MofA Week 12

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Music and Politics: hegemony, and resistance

General considerations

Distinguish:

  • music of hegemony and music of resistance
    • national anthems
    • revolutionary songs
  • explicitly political and implicitly political music
    • overt, literal statements, with political intent (e.g. Shaykh Imam)
    • covert, symbolic statements, with political intent (e.g. Ahmed Adawiyya, Idir)
    • music that assumes political valence, without initial overt political intent (e.g. Umm Kulthum for Arab nationalism; Saudi Qur'anic recitation signifying conservative Islam; Lebanese female singers' clips signifying liberalism/globalization; Marcel Khalife and freedom of speech)
  • Complexity of semiosis: the music of politics vs. the politics of music


Music...(generally)

  • ...encodes political messages (explicit or implicit) regarding
    • political values (general, abstract)
    • political situations (specific individuals, structures of power)
  • ...helps shape the broader political landscape
    • Music is relatively limited form of discourse
      • Produced slowly, by specialists
      • Hard to engage in musical dialogs, discourses
      • Much of music's social force is non-referential
    • but lyrics contain referential content
    • factors compensating for discursive limitations:
      • music's affective power, imbuing a felt sense of truth, flying "under the radar"
      • music's social power, gathering people in groups (live or mediated), nucleating subcultures
      • music's low discursive bandwidth (low information) and perlocutionary form is perhaps a form of coercive power (as Marxist anthropologist Maurice Bloch famously wrote: "you can't argue with a song"): music presents its message; one often just agrees (without even knowing it)

Music and politics in the pre-Islamic Arab period

Various pre-Islamic poetic genres--chanted and sung, quickly memorized and disseminated-- effected political functions:

  • Hija': poetry of critique (for one's enemies)
  • Madih: poetry of praise (for one's rulers)
  • Ritha': elegy
  • Mufakhara: inter-tribal poetic competitions, enabling inter-tribal dialogs, helping unify polities, catalyzing emergent sense of "Arab"

The Arabs of pre-Islamic Northern Arabia formed what scholar von Grunebaum termed a Kulturnation; only with Islam would they unite to become a Staatsnation. Public poetic recitation (inshad, nashid, tartil) in a heightened voice may have played a significant role in creating and sustaining the Arab Kulturnation within such a mobile society. Poetry also served to delineate inter-tribal political boundaries, to support one's own tribal leadership (especially the shaykh al-qabila) and denounce the enemy.

Music and politics in the golden age of Islamicate civilization

  • Madih (praise, panegyric) by the most famous Arab poet, al-Mutanabbi (915-965, Baghdad), for his patron, the Emir (prince) Sayf al-Dawla (916-967, r. 945-967) of Aleppo, ruler of northern Syria under the Hamdanid dynasty (al-Farabi was another prominent figure in Sayf al-Dawla's intellectual circle)

New factors impacting music and politics from the late 19th century to present

  • European colonization of the Islamicate empires, and resulting socio-techno-cultural influence:
    • Resistance and incipient Arab nationalism: e.g. 1932 conference on "Arab music" (formerly called "Eastern music")
    • Acceptance of Western socio-musical systems (musical, cultural, economic)
    • Acceptance of new mass-media technology
  • Commodification: new socio-musical system emerges
    • musical theater, public concerts, music/dance cabarets
    • Rise of public female singers and dancers
    • Impact of European musical forms
  • Rise of new mass media technology
    • Phonograms/phonorecords (cylinders, discs, cassettes, CDs)
    • Radio
    • Film
    • Terrestrial TV
    • Satellite
    • Internet
  • Rise of a collective consciousness: imagined communities of nation (Arab, regional, or country): qawmiyya (nationalism), wataniyya (patriotism)
  • Arab Nationalism and rise of the nation state in the post-colonial period...culminating in independence. Music always played a role!
    • Lebanon 1946
    • Egyptian: 1952
    • Algerian: 1963
    • UAE: 1971

Music and nationalisms: in support of the state

The patriotic song was generally known as nashid watani and occurred with increasing frequency following the success of independence movements. Some sang for the state out of personal feeling, others for economic advantage, sometimes with state sanctions, and sometimes without.

