MofA Week 2

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Intro

  • Rast and Maqsum. Arab musical warm up! Melody and rhythm with nay and riqq accompaniment. (We'll try to do this daily - feel free to bring instruments!)
  • Concepts/practices of maqam and darb as well as instruments and forms; see also [1]

Some concepts...critiques

Critical concepts

  • emic (insider perspective) vs. etic ("objective" perspective) distinction (e.g.: "what is music?")
  • source vs. reference
  • ethnocentrism: viewing the world from a limited perspective of your own culture - and not recognizing that fact! The "ethnocentric" state is one that requires critique in order to move from SOURCE to REFERENCE.
  • Orientalism: closure and self-replication in discursive networks

Learning and hearing music

  • oral continuity vs written continuity; secondary orality & notation and mnemonic
  • Hornbostel-Sachs system for classifying musical instruments (try to find: nay, riqq, oud, qanun, tambur).
  • concept of frequency ratios and musical intervals (e.g. an octave is 2:1). We'll take this up next week, in the context of theoretical discourses about music.
  • 'Microtones', 'quartertones' (see www.maqamworld.com), equal temperament vs. frequency ratios

Studying music

  • As you may observe in your readings, there are multiple disciplinary approaches to our area of study: ethnomusicology (anthropology of music), comparative musicology (e.g. comparative music theory), non-western music history (e.g. Farmer and Sawa on Arab music history), music performance.

Continue critical introduction

"What is ethnomusicology of the Arab world?" (what is the Arab world? who is an Arab? what is Arab music?...)

  • Problematizing: Critique of "Music of the Arab World" (for Ethnomusicology of the Arab World).
  • Definitions (? Etic or Emic ?)
  • Question: we can always define "etic" musical categories - but to what extent do they cohere musically as "Arab music" or even "Music of the Arab world"?
  • Your turn: empirical investigations. Let's listen to some examples from the "Arab world". You write down the salient features and think about how these examples cohere (or don't). (audio and video recordings)

History of the word and concept "Arab"

  • Before trying to understand the evolving concept of "Arab" (or "Arab music") it is helpful to become familiar with Islamicate timelines and periods
  • First documented use of the word "Arab" is around 853 BC, by Akkadian speaking Mesopotamian outsiders in reference to people of the Arabian peninsula to their south, perhaps referring to the grassland "steppe" (Arabah) where these nomads dwelled. (see M. Rodinson, The Arabs, translated by A. Goldhammer, p. 13-14.)
  • Originally the more urban and sedentary south Arabians did not regard themselves as "Arabs", though later Muslim genealogy turned them into the "true" Arabs (Arab Ariba) originating with Qahtan, vs. the northerners, originating from Adnan (Arab Musta`riba). Ironically it is the latter who are the ancestors of Muhammad (via Abraham's son Ismail). See traditional genealogy of Adnan, vs. that of Qahtan.
  • First known use of the term "Arab" in Arabic language: not until 328 AD. So perhaps it was originally an outsider's term (like "Berber", "Gypsy").
  • Earliest Arabic texts date from the 6th century, immediately before Islam (Jahiliyya poetry).
  • Despite the importance of Islam in forging an Arab identity, pre-Islamic poetry retains tremendous importance. Generally poetry has always been central to defining "Arab culture". From pre-Islamic times, poetry was written in a variety of meters; the qasida form was central. Mufakhara (inter-tribal poetry compositions) gathered a nascent Arab polity, and the Mu'allaqat (Hanging Odes), continue to be regarded as an authentic cultural source for Arabic literature to the present. The most famous poet was 6th century Imru'lQays. See the Princeton Arabic poetry project, containing some of these poems. Prosody (`arud) and poetic meters (buhur, seas) were only formalized later by Al-Khalīl ibn Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī (d. 786). Listen to the 16 meters (buhur). See this talk for more.
  • Islam created an Arab nation in Arabia, where a plethora of oft-warring tribes speaking related dialects were united by adherence to Islam; the concept of "being Arab" became more explicit with conquests abroad, and dialectical differences probably lessened; Arabic of the Quraysh became most important.
  • Arab armies (especially under Caliph Umar) conquered surrounding areas as "Arabs" (in contrast to others) ruling an "Arab empire" (Umayyad), often living separately ("amsar"). But gradually they assimilated other cultures at the center (Medina, Damascus) and periphery, especially with Islamicization. A core domain of Islamic rule gradually shifted to Arabic. This became the central "Arab world" today.
  • The shift to Abbasid caliphate (and to Baghdad as capital) responded to second-class status of non-Arabs (mawali) and the shu`ubiyya (anti-Arab privilege) movement, and corresponded to an ethnic widening. Arabic remained crucial lingua franca, but many scholars, musicians, administrators didn't identify as "Arab", and Persian was also used. With influx of Turkic peoples, the empire was fragmented. As newer empires used other languages, they are thereafter better characterized as "Islamicate" and not "Arab". Yet Arab forms, like poetic meters, propagated to other Islamicate languages: Persian, Turkish, Urdu.
  • Eventually Arabic declined in the secular sphere beyond core areas where it was already entrenched, in favor of other languages (Turkish, Persian, Urdu).
  • Revivals of "Arab" (the nahda), concepts of "Arab nationalism" (al-qawmiyya al-`arabiyya) and "Arab world" began in the 19th century, as a response to colonialism.
  • Thus the overall pattern of "Arab":
  1. Warring Arab tribes in the pre-Islamic period, don't necessarily regard themselves as all "Arabs"
  2. Islam unifies these tribes and they conquer territory outside Arabia, conscious of ethnic Arab identity. Self-identification as "Arab" arises. Distance from local populations speaking other languages.
  3. Other populations begin to speak Arabic, but with Abbasids, there is a shift to Islamic rather than ethnic-Arab identity.
  4. With gradual breakup of Abbasid empire, other empires are established along other linguistic lines (Turkic, Berber, Persian, Urdu)
  5. Colonialism spurs renewed sense of Arabism in the 19th century in the form of Arab nahda (Renaissance) renewing culture, and then Arab Nationalism (opposed to Islamic revivalism) renewing political independence.
  6. Struggles for independence in Arabic-speaking territories during the 20th c are largely animated by sense of Arab identity, in opposition to Europe and later Israel
  7. More recently, failures (1967 defeat; Egypt's "betrayal" in 1979; first Gulf War 1990-91); plus rise of religious sectarianism, the new wave of Islamism, and fractured political allegiances has undermined Arab nationalism to a great extent from the mid 20th century to present.

