New sound installation, Call to Prayer, now on display at City Hall Art Gallery

By Isaac Wurmann

The corridors of City Hall are alive with the sound of music.

Local artist and musician Ben Globerman’s sound installation Call to Prayer is on display at the City Hall Art Gallery until March 14.

The installation features three different vocalists singing in Latin, Arabic and Hebrew in an ode to the musical traditions of Catholicism, Islam and Judaism.

Globerman said the idea for the project came from a lifelong love of religious music, since he grew up listening to Hebrew songs at synagogue with his family.

“I don’t speak Hebrew — I can read it, but at bar mitzvah level — so I don’t actually know what the words are saying,” he said. “But what I think is interesting is that I think religious music generally conveys emotion. It’s visceral, even if you don’t speak the language.”

Call to Prayer was first exhibited last year for a two-day stint at the Bayview Yards, where Globerman said people from a variety of backgrounds congratulated him on the project.

“I think, ideally, you don’t have to have any sort of background to enjoy the piece — cultural, religious, ideological. Hopefully everyone can find some sort of emotional resonance.”

The vocalists heard in Call to Prayer are local musicians who worked with Globerman to select pieces of music that would be appropriate for the project.

After recording each singer separately, Globerman wove their voices together in his bedroom studio to create what he called a “harmony of difference.”

Call to Prayer is one of the first sound installations to be on display at the City Hall Art Gallery, according to Meaghan Haughian, a public art officer with the City of Ottawa.

“With this show, it draws you in with the sound,” Haughian said. “You hear it when you’re steps from the gallery and then you wonder what’s going on in there.”

There is little to see in the exhibition space. Two white benches are pressed up against the white walls, and folding black chairs are available for visitors to sit wherever they would like in the room. Three speakers form a triangle in the middle of the room, and a quote by Muslim poet Rumi is all that adorns the walls.

“All roads lead to the one House . . . From one seed a thousand ears of corn emerge,” reads the Rumi quote, which Globerman said reflects Call to Prayer’s intention to bring together different religions using music.

Haughian said the space was designed to encourage people to sit down and unplug for a few minutes.

“You have to spend time with the piece to really appreciate it,” she said, adding that she once saw a man sitting in the gallery for over an hour with his notebook.

The project’s eponymous “call to prayer” is performed by Mona Bahumaid, a local vocalist who sings the Muslim invitation to pray in Arabic.

“I’ve always been interested and I’ve always loved the call to prayer, since I was young,” Bahumaid said. “I’d just listen to it and then repeat it.”

Women do not usually sing the call to prayer in Islam, which she said made the opportunity for her to sing it in this project even more special.

As more and more hate-fueled Islamophobic attacks are reported in Canada, such as the deadly attack at a mosque in Quebec just over a year ago, Bahumaid also said she hopes Call to Prayer will help people see her religion from a different perspective.

“It was a great opportunity to show a beautiful side of Islam,” she said.

Terri-Lynn Mitchell, a local music teacher who sings the Latin verses in Call to Prayer, agrees that the project can bring people of different faiths together.

“Yes, it does have a sacred background, but unless you know the language it’s being sung in, you’re not necessarily sure what the text is saying — you’re just hearing a mix of sounds,” she said. “That’s the miracle of the music, is that it can move you without knowing exactly what is being said or sung.”

“Bringing together multiple voices in prayer,” she said, “which you hope would translate to something akin to hope, can really be nothing but positive.”

A vernissage for Call to Prayer will be held on Feb. 8 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. A live performance will take place on Feb. 18 from 2-2:45 p.m. at the City Hall Art Gallery.