MofA Week 2: The history of Arab music & the construction of “Arab music” ("al-musiqa al-`arabiyya")

To do

• 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[1] and darb

• Notes:
  • Please don't sign out all the reserve readings at once!
  • You don't need to complete readings by Tuesday
  • Beware of Firefox.
  • Adjust jstor links when off campus

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!
• 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, lyre).
• 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?...)

• The history of the word "Arab" from earliest times to present.
  • First documented use of the word is around 853 BC, by Akkadian speaking outsiders, perhaps referring to the grassland "steppe" (Arabah) where these nomads dwelled.
  • Originally the sedentary south Arabians did not regard themselves as "Arabs", though later 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 the first Muslims.
  • First use of the term "Arab" in Arabic: 328 AD.
  • Earliest Arabic texts date from the 6th century, immediately before Islam (poetry).
  • In Arabia, a plethora of Arabic speaking tribes were united by Islam, and the concept of "being Arab" became more explicit.
  • 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.
  • The shift to Abbasid caliphate (and to Baghdad as capital) responded to second-class status of non-Arabs (mawali), and corresponded to an ethnic widening. Arabic remained crucial lingua franca, but many scholars, musicians, administrators didn't identify as "Arab". The empire was thereafter better characterized as "Islamicate".
  • Eventually Arabic declined in the secular sphere, 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.
• 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.)
• Critique of "Music of the Arab World" (for Ethnomusicology of the Arab World).
• Definitions?
• 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 Arab music

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

• Role of Arab nationalism (since 19th c) in formulating the concept of "Arab music" as "al-musiqa al-arabiyya"
• Historical overview...
  • Pre-Islamic types in the Arabian jahiliyya
    • the qayna as courtesan (like geisha?), in hana or royal palaces. Sinad (complex) and hazaj (simple) songs. Stringed instrument (lute?): mizhar, kiran, muwattar, or sanj. Wind instruments: quassab, mizmar; percussion: duff; jalajil.
    • Beduin song: huda' (camel driver's song) and nasb (individual rider's song)
  • Islamicate timelines and periods, and music
  • The history of Islamicate music (as presented by Touma, himself an Arab nationalist)
  • Critique of "Arab music" history
  • Outline of the history of music in the Arab world (as presented by me)
• What is an SC paper? - ex: Touma (critical reading & analysis, together...)
• Film: the celebrated pan-Arab singer Umm Kulthum plays the role of the famous Abbasid-era qayna, Dananeer, in the film Dananeer (1940).

Three ways of reading this film

1. as an (explicit) representation of 9th c Abbasid culture
2. as an (implicit) representation of Egyptian perceptions of "Arab history" in 1940
3. as an (implicit) representation of Egyptian film music in 1940

El Mastaba and CSL

See:

• CSL with El Mastaba, from the course outline.
• This wiki page, summarizing our CSL project, and including lots of media.
• More media, via eClass

Which band most interests you and why?

Typology

Typology of Music of the Arab World

Films

• Umm Kulthum in Dananeer. Songs from the film: [2][3][4][5]
• An Art of Living (on Ziryab in Cordoba)