From Galilee Villages to the Mountains of Al-Sham: Local and Regional Musical Networks among Palestinian Arab Wedding Musicians in Northern Israel

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 69-92
Author(s):  
ABIGAIL WOOD ◽  
TAISEER ELIAS ◽  
LOAB HAMMOUD ◽  
JIRYIS MURKUS BALLAN
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Palestinian Arab ◽  
Palestinian Nationalism ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Musical Networks

AbstractBased on recent ethnographic work, we explore the ways in which transnational cosmopolitan music crosses, creates, and reinscribes borders as it is performed by Palestinian Arab wedding musicians in northern Israel. While Palestinian nationalism and the hard political borders between Israel and its neighbouring states frame immediate questions of identity and mobility, in describing their musical practices, musicians turn to a complex, interleaved series of geographies that highlight past and contemporary processes of musical flow. On one hand, they foreground the continuing relevance of the historic al-Sham region as an area of shared musical practice, identifying with the jabali (“mountain”) musical style of the elevated region that marks the borderlands between today’s Lebanon, Syria, and Israel. On the other hand, they embed this regional style within a series of micro- and macro-geographies, from detailed knowledge of the subtle differences in tempo and style between neighbouring Galilee villages to connections with the wider Arabic-speaking world via old and new media. While recent research on music in the Middle East has often foregrounded the role of music in constructing and reinforcing national identities, this research illustrates how transnational flows continue to shape the experience and imagination of musical borderlands in the region.

scholarly journals MUSIC THEORY AT WORK: THE ETON CHOIRBOOK, RHYTHMIC PROPORTIONS AND MUSICAL NETWORKS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 141-182
Author(s):  
Anne Heminger
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
Eton College ◽  
Musical Networks ◽  
College Library

Whilst scholars often rely on a close reading of the score to understand English musical style at the turn of the fifteenth century, a study of the compositional techniques composers were taught provides complementary evidence of how and why specific stylistic traits came to dominate this repertory. This essay examines the relationship between practical and theoretical sources in late medieval England, demonstrating a link between the writings of two Oxford-educated musicians, John Tucke and John Dygon, and the polyphonic repertory of the Eton Choirbook (Eton College Library, MS 178), compiled c. 1500–4. Select case studies from this manuscript suggest that compositional and notational solutions adopted at the turn of the fifteenth century, having to do particularly with metrical proportions, echo music-theoretical concepts elucidated by Tucke and Dygon. These findings impinge upon the current debate concerning the presence of a network between educational institutions in the south-east of England during this period.

Jewish Identities in the Arab Middle East: The Case of Egypt in Retrospect

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-596
Author(s):  
Rami Ginat
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Diverse ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
Anti Semitism ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Historical Past ◽  
Generation Offspring

Much work has been done in recent decades on the histories of the Jews of Arab lands across a variety of time periods, reflecting an increasing interest in the historical past of the Jews of the “Orient.” While diverse, this literature may be divided into several general groups. The first comprises studies written by Western and Israeli scholars and encompasses a broad spectrum of Arabic-speaking countries. This literature has explored, among other things, issues relating to the way of life and administration of ethnically and culturally diverse Jewish communities, their approaches to Zionism and the question of their national identities, their positions regarding the Zionist–Israeli–Arab conflict in its various phases, and the phenomena of anti-Semitism, particularly in light of the increasing escalation of the conflict. It includes works by Israeli intellectuals of Mizrahi heritage, some of whom came together in the late 1990s in a sociopolitical dissident movement known as the Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow Coalition. The target audience of this movement was Mizrahi Jews: refugees and emigrants from Arab countries as well as their second- and third-generation offspring. The movement, which was not ideologically homogeneous (particularly regarding approaches to the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict), took a postcolonialist approach to the Zionist narrative and enterprise, and was critical of the entrenchment of the Ashkenazi (European-extraction) Jews among the elites of the emerging Israeli society. The movement had scant success in reaching its target population: the majority of Mizrahi/Sephardi Jews living in Israel. Nevertheless, it brought to the fore the historical socioeconomic injustices that many Jews from Arab countries had experienced since arriving in Israel, whether reluctantly or acquiescently.

scholarly journals Palestinian dialects and identities shifting across physical and virtual borders

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Uri Horesh
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Political Borders ◽  
Linguistic Practices ◽  
Jewish Immigrants ◽  
Bilingualism And Multilingualism ◽  
Palestinian Arabic ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
New Situation

AbstractThe 1948 war created a new situation in Palestine. Palestinians became dispersed across political borders that had not existed before, and these borders continued to change in different ways into the 21st century. In many respects, these political borders have had notable linguistic effects, introducing bilingualism and multilingualism for some Palestinians but not all, and subsequently affecting varieties of Palestinian Arabic in terms of their lexica, their grammars, and their speakers’ sense of identity and belonging. Newcomers to Palestine, particularly Jewish immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries, were also compelled to adapt their linguistic practices to the new reality into which they implanted themselves. Finally, traditional dialectological boundaries, delineating Palestinian dialects according to regional and local linguistic features, have been affected by population shifts, redrawing of political borders and the catastrophic consequences of the wars the region has endured. This paper attempts to tackle the complex web of borders and boundaries that have shaped much of the sociolinguistics of Palestinians throughout most of the 20th century and into the first two decades of the 21st century.

