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| − | == '''Aesthetics, Folklorization, and the Production of Commercial Exoticism''' ==
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| − | == Introduction ==
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| − | How does exoticism promote the processes of folklorization and aesthetic selectivity? In his book, Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World, Timothy Taylor defines exoticism as “manifestations of an awareness of racial, ethnic, and cultural Others captured in sound” (2007, 2). In class, we examined how folklorization is the process through which music is separated from its context and is recontextualized through symbolism, ideologies, and commodification. I am interested to see how exoticism promotes folklorization, which is used as a marketing tool to make music appealing to a consumer. In order to answer my question, I plan to analyze the cover art and liner notes of several Smithsonian Folkways records as text to study how exoticism, folklorization, and aesthetic selectivity interplay.
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| − | Exoticism has long been studied by music scholars. In an article published by D.C. Parker in 1917, Parker states, “exoticism in music depends upon that urban cosmopolitanism, upon that urbanity of mind which alone can give us a perception of striking and unusual features” (134). I believe that this crucial statement continues to hold true. For exoticism to have its intended effect, the consumer must have enough of an understanding of the symbols and ideology that convey the exotic feeling of “Otherness” to be able to identify them and to respond to them (by actually understanding what they stand for or by responding to the feeling of “Otherness” that they convey), which then allows for these symbols and ideologies to be of value and commodified.
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| − | == Rabab: Singing and Epic Songs ==
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| − | The first record that I am looking at is called [http://java.classical.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/liner/415ecd57e8b041546b41b9c96a00cf12/FW08452.pdf Rabab: Singing and Epic Songs]. The record was produced in 1982. The liner notes, written by Alain Weber, for this record are particularly interesting. It begins with a background that claims that the rabab has not changed since Gustave Flaubert encountered it during the 19th century; the notes then describe common performance settings for the rabab, including Egyptian terminology for some words including raïs, who is the lead singer or soloist.
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| − | The notes then describe the “raïs” of the first track as originating from a “small village south of Luxor on the oriental bank of the Nile river, the boarder between the cultivated land and the desert.” By situating the singer as an individual from an “oriental bank” and a land between the two knowns of cultivated land and desert, the author of the liner notes establishes a mysterious, “oriental” landscape that would be seemingly inaccessible to the listener without the aid of the record. I also believe that the idea of the singer originating from a small village from this mysterious land, however, empowers the listener into believing that this land between the divisions of cultivated land and desert is not too foreboding. Taylor, in his discussion of the European fascination with orientalism in his book provides quotes by Edward Said that are useful in explaining how orientalism provides the tools that the listener needs to feel empowered:
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| − | “‘By and large,’ Edward Said writes in Orientalism, ‘only Arab and Islamic Orient presented Europe with an unresolved challenge on the political, intellectual, and for a time, economic levels.’…Said uses ‘orientalism’ to denote not only a topic of study but also ‘that collection of dreams, images, and vocabularies available to anyone who has tried to talk about what lies east of the dividing line’ (2007, 51).
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| − | The second side of the record presents a different kind of “Otherness.” It begins by telling the tale of Abu Zeid El Hilali, a folkloric hero, from the early 6th century, whose epic story is sung as a poem on the record. The liner notes tell the tale of the hero, provide an English translation to the poem that is sung on the record, and also provide the poem in Arabic script. Thus, the liner notes educate the listener with background information with which the listener can, as part of the listening experience, insightfully deconstruct the poetry that is being sung; I believe that this allows the listener to appropriate their own experience of the poetry to some degree, as well as exoticizes the poetry through the use of a folkloric ideology that is explained by a Western author. The presence of the Arabic script, which serves as a symbol of exoticism in this case, maintains a feeling of “Otherness”; hence, the meaning of the text becomes interchanged through the use of symbolism. In her article, Colloquial Arabic Poetry, Politics, and the Press in Modern Egypt, Marilyn Booth discusses how the popularization of dialect poetry can signify interchange and appropriation. She states,
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| − | “zajal and related forms of dialect poetry exemplify how texts seen in isolation as part of something labeled and separated off as “the popular” can in fact signify interchange and appropriation. Encompassing in a range of practices on cultural terrain perceived by the educated as “different,” “opposed,” and/or “inferior,” zajal has yet appealed to the educated even as they sought to contain it. And if the strong hostility that dialect’s very existence can arouse in the Arab world—an attitude shaped by a complex mix of political, religious, and social factors—mean that dialect literature in Arabic has tended to keep an a priori distance from that which is represented by and in fush? (“elite culture,” “the literature,” “learned forms”) the distance kept has not necessarily been an oppositional one” (1992, 421).
