Drawing from a variety of scholarly perspectives and approaches, the four papers on this panel examine four relational facets of contemporary musical practice, with special reference to Arab communities of North Africa: the relationship of historical scholarship to the study of contemporary practice; that between oral performance and written text; that between genre flexibility and social position; and that between performed tradition and professionalization. The panel offers a basis for the scholarly discussion of relationships between history and modern praxis, between text and community, and between performers and their respective traditions.
The first paper, "Musicology and the Legacy of Henry George Farmer", critically re-evaluates the contributions of one of the founders of modern Middle Eastern music studies and argues for the continued relevance of Farmer's work in light of recent interdisciplinary studies that seek to bridge the conceptual gap between contemporary and historical practice.
The second paper, "Moroccan Andalusian Music Anthologies: Evidence for Orality ", examines variant texts among printed anthologies of songs from the Moroccan Andalusian music tradition. The paper outlines evidence for a strong historical influence of oral/performed processes on the formation of these modern printed works, and argues that these variants reflect diverse "hearings" of the text by distinct communities of performers and audiences.
Third, "Birds Who Sing in Many Trees: Sufi Singers and Professionalization in Fez, Morocco", offers a new approach to the study of Sufism in Morocco by analyzing the diverse social roles, performance and ritual contexts, and conceptions of professionalism on the part of Sufi music performers. This paper argues that professionalization is transforming the practice and self-conception of Sufi performers as they negotiate the demands of a changing tradition.
And finally, "'Because the people will like it!': Locating Malḥūn and Its Audiences Through Musical Flexibility" breaks new ground in the study of this colloquial musical genre by discussing its complex social positionality and arguing that it embraces a degree of flexibility that contrasts with more classical genres, allowing performers to adapt their performances to the tastes of diverse audiences. Together, these four papers offer a basis for discussing new perspectives on the importance of cross-disciplinary approaches to the social frames surrounding traditional genres of Arab music.
-
The history of “Arabian” and music of the Islamicate world remains a relatively small sub-section within the disciplines of musicology. In addition, much of what Western musicologists know about Middle Eastern music (including North Africa and Persia) in the 7th – 13th centuries is still highly dependent on the work of a few late 19th and early 20th century scholars. Of these, Henry George Farmer (1882-1965) is among the most respected pioneers of the field. Along with his book "The History of Arabian Music to the 13th Century," first published in 1929, musicologists still rely on his extensive studies of the history of Middle Eastern music theory, musicians, and instruments, most of which were published in the 1920s and 30s. In addition to Farmer, musicologists continue to refer to studies and translations by other early 20th century scholars. These include Duncan MacDonald’s (1863-1943)1901 translation of the section related to music and singing in al-Ghazali’s "Ihya ‘Ulum al-Din" and the 1937 translation by James Robson (1890-1981) of Ibn Abi al-Dunya’s "Dhamm al-Malahi." Due to shared interests, Robson collaborated with Farmer on partial translations of two of the earliest known music treatises from the 9th century by Ibn Salama (c.830) and Ibn Khurdadhbih (c.820-912); the latter believed to be lost at the time. While the work of these scholars was essential to initiating new areas of music research, few of their studies or conclusions have ever been critically re-examined.
In this paper, I offer a reassessment of the work of Henry George Farmer and his continued influence in musicology. I begin with a brief overview of his career and most influential research, followed by a discussion of his place in the field today. My primary questions are: Why hasn’t Farmer’s work been subject to a critical assessment or examination? Where might such a reassessment lead? My purpose is not to negate or undermine the importance of Farmer and his contemporaries. Rather, my intent is to acknowledge their impact while emphasizing the value of a critical reevaluation, particularly in light of new manuscript discoveries, the increase in critical editions of texts related to music, and interdisciplinary studies linking contemporary and cross-cultural music practices to the past.
-
Dr. Carl Davila
Although oral processes of preservation and transmission are well documented for al-Āla, the Moroccan Andalusian music tradition, the tradition is also a literary one: for nearly three centuries, written anthologies have existed alongside the performed tradition, serving both social-iconic and, in a more limited way, practical functions. Based upon both fieldwork and extensive study of the manuscript and print anthologies of the nūba Ramal al-Māya, this paper begins with two key premises: First, that the true contents of the tradition are the songs-as-sung; and second, that the manuscript history strongly suggests historical confluence of several oral or quasi-oral textual streams (representing distinct regional sub-traditions) that together have produced the modern print anthologies. From these it follows that textual variants amongst these anthologies may actually preserve evidence of diverse performed versions of these songs.
