Bible Noise—Sonic Explorations in Biblical Engagement Through the Use of Voice

Abstract

This paper examines the practice of ‘Bible Noise’, a group which I led at a Church of England evangelical church that explored creative ways of reading aloud the Bible through sound art practice. Biblical engagement is central to evangelicals and I wanted to expand biblical engagement by using sonic performances through the use of our voices, thereby facilitating a more bodily encounter with scripture. ‘Noise’ in the group name alludes to the disruption that sound can generate and also alludes to the ‘noise’ of multivocality, since the Bible has many voices in it from authors, narrative characters, editors, compilers, translators, interpreters and so on. The ‘noise’ is also a disruption of the visual primacy of our current culture. Bible Noise explores ways in which different voices can be brought in to enrich our aural engagement with scripture by exploring five different ‘pieces’ or readings of scripture. In doing so it establishes a communal idea of scripture where the different voices within scripture can be heard, paying attention to their particularities. Listening to these voices and our own embodied enactment of them can enrich and deepen our perception and engagement of scripture by appreciating the chorus of voices that is the Bible, the collection of texts that forms a core of British evangelical practice and belief.

1. Introduction

A group of people are around a table. They have sheets of paper in front of them, and then reading from them, some of the people start uttering repeated nonsensical sounds.

The same group are now standing in a circle with small pieces of paper and they are whispering, with one person in the middle of the circle listening intently.

A similar group of people now seem to be playing a game of tag while repeating particular words.

These seemingly strange occurrences are the practice of Bible Noise, a group that I formed as part of my PhD research. Bible Noise is an experimental approach to engaging with scripture through sound and voice, rather than relying solely on traditional reading or interpretation. It explores how embodiment, disruption, and multivocality can shape biblical engagement. Instead of treating the text as a fixed, silent document, Bible Noise invites participants to voice, listen, and interact with scripture in layered and overlapping ways—through spoken word, breath, whispers, and movement. These sonic practices expose the tensions, harmonies, and hidden voices within the text, often revealing new resonances that might be missed in conventional readings. By incorporating multiple translations, languages, and vocal performances, the project not only highlights the Bible’s polyphonic nature but also challenges assumptions about whose voices are heard and whose remain marginalized. Bible Noise is thus both an artistic and theological practice, encouraging fresh ways of encountering scripture in community, particularly for those seeking to engage beyond the printed page.

This expanded engagement with the Bible through sound used sound art and vocal performances, which enabled bodily and communal encounters with scripture that then allowed for an engagement with the multivocality and potential hidden voices within the Bible. The ideas of multivocality arise from a critique of the way scripture is engaged with, where a single voice reads the texts aloud in communal settings. The group nature of these performances was an affirmation of the multivocal nature of scripture itself through its plurality of authors, editors, compilers and genres.

The Bible is a key text for Christians across the denominations and is central to British evangelical faith practices, as shown through the Bebbington quadrilateral and its subsequent engagements (Bebbington 2003, 2021). The delineation of the uniqueness of British evangelical engagement with the Bible is beyond the remit of this paper. Rather, this paper explores a particular creative engagement with the Bible in a British evangelical context. We were a group of British evangelicals expressing our devotion to and joy in scripture in creative ways.

Bible Noise had its origins in the chance discovery of a book, Whispering the Word: Hearing Women’s Voices in the Old Testament by Jacqueline Lapsley (Lapsley 2005), where she paid particular attention to the characters of women; their voices, their sounds and their silences. She used Russian theorist Mikhail Bakhtin’s notions of polyphony (Bakhtin 1982) as a way of hearing these voices. This was in the realm of text, and I wondered what it would be like to enact some of these ideas in sound. I was also interested in the concept and practice of polyphony and the way many voices could be heard simultaneously. In contrast to the single voice that normally reads aloud scripture, I aimed to enact the multiple voices that emanate from the Bible. In doing so, I hoped to hear voices that have been marginalised, hidden or silenced.

My own position comes from different experiences and also my background. Having been a musician, I entered the sound art and sound studies worlds with the curiosity and intrigue of exploring how sound and faith interacted experientially and conceptually. I am also a bi-cultural British Indian neurodiverse man living in a mixed-race family. Born in the UK, my familial origins are from the Syrian Christian community (so called for having a Syrian Orthodox liturgy), who have been in Kerala, India, before European missionary contact. My father’s family were Anglican (what became the Church of South India) and my mother’s was from a reformed Syrian church (Marthoma). Both churches had strong evangelical influences and my own journey continued through Methodist and Vineyard churches in India. These mixes of experiences and backgrounds guided my research and practice, and I leaned into this multiplicity by drawing on notions and practices of polyphony. I had to draw on many voices for my practice, and this paper continues my sense of multiple belonging by sitting across disciplines of sound art and theology.