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| − | I believe that this discussion of zajal applies to what I see happening with the epic poem that is included on this record. Through the justification that the poem is of a popular folkloric tale, the producers of this record, who are marketing the product towards individuals that would be educated/elite members of society in the United States, have appropriated and interchanged their own meaning to it through the use of symbolism and ideology.
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| − | == Music of Upper Egypt ==
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| − | A similar case can be seen occurring in an album called [http://java.classical.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/liner/d87bba197726770a12b73ebf93277f1a/FW08512.pdf Music of Upper-Egypt]. The liner notes, also written by Alain Weber, state,
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| − | “Egyptian popular music, with its traditional transmitted character, reveals old musical forms which go back to the Djâhilîya (pré-Islamic period). In fact, Arab music, before it was inspired by the rich Persian or Greek cultures, drew its dreams and rhythms from the old chant of the desert, itself for a great time determined by the moving step of the Bedouin mounts. Only later on, when the Arabic world reached some stability, could it then find its true identity through a cultural influence which grew unceasingly and lead to a true synthesis of the musical styles that belonged to the different conquered countries.”
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| − | The educated elite, who in this case are the producers of the record, have determined that it was not until “stability” was reached in the Arab world that it was able to find its own identity through cultural influence. Thus, according to the liner notes, the popular remained inferior and different until political, social, and religious factors, which had previously kept popular music at a distance (just as observed by Booth in the case of zajal) were able to construct “a cultural influence” that would be considered “stable.”
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| − | The fascination with collecting exoticized sounds, poetry, and cultural symbols such as folklore, which signifies “Otherness,” has some folkloric underpinnings itself. What is it about the actual process of collecting and its presentation that motivates the producer to create a particular product and how does this affect the consumer? In the case of collecting information about individual lives, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett says, “What ethnography is to the anthropologist, the collection is to the folklorist” (1989, 132).
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| − | == Folk Music of the Mediterranean ==
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| − | A fascinating record for the exploration of this question is [http://java.classical.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/liner/c2bccdbea9230f4f81afc56de764ec4a/FW04501.pdf Folk Music of the Mediterranean]. With a copyright date of 1953, it was released a generation earlier than the previous examples, and it provides an interesting collection and presentation of the musics of fifteen different countries. The musical selection and liner notes are by Henry Cowell. He in an interesting figure, who is well-discussed in Taylor’s book Beyond Exoticism. Cowell, a composer, was a pioneer in American experimental music, according to Taylor. In addition, Cowell was influenced by nonwestern musics and studied with the ethnomusicologist Charles Seeger. Cowell’s work and insights on music are worth being noted, because they provide an understanding on how he was situated and of musical ideologies at the time when this record and its liner notes would have been produced. According to Taylor, Cowell actually envisioned a new kind of music to counter neoclassicism. Taylor states,
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| − | “The new kind of music that Cowell envisioned was ‘not an attempt to imitate primitive music, but rather to draw on those materials common to the music of all the people of the world, to build a new music particularly related to our own century.’ Cowell writes that ‘the music of various tribes is as different as the music of the carious cultivated nations’ and proceeds to give a long list of different cultures and their musical traditions, at the end of which he writes that ‘this list could of course be extended indefinitely; it is given here to dispel the idea of uniformity’ among so-called primitive musics” (2007, 106).
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| − | The cover art of the album features a pink and purple mosaic design of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean-style architecture. The liner notes begin with the following sentence: “The Mediterranean are has divulged more of the secrets of ancient music than any other region in the world.” In this example, the dividing line to denote exoticism, as suggested by Said, is not necessarily geographical but delineated by time. The dividing line points to cultures with “ancient” culture whose memories can be conjured to present “that collection of dreams, images, and vocabularies” that Said refers to. The notes continue with a lengthy discussion of the Mediterranean area, which includes the topics of religion, time, geography, instrumentation, and explanation on how different areas influenced each other musically.
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| − | In this discussion, the notion of primitivism is raised. It establishes a geographical sense of “Otherness” within Europe through the discussion of the orthodox church musics of Eastern Europe, as a musical style that mixed with the existing “primitive music” of those regions. How is it that a people or culture becomes classified as primitive? The perception of a static culture is perhaps one of the ways that a culture retains the classification of being considered “primitive.” The liner notes state, “The folk music and even the somewhat primitive music still performed in the Mediterranean countries preserve far more than modern cultivated music the stylistic elements of the old Mediterranean cultures.”