Concepts of nation and region are applied to music - but which are most musically real? e.g. "Arab music" (vs. "Middle Eastern music", "Egyptian music", "Islamic music", etc.)

History of Arab music

Histories are always constructed. The construction is often as interesting as the history itself.

  • Nomenclature and relation to political forces - the course of "Arab" in relation to the development of "al-musiqa al-arabiyya" (Arab music)
    • Pre-Islamic music of Arabia: Beduin Huda and Nasb; urban music of the qayna (Sinad and Hazaj). Many qiyan became very famous.
    • Khulafa Rashidun and Umayyad periods 632-750 (before Greek influence during the Abbasid period): development of Ghina', inshad with influx of culture, people, and wealth from expanding empire.
    • Abbasid period: 750 - 1258 Formation of Arab Music of the east (mashriq), with Greek influence - introduction of terms Musiqa or Musiqi (term and theoretical perspectives, esp. Pythagoras, Aristoxenus). Great musicians such as "classicists" Ibrahim and Ishaq al-Mawsili, the latter's student (and rival) Ziryab, and Prince Ibrahim al-Mahdi, founder of a "new" Persian style.
    • Flowering of Andalus 711-1492: Formation of Arab Music of the west (maghrib), interaction with Europe. Ziryab, fleeing Baghdad, establishes new musical system at Cordoba. Later, expulsion of Islamicate culture from Spain led to formation of various North African musical styles: Andalusian (al-Ala, Gharnati, San`a, Ma'luf). See Map
    • Decline of "Arab" concept (Ibn Khaldun 1332-1406 held derogatory view of "Arab")
    • Modern colonial period and 19th century Arab nahda (renaissance) - multifaceted impact of Ottomans and Europeans
  • Historical overview...review the following pages:
  • Typology of Music of the Arab World today.

Films relating to the "Golden Ages" of Arab music

  • Abbasid Baghdad: Umm Kulthum stars in Dananeer (1940). Director: Ahmed Badrakhan
  • Songs from the film (texts by Ahmed Rami; music by the greatest Egyptian composers: Muhammad al-Qasabji, Zakaria Ahmed, Riyad al-Sunbati ):

Three ways of reading the film "Dananeer" (1940):

  1. as an (explicit) representation of 9th c Abbasid culture, considered the pinnacle of Arab civilizational greatness - including musical culture, and the story of a singing girl (qayna)'s journey from her humble Beduin tent to the Baghdad court of Caliph Harun al-Rashid (763-809). REFERENCE.
  2. as an (implicit) representation of Egyptian perceptions of "Arab history" in 1940 (upholding Arabism vs. Persians and other outsiders, focus on poetry and music, Arabian sources, Baghdad splendor...NB: Arab nationalism in the song while marching to Iraq) SOURCE.
  3. as an (implicit) representation of Egypt's new film music and music culture in 1940 (including Umm Kulthum's own journey from village to Cairo), as the revived Arab nationalism is flourishing in anticipation of independence. SOURCE.


What sorts of Arab music culture did you find in the film? (consider: musical style, transmission, famous personalities, musical roles, social life, urban/rural divide, ethnicity...)


  • An Art of Living (on Ziryab 789-857, a musician who trained under Ishaq al-Mawsili in Baghdad, then fled his master's jealousy to Cordoba)

El Mastaba and CSL

See:

Which band most interests you and why?