this article examines Arab art music, or tarab, during the British Mandate for Palestine as the s... more this article examines Arab art music, or tarab, during the British Mandate for Palestine as the sonic harbinger of Palestinian modernism. it shows how the production, consumption, and dissemination of professionalized Arab art music in early twentieth-century Palestine was linked to the emer- gence of a Palestinian elite at a time when Palestine was undergoing rapid developments and becoming an important node of cultural exchange in the region. Arab art music thus provided a site for the construction of a cosmopolitanized urban identity across Palestinian cities, one that oper- ated on two political registers: local Palestinian nationalism and regional pan-Arabism. the article concludes with a discussion on how Palestine’s political elite negotiated the inherent contradictions of colonized moder- nity through Arab art music.
Based on recent ethnographic work, we explore the ways in which transnational cosmopolitan music ... more Based 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 neighbouri...
this article examines Arab art music, or tarab, during the British Mandate for Palestine as the s... more this article examines Arab art music, or tarab, during the British Mandate for Palestine as the sonic harbinger of Palestinian modernism. it shows how the production, consumption, and dissemination of professionalized Arab art music in early twentieth-century Palestine was linked to the emer- gence of a Palestinian elite at a time when Palestine was undergoing rapid developments and becoming an important node of cultural exchange in the region. Arab art music thus provided a site for the construction of a cosmopolitanized urban identity across Palestinian cities, one that oper- ated on two political registers: local Palestinian nationalism and regional pan-Arabism. the article concludes with a discussion on how Palestine’s political elite negotiated the inherent contradictions of colonized moder- nity through Arab art music.
Based on recent ethnographic work, we explore the ways in which transnational cosmopolitan music ... more Based 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 neighbouri...
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