In this paper, I begin by introducing the Bible Noise group and its practice. I then explore the significant ways in which sound resonates with the Bible, offering insights into how engaging with the text through sound can deepen our understanding. Following this, I examine the concept of noise and its role within the group’s practice. I critique the tendency to prioritize abstract and cognitive approaches over those that are rooted in sound and embodied experience, suggesting that such a focus may cause us to overlook vital aspects of our faith experience. Finally, I discuss various ’pieces’ or readings performed by the group, each with distinct emphases and resonances, all contributing to a rich tapestry of voices that together shape the communal practice. I conclude by reflecting on possible implications for British evangelical biblical engagement.

2. British Evangelical Practices of Biblical Engagement

The Bible is central to evangelical identity even though there might be differences in the form of this centrality. John Dyer, exploring the contemporary digital engagement of scripture, quotes Bishop J. C. Ryle as defining evangelicalism in terms of ‘the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture’ (Dyer 2023, p. 37). Dyer further quotes John Stott as saying, ‘evangelical people are first and foremost Bible people, affirming the great truths of revelation, inspiration and authority. We have a higher view of Scripture than anyone else in the church’ (Dyer 2023, p. 37).

However, what shape or form does this centrality take? My own experience of how evangelicals engage with the Bible is that it is treated as a repository of knowledge, something to be understood and applied rather than something to be experienced. Strhan speaks of the Protestant prioritisation of belief over experience: ‘Belief––in terms of an internal assent to propositions, mediated through hearing, accepting, and then knowing Jesus as Saviour––became separated from and privileged over experiences of the sacred gained through ‘carnal knowing’’ (Strhan 2013, p. 227).

Bible Noise attempts to amplify the experience of hearing scripture in creative ways that aims to disrupt the semantic and cognitive prioritisation in biblical engagement. This is not to discount the importance of the semantic and the cognitive, but rather to point towards extra dimensions of biblical engagement. This will be further addressed below.

3. The Practice

Bible Noise started at Holy Trinity, Beckenham, an Anglican evangelical church in South-East London. It was constituted for my practice-based research. At its heart it was based on the practice of reading aloud scripture in worship. As this was experimental and creative, it happened outside worship times. The practice of reading aloud scripture has great variance across churches. Some have spoken liturgies before and after the reading. In most cases, the biblical reference is said aloud. For some, a special place like a lectern for the Bible is at the front of the church, from which it is read. At others, readers might bring their own printed Bible or read out from an app. The reading aloud of scripture is often followed by the sermon, either immediately or soon after.

Bible Noise reconstituted the ritual by bringing in multiple voices for every reading. Additionally, the text was sometimes discussed before the reading. The readings sometimes brought together disparate passages next to each other and sometimes different texts were read simultaneously.

It was open to anyone who had an interest in engaging with the Bible in different ways through voice and sound. The members of the group were from the church. We were of different ethnicities and genders, with an age range of 7 to 82. We met eight times across a period of 18 months, until COVID-19 restrictions came about in 2020. The group size varied between four and eight across the meetings. We met after the main church service and shared a meal before the sessions. Then, we got on to engaging with the Bible through sound.

Though this was a creative and at time playful set of sessions, there was a serious and rigorous approach to the texts which chimed with evangelical approaches to scripture. We used only the texts of the Bible and did not interpolate with other texts or interjections. While we were of different ethnicities and backgrounds, this practice was framed by our British evangelical context. It was from this ‘ground’ that the practice of sounding the Bible arose.

4. Sound and the Bible

The Bible is intimately connected to sound. Creation comes into being through God’s sounding words. Speech and listening features strongly in God’s interactions with creation. In a religious world where images of God are banned, speech and listening become primary ways through which God is interacted with. Music is also significantly present in the books of Psalms, Song of Songs, and Lamentations. Other passages like 1 Chronicles 15 and 25 show the infrastructure of music within Israelite life and worship. Beyond music, the cries of the people and the listening ears of God and God’s pleas to and for his people to listen to him form a symphony. The New Testament, while not as populated with music, focuses on the Word who was ‘…in the beginning’ (John 1). ‘Word’, from the Greek logos, is both utterance and concept in this context (Beardslee 1993, p. 463). Early church fathers spoke about the voice of God from this idea with the animating Spirit who brings the voice to us. The New Testament has songs that are quoted (e.g., Mary’s Magnificat based on Hannah’s prayer), and fresh songs (e.g., Philippians 2:5–11) are brought forth. A further important relation between the Bible and sound comes through the oral nature of cultures, especially before printing. The voice as an interaction of flesh and breath was the primary way in which to access scripture. Our current media cultures have changed, and it is worth revisiting the voice through these changes.

The NRSV was mostly used for the practice as it had a closer representation of rhythm and meaning without extensive paraphrasing. Other versions were used only if there were particular sonic reasons. Other language versions were also used to explore the rhythms and resonances they produce.

