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 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 "Arab music" as "al-musiqa al-arabiyya"
  • Historical overview...
  • 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:

Which band most interests you and why?

Typology

Typology of Music of the Arab World

Films