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

Some concepts...

• oral tradition vs written tradition, mnemonics of scripts
• ethnomusicology and comparative musicology
• Hornbostel-Sachs system for classifying musical instruments
• concept of frequency ratios and musical intervals (e.g. an octave is 2:1)
• 'Microtones', 'quartertones' (see www.maqamworld.com), equal temperament, frequency ratios
• emic/etic distinction
• ethnocentrism
• Orientalism
• critique:
  • 'Arab' (people, music): who's an Arab? What counts as their music?
  • 'Music' (What counts as music? etic vs. emic definitions)

History of Arab music

• Role of Arab nationalism (since 19th c) in formulating "Arab music" as "al-musiqa al-arabiyya"
• Some historical overview...
  • Islamicate timelines and periods
  • The history of Islamicate music (as presented by Touma)
  • 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

Typology

Typology of Music of the Arab World

Films

• Umm Kulthum in Dananeer. Songs from the film: [1][2][3][4]
• An Art of Living (on Ziryab in Cordoba)