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| − | After the long introduction on the Mediterranean area, the notes on the tracks themselves identify each track by geographical region and provide observations that further the notion of “Otherness” through a sense of primitivism. For example, the first track, from Syria, is described as,
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| − | “…a tenor who preserves many Near East vocal traditions. The expressive outpouring of the voice is Hebraic; there are graces (mordants) and trills from old Egypt, “bleats” (of the greatest delicacy) characteristic of old Armenia and Asia Minor in general, yodeling glottal trills in a minor third of Persian culture, and on the very first note a swell, in and out, a part of Muezzuen Moselem tradition…”
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| − | Not all of the music is described in this way. The eighth track of the record, of Spanish origin, is discussed in terms of “bars, broken chords, and fingered melodies,” and a chordal analysis of the track provided; therefore, it is a given a proper musical analysis, by Western art music standards, rather than being described through the sounds that are heard by author of the liner notes. A folk tune within the track, “The Four Insurgent Generals” is identified, and it is identified as having become popular during the Spanish Civil War. The style of the liner notes describing these tracks varies widely from track to track; however, I do not find any kind of major patterns, or emerging stereotypes, on how various cultures are represented. It seems as if the author had knowledge about the song and/or the practices surrounding it, it was provided. In the notes for the tracks for which this information does not seem available, the sounds, rhythms, and/or general patterns of the sound are described. If the track appears to sound more “foreign,” the sound is described in more detail.
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| − | Up to this point, I have only examined records where the actual collection of songs is of importance, rather than the individuals involved; thereby, I find that the individuals involved lose their identity to the producer, for whom the identity of the consumer becomes of integral importance in order to market records. Therefore, I am also interested in looking at records from the same area of the world that do feature a particular musician to compare the level of exoticism as the ones that I previously discussed.
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| − | == Classical Arabic Music ==
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| − | A [http://java.classical.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/liner/b1418812c8de2f7a590dee2b3ad71f24/FW08818.pdf Recital of Classical Arabic Music], copyrighted in 1976, features “Afif Bulos and His Ensemble.” The introduction to this record is remarkably different; it establishes Arab music as having an art song tradition that dates back to at least the twelfth century. While they do make mention of the folk song tradition, the introductory liner notes focus on the muwashahat, discussing its Spanish origins and the influence of Sayyid Darwish. In addition, the muwashah is introduced and established as “Lied” of Arab vocal music.
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| − | Each track is introduced by title and/or genre and performers. The liner notes include English translations by Afif Bulos, Arabic script of the lyrics, and even a musical transcription in Western notation. Whereas the liner notes for the previous three records where written by American composers Alain Weber and Henry Cowell, the author of these notes is not clearly stated, although they do seem to be heavily influenced by an individual with a large amount of knowledge about the repertoire, presumably Bulos. This album seems to be marketed towards art music connoisseurs who are learned enough to be explore new types of art music. In this situation, the concept of art music itself is exoticized and treated as exclusive “Other.”
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| − | At the end of the liner notes, a biography of Afif Bulos is presented. It appears that he recorded the album during his sabbatical year at Princeton University, on a Fulbright, while researching American literature and writing a novel. Although he is a professor of English in Beirut, Bulos has a diploma from the Royal College of Music and maintains a career as a musician and music scholar.
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| − | == Bedouin Music of Southern Sinai ==
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| − | An album produced only two years later, [http://java.classical.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/liner/1fd8ba5f7b017ed8aa72288df7f0b3ae/FW04204.pdf Bedouin Music of Southern Sinai], presents a completely different image of Arab culture. The recording and notes are written by Dr. Amnon Shiloah. Although the cover image provides a romanticized view of the desert, the actual album is well-presented, and Shiloah himself actually analyzes many of the folkloric symbols of Bedouin culture that are featured in the album, while sometimes creating descriptive, symbolic imagery of his own that further exoticizes the music and poetry that is presented. For example, he states, “In the sophisticated Bedouin poetry of the kasida type one find [sic] a great variety of symbols, images and values. Almost every tribe has a poet of its own who is like a walking book of memories.”