5. Noise

Bible Noise explored a polyphony of spoken word where multiple voices spoke simultaneously, and the question arose, ‘won’t that just be noise?’ There is an acceptance that multiple singing voices work together but spoken voices are noise. I will briefly talk about noise as it is part of the practice in performance and name, drawing on work from sound studies scholars. Greg Hainge, professor in cultural studies, researching noise, posits that ‘Noise is relational’ (Hainge 2013, p. 273). Paul Hegarty, a sound studies scholar, expands this notion: ‘it exists only in relation to what it is not’ (Hegarty 2007, p. 5). The relationality of noise is to do with its subjectivity according to context. It is contextual positioning that makes a sound noise. ‘Pollution’ is another way that noise is understood, according to science writer Mike Goldsmith (Goldsmith 2012, p. 2). This has religious connotations, as anthropologist Mary Anne Douglas has researched (Douglas 1966). Since Bible Noise might become noise with many voices speaking simultaneously, there is question as to whether this is ‘polluting’ to the ritual of reading aloud the Bible. Unknown and unfamiliar sounds can be considered noise and the practice of Bible Noise might be considered as such.

Noise can also evolve in the perception of hearers, as Hegarty states in a discussion about avant-garde music: ‘where music becomes an avant-garde, and in so doing is always, initially, at least, identified as noise. Only later does the old noise come to be seen as legitimate music’ (Hegarty 2007, p. 10). Eric Wilson, who researched the sounds of 16th century London, agrees with this developmental notion: ‘Noise, then, can be heard not merely as a symptom of symbolic vulnerability or theoretical disorder, but as the evidence and the occasional catalyst of dynamic cultural change operative across the urban topos’ (Wilson 1995, p. xxiii). Media theorist David Hendy also highlights the unexpected nature of noise calling it ‘full of surprises’ (Hendy 2013, p. 8). The practice of Bible Noise approached its own noise in this vein looking towards the possibilities of surprise that might engender fresh ways of engaging with the Bible. Bible Noise also attempted to engage with certain issues that are currently present in biblical engagement.

6. Issues in Biblical Engagement

6.1. Abstraction and Semantic Priority

The reading aloud of scripture has become less corporate and less corporeal. Mark Earey, tutor and researcher in Anglican worship, says ‘the bible no longer belongs primarily to a corporate context in which it is spoken out loud and heard by a number of people simultaneously’, as congregants are more ‘likely to be following it in print’. This ‘privatizes the bible’ and separates it from its ‘corporate context’ (Earey 2002, p. 90). Today, this can be seen in our digital engagement as well. Prior cultures depended upon the voice and a communal presence with each other for scripture to be accessed, while today scripture can be immediately and privately accessed. Walter Ong has explored this contrast in his work, examining the impact of printing, where he states that ‘[m]ore than any other invention writing has transformed human consciousness’ (Ong 2002, p. 77). Ong proposes that oral cultures are ‘more communal and externalized’ while literate ones promote ‘[w]riting and reading [which] are solitary activities that throw the psyche back on itself’ (Ong 2002, p. 67). There have been critiques of his views from a sound studies perspective (Sterne 2011), which opens up the question of the distinctions arising from seeing rather than hearing the text. Birgit Meyer further speaks of the early Protestant ‘emphasis on [silent] reading and text’ which according to her was ‘deliberate discrediting’ of other more material forms of the ritual of reading aloud scripture (Meyer 2013, p. 8).

Prior to this, however, texts were engaged in more corporeal ways. Lectio Divina was one such practice. Professor of Spirituality Raymond Studzinski talks of monastic communities who ‘lived a life centred on such reading’ which ‘had a social and physical dimension’; socially, due to the communal nature of the reading, and physically, as the ‘reader responded to how words felt to the mouth, to the ears, to the eyes’ (Studzinski 2009, p. 14). Studzinski further recounts the metaphors of ‘chewing’ and ‘digesting’ applied to the act of reading, which are strongly corporeal metaphors. Reading here is shown as an embodied and social practice which has today been abstracted away to become privatised and individualised. This abstraction is aided through the downplaying of the sonic features of text. Reading can be a corporeal event but can the composition of the text, the writing of it, have corporeal elements?

6.2. Corporeality of Writing

Philosopher Karmen MacKendrick also highlights that writing can be corporeal as well. She considers the written voice as ‘distinctly auditory and bodily’, while accepting that it is different from the spoken voice (MacKendrick 2016, pp. 9, 21). The difference seems to be in how the written voice is imagined, and this imagination is sonic. Drawing on writers such as Ursula Le Guin and Virginia Woolf, Mackendrick shows how the written voice is based on the sonic which arises out of the body. LeGuin says ‘Body is story, voice tells it’ which MacKendrick reformulates as: ‘Voice tells body’ (MacKendrick 2016, p. 15). Woolf uses the metaphor of a wave to describe her writing: ‘A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind…, then as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it’ (Woolf 1980, p. 247 in MacKendrick 2016, p. 16). The corporeal nature of the text is enacted through the practices of Bible Noise both through sound and the texts they originate from. There are different corporeal aspects to the practice. Biblical texts are printed on pieces of paper that Bible Noise participants are holding. In some pieces we are sitting, while in others we stand and in others we move, every time holding on to pieces of paper with printed text. What often happens, however, is that the voice is silenced in a bodily sense; what is given importance is the semantic content, and the bodily is discarded. This is a silencing of the body and thereby a silencing of the voice that comes from body.