This paper explores numerous text variants amongst the three main modern print anthologies. Six categories are proposed for the variants, examples are put forward for each, and their relative occurrences across all movements in the nūba are analyzed. The paper argues that only one of these categories can definitively be said to derive specifically from written or literary processes, and that although we lack analytical tools for teasing out unambiguously oral elements from redacted text, there is a strong likelihood that specific examples of variants in at least four of the categories reflect distinct “hearings” of the text, and are therefore less likely to be artifacts of purely literary transmission (copyist errors, misprints and so on). They therefore preserve residual impacts of oral processes in the process of literary preservation.
The paper concludes by pointing out that 1) the data further underscore the complex relationship that has long existed in this tradition between oral and literary processes, and that oral processes have left a significant impact on the literary dimension of this tradition’s history; and 2) the data also suggest (though not unproblematically) that textual variants in other collections of medieval Arabic poetic texts (such as muwashshaḥāt) may also hold clues to the role of orality and oral performance in their preservation.
-
Mr. Philip Murphy
Today in Morocco there are many opportunities for Sufi vocalists to engage in private rituals and public staged performances. While private rituals have been an important part of Sufi practice in Morocco for hundreds of years, public staged performances have only emerged in the last twenty-five years. A recent increase in performance is linked to the Moroccan monarchy’s 2004 decision to make Sunni Sufism a key element of official Moroccan Islam. This top-down promotion of Sufism in Morocco has contributed to opportunities for many singers, musicians, and listeners to creatively engage Sufism and Sufi music. However, the recent official elevation of Sufism also presents new problems. Despite the many festivals, public staged events, private rituals, radio and TV spots available to Sufis, there is fierce competition and ongoing debates regarding the qualities and abilities of a professional Sufi singer. Sufi performers must negotiate many roles such as ritual master and master performer as they operate in different contexts and become, as one Sufi singer told me, “birds who sing in many tress.” While some Sufis consider aspects of professionalization to have a deleterious effect on Sufi rituals and Sufism in Morocco, others believe that it helps preserve Sufism and contributes to more efficacious rituals. In this paper I present some prominent Sufi performers from Fez, Morocco and analyze the ways that they negotiate the different roles of a Sufi, the many contexts of Sufi ritual and performance, and different ideas of what it means to be a professional Sufi singer.
-
Christopher Witulski
Malḥūn, a genre of accompanied sung poetry popular across Morocco, bears close resemblance to classical poetic forms and the musical style of the country’s Andalusian tradition, al-āla. Many across the country love it irrespective of educational background or economic stature. The poorest Moroccans memorize long segments of their favorite texts, ready to sing upon request, while the wealthiest gather in hotel ballrooms to celebrate malḥūn as national cultural heritage.
Past scholarship on malḥūn focuses on the texts’ form and content, with their unique register of Moroccan Arabic and dramatic themes of piety, love, and satire. The poems, however, are to be sung. Listeners and performers alike deride the repetitive music as unremarkable, comparing it negatively to the more sophisticated al-āla. I argue that the sound of performances and the musical elements leading to this perception of simplicity hold keys to understanding the genre’s prominent place in the country’s cultural sphere. Malḥūn’s popularity is borne directly from its flexibility: it simultaneously exists as popular music and high art. Changes in contemporary performance practice demonstrate performers’ successes in engaging new audiences, both locally and nationally.
As with al-āla, malḥūn is experiencing a period of modernization and classicization through state sponsorship. The preservation of texts and musical performances coincides with productions celebrating malḥūn alongside al-āla. Musicians innovate by incorporating instruments and styles popular nationally as well as those desired by those audiences right in front of them. Many sounds clearly locate malḥūn performances geographically, using the music of popular religious brotherhoods to build clear (or, better put, loud) aural connections with local audiences.
In this paper, I draw upon ethnographic research and my performance experience with a malḥūn ensemble in Fez, Morocco, to show these points of localization within the genre’s performance practice. In contrast to al-āla’s classicism, malḥūn artists maintain a high degree of flexibility. While singers and instrumentalists who perform both repertoires regularly look down upon malḥūn as simplistic, I argue that it is the differences between these two related musical systems that has given malḥūn performers the latitude required to truly adapt to the wants of their diverse and growing audiences.
