Performing al-Andalus

Jonathan Holt Shannon

Description

Performing al-Andalus explores three musical cultures that claim a connection to the music of medieval Iberia, the Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus, known for its complex mix of Arab, North African, Christian, and Jewish influences. Jonathan Holt Shannon shows that the idea of a shared Andalusian heritage animates performers and aficionados in modern-day Syria, Morocco, and Spain, but with varying and sometimes contradictory meanings in different social and political contexts. As he traces the movements of musicians, songs, histories, and memories circulating around the Mediterranean, he argues that attention to such flows offers new insights into the complexities of culture and the nuances of selfhood.

Prelude
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration

Overture Performance, Nostalgia, and the Rhetoric of al-Andalus: Mediterranean Soundings
1. In the Shadows of Ziryab: Narratives of al-Andalus and Andalusian Music
2. The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Modern Syria, or, There and Back Again
3. The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Morocco: Genealogical Imagination and Authenticity
4. The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Spain: Nostalgic Dwelling among the Children of Ziryab
Finalis The Project of al-Andalus and Nostalgic Dwelling in the 21st Century

Glossary
Notes
References
Index

Sujets

• Middle Est
• Mediterranean
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• MUSIC
• Marruecos
• Spanish Civil War
• Syria
• Multiple signal classification
• History of the Middle East
• General officer
• Ethnomusicology
• Spain
• Middle East
• Mediterranean Sea
• History of Europe
• Anthropology
• Spain (groupe)
• Morocco
• General
• Exxon Valdez
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 28 juillet 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253017741
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Performing al-Andalus
P ERFORMING AL -A NDALUS
Music AND Nostalgia ACROSS THE Mediterranean