6.3. Voice and Body

The voice has often been held in suspicion due to its bodily nature. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE), regarding, the singing voice says: ‘When it happens to me that the song moves me more than the thing which is sung, I confess that I have sinned blamefully and then prefer not to hear the singer’ (Confessions Book 10 Chapter 33 para 50 in Epstein 2004, p. 16). Augustine’s concern is with the bodily aspect of song, which will separate him from the ‘thing’, the meaning. Lactantius in his Divine Institutions is more direct: ‘For all those things unconnected with words, that is, pleasant sounds of the air and of strings, may be easily disregarded, because they do not adhere to us, and cannot be written’ (Book 6, Chapter 21 in Epstein 2004, p. 16). Augustine Erasmus of Rotterdam (1466–1536) also centres meaning over sound when he protests against music that ‘produces a tremendous tonal clamour, so that not a single word is understood’, quoted in (Epstein 2004, p. 16). Erasmus would be happy to silence singing itself: ‘Let us sing vocally, but let us sing as Christians; let us sing sparingly, but let us sing more in our hearts’ (Epstein 2004, p. 16). Feminist theologian Heidi Epstein calls this prioritisation, a ‘musical chastity belt’ where ‘Text bridles music’s “body,” sublimating its erotic pull to higher intellectual ends’ (Epstein 2004, p. 15). The prioritization of the semantic has often led to the subordination of the body, particularly bodies that differ from the norm. In this framework, rationality is highly valued, and as Cavarero notes, it is the male who is considered rational and ideal: ‘through the bodily difference that marks her, a woman is a deficient human person, a man who is less-than-man’ (Cavarero 1995, p. 53).

Sound artist Mikhail Karikis highlights the problem of viewing the voice as separate from the body: ‘such thinking undervalues the particular embodied ‘who’ from where the voice emanates, and keeps only the semantic aspect of the voice, i.e., ‘what’ is voiced. It is a logocentric way of thinking: it confirms the hegemony of speech and by extension undermines all those vocal sounds we produce which are not destined to language’ (Karikis n.d., p. 2). Karikis calls for a focus on the sonics of the voice rather than its semantic content alone. Attending to the sonics allows us to recognize the ’who’ behind the voice, whereas, too often, the tone used in Bible readings minimizes the importance of the speaker. As MacKendrick describes, this voice suggests: ‘Nothing to hear here, an undercurrent murmurs, only ideas to understand, all spoken in the same and therefore irrelevant voice’ (MacKendrick 2016, p. 118). This ‘irrelevant’ voice is frequently heard across denominations worldwide. Inviting listeners to engage with the corporeal aspects of the voice within their own bodily experience can transform this irrelevant voice into something resonant and impactful. This is particularly pertinent to evangelical practices, where there is much more of an emphasis on the semantic and the abstract, as shown above.

In my Bible Noise practice, I engage with the Bible by reading it aloud with others, in the presence of others. The use of voice in community opens up spaces for distinct, unique vocal contributions, creating polyphony. Polyphony emerges when multiple distinct voices sound together simultaneously. Since, as Cavarero notes, the body imparts a unique quality to each voice, the bodily voice, in the presence of other bodies, provides fertile ground for exploring polyphony and plurality. Engaging the Bible in this fleshly manner activates the voice, the ear, and the other senses through embodied presence.

In emphasizing this corporeal approach, I am not dismissing the importance of the semantic. My practice integrates both the aural and the semantic. As MacKendrick argues, ‘The notion that we must reduce or turn away from language in order to take the body seriously, or that we can disregard corporeality in understanding words, misreads both. The two of them must make each other’ (MacKendrick 2016, p. 21).

The downplaying of the corporeal voice happens when text is given a certain status and the voice is then merely a vehicle for the semantic.

7. The Pieces

Four ‘pieces’ are now presented to illustrate the practice of Bible Noise. The term ‘piece’ is used in a musical and performative sense, referring to the time span from the beginning of the sounding to its conclusion. These pieces were often revisited in different sessions and adjusted based on insights gained from previous iterations. Each piece involves a reading from a biblical text. This is compiled into a score that includes instructions for the performance. The pieces discussed here were selected for their distinct emphases within the research process.

Prologue Remix focuses on sonic elements, exploring the rhythms and sonic potentials within the text, as diverse voices bring it to life. Contrapunt of Naomi and Job places greater emphasis on critical hermeneutics, combining feminist re-readings to enable a hidden voice to be heard alongside a dominant one. Thus Whispereth the Lord centres on listening to marginalized voices, amplifying the role of the female prophet through the sonic qualities of the text and sounds derived from their names. This piece unites several voices that were previously ‘whispering’, allowing them to sound their actions with and through their ‘noise’. Babble Kabaddi explores the interplay of listening and sounding by reimagining the traditional Indian game of Kabaddi.