RASHID KHALIDI, Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997). Pp. 325. $42.00 cloth, $16.50 paper.

2000 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-307
Author(s):  
Joseph Massad
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
British Colonialism ◽  
Islamic Studies ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Palestinian Nationalism ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

Rashid Khalidi sets out to study the emergence of Palestinian nationalism at the dawn of the 20th century. He explores the early cultural beginnings of Palestinian identity, which precede the encounter with Zionism, and studies the different developments of Palestinian identity in light of that encounter. Whereas a large number of accounts stress that Palestinian identity developed exclusively as a result of the encounter with colonial Zionism, Khalidi sets the record straight. In line with predominant theories of nationalism, Khalidi demonstrates that national identities are defined in relation to an other. Palestine identity, which as early as 1701 manifested itself against a hostile European Christianity, remained Jerusalem-centered until the beginning of the 20th century. That is when a modern Palestinian nationalism was emerging, before the encounter with British colonialism and Zionist settler colonialism changed the configuration of both the Palestinian self and its other. Khalidi charts the changes in the forms of knowledge that the Palestinian intelligentsia was acquiring in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, noting the shift from Islamic studies to modern social science and the humanities. Through an inventory of Palestinian libraries, Khalidi carefully chronicles these changes in forms of knowledge, correlating them with the new and emerging political ideas in the country.

Improvisation and Value in Rock, 1966

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-232
Author(s):  
DAVID BRACKETT
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
White Male ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Cultural Hierarchy ◽  
Musical Transformation ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Indian Classical Music

AbstractThe mid-1960s has figured as a central period in the historiography of popular music, but the role of improvisation has been little discussed. This article argues that issues of improvisation and value are crucial to understanding the emergence of a high-low split within popular music, a division that figures prominently in criticism and fan discourse up to the present day. This new stratification within popular music made it possible for rock to acquire critical prestige relative to other popular music genres. The formation of rock also relied on its association with a primarily white, male, middle-class demographic. This article demonstrates that rock's prestige rests simultaneously on maintaining this narrow demographic profile while locating aesthetic and spiritual value in musical practices coming from elsewhere (in terms of geography, race, or cultural hierarchy): blues, Indian classical music, jazz. The socio-musical transformation in which improvisation played such an important role is explored through a survey of recordings and an analysis of the development of rock criticism in 1966, the year in which a new constellation of aesthetics, politics, and musical style crystallized.

Practice, performance and the archive: Cases from Indian classical music genres

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-17
Author(s):  
Aditi Deo ◽  
Lakshmi Subramanian
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Music Genres ◽  
Practice Performance ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Indian Classical Music ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Musical Networks ◽  
Affective Dimensions

Given their emphasis on oral pedagogy and improvisatory approaches, Indian classical music genres present a challenge for constructing historically nuanced studies of musical practices, shifts in them over time and their links to broader developments. Much scholarship on Indian classical music tends to maintain loyalties to disciplinary silos such as social and cultural history, cultural studies and ethnomusicology, often sacrificing aspects of the spectrum of musical experiences. The dispersed nature of musical networks has meant that the archive for studying the phenomena of listening to, learning and disseminating music is fragmented, mobile and multi-local, not easy to capture with conventional methodologies of historical reconstruction or even purely ethnographic fieldwork. A central concern that drives the articles in this issue is a focus on exploring musical sound, repertoire and practices as archives. Such a focus raises two kinds of challenges. One is the identification of archives that can capture the ephemerality and immediacy of these musical practices; the other is the question of interpretive methods that can faithfully reflect the aesthetic and affective dimensions of musical practice. The contributors to this Special Issue explore a range of historical records centred on music ‐ notations, compilations, repertoires, biographies, texts, anecdotes, performances, recordings, pedagogic tools ‐ as their primary archives. Drawing upon disciplinary insights from cultural history, ethnomusicology and sound studies, and often in conversation with musicians and listeners, they offer conceptual and methodological lenses for reading such archives productively.