  • Umm Kulthum: sang for the king; criticized post-revolution (1952) and was withdrawn from radio, before returning to sing for Egypt and the Arab nation. Listen: Masr Tatahaddath `an Nafsaha
  • Mohamed Abdel Wahab: "Watani habibi" (my beloved nation) - pan-Arab nationalist song (1960, composed to celebrate the short-lived union of Egypt and Syria as the United Arab Republic) Watani habibi watani al-akbar (my beloved homeland, my greatest homeland) Text for Watani Habibi
  • al-Helm al-`Arabi (The Arab Dream) (1998) (contemporary pan-Arab nationalist song, with lots of cynical comments logged on youtube. Includes singers from nearly every Arab country; funded by Prince Walid bin Talal)

Generation after generation will live in the hope of realizing our dream
As what we say today we will be called to account for
throughout our lifetime
It is possible that the darkness of night
May render us far from one another, but
The beam of light can
Reach the farthest of skies
This has been our dream
All of our lives:
An embrace that will contain us all together

Music and resistance

Sayed Darwish

Shaykh Sayed Darwish (1892-1923), Egypt's most acclaimed composer, created much of what is now considered turath - new muwashshahat and adwar in the old elevated style centered on idealized love and longing expressed in classical Arabic and featuring sinuous melodies (e.g. Ya Shadi al-Alhan, oh singer of songs).

At the same time, he trained his colloquial songwriting talent upon Egyptian daily life, expressed in many songs written for the popular musical theater, which had been introduced from Syria by Abu Khalil al-Qabbani and developed by Egyptian Salama Hijazi; this musical theatre addressed mass audiences and plays were written to be relevant to their lives. Il Hilwa Di is one of Sayed Darwish's most popular songs, calling attention to the downtrodden working class, with implicit political messaging.

In addition, he composed more explicitly nationalistic songs (anashid wataniyya) such as Biladi biladi, which became Egypt's National Anthem in 1979, with text taken from a speech by Egyptian nationalist Mustafa Kamil. Though this song is perhaps hegemonic today (sung in every classroom at the start of the school day), formerly it was a song of resistance.

Biladi biladi (modern instrumental version) Choral versionText of Biladi Biladi

Biladi biladi (Sayed Darwish himself performing) (1920s?)

Egyptian government presentation of the song

Another famous patriotic song by Sayyid Darwish is Rise oh Egyptian! (Oum ya masri)Lyrics for Oum ya Masri Here's a version by Edmonton's own Dr. Amr Eid (Amr was an important bandleader, composer, and arranger in 1980s Egypt)

Shaykh Imam and Ahmed Fu'ad Negm

Imam Mohammad Ahmad Eissa or Sheikh Imam (1918-1995), raised in the singer-shaykh tradition, became Egypt's most well-known political singer after 1962. Collaborating with poet Ahmed Fu'ad Negm (d. 2013), he became renowned for singing on behalf of the poor and working classes.

Bio

Article


Songs and poetry of the duo were revived for the 2011 Revolution.

Mohamed Nuh

Madad: performed after the 1967 defeat, asking for help to rally Egypt once again; influence from Sufi music and theme: "madad")

Berber nationalism

  • Hamid Cheriet, aka Idir ("to live") (b. 1949 in Aït Lahcène, Algeria)is a Kabyle (Berber, Amazigh) singer from Algeria. His songs, gentle evocations of Kabyle folklore and sung in the Berber language, stir feeling for Berber identity. Idir is considered a global ambassador of Kabyle Berber culture.

A Vava Inouva(youtube) Lyrics for A Vava Inouva (1973)

Narratively, this remarkable song, with its folk-guitar style and complex metrical structure, draws upon storytelling traditions of Berber Kabylia, in the Algerian highlands. After its release in 1973 the song became exceedingly popular, not only in Algeria, where it served as an emotional emblem of Berber identity, but throughout Europe as well (and especially in France), illustrating the way music can agglomeratively accumulate meaning by association (particularly political meaning).

  • Lounes Matoub (1956 – 1998). Kabyle singer, outspoken confrontational advocate for Berber rights and Algerian secularism, opposing government policies of Arabization. Began singing under tutelage of Idir. Assassinated in 1998, whether by the regime or Islamists remains unclear. His song Allahu Akbar mocks the use of Islam to justify hegemony of the Arabic language.