JONATHAN HOLT SHANNON
This book is a publication of
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS Office of Scholarly Publishing Herman B Wells Library 350 1320 East 10th Street Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA
iupress.indiana.edu
2015 by Jonathan Holt Shannon
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z 39.48-1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
ISBN 978-0-253-01756-7 (cloth) ISBN 978-0-253-01762-8 (paperback) ISBN 978-0-253-01774-1 (ebook)
1 2 3 4 5 20 19 18 17 16 15
In Memoriam
Pamela Kay Shannon (1959-2009) Brian M. Stross (1940-2014)
Dedicated to the innumerable Syrian victims of systematic brutality. May the promise of music create peace in the world.
I know there is no straight road. Only a giant labyrinth of multiple crossroads.
- FEDERICO GARC A LORCA
C ONTENTS
Prelude
Acknowledgments
A Note on Transliteration
Overture: Performance, Nostalgia, and the Rhetoric of al-Andalus: Mediterranean Soundings
1 In the Shadows of Ziryab: Narratives of al-Andalus and Andalusian Music
2 The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Modern Syria, or, There and Back Again
3 The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Morocco: Genealogical Imagination and Authenticity
4 The Rhetoric of al-Andalus in Spain: Nostalgic Dwelling among the Children of Ziryab
Finalis: The Project of al-Andalus and Nostalgic Dwelling in the Twenty-First Century
Glossary
Notes
References
Index
P RELUDE
This book investigates the rhetorical uses of medieval Spain (al-Andalus) in contemporary Syria, Morocco, and Spain. Focusing on the performance of varieties of Andalusian music in these three contexts, I explore the ways musical performance contributes to the creation of senses of place, collective memory (and often amnesia), and hopes and desires for the future. In other words, it is an examination of the role of musical practices in promoting rhetorics of belonging and forms of nostalgia in the context of the Mediterranean and beyond. In the interest of reaching a wider audience, including students, scholars, and general readers curious about cultural politics in the contemporary Middle East, North Africa, and Mediterranean, I have avoided debates and certain details more appropriate for specialist publications. Performing al-Andalus should be understood as an interpretive essay that aims to provoke as much as to resolve questions about belonging and collective memory in the Mediterranean. Exhaustive studies of the musical traditions of each of the locales I investigate already exist, and I direct interested readers to those fine volumes for more detail on performance practice, modes and rhythms, song forms, and lyrics.
The research for this book was conducted in fits and starts over many years, including extended stays in Aleppo and Damascus, Syria; Fez, Rabat, Tangier, and T touan, Morocco; and Granada, C rdoba, and Madrid, Spain. All interviews were conducted in Arabic, Spanish, French, or English, when appropriate.
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work, so long in the making, would never have seen the light were it not for the excellent staff at Indiana University Press. I especially wish to thank Rebecca Tolen for her encouragement and patience throughout the project in the hopes that the final product was well worth the wait! Funds to support research in Syria, Morocco, and Spain were generously provided by awards from Fulbright-Hays (2003-2004), the PSC-CUNY (2002, 2003), and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fund (2009). A sabbatical leave from Hunter College (2008-2009) allowed me to conduct research in Spain and Morocco and to begin outlining the project. My students and colleagues at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York provided opportunities for me to test some of the ideas in this book. I especially wish to thank the members of the Middle East Studies Faculty Research Seminar-Anna Akasoy, Yitzhak Berger, Alex Elinson, Karen Kern, Jillian Schwedler, and Chris Stone-for their comments on a draft of chapter 2 . I also thank the receptive audiences at the New York Academy of Sciences, Columbia University Ethnomusicology Center, Princeton University Department of Near Eastern Studies, Yale University Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, the College of New Jersey Department of Political Science, and various conferences here and there for offering suggestions and constructive criticism at various waypoints along this voyage.
I wish to thank The al-Andalus Road Show -Carl Davila, Jonathan Glasser, Brian Karl, and Dwight Reynolds. Their insightful and humbling scholarship and generous support over the years have sustained this project when I thought it not worth pursuing (especially after reading their works!). Thanks, guys. The late Mar a Rosa Menocal encouraged me in the project through her inspiring and inspired writings on things Andalusian and offered kind advice on how to go forward despite the challenges of working in several languages and in several locales.
A special shukran to my many friends and teachers in Syria, most suffering from the aftermath of the violence that has shaken Syria for so many months beginning in March 2011: Abd al-Raouf Adwan, Ghassan Amouri, Muhammad Qadri Dalal, Hala al-Faisal, Muhammad Hamadiyeh, Abd al-Halim Hariri, Nouri Iskandar, Zuhayr Minini, the late Sabri Moudallal, Abd al-Fattah Qala hji, Muhammad Qassas, Hussein Sabsaby, Fadil al-Siba i, and the late Abd al-Fattah Sukkar, who early on taught me how to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to things musical. In Morocco I thank my many friends, teachers, and associates, including Anas al- Attar, Abd al-Fattah Bennis, Abd al-Fattah Benmusa, Ahmed El-Khaligh, Omar Metioui, Abd al-Malik al-Shami, Abd al-Salam al-Shami, Omar al-Shami, Radouane al-Shami, Yunis al-Shami, al-Hajj Ahmad Shiki, and Ahmed Zaytouni, among others, for facilitating much of the research. Deborah Kapchan was an interlocutor at the early stages of the research in Morocco and Spain, offering me numerous insights into Moroccan culture, including valuable connections. I thank her for her generosity. In Spain, I wish to thank Slimane Baali, Dar Ziryab, the Granada International Festival of Music and Dance, the Casa-Museo Federico Garc a Lorca, the Escuela de Estudios rabes in Granada, and the Centro de Documentaci n Musical de Andaluc a, as well as, once more, the indefatigable Dwight Reynolds, whose intimate knowledge of Granada allowed me to move through that charged lieu de m moire more quickly than I might have otherwise, as well as to enjoy great tapas.
Above all I wish to thank the close friends and family who have supported me in many ways over the many years in which I researched and wrote this text. Some of my earliest ideas for the book were developed in conversation with the late Brian Stross of the University of Texas, a valued friend and colleague whose insights, warmth, humor, and inspiring playlists will be sorely missed. My mother, Linda Shannon-Rugel, bore the heaviness of the loss of her daughter and still managed to ask me about how the book was coming along. I remember my late sister, Pamela Kay Shannon, whom fate took from us too soon. She encouraged me to pursue the dream of working in three different countries and languages despite the challenges, and I wish she were here to see the result. My brother, Chris Shannon, and stepfather, Herman Rugel, have been solid sources of support over the years in more ways than they can know. Lots of love to all of them.
Last but never least, I thank my son, Nathaniel Nadim Kapchan Shannon, for his patience with a father who was always either doing research, writing, playing music, or riding his bicycle (though not usually at the same time). May he grow to join me in at least some of these pursuits. Patricia Winter, through her outsized patience, enduring love, generosity of spirit, and unending kindness, allowed me the physical and emotional space to write this book, the inspiration to continue when I didn t believe in myself, and enough Nespresso to finish the job. To her I give infinite thanks and all my love.
A N OTE ON T RANSLITERATION
One difficulty in working across national and linguistic boundaries is that different transliteration systems may be in use for the same language. For example, the Arabic letter sh n can be transliterated in English as sh , in French as ch , and in Spanish as x or , whereas j m is usually transliterated in English as j , in French as dj , and in Spanish as y . In this work I have aimed for clarity and in most cases have brought the transliteration in line with standard Arabic using a transliteration system adapted from that of the International Journal of Middle East Studies ( IJMES ). In the text, diacritical markings in Arabic transliteration are generally left off, with the exception of for the ayn and for the hamza. In the endnotes and bibliography, diacritical marks do appear in the names of authors and titles of works in Arabic. Reported speech is usually translated into English or