“The Realm of Serious Art”: Henry Hadley's Involvement in Early Sound Film

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
HANNAH LEWIS
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Compositional Style ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Film Composition ◽  
Sound Film ◽  
Musical Production ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Musical Modernism

AbstractComposer-conductor Henry Kimball Hadley (1871–1937) is widely viewed as a conservative musical figure, one who resisted radical changes as American musical modernism began to flourish. His compositional style remained firmly rooted in late-Romantic European idioms; and although Hadley advocated for American composition through programming choices as a conductor, he mostly ignored the music of younger, adventurous composers. In one respect, however, Hadley was part of the cutting edge of musical production: that of musical dissemination through new media. This essay explores Hadley's work conducting and composing film music during the transition from silent to synchronized sound film, specifically his involvement with Warner Bros. and their new sound synchronization technology, Vitaphone, in 1926–27. Drawing on archival evidence, I examine Hadley's approach to film composition for the 1927 filmWhen a Man Loves. I argue that Hadley's high-art associations conferred legitimacy upon the new technology, and in his involvement with Vitaphone he aimed to establish sound film composition as a viable outlet for serious composers. Hadley's example prompts us to reconsider the parameters through which we distinguish experimental and conservative musical practices, reconfiguring the definitions to include not just musical proclivities but also the contexts and modes through which they circulate.

scholarly journals Retelling Old Stories with New Media: National Identity and Transnationalism in the “Russian Spring” Popular Uprisings

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Kozachenko
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
National Identity ◽  
New Media ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
National Identities ◽  
National Belonging ◽  
National Imagination

The ongoing armed conflict in Ukraine was preceded by pro-Russian uprisings in major cities in the east and south of the country. These uprisings, sometimes referred to as the “Russian Spring,” were a reaction to the success of the Euromaidan, which ousted President Viktor Ianukovych. The downfall of his pro-Russian regime, coupled with aggressive propaganda, created an outrage that culminated in thousands of protesters taking to the streets. Their demands were justified by distinct “imaginings” of Ukraine’s and Russia’s national identities. The Anti-Maidan—a pro-Russian movement—actively utilized social media in order to promote its vision of Ukraine’s future, past, and present. This paper investigates articulations of national belonging by the Anti-Maidan. Its findings reveal that the Anti-Maidan’s national “imagination” is represented by a bricolage of Soviet and Slavic symbols and advocates non-progressive changes.

Sheikh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī in Cyberspace

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 403-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bettina Gräf
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Media Institutions ◽  
The World ◽  
Arabic Speaking ◽  
Muslim Scholars

AbstractThe article introduces and analyses the homepage of the Azhar-trained Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī. This includes not only the analysis of the website's content but also of its context of production, i.e. Doha, a place that can be described as a hub of media-produced reality of Arabic-speaking Muslims since the mid-1990s. The author, Bettina Gräf, states that Qaradāwī was one of the first scholars to realise that the cooperation with journalists, editors, and producers of new media institutions would help to restore the influence of Muslim scholars in Muslim societies and worldwide. She identifies the techniques by which Qaradāwī's self-proclaimed position as a global Islamic authority is implemented on his website. The potential of Qaradāwī being recognised as a global authority, however, is questioned. The author argues that the relationships constitutive of his almost translocal authority were and still are negotiated in special sets of actions, namely in Qatar, Egypt, Palestine, Europe and, on the occasion of various conferences with a Sunni Islamist agenda, around the world. Although Yūsuf al-Qaradāwī's worldwide popularity, based on his activities in both the traditional and the new media, is beyond dispute, the author points to the necessity of distinguishing between popularity and authority.

Instrumental, Vocal and Choir Theatre of Juris Karlsons

2015 ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Andris Vecumnieks
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Musical Style ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Music Schools ◽  
Music And Literature ◽  
Theatrical Space ◽  
Secondary Music ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Instrumental Theatre

The purpose of this article is to introduce the instrumental, vocal and choir music of the Latvian composer Juris Karlsons (*1948) in the context of music theatricality research. The article is based on discoveries and conclusions outlined in the doctoral thesis “The Theatricality Phenomenon in Music. Theatrical Space of Juris Karlsons”. The author introduces the current issues of theory and artistry in the instrumental theatre genre, as well as the contribution of Juris Karlsons to this genre and composition technique of the late 20th century. The thesis employs the following research methods: - theoretical methods (research studies): method of abstract analysis (gathering and evaluation with the purpose to create a general background) – studies of theatricality theory, studies of musical theatricality theory, analysis of Karlsons’ oeuvre; - methods of musicological analysis: approach to Karlsons’ works based on the genre analysis and classification method, defining and describing of the immanent characteristics, as well as musical style analysis method; - empirical and deductive methods (contributed from personal experience) – research, comparison and evaluation (determination of tendencies and guidelines), personal perception experience, observations and discoveries, writing and publishing articles for scientific conferences, music history lectures at JVLMA, secondary music schools and other institutions, own conductor’s experience; - semiotic method (significance of a system of symbols in Karlsons’ oeuvre); - data processing methods – evaluation, comparative analysis and systematization, including hypothetical modelling; - comparative research methods, providing parallel view comparison of musical practices, Karlsons’ oeuvre, as well as other means of expression in music and other arts – music and theatre, music and literature, music and visual arts; - methods of selection – evaluation of scientific research works and selection of analytical works; - field research methods – interviews with Karlsons and his contemporaries.

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