Sacred Sounds 🎶 Break Barriers and Build Bridges

22 February, 2025

Celebrating Linguistic & Cultural Diversity

Sacred Sounds 🎶

We celebrated cultural and linguistic diversity through Sacred Sounds at the European Art Gallery, as a part of the Ashmolean Museum’s One World Festival. Our presenters, performers, and readers sanctified space and time in the Ashmolean Museum by making Sacred Sounds. Their devotional performance took our audience directly to the Heavenly Throne, and offered the listeners the greatest Gift of Love. By appreciating and embracing Sacred Sounds of different cultures, communities, and religions, we fostered understanding, respect, and appreciation for the rich tapestry of human experiences. Sacred Sounds transposed the audience from the world of worries and misunderstandings to the celestial world of Divine Music and Poetry. The event created a shared experience, and opened up new possibilities for cultural exchange between people from different walks of life.

The Venue—The Mallett Gallery (Gallery 44)

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Opening Welcome

Dr Thea Gomelauri welcomed the audience, and noted that since God mixed up the spoken languages at the Tower of Babel (according to the ancient tradition), our comprehension of each other is impaired, even when we speak the same language and dialect with the same accent. The only faculty left intact is—the Gift of Sound— a Sound without understanding a spoken word. Sound, unlike comprehensible speech, is God’s gift to all species. Sacred Sounds expressed through Music and Poetry evoke emotions, and forge connections among people from different backgrounds and cultures, regardless of their native languages. This universal divine language breaks down barriers and builds connections worldwide. It transcends cultural and linguistic barriers.

To that end, the Oxford Interfaith Forum designed and presented Sacred Sounds to celebrate the richness and diversity of linguistic and religious traditions. When we listen to a particular song or melody, we are transported to a different time or place, reliving memories and connecting with others who have had similar experiences. This emotional connection through Sacred Sounds enables us to form bonds with people who have vastly different backgrounds from our own. Whether it’s the lyrics of a song, the melodies of an instrumental piece, or a poetry reading, sounds enable individuals to connect and understand each other at a deeper level. By embracing the universal languages of Music and Poetry, we forge connections that surpass linguistic and cultural barriers, and enhance the Spirit of Humanity.

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Kirtan (Sikh Liturgical Songs)

Kirtan is one of the most important aspects of Sikhism, referring to the singing of the Sacred Hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib Ji (the Sikh Scripture) accompanied by music. The Sikhs place huge value on this type of singing as loving songs sung to God. Shabad kirtan, literally meaning ‘word chant’, is the central communal worship ritual of the Sikhs. We were honoured to welcome Isher Singh (Keble College) and Gurleen Singh to present the Shabad Kirtan ‘I Send My Message of Love to You’. Isher played the Tabla (hand drums), and Gurleen—the Dilruba (string instrument). The name derives from the Persianized Hindustani word meaning ‘that which ravishes or steals the heart.’

I Send My Message of Love to You
(Text, Transliteration, and Translation of the Shabad Kirtan)
Presented by Isher Singh and Gurleen Singh

^{(Video courtesy of Harinder Singh Jagdev)}

^{(Video courtesy of Dr Valentina Ferrari)}

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World Premier of the 13th Century Mani Mantra of Universal Compassion

We were honoured to host the World Premier of the Buddhist Mani Mantra, performed according to the 13th century Tibet tune, re-discovered and revived by Charles Manson (Bodleian Library) while working on his book The Second Karmapa Karma Pakshi: Tibetan Mahasiddha. After presenting the history and background of the tune and its re-discovery (more details in the book), the author invited Ven. Palden Tsultrim Yönten to sing it publicly for the first time.

Charles Manson added: This tune of the Mani Mantra (of Avalokiteshvara, the Buddhist deity of compassion) and a fine rendition by Ven Palden Tsultrim Yönten was originally derived from a dream that Karma Pakshi had. The mantra tune became widespread for communal singing in Tibet, and was taught at the courts of Mongke Khan and Khubilai Khan. The sound of the mantra is a blessing for all beings. With sincere thanks to Ven. Palden of Bodhicharya, and to Dr Thea Gomelauri of Oxford Interfaith Forum.

^{(Video courtesy of Dr Valentina Ferrari)}

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Syriac Liturgical Poetry

Professor Sebastian Brock, FBA, presented and read, in Syriac and English, his translations of Syriac Liturgical Poetry. He chose the following five poems and introduced their authors before reading selected stanzas.

• Anonymous, Odes of Solomon (2nd cent. AD?), no. 40
• St Ephrem (d.373) Poems on the Pearl and its Symbolism (H.de Fide 82) 
• St Ephrem, Hymns on the Fast, 6 
• Anonymous, Dialogue between Joseph and Mary, (stanzas 2-14, and 31-41)
• Jacob of Serugh (d. 521), A Mother’s Lament for the Loss of Her Child

 

Multilingual Reading of Psalms 23 & 121

Church Slavonic by Revd Canon Hugh Wybrew

Revd Canon Hugh Wybrew shared: I have had a good deal of experience of Christian liturgical traditions other than my own Anglican Church, not least the Eastern Orthodox, and I am familiar with Greek Orthodox liturgical songs – a particularly interesting video was shown of the chant sung at the coronation of HM King Charles III. However, the Oxford Interfaith Forum’s Sacred Sounds was the first event that allowed me to experience chants of other faith communities. They were new to me, and I was very impressed by them. Songs were more impressive when sung, and sometimes accompanied, by representatives of their tradition present in person than when heard and seen on recordings, though of course that enabled the programme of Sacred Sounds to be broader in scope. I am less familiar with the Oriental Orthodox traditions, and it was a great pleasure to hear chant from the Assyrian Church of the East, and the Coptic Orthodox Church. It was also very good to hear Prof Sebastian Brock, FBA, read some of his own translations of hymns written by Ephrem the Syrian, perhaps the most famous of the Syriac Orthodox hymn writers. I was very interested to learn that the Psalms, which form an important part of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, are now not infrequently chanted by adherents of other faiths as conducive to meditation. Psalms 23 and 121 were read or chanted in a number of languages that made Sacred Sounds an informative and enlightening experience.

^{(Video courtesy of Dr Valentina Ferrari)}

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Greek, Sanskrit, and Romanian by Dr Ionut Moise

Dr Ionut Moise is a multilingual alum of the University of Oxford with a DPhil in Indian Philosophy. His current project focuses on metaphysics in Western and Indian philosophy, particularly the reception and interpretation of the category ‘differentia’ in several philosophical traditions. Most recently, he was a Spalding-Teape Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, and prior to that the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Exeter.

Georgian by Dr Thea Gomelauri

The final piece of the Sacred Sounds‘ programme featured a video recording of the Coptic Celebration of St Paul the Hermit Feast Day filmed in St Paul Monastery, Red Sea, Egypt on 9 February 2025 (as seen on a projector screen in the photo below). Dr Lisa Agaiby, head of the Manuscripts Digitalisation and Preservation Project at the ancient Coptic Monastery of St Paul the Hermit, contributed the video which depicts Sunday School Choir singing a Doxology of Praise ‘O St Paul the First Hermit and Beloved of Christ Who Gives Light to the World’.

🎶 Sacred Sounds: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity

Celebrating Linguistic & Cultural Diversity Event II
Sacred Scripts