The Work of Transduction: Voice as Atmosphere

Chapter 5 provides a detailed discussion of Mauritian Muslims’ perspectives on the appropriate qualities and the effects of vocal sound in devotional events. The analysis shows that the Mauritian Muslim interlocutor’s comments on how vocal sound affected the listener closely recall neo-phenomenological approaches to sound as atmosphere. The chapter discusses this analytic of atmospheres in detail. It is argued that it provides a new approach to the study of religious sound that takes sound seriously as a modality of knowledge and meaning-making that is not reducible to discourse. The final part of the chapter provides a detailed acoustic analysis of audio clips of na‘t recitals, demonstrating how sound as atmosphere results in bodily felt suggestions of movement. At the same time, the chapter elaborates on the interplay of auditory cultures among Mauritian Muslims and vocal sound as atmospheric forces enveloping and intermingling with bodies.