Singing a Wide Heart: Timbre and Sung Prayer in Senegal’s Layène Community

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ID: 304674
2025
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Abstract
Layène sung prayer (called sikkar) is embedded within the religious practices of the Layène community, a minority Sufi order in Dakar, Senegal. This article explores the functions of Layène sung prayer, focusing especially on its loud, vibrational timbre. Both men and women vocalists in call-and-response sing loudly, using wide vibrato and electronic amplification to ensure that the sikkar reaches the inhabitants—both human and non-human—in the surrounding community. This article demonstrates that the distinctive timbre of Layène sung prayer serves the spiritual functions of binding the community together in spiritual and social cohesion, increasing individual and collective generosity, and demarcating Layène territory in the context of rapid urban growth. Through contextualizing ethnographic research, interviews, and analysis of audio recordings within the community's hagiography, this article demonstrates threads of connection between community ethics of generosity and hospitality and the timbre of sikkar.
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openalex_W4415104370 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Margaret L Rowley
Journal Yale Journal of Music & Religion
Year 2025
DOI
10.17132/2377-231x.1295
URL
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1295&context=yjmr
Keywords Keywords not found

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