7.1. Prologue Remix

‘Prologue Remix’1 was the first piece created during the Bible Noise sessions. It centred on a passage from the Gospel of John (1:1–5), beginning with the phrase, ‘In the beginning was the Word’. The repetition of words and phrases in this text served as the foundation for the sonic performance, shaping the structure of the piece. The choice of this passage was not only influenced by the textual repetitions but also by the resonance of the terms ‘beginning’ and ‘Word’, which aligned with the start of the Bible Noise process and the engagement with Word/word.2 The recurrence of phrases like ‘In the beginning’, ‘light’, ‘Word’, and ‘God’ revealed potential for sonic exploration.

The concept involved layering participants’ voices by recording and looping their spoken phrases, which were then played back for listening. Phrases such as ‘the Word was with God’ and ‘the Word was God’ were particularly explored, with sound enacting the duality of ‘with’ and ‘was’ through the layering of loops at varying intervals. At times, ‘Word’ and ‘God’ would resonate simultaneously, while at other moments they would align sequentially. Similarly, terms like ‘light’ and ‘in the beginning’ would interact with the other words in this layered soundscape.

Each reader would speak into a mic and be recorded. After recording the voices, participants had the opportunity to mix the sounds themselves, allowing them to explore the interplay of different voices and to experience how the sounds clashed or blended. This practice illustrated how our interpretative approaches can ‘decrease’ or ‘increase’ the ‘volume’ of certain voices—amplifying softer ones or quieting louder ones to ensure every voice could be heard.

During an early recording session, one participant, a child, began to cough. Reflecting on this moment, the cough exemplified the intention behind the research: it was a ‘noise’, an unexpected disruption that challenged my preconceived vision of the piece’s sound. This unplanned element aligned with the broader aim of integrating sounds that challenge established meanings and ways of understanding.

In the discussion that followed, participants noted that they initially focused on listening for their own voice, which made it difficult to hear the other voices collectively. This highlighted a tendency for listeners to isolate a single voice, particularly when speech is involved. The performance element of the piece likely prompted this self-focused listening. However, with repeated listening, participants began to perceive the composition as a whole, rather than concentrating on individual voices. Additionally, the performance context initially made participants hesitant to engage in mixing; the awareness of being observed by others while mixing led some to rush through their ‘turn’. It took time for participants to embrace the concept of collaborative participation, moving beyond a traditional performer-audience dichotomy.

‘Prologue Remix’ is rooted in sound—from the selection of the text to its enactment through sound and the subsequent reflection through discussion. Sound serves both as the process and the subject of analysis.

7.2. Contrapunt of Naomi and Job

‘Contrapunt of Naomi and Job’3 engages with hermeneutics, guided by feminist theologian Jacqueline Lapsley’s interpretation of the Book of Ruth, which centres on Naomi, Ruth’s widowed mother-in-law (Lapsley 2005, p. 90). Lapsley draws a parallel between Naomi and the more widely known figure of Job, whose story is traditionally seen as a meditation on suffering. By focusing on Naomi, Lapsley uncovers a voice that has often been marginalized. Although the biblical book is titled ‘Ruth’—likely due to Ruth’s connection as an ancestor of King David (Ruth 4:18–22) or as a narrative defending inter-racial marriage (Bush 1996, p. 19)—this title shifts focus away from Naomi. Naomi’s obscured presence is compounded by her status as a widow who has lost both sons, a situation that renders her position socially and materially precarious. Lapsley’s reading amplifies this hidden voice.

This piece began with the question, ‘What would happen if Lapsley’s reading could be enacted in sound?’ I developed a piece that highlighted the shared language and phrases between the narratives of Naomi and Job, drawing on Lapsley’s insights. Words like ‘bitter’ and phrases such as ‘the hand of the Lord’ and ‘seven sons’ served as common sonic motifs. Both Job and Naomi lament how God gives and takes away, and both narratives include loud expressions of grief—Naomi and her daughters-in-law, and Job and his friends. These overlapping themes formed the basis for a sonic piece that aimed to bring these two voices into dialogue.

The score was formatted as text in two columns, a deliberate departure from musical notation, designed to reflect the format of many Bibles. Participants were divided into two groups: one read from the ‘Naomi’ texts, and the other from the ‘Job’ texts. As the performance unfolded, the voices from each group began to mix and merge towards the end. This blending of reading and subsequent conversation was integral to the research processes.

Job, a wealthy, powerful figure, is juxtaposed with Naomi, a destitute widow. While Job is eventually restored to wealth and given seven sons, Naomi is gifted with Ruth, who the text describes as ‘better than seven sons’.