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| − | In his writing in Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-Cultural Study, a work that I am familiar with but that was published seventeen years after he wrote the liner notes, Shiloah includes a short chapter on folk music. In the chapter, he examines different types of folk music including work, narrative, and didactic, and he considers the performers (including gender roles), song forms (strophic and non-strophic), the relation between text and melody, and the use of instruments. Essentially, Shiloah highlights “salient traits and distinctive particularities” on folk music within the chapter (1995, 154 – 155). The portions of the liner notes that discuss the poetry and the repertoire heard in the track resembles the kind of work that Shiloah presents in the folk music chapter of his book; however, the music is contextualized within the Arab world, which allows for a comparison of different styles, geographical origins, performance practices, and performance contexts. This analysis is similar to the work his book, where Shiloah approaches ethnic issues within the Arab world through diverse contexts, leading to the category of Islamicate. This category allows for historical material that he presents within the book to become a functional mass, with possibilities for analysis through the utilization of concepts such as Great and Little Traditions (1995, 19), Arabization (21), Arab influences on other musics (78 – 83), and discussions of Arabic music influence in various time periods and geographical locations (88 – 103). A similar effect results within the liner notes through the comparative style in which the liner notes are presented.
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| − | Finally, the notes introduce the individual tracks, as well as “aims at giving some insight into the most important aspect of the musical repertory of the Southern Sinai Bedouin, from the functional archaic songs and dances to the transformed hits and popular tunes of the fisherman.” The settings for each song, instrumentation, and descriptions (which sometimes include musical transcription) round out the most informative set of liner notes that I encountered thus far in my research for this paper. The six pages of liner notes read as a textbook at times and are extremely informative.
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| − | Rather than exoticizing the folk music that is encountered within the record, the liner notes aim to explain how the process of folklorization has occurred within this particular music. I believe that the insight of an insider, who has a developed understanding of the area that the songs are from, aids in the demystification of the music and its people. However, the explanations of Bedouin symbols and ideology that have been provided would be attractive to a learned music listener. In this case, the notes themselves become an exotic commodity for a cosmopolitan consumer. I refer to the kind of consumer that enjoys learning about the music that he or she is listening to, such as the individuals that purchase Western art music biographies at the local chain bookstore or who enjoy reading the program notes that are included in Western classical music concert programs, having such detailed liner notes, such as the ones written by Shiloah, provide an ideally interactive experience with the music.
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| − | == Coptic Music ==
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| − | Finally, I am looking at a record of Coptic music titled, appropriately enough, [http://java.classical.com.login.ezproxy.library.ualberta.ca/liner/105a93c4258820d96d5f8f10bf408529/FW08960.pdf Coptic Music]. The presentation of this record is again quite different from the five other examples that I have so far studied. The cover art is pattern of symbols and drawings that include ancient-looking individuals, animals, and objects. Since the historical section of the liner notes begins with the sentence, “The Copts are the Christians of Egypt whose evangelization is shrouded in the mist of great antiquity,” one might conclude that the cover is meant to conjure the images of ancient Egypt. I believe that this reference to ancient Egypt denotes an “Otherness” that must be denoted, despite the Christianity of the individuals whose music is featured in the album.
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| − | Taylor, in the pages of his book that discuss European ideas on primitivism, identifies, through the work of Roxann Wheeler, that Christianity was, at one point, “the dominant lens through which other people were viewed, race was less of an issue than it later became in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries” (2007, 44). All of this changed, however, when the “Others” were Christian; new exoticized differentiations were made. While these are discussed by Taylor in terms of the Christians who became converted during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, I think that they also apply to the issues of “Otherness” and Christianity as they are represented on the cover of Coptic Music. Taylor states,
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| − | “There was a problem with accepting the nonwestern Other as a Christian, however. Once these Others were Christianized, then what? And the term “Christian” changed over the course of the eighteenth century, no longer used to refer only to Europeans. The term thus declined over the eighteenth century in favor of terms such as ‘free’ and white’” (48).
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| − | The notes themselves, written by Aziz S. Atiya (who, according to the liner notes, is the President of the Institute of Coptic Studies), begin with a lengthy historical introduction, which includes mentions to “primitive Christianity” when discussing the impact of Coptic thought and the use of instrumentation in Coptic music. The notes also establish an ancient setting as the context through which to listen to the music; the liner notes state, “In order to appreciate that music, we have to envision ourselves in the Coptic Cathedral of St. Mark or one of the earlier fourth or fifth century churches of Old Cairo.” This section of the notes leads into a discussion of the rituals and the music of the Church, as well as attempts to properly record the music during the early 20th century and leading into the founding of the Institute of Coptic Studies. The description of the tracks include the liturgy in Coptic, Coptic transliterated into English, English translations, and photos and designs, some of which are recognizable as the Coptic Orthodox Cross.
