Soundscapes of Pilgrimage: European and American Christians in Jerusalem's Old City

Abstract

Building on the recent ‘auditory turn’ in ethnomusicology and on recent anthropological approaches to pilgrimage, this article considers how the soundscapes and vocal practices of European and American Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem's Old City shape the practices and experiences of pilgrimage. Sounds colour the ethical comportment of pilgrims; listening, both voluntarily and involuntarily, intervenes in their interactions with others in the pilgrimage environment, provoking a range of public and private responses. Focusing attention on the auditory landscape provides compelling insights into the practices and politics of pilgrimage, in particular revealing moments of tension as pilgrims seek to realise personal and communal ideals in a crowded, shared space.

Keywords:

• Jerusalem
• Christian Pilgrimage
• Sacred Music
• Sound Studies

Acknowledgements

I undertook the fieldwork on which this paper is based during a SOAS research sabbatical in 2009/10; additional funding from the British Academy (small grant 54633) and SOAS Faculty of Arts and Humanities helped to make this research possible. Many thanks to all of the pilgrims and worshippers who allowed me to accompany their journeys and gave me insights leading to the material presented here. Names of all local respondents have been changed. I would also like to thank those colleagues whose insightful readings of related materials have fed into my thought processes, especially Johannes Becker, Ruth HaCohen, Monique Ingalls, Trevor Marchand, Dina Matar, Caroline Osella, Trevor Wiggins and two anonymous reviewers. All responsibility for the material I cite above and all errors of citation or interpretation, however, are my own.

Notes

¹ Bowman (1991) discusses Orthodox pilgrimage/participation in Christian festivals in Jerusalem.

² In Wood (2013) I describe the wider sonic landscape of religious communities in Jerusalem's Old City.

³ Bowman (1991) discusses the practices of different denominational groups of Christian pilgrims in Jerusalem at length, suggesting fundamental differences in approach and experience between eastern and western Christians. My own observation that European and North American Catholics and Protestants often willingly share sonic space and practices in Jerusalem (e.g., in St Anne's Basilica, discussed below) resonates with Simon Coleman's observation of British Catholic and Protestant pilgrims sharing spaces at the Walsingham shrine in England. Coleman observed that in the wake of wider changes in the religious landscape, ‘more flexible relations of cooperation and ecumenism’ (2004: 49) between Catholic and Protestant pilgrims are evident than would have been the case in the early twentieth century.

⁴ Following a similar thread, in her recent book Orientalism and Musical Mission: Palestine and the West, Rachel Beckles Willson (2013) describes the entanglement of music and mission among European Christians in Palestine from the mid nineteenth century until the present day, from the quasi-musicological search for remnants of Biblical music to the foundation of music schools and orchestras.

⁵ St Anne's Basilica is extensively visited by Latin Christians (Catholics and Protestants) and by tourist groups; however, during a number of days of observations inside the Basilica, I only ever saw one group of Orthodox Christian pilgrims visiting.

⁶ The interior of St Anne's is a relatively quiet space in the noisy Old City. Nevertheless, the silence is far from complete. Through my several recordings of ‘silence’ in the church, one hears the muffled sounds of traffic and sirens outside the Old City, the call of a cockerel from next door and the sounds of pilgrim groups outside. The call to prayer from the Al Aqsa mosque is also clearly heard inside, and resonates loudly enough to drown out a single individual singing in the church while it sounds.

⁷ These field notes are a composite account; I have taken some license in the order of the materials presented here in order to give an impression of the constant flow of groups in the church while also documenting a range of musical practices.

⁸ Sontag (1977: 10); see also Coleman (2004) for an opposition of photo-taking to ‘real’ religious experience.

⁹ Details of this liturgical model can be found online. http://www.taize.fr/en_rubrique12.html. (Accessed 4 September 2014).

¹⁰ The description of this convent on the official website of the Little Sisters of Jesus emphasises the qualities of steadfastness despite difficult conditions. http://www.jesuscaritas.info/jcd/en/4620/jerusalem-v1-station. (Accessed 4 September 2014).

¹¹ Taizé, ‘The value of silence’. http://www.taize.fr/en_article12.html. (Accessed 4 September 2014).

¹² This ethical stance also resonates with contemporary European discourses of multiculturalism.

¹³ This is not the only site venerated as the place of Jesus's crucifixion: many western Protestants favour the site of the Garden Tomb, a shrine outside the walls of the Old City.

¹⁴ The sharing and contestation of space in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is extensively discussed by Glenn Bowman (2011).

¹⁵ The Franciscan community is particularly involved in welcoming and guiding western Christian pilgrims (primarily but not exclusively Catholic) in Jerusalem.

¹⁶ Israeli police are responsible for maintaining order in and around the church; their presence is particularly visible at festivals.

¹⁷ Several of my interview respondents expressed their belief that the different religious elements of the Old City soundscape were growing louder as an effect of competition for sonic superiority.