This piece presents various challenges in listening. Participants needed to listen to others in their group to ensure synchronicity, while also listening for cues from the other group to stay aligned with the score. This dual attentiveness is similar to the listening required in a choir, where a singer must hear their own part while remaining in time and pitch with others. However, this piece differs because it involves spoken voices. Our inclination to focus on a single voice conveying a clear message makes it more difficult to engage with a chorus of spoken words. Unlike in choral singing, where pitch alone can guide synchronization, this piece requires active listening to the words. The score aids this process by providing a structure, but it also adds complexity—participants must monitor both their own column and that of the other group, balancing their individual reading with the collective performance.

The layered listening and text engagement in this piece mirror the complexities of interpreting biblical texts. Readers approach texts with preconceived ideas shaped by the many ‘voices’ that have influenced them, even if they are not consciously aware of these influences. This is the aim of Bible Noise: to physically enact, through sound art practices, the intricate processes that accompany textual engagement. Hearing multiple spoken voices at once makes us aware of the other voices present and forces us to decide whether to attend to those voices or ignore them.

7.3. Thus Whispereth the Lord4

The ritual of reading scripture aloud often concludes with the statement ‘This is the word of the Lord’, to which the congregation responds ‘Thanks be to God’. This phrase appears in certain Bible translations (Ex: NRSV 2 Kings 9:36), while similar phrasing in the King James Version is ‘Thus saith the Lord’. The latter is used throughout the Old Testament, especially in prophetic books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

While biblical prophets are predominantly male, I sought to amplify the voices of female prophets, whose contributions are often overlooked. The phrase ‘Thus saith the Lord’ became ‘Thus whispereth the Lord’, reflecting how these women’s voices have been minimized in the biblical narrative, rendering them a whisper. Bible Noise aims to hear and give voice to these whispers, focusing on the often-muted presence of female prophets. This shift from the ritual phrase initiates a process of textual research, identifying and exploring women prophets within the Bible. The piece centres on seven instances of female prophets, a number that signifies completeness in biblical symbolism. The goal was to engage with these figures through a sonic performance that brought their texts and contexts to life.

The piece is structured for three groups of participants: two groups produce sounds representing the prophet, while the third reads the biblical text associated with her. Here, polyphony emerges not through multiple textual voices but through the simultaneous interplay of sound and narrative. The sounds are derived from the text itself, such as ‘tambo’ and ‘bereen’ from Miriam’s tambourine, or a buzzing ‘bzzzzz’ for Deborah, whose name means ‘bee’. These sonic elements simultaneously obscure and amplify the prophets’ narratives. While they can drown out the spoken words, they also highlight the voices of these women, creating space for attention and celebration amidst potential derision.

The piece follows a chronological progression through the Bible, beginning with Miriam in the book of Exodus and concluding with the unnamed daughters of Philip from the book of Acts. It ends with a passage from Ezekiel that speaks of God’s breath reviving the dead, prompting reflection on whether the readers’ breaths have truly given voice to these silenced figures.

7.4. Babble Kabaddi

This piece employs a game-based approach to generate its soundscape, drawing inspiration from the use of games in composition. While Iannis Xenakis famously utilized game theory to compose works like Duel and Stratégie (Xenakis and Kanach 1992, p. vii), my approach is simpler and less rooted in mathematical structures. For Xenakis, game theory provided a formal framework for composition. In contrast, my use of the term ‘game’ emphasizes following straightforward rules rather than engaging with game theory in a technical sense.

The idea of a game serves two primary purposes in this piece. First, it acts as a compositional strategy. This is influenced by composer David Behrman’s concept of composition as a game among performers. In Behrman’s approach, the sound is ‘dependent on interactions among [the performers]…, and far less upon the previous choices of the composer’ (Conrad 2012, p. 163). Second, the concept of the game provides a framework for engaging with language. This resonates with Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘language games’ (Giles 2021) and Hans Georg Gadamer’s idea that hermeneutics, or the interpretation of texts, involves a form of ‘play’ (Gadamer 2004, p. 102).

‘Kabaddi’ is a sport indigenous to South Asia (Tomlinson 2010), involving two teams positioned in separate zones. One player, called the ‘raider’, enters the opposing team’s zone to tag a member, attempting to eliminate them from the game, and the raider must continuously chant the word ‘kabaddi’ throughout their raid without pausing to breathe. This continuous vocalization is an essential feature of the game.

Drawing from this concept of continuous sounding, Babble Kabaddi adapts this vocal element in a new context. Here, there are no teams and no tagging. Instead, all participants except one stand in a semi-circle, while the remaining participant, designated as the ‘Babel-er’, stands at a distance facing the semi-circle. Each participant in the semi-circle receives a fragment of a biblical passage, with none aware of the portions given to others. Individually, the fragments make no coherent sense. The Babel-er then begins to chant the word ‘Babel’ without taking a breath, moving into the semi-circle as they continue to sound. Simultaneously, the group members repeat their respective fragments out loud. The Babel-er, while maintaining their chant, attempts to piece together the passage from the collective utterances. As soon as the Babel-er runs out of breath, they return to their starting position, and the group stops speaking. The Babel-er then shares their interpretation of what they heard, after which the group members can clarify the parts they were given. Together, they decide whether to settle on a single version of the passage or preserve multiple interpretations. The process then repeats with a different passage and a new Babel-er.