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| − | In the case of Coptic Music, I believe that the songs have retained the meaning and culture that they have within the actual culture that they are taken from, based on the history provided and my own understanding of the Coptic Church from the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music article by Martha Roy; however, the presentation of the information has highlighted the “ancient” and “primitive” nature of the Coptic Church, which establishes its traditions as an “Other” when compared to Western European Christianity. With additional emphasis having been placed on the preservation of the music and various traditions, juxtaposed with the authority of the liner notes writer and the scholars that contributed to the recording of Coptic traditions, this album is situated to appeal to a variety of audiences, including those that are interested in Christianity, church music, ancient cultures, and Western art music.
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| − | == Conclusions ==
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| − | What are some conclusions that can be made based on the analysis of the liner notes of these six albums? At the beginning of his article, “Music Aesthetics in Present-Day Cairo,” Racy states that there are “four aesthetic criteria that contribute to the acceptability of music within a particular culture.” These four criteria are “conformity to established tradition, artistic creativity, innovation and modernity, and the cultivation of individual and distinctive musical traits.” After having examined all six of the albums that I selected to survey for this paper, I think that the liner notes demonstrate an attempt to conform to these criteria. Although exoticism is frequently encountered, and folklorization is used as a tool through which exoticism is promoted, the aesthetic selectivity of the consumers to whom these records are marketed are an integral component of finished product.
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| − | In some cases, such as the album Folk Music of the Mediterranean, the artistic creativity and innovation within the album is the collection itself that emerges to paint a romanticized view of the Mediterranean, its music, and its people. With a combination of people and culture that the consumer might be familiar with, such as the European nations of France and Italy as well as more indigenous and less accessible musics and cultures (both of which are interspersed with folkloric tales), the free association that results provides the consumer the power to interpret the record according to his or her own aesthetic preferences. Ruth Hellier-Tinoco discusses this particular situation in her article “Power Needs Names: Hegemony, Folklorization, and the Viejietos Dance of Michoacan, Mexico.” She states,
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| − | “In Mexico there is an indexical correlation between ‘folklore’ and ‘indigenous peoples.’ Such classification and classificatory processes are part of a complex web of power relations in which there is a romantic valorization of artistic practice of the diverse peoples labeled as ‘indigenous,’ while the people themselves continue to live in marginalized and repressed situations. The predominance of a romantic, idealistic, ‘folkloric’ image of such peoples is diffused and perpetuated through the use of music and dance as tools of control” (2005, 48).
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| − | While I do not know enough about the individuals whose music is featured in the record Folk Music of the Mediterranean, the presentation of the record points to the situation that Hellier-Tinoco talks about.
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| − | It is sometimes difficult to make assumptions, however, because in some cases exoticism and orientalism have been used as tools by the people of cultures often considered to be the “Other” to promote their art forms, individual creativity, and even tourism. For example, Uday Shankar, older brother of the well-known sitar player Ravi Shankar, forged a dance career, without classical training, by strategically situated himself as an exotic and oriental commodity, starting from his teenage years in London and throughout his life. Therefore, I wonder if in some cases the cultures represented by these records might have willingly participated in the production of these records for the purposes of promoting themselves and their communities.
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| − | Kirshenblatt-Gimblett suggests, in the case of collecting folklore materials to create biographies, that information needs to be contextualized within its own parameters (1989, 133). I believe that the same applies to folk songs and their presentation. In some cases, this has been done in the Folkways records that I have looked at. Although the albums featuring the work of Afif Bulos and Amnon Shiloah are the best examples of music contextualized within its own parameters, I do not mean to imply that the presence of a cultural insider is necessary for the proper representation of cultural art forms. On the contrary, I would like to argue that the situation is far more complex because meeting the needs of the producers and the consumers of these records, as well promoting the aesthetic selectivities of the musical culture being presented and being marketed to, presents a complex situation whereby it seems nearly impossible to meet the needs, and perceived authenticities, of all of the music and people involved.
