MofA Week 9

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OVERVIEW: Unity and Diversity in Music of the Arab World: "Arab Music" and "other music"...with a segue into POLITICS.

  • In a sense the entire history of "Arab music" as well as "Music of the Arab World" is a political history - music has always been shaped by politics, it inevitably reflects politics, and sometimes it carries explicit political messaging.
  • Music in the Middle East and North Africa region was always diverse, if connected by movements of people, ideas, and material culture
  • In the past, large Arabic-speaking empires (starting with the dawn of Islam) defined "Arab music" ...for the future (i.e. late 19th century)
  • During the period (roughly 13th to 19th centuries) when political powers were not Arabic speaking, authors such as Touma speak of a "decline" (inhitat)
  • In the 19th century European colonialism and Ottoman oppression also awakened nationalism, newly defined by language boundaries. "Arab nationalism" emerged as a concept.
  • At the same time rulers like Khedive Ismail revived artistic patronage in an Arabic-speaking context. But unlike the days of the Abbasid Khalifa, performances started to be held in public spaces, like the Ezbekiyya gardens.
  • The old "art music" tradition of the courts was taken up as "Arab music", despite what must have been considerable musical diversity (with region, class, ethnicity)
  • Technology helped accelerate spread of "common knowledge" and a sense of common identity among Arabic speakers, starting with the printing press, then audio recording, radio, film, TV...
  • At this point, the older music, with roots in the pre-media age, acquired a special significance, labeled as "turath" (heritage), as it was the first to be recorded.
  • The concept of "Arab music" was underscored by the 1932 Arab Music conference, and later by independence of most Arabic-speaking areas in the 50s and 60s.
  • Prior to independence limited media tended to produce an emergent concept and reality of "Arab music"
  • Later "Arab music" was reinforced by political factors, "top down" as a technology of nationalism, especially when the state controlled arts organizations, funding, and media.
  • Egypt--as the most populous country, the ideological leader, and the primary music producer--dominated through the 1960s.
  • But independence and local terrestrial media meant that different countries could also promote their own conceptions of "Arab music" (Moroccan Ala, Egyptian muwashshah, Iraqi maqam, Gulf sawt...) leading to a splitting.
  • Later statist economies relinquished control over culture and media somewhat, opening a space for private music companies to move in - with variable effect not just on music but on society and identity.
    • Cassettes further localized production
    • Satellite TV renewed a sense of emergent pan-Arabism
    • The impact of media capitalism could thus be variable, depending its interaction with political power/ideology, and pursuit of profit.
  • Overview of pan-Arab music networks
  • On the ground, diversity persisted as it always had (Kurdish, Berber, Christian, and other musics), but in the last few decades much of it has also entered the mediascape:
    • Coptic TV channels
    • Berber nationalism
    • Gnawa

See Week 9.


Clearly politics played a large role in shaping both musical concepts and musical reality throughout history. Politics is especially prominent at the margins, where conditions of disempowerment typically prevail.


Music and politics:

  • Politics OF music: music as the object of power relations, direct or indirect (e.g. mediated by the media, themselves subject to politics)
  • Politics IN music: "political music", music as a source or representation of power, whether oppositional or hegemonic.

Examples:

  • Politics OF music: Muhammad Fawzy and the nationalization of his beloved Misrphone, to become SonoCairo (Sawt al-Qahira), with nationalization of early 60s.
  • Politics OF music: transformations to the media system as Egypt moved to a more capitalist system in the 1970s, shifting from Soviet to US orientation.
  • Politics IN music: Patriotic music (hegemonic)....Sheikh Imam, Music of the New Arab Revolutions (protest music) [1]
  • Politics OF/IN music: The music of Marcel Khalife : protest and controversy

YOUR EXAMPLES PLEASE! find examples of Arab music videos containing political messaging or shaped by politics, and list them here for discussion on Thursday.


Gnawa

[2]

Kurds

Map of Kurdish lands

Kurdish language family


some famous Kurdish songs (lyrics and music)

Kurdish music on YouTube

Berbers

Map of Berber lands

Berber language family

[0]=Search&fnew=0&sbid=-1&fp1[0]=berber Berber tracks on Smithsonian Folkways (hear: The Bride, The Sad Exile, Alone, The Death of a Hero)

Liner notes for SF Berber album

Berber music on YouTube

Berber Kabyle outdoor folk style

Important Algerian Berber popular singers:

  • Idir (b. 1949 in Aït Lahcène, Algeria). First album "A Vava inouva" came out in 1976, eponymous song "A Vava inouva" was translated into seven languages.
  • Lounis Aït Menguellet (b. 1950 in Ighil Bouammas near Tizi-Ouzou) is a Berber singer from Kabylie, Algeria, who sings in the Berber language, Kabyle. Lounis Aït Menguellet is one of the most popular and charismatic artists of the contemporary Kabyle music scene. Here's one of his songs.


Goodman, Jane E. (1998) Singers, Saints, and the Construction of Postcolonial Subjectivities in Algeria. Ethos, Vol. 26, No. 2, Communicating Multiple Identities in Muslim Communities, pp. 204-228.

Moroccan Jews in Israel

(an Arab-Jewish minority)

Seroussi, Edwin (1986) Politics, Ethnic Identity, and Music in Israel: The Case of the Moroccan Bakkashot. Asian Music, Vol. 17, No. 2, Music in the Ethnic Communities of Israel. (Spring - Summer, 1986), pp. 32-45. (Katrina Campos will present.)

Nubians

Armenians

Map of Nubian lands

Nubian language family