This piece draws on the story of Babel, known for its association with the confusion of languages. Craig Bartholomew suggests that Babel carries two potential meanings: ‘confusion’ or ‘God’s door’ (Bartholomew 1998, p. 314). The Babel-er embodies both these meanings as they move into the semi-circle, their repeated utterance of ‘Babel’ creating potential confusion while also acting as a gateway to understanding the fragmented text. The Babel-er must sound and listen simultaneously, initiating the reconstruction of the passage. However, this task is inherently communal, relying on the cooperation of the group. Although group members are not explicitly instructed to listen, they too engage in this dual act of sounding and listening.

In this setting, polyphony emphasizes the simultaneous acts of listening and sounding. The multiplicity of voices is present, but it hinges on the Babel-er’s production of ‘nonsense’ while trying to decipher ‘sense’ from the group’s utterances, as well as on the group’s ability to assist. Skills of memory and recall are crucial, as the interplay of listening, vocalizing, and short-term memory sustains the game’s dynamic. The improvisational nature of the piece lies in its unpredictability. For example, in one iteration, the Babel-er was unable to recall any of the fragments. Here, the hidden voice represents what the Babel-er could not retrieve, the parts they could not hear or grasp before running out of breath. Ultimately, it is only when the group reconvenes that this voice can be heard.

The development of Babble Kabaddi began with an exploration of a traditional sport that integrates vocal sound. By reimagining the kabaddi game for Bible Noise, the structure shifts from a competitive format to a collaborative one, merging the two teams into a single group. Instead of team members crossing into opposing zones, the solo Babel-er enters the space of the group, simultaneously belonging to the group while taking on a unique role as both noise-maker and interpreter. This continuous vocalization without breathing creates physical tension, altering the state of the body. The Babel-er, in this process, becomes different—transformed into a listener who seeks to interpret the differences within the group.

The Babel-er’s role bears a resemblance to that of a researcher, who approaches a group with a sense of difference, bringing noise into the interaction, and subsequently reflecting back their understanding. The Babel-er’s interpretation is provisional, open to the corrections of the group, mirroring the iterative and communal nature of research. In this way, the piece becomes a reflexive exploration of the research process itself, embodying the dynamics of inquiry, interpretation, and collaboration.

8. Implications

There are various implications and possibilities that arise from creative engagements through sound with scripture. Generally, it shows that a deeper engagement with and through sound can reveal different experiences. When this is applied to the Bible we have new and fresh appreciations of the text. Sound has a malleability and permeability that allows the bringing together of different voices without overpowering each other. Sound also alerts us to the embodied and corporeal nature of our selves and importantly also of the texts. Rather than being accessed through the ‘cloud’, hearing the text through the voice indicates the presence of the bodies. The voice is sound that comes from breath upon flesh and as we share breath we share sound without having to compromise body. This has theological resonances with the Trinitarian God and several church fathers have used the analogy of word and breath to talk of the Son and the Spirit.

The practice of Bible Noise then allows an embodied practice of these ideas. It allows us to encounter God through sound which is not music. The ordinary speaking voice also reveals God to us and if we listen we might hear God’s voice afresh. When a small child reads the Bible it embodies a different voice of God. In doing so it could expand our understanding and experience of God

8.1. Body

Embodiment is a further implication from this practice. In a world where most of our lives are lived in the ‘cloud’ or online, a practice like this brings us closer to the world of the Bible and the traditions of its practice across the centuries by using our voices and bodies to engage with the Bible. The Bible can take on a more fleshly experience in an analogical way enacting the idea of ‘the Word made flesh’. Halvorson and Hovland in their research into evangelical Bible reading highlight this embodiment by speaking of materiality: ‘Reading in Christian communities fundamentally involves materiality, not only of the text as a material object but also through the bodily act of reading’ (Halvorson and Hovland 2021, p. 504). The use of the voice in the practice is a way of making the body present to each other. The voice is a production of bodily processes where breath hits vocal cords which is then shaped by our tongues and mouths. We receive these voices as our ears receive the movements in the air which in turn move eardrums and inner ear hairs. By speaking scripture to each other we can acknowledge the body that speaks and acknowledge our own in hearing it. Having the voice that is formed of body gives it a particularity, a uniqueness which is also important to evangelicalism with its emphasis on personal faith. Voices often contextualise what kind of location we might be in and when you listen to the recordings of Bible Noise they can reveal further information in terms of class, education, which part of England and so on. This uniqueness then makes the participation in the scripture more important.