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| − | == Other Possibilities ==
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| − | The kind of dialogue that these issues provoke have been part of the process negotiating of representation of music and culture of a number of populations: diasporas, racial groups, gendered groups, etc. Hybridity has long been used a concept through which to describe the creation of a new cultural object that meets that needs of different forces acting together (Taylor 2007, 154); however, I firmly believe, based on the work that I completed during my master’s thesis about the transmission of Hindustani music in diasporic settings, that such a viewpoint polarizes one to ultimately judge the value and/or quantify of the various forces at play. In the case of the records that have been studied in this paper, such an argument would catapult one back to basic arguments about insider vs. outsider authority, authenticity, etc. The notion of a “third space” is cited by Taylor as a solution, through the work of Homi K. Bhabha,
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| − | “The third space recognizes the constant flux of cultural production and people and social formations, while at the same time retaining the potential for redressing imbalances of power relations, for forging distant and local affinities, for giving voice to political stances that oppose racism and other forms of discrimination. The third space concept recognizes the transitoriness of all these possibilities, but attempts never to lose sight of them” (2007, 160).
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| − | I wonder if the idea of a third space should be utilized by individuals, such as myself that are attempting to go back and analyze historical materials that might have, at the time, been part of a groundbreaking interpretation of music. For example, what if Folk Music of the Mediterranean, and its accompanying liner notes were to be re-evaluated according to the work that Henry Cowell was producing in his response to neoclassicism and the attempt to see “primitive musics” as being just as complex as those that were considered to be cultural superior at the time?
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| − | In this case, the strategic inclusion of the music of Western European countries, that the listener would already be familiar with, could possibly be seen as an equalizing tool through which the juxtaposition of “bleats” from Syria and a version of “The Four Insurgent Generals” from Spain could be seen as a way to denote an equal complexity between both types of music. At the beginning of my explorations for this paper, I was convinced that I would find only negative examples of exoticism, particularly after having read about Syrian “bleats,” despite my understanding of how individuals such as Uday Shankar have used exoticism as a strategically essential tool. Now, I am beginning to realize that in order to meet the needs of aesthetically selective needs of the producer, the music that is being produced, and the consumer, exoticism can be employed as a means of promotion for all of the entities involved, including the culture that is being exoticized. Exoticism, as I have seen it, is highlighting the aspects of the commodified culture in a manner that would be aesthetically pleasing to the consumer culture. By studying exoticism as a more complex concept, situating the actors and the vantage involved, and problematizing the concepts that are being utilized, I believe that exoticism can be used as powerful point of departure for continuing dialogue on issues regarding aesthetics and power relationships in intercultural situations.
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| − | == Works Cited ==
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| − | Atiya, Aziz Suryal. 1960. Coptic Music. New York: Folkways Records.
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| − | Banerji, Projesh. 1982. Uday Shankar and His Art. Delhi: D.R. Publishing Corporation.
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| − | Booth, Marilyn. 1992. Colloquial Arabic Poetry, Politics, and the Press in Modern Egypt. International Journal of Middle East Studies 24 (3): 419 – 490.
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| − | Bulos, Afif. 1976. Classic Arabic Music: A Recital of Muwashahat. New York: Folkways Records.
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| − | Cowell, Henry. 1952. Folk Music of the Mediterranean. New York: Folkways Records.
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| − | Hellier-Tinoco, Ruth. 2005. Power Needs Names: Hegemony, Folklorization, and the Viejietos Dance of Michoacan, Mexico. In Music, Power, and Politics, ed. Annie J. Randall. New York: Routledge.
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| − | Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1989. Authoring Lives. Journal of Folklore Research 26: 123 – 49.
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| − | Parker, D.C. 1917. Exoticism in Music in Retrospect. The Musical Quarterly 3 (1): 134 – 161.
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| − | Racy, Ali Jihad. 1982. Music Aesthetics in Present-Day Cairo. Ethnomusicology 26 (3): 391 – 406.
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| − | Roy, Martha 1998. The Coptic Orthodox Church and Its Music. In Volume 6: The Middle East, Ed. by Virginia Danielson, Scott Marcus and Dwight Reynolds. New York: Garland.
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| − | Shiloah, Amnon. 1978. Bedouin Music of Southern Sinai. New York: Folkways Records.
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| − | Shiloah, Amnon. 1995. Music in the World of Islam: A Socio-Cultural Study. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
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| − | Taylor, Timothy D. 2007. Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham: Duke University Press.
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| − | Weber, Alain. 1979. Music of Upper Egypt: Played on the Rababa, Mizar, Arghul and Darabuka. New York: Folkways Records.
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| − | Weber, Alain. 1982. Singing and Epic Songs. New York: Folkways Records.
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