Ethnomusicology of the Arab World (Fall 2010)

Ethnomusicology of the Arab World

Professor Michael Frishkopf

michaelf@ualberta.ca

Office hours: Wednesdays, 1 - 3 PM, 347 Old Arts (folkwaysAlive), or by appointment.

This course will survey music culture in the Arabic-speaking world, from the 7th century to the present. Historical and music theoretical approaches will be adopted, but the course will focus on musics of the present day in its socio-cultural context. The course will develop a critical stance towards Arab music, by contextualizing music designated as such within Arab nationalism from the 19th century onwards. We will examine localized musical dialects--urban and rural--characterizing societies and cultures from Morocco to the Gulf, as well as broader mediated forms, and music media, from phonodiscs to videoclips. The relations between music and language, and between music and Islam, will also be discussed. The concept of "Arab world" will be problematized and extended to the diasporic community.