Text for Allahu Akbar

Marcel Khalife

Musical activism, musical controversy

Marcel Khalife (b. 1950) is a Lebanese composer, oud virtuoso and singer specializing in the poetry of acclaimed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His music reinvents the Arab turath, uniquely combining old and new. Much of his output--though certainly not all--thus takes on a political cast, sometimes in explicit reference to the Palestinian cause, via musical style, poetry (especially that of Darwish) or his persona on the Arab nationalist left. At the same time, as a secular artist, he's become embroiled in controversy regarding references to religion (singing the Qur'an), and uninhibited artistic expression (accused of lewdness in Bahrain); the former case went to trial. Khalife was exonerated.

Collaborations with Mahmoud Darwish (see documentary film Voyageur). Examples:

Marcel Khalife's music and freedom of expression

Criticism from the left: politics of musical aesthetics (Colla, Elliott and Robert Blecher. (1996) A New World Order, a New Marcel Khalife. Middle East Report, No. 199, Turkey: Insolvent Ideologies, Fractured State. (Apr. - Jun., 1996), pp. 43-44.)

Other songs in support of Palestinian cause

Politics and Egyptian shaabi music

Shaabi music -- "popular" urban music -- tends to be only implicitly political, representing a street-wise populist viewpoint (on everything - from politics to daily life) in inexpensive recordings that sell, expressing opinions and complaints of the ordinary urban working class rather than any high-minded critique, directed to the practical more than the ideological but sometimes touching on government lines that have become embedded in popular culture.

Ahmed Adawiya was the original shaabi star of the 1970s; his songs contain implicit political messages in the guise of working class expressions of social critique, e.g. "Zahma" (Crowded world)

How crowded is the world
Crowded and friends lose their way
Crowded and merciless
A free-for-all
("moulid wa sahbu ghayib")

Shaaban Abdel Rahim became famous in the early 2000s as an ironer ("makwagi") whose stage presence and self-deprecating humor, together with clever lyrics, struck a campy chord with audiences. The real genius behind his singing is his lyricist, Islam Khalil. Songs attack Israel and the USA, but also strike closer to home, and some are merely humorous. He also recorded an advertisement for Macdonalds!

Obama

Drink Erdogan! (accusing the Turkish leader of creating ISIS, along with the USA and Qatar)


Political rap

Politics as Censorship

The Raqaba ala al-Musannafat al-Fanniyya (an administrative division of the Ministry of Culture): must authorize all music releases (text and music). But much of the "objectionable content" (mainly due to controversy over sexual content) is visual, and broadcast via satellite TV beyond the reach of government censors. Ironically governments profit from these channels, at arm's length (they rent the satellite bandwidth, but don't take direct responsibility for content). National terrestrial broadcasts tend to be more conservative. Lebanon (relatively liberal in the Arab world) has supplied much of the most provocative content.

Politics of pop culture: female singers, sex and music (Ruby, Haifa, Nancy)

Ruby (Egyptian) Ruby banned in Egypt

Haifa Wehbe (Lebanese)

Nancy Ajram (Lebanese)

Music of the New Arab Revolutions

Music played various roles in opposing state authority during the Arab Spring, critiquing power, supporting the opposition, and encouraging revolutions to unfold. In this experimental video project of the New Arab Revolutions I invited members of a Facebook group Songs of the New Arab Revolutions as well as members of the Society for Arab Music Research to contribute a short edited piece, around 5 minutes long, using any available video (the FB group collected much of it through crowd-sourcing). Ten contributions later we had a 50 minute documentary.

Watch the first piece, on the interesting relation between revolutionary singer Ramy Essam and the soccer Ultras in opposing state power. Others center on El Mastaba's role (Tanbura Ensemble) in Tahrir square.

Main of the old songs by Abdel Halim and Shaykh Imam were performed again, with new meanings (e.g. Sura sura). Here are more examples; for instance El General (hip hop) played an important role in the Tunisian uprising [2].

But state authorities were not oblivious to the power of song and sought to neutralize and even usurp its power. Like the national anthems, some productions were hegemonic. One of the most famous was the multi-artist Tislam al-Ayyadi (Bless the hands), in support of the Egyptian Army, seen as a savior after the chaos of democracy under Muhammad Morsi and the religious right of the Muslim Brothers. with English subtitles

Singers such as Ramy Essam -- along with graffiti artists and writers such as Ganzeer ("bicycle chain")-- have been silenced, if not jailed, and many have left

Compilation of revolutionary songs from around the Arab world, during and after the Arab Spring

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