Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is considered to be the greatest qawwal of his generation. Qawwali, the Sufi music of India and Pakistan, translates literally as "utterance," and it is an ecstatic, spiritual poetry married to music. The music serves to express mystical love and the longing for a union with the

Ecstatic, Ethereal, Indian classical music, Religious, Sublime

Flannery O'Connor, in the preface to the second edition of her first novel, "Wise Blood" (1952), described herself as "an author congenitally innocent of theory, but with certain preoccupations." The preoccupation she refers to is religion. O'Connor was a Catholic writer, and her work was perpetua

Kaleidoscopic, Melancholy, Pathos, Religious, Southern gothic, Visceral

The music of Estonian-born German composer Arvo Part is often labeled with the rather meaningless term Minimalist. His work can be situated within the lineage of Erik Satie, John Cage, and Henryk Gorecki on the one hand, and Philip Glass, Brian Eno, and Laurie Anderson on the other. Part's is a music

20th-century music, Citational, Collage, Dissonant, Minimal, Minimalist music, Religious, Silence

Blending soulful vocals with a melodic, mid-tempo beat, Marvin Gaye introduced a new kind of rhythmic pop to the mainstream. The drive to produce commercially successful material -- a goal Gaye personally deemed insignificant -- eventually took its toll on the sensitive artist. But though he never qu

Cool, Intimate, Layered, Pop, Religious, Rhythmic, Sensual