8.2. Participation

The participatory nature of Bible Noise shows how scripture can be engaged with communally. Quite often in worship, the Bible is read by a single voice. Bible Noise attempts to disrupt the single voice to acknowledge the multiple voices in the Bible from its authors, character, editors and compilers. In contrast to worship settings, informal Bible studies do sometimes have a sharing of voices where people will share the reading of passage. Bible Noise attempts to take that sharing further. The piece ‘Babble Kabaddi’ for example shows the importance of participation for understanding and interpretation. It is by a community sharing scripture that meanings remain alive. Participation in the experience of scripture and the multilayered interpretative possibilities from this participation mean that the Bible is dynamic, active and the ‘living word of God’.

8.3. Diversity

The different participant voices can also reflect the diversity of the faithful. Evangelicalism itself is hugely diverse within Britain and if different spoken voices from our various locations, geographically and socially, come together it can sonically give us a more realistic representation of the body of Christ. This sonic diversity is evident from the beginning of the church when at Pentecost many tongues of the world were animated by the Spirit. Too often single voices dominate in the name of unity but true unity requires diversity to become meaningful. Unity is distinct from uniformity and the church is always called to love across its diverse differences. While Bible Noise does not explicitly show such idealised hopes it enacts ways in which diverse voices can come together.

9. Critiques and Problems

There are different issues that come with a practice like this. Several of them coalesce around the audio reception of sound. For those who are deaf or hard of hearing such a practice can be confusing and disorienting. One participant commented on this when we did a piece where scripture was whispered. She had difficulties of hearing as a child and the whispers took her back to a difficult time. For those who lip-read, having several sources of speech will make it harder to comprehend or appreciate what is going on. Engaging with issues deaf people face is part of broader issues of communal practices. Deaf artist Christine Sun Kim speaks of her relationship to sound: ‘As a Deaf person living in a world of sound, it’s as if I was living in a foreign country, blindly following its rules, customs, behaviors and norms without ever questioning them’ (Kim 2015). Kim’s work with sound is important as it contextualises how deaf people may engage with some of what Bible Noise has to offer.

A further audio reception issue has to do with sensory processing where some find too many voices or sounds overwhelming especially some with neurodiverse conditions. A practice like Bible Noise could make it overwhelming thought equally a practice like Bible Noise with the right contextualisation could stoke an interest that allows greater engagement. Our group had two members with autism and two with ADHD and their interest in the topic and the practice allowed them to fully engage with the practice. The variation within neurodiversity means that not everyone will find this a helpful experience. Therefore, such a practice needs to come with sufficient contextualisation and warnings, so as to not distress those with auditory processing difficulties.

There is also an important issue about how comfortable evangelicals will find such a practice. On one level the discomfort is intentional as a way to foster different ways to engage with the Bible. However, an important balance needs to be struck in making this a welcoming practice. One of the difficulties that evangelicals might find is that scripture here is not propositional but experiential. For my sessions I always gave clear explanations as to what was going to happen and also gave my reasons as to why we were doing what we did. Those who were not comfortable with the ideas we were trying did not join in, while others understood what we were doing but did not feel comfortable to put themselves in that experience.

Participants broadly saw this as a distinctive way of engaging with the Bible. Unlike traditional Bible studies, which seek answers to specific questions, or sermons, which offer clear takeaways, this approach was more open-ended, emphasising a being with scripture—experiencing it without a predefined conclusion. Here, the Bible was encountered not as a structured pathway of meaning but as an immersive experience. Some participants noted that the process drew their attention to biblical figures they had not previously considered, such as Naomi and the women prophets. While further research into the impact of these practices would have been valuable, plans were curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The intention had been to present these pieces to the wider congregation with opportunities for participation, but this was not possible. Performing these works in broader communal settings would have provided greater insight into their practical applications.

10. Conclusions

Bible Noise provides creative avenues for the engagement of scripture through voice, embodiment and communal participation. Coming from a background characterised by an evangelical love for the Bible it also challenges evangelical emphases on propositional approaches to scripture. Bible Noise attempts to emphasise the body by the use of the voice and movement along with a strong participatory approach to the reading aloud of scripture. In some senses this reflects scripture itself as a material collection of multiple voices that requires to be sounded out through fresh voices and locations. The use of multiple voices is a way to reflect the diversity of scripture and the diversity of the body of Christ. It also reflects the origins of the church at Pentecost where the Spirit gave utterance to people in multiple languages.

It is worth noting that Bible Noise is a work in progress that needs further experimentation, feedback and reflection. The ideas that come from Bible Noise could be envisaged as engaging different age groups and different kinds of people for whom a less abstract approach to scripture would be more engaging. The practices also can be further expanded into various forms of spoken liturgy and also used within musical contexts of worship as a different approach to song. The expansion of these ideas will be a further set of works beyond the initial research project.

Further, the practice of Bible Noise reveals facets of God’s action. The Bible for evangelicals is God’s word and yet it is arguably through his spoken word that he acts. This can be seen poignantly in Genesis through creation but also through many interactions God has with his people. From God’s first spoken words of creation through his call to Moses, his stillness with Elijah to the words of Jesus, his Son and to the final welcome that the bride and the Spirit offer in Revelation, God’s voice choruses above, below and around in a symphony of truth and grace.