From I, Wabenzi by Rafi Zabor:
Hearing Mevlevi music for the first time was an experience of another order. The first piece on the UNESCO record was the Na’at, a setting of Jelaluddin Rumi’s hymn to the Prophet, performed unaccompanied by a blind singer named Kani Karaca who had one of the most extraordinary voices I’d ever heard; four or five times in the course of the Na’at Karaca soared through an elongated, ornamented melody identical to the setting of the word “Rain” in the Beatles’ song; which explained the slowdown in [fellow congregants/housemates] Jafar and Anton’s version and disclosed the origin of the chorus in the Beatles’ version.
I’m guessing that Zabor is referring to this recording, maybe (for example) at 1 min 42 sec?
Maybe, maybe not… but yet another piece of music I learned about via Mr. Zabor.
