La musique soufie à la croisée du post-humanisme : Cheminement mystique ou approche sceptique

Friday, Feb 24, 2023

9:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Since the dawn of time, art and religion have always had complementary and very deep relationships. Regardless of their distinctiveness, both the man of religion and the artist are carriers of a transcendent message, linked to the absolute and which offers an experience of the spiritual, the supernatural, in search of virtue, desire, passion for God and serenity. In this perspective, the cohesion between music and religion has contributed to the emergence of a very rich and varied mystical and esoteric musical repertoire as well as to the birth of several musical genres and artistic creations such as “Sufism”.  Today, this musical practice, stemming from the Muslim religion and considered to be a mystical movement, has not been spared by post-humanist compositional thought, particularly at the level of the conception of the Sufi musical work and its realization. As such, this humanist approach has not only modified the nature and status of the musical work, but has been decisive in revisiting the new relationship established between musical composition and the spiritual world.

The purpose of this talk is therefore to question the current status of Sufi musical composition according to post-humanist thought and to highlight the contribution of this approach in the renewal of today’s Sufi musical language. It would also be interesting to highlight the new perspectives that this thought offers regarding music and mysticism in the era of post-humanism, as well as the new dimensions that Sufi musical composition explores in the world of artificial intelligence and its impact on the composer, the performer and the listener.