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

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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!)

Some concepts...critiques

  • concept of frequency ratios and musical intervals (e.g. an octave is 2:1)
  • 'Microtones', 'quartertones' (see www.maqamworld.com), equal temperament, frequency ratios
  • oral continuity vs written continuity; secondary orality & notation and mnemonic
  • ethnomusicology (anthropology of music), comparative musicology (e.g. comparative music theory), non-western music history (e.g. Farmer and Sawa on Arab music history)
  • emic (insider perspective) vs etic ("objective" perspective) distinction (e.g.: "what is music?")
  • ethnocentrism
  • Orientalism: closure in discursive networks
  • 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 the "true" Arabs (Arab Ariba) from Qahtan, vs. the northerners from Adnan (Arab Musta`riba).
      • First use of the term in Arabic: 328 AD.
      • We only have Arabic texts from the 6th century.
      • "Arab world" and "Arab nationalism" are really 19th century ideas, stemming from Arab nationalism (al-qawmiyya al-`arabiyya)
    • 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
    • Definitions?
  • Your turn: empirical investigations regarding "Arab music" (audio and video recordings)

History of Arab music

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