Catholics), in a choir, as it was originally a piece written in gratitude towards god, so it is only fitting it is sung in a church. Just as Amazing Grace and the music from the Sema Ceremony are similar, they are also opposites, with the music from the ceremony being purely instrumental, no lyrics to sing.

The affect of the music for the Sema ceremony has a strong impact on the listeners bodies and mind. The whole point of the music and dance of Mevlevi is to “experience direct spiritual union with God.” Therefore, the music is used as this slow, majestic, calming melody that helps to focus one’s mind so that they can feel a connection. The music coincides with the dance that they perform. One aspect of the dance is that they twist and spin, and as the video stated, they have their eyes open but unfocused, so they experience this blurred and distorted effect that can help with their “journey to God.” This aspect helps for the music to ignite their spiritual energy as it connects the body with the mind, and helps with that flow to God through the worship ceremony.

The Sema ceremony can be compared to the music in the synagogue for Kol Nidre. Similar to Sema in that this worship ceremony is sacred, Kol Nidre is a very special part of the Jewish religion, usually said on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish people. The chant of Kol Nidre is used as a way to connect to God, and has a deep meaning as Yom Kippur is the holiday that one prays for their life. The music is different in a sense, in that there is no specific dance that goes along with this chant, however, they are similar in that both melodies have a slow tempo and have a calming effect that can help with one’s spirituality and connectedness.

In the video of the Metlevi Sema ceremony, it mentioned that the Metlevi can be found in numerous Turkish communities. The most well known is in Konya and Istanbul. The Metlevi are known for their dances. Their dances were banned for a while under the Turkish government finally allowing the dances to be performed publicly. There is a special ceremony called the Sema Ceremony. This tradition was practiced in secret for a while which resulted in them focusing on music and songs,rather than on spiritual or religious traditions.

In the slideshow, it mentioned what the dance represented as a connection with the music. The beginning is with one palm upward and one palm downward which represents receiving the blessings of God and transmitting it to the earth. Throughout the rest of the dance, there is spinning and twirling which represents God’s divineness throughout the world.

The music seems to have an effect of seriousness on the listener’s body and mind. The beginning of the music is more slow and serious which is supposedly representing the oneness of God. Next, the music sounds louder and more exciting which is supposedly representing the love for God and his divineness of this manifest. It seems like very serious music unlike other music which is more exciting to dance to. The dances of twirling to this music seems very particular and not the type to laugh about or dance the way one would like.

The piece of music that I chose was “Kol Nidre” by Selmar Cerini which is a player sung on the Jewish high holiday of Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a very serious day for the Jews as they are begging God to spare their lives for another year. This song, “Kol Nidre” is the first song of this spiritual holiday. It begins very softly and as the chazzan,the leader of the prayer service, repeats the prayer it gets louder and louder. The music represents the theme of this sacred ritual of asking God for repentance. The role of this prayer and piece of music is to ask God to please forgive any promises not kept or any sins they did throughout the past year. It is recited softly at first  to represent approaching the king of the world, God, as it is a scary and fearful experience. Then, it is recited a little louder each time to represent the closer and less scary it is to approach Him. 

These two traditions are very different from each other. The Sema Ceremony involves twirling in a specific way while music is being played. The Kol Nidre song involves praying and standing very solemnly and seriously. Another difference is that the Sema ceremony is about God and how wonderful He is while Kol Nidre is about asking God for forgiveness.One similarity though would be that both traditions involve softer and quieter music that escalates to louder music.

The music in the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony creates a calm, harmonic unison that everyone that participates in the ceremony can feel. it’s role in music is to bond everyone in that ceremony with that piece of music, to be able to follow along as it plays. It is also a spiritual connection by speaking prayers, dancing to the rhythm and learning the ethnics of that culture. As shown in the Mevlevi Sema Ceremony video, you can see underlying tone of the music and the peace of mind the practitioners are feeling.

like in the Catholic Church, according from the textbook “As with the chanting of the Gyuto monks, plainchant was a tool for connecting with the sacred.” (p.296). This shows the connection between the two traditions, having a chant or a underlying tone to connect the people spiritually to god or to each other. They are slightly different because of the there are unique dances and tones based on what ethnicity you belong to. Your ethnicity could determine the instruments used, the form of the music, and how it is performed via dance or some movement or position.

The music in the Sema ceremony reflects the ceremony itself. The music has a consonant harmony that gives off a zen tone. As mentioned in the video the dancers leave their eyes open so that they see things in a blur. Considering this is the goal of what the dancers should perceive, it makes sense the music is consonant. When I listened to the music I recognized a vibration being a part of it. This makes sense since it’s also mentioned that the ceremony has to do with manifestation. Manifesting things are all about meeting the vibrations of what you’re manifesting. So I think it’s fitting that the music gives off the idea of manifestation.

In relation to, gospel music such as amazing grace there are some similarities. Both songs are reflecting a relationship with God. Amazing grace refers to being found and, the Mevlevi ceremony has to do with receiving God’s blessings. The difference between the two is that the gospel song is composed of just voices. In the Melvi Sema Ceremony, there are instruments like the flute involved. These instruments in this song allow the dance that goes with it to be in-sync.

My parents were both born in China, the genre of music associated with my ethnicity is Chinese opera. Chinese Opera is an art-form that includes many elements such as music, dancing, acting, comedy, and martial arts. What appeals to most people might be the different styles of facial make-up and costumes. Exaggerated designs are painted on each performer’s face to symbolize a character’s personality, role, and fate. Performances were watched in tearooms, restaurants, and even around makeshift stages. Musical accompaniment is provided by a band of musicians often in the view to the right hand side of the stage. Traditional instruments are used with heavy use of percussion.