Full Description
In Arab culture, at the ineffable point where music meets emotion, lies ṭarab. Often glossed as the ecstasy experienced and expressed when performing or listening to singing, instrumental works, and recitations of poetry, ṭarab is both a practice and an orienting concept central to musical aesthetics and spirituality characteristic of Middle Eastern cultures.
Gathering fifteen essays by scholars of music, affect, literature, religion, and education, Ṭarab extends the study of ṭarab historically, geographically, and sociologically. Historical essays explore ṭarab's role in the medieval Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. Turning to the modern era, authors examine ṭarab and related concepts in Egypt, Albania, and Iraq, and among Turkish Roma and Lebanese Maronite Christians. The contributors also address contemporary practitioners and the intersections of ṭarab and maqām, belly dancing, music streaming, and university music ensembles. Situating this unique cultural concept in a global context, these studies enrich the story of ṭarab and provide new insight into music's powerful emotional appeal.
Contents
A Note on Transliteration
List of Illustrations
An Introduction to Ṭarab: Music, Ecstasy, Emotion, and Performance (Michael Frishkopf, Scott Marcus, and Dwight F. Reynolds)
1. Ṭarab in Extremis in Medieval Arabic Sources (Dwight F. Reynolds)
2. The Other Ṭarab (George Dmitri Sawa)
3. Judeo-Sufi Musical Intersections (Edwin Seroussi)
4. A Tale of Two Ṭarabs: Intercultural Music in the Late Ottoman Empire (John O'Connell)
5. Sayyid Darwish and Ṭarab (Virginia Danielson)
6. From Ṭarab to Turāth: Fifty Years of Arab Music Heritage in Egypt (Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco)
7. Ṭarab in the Grooves: Reconsidering a Transitional Moment in the Arab American Arts Economy (Anne K. Rasmussen)
8. The Two Tenors: The Ṭarab Artistry of Wadih El Safi and Sabah Fakhri (Sami W. Asmar)
9. The Sufi Source of Ṭarab (Michael Frishkopf)
10. From Lament to Prayer: Music and Emotional Shifts in the Funeral Ritual of the Maronite Christians in Lebanon (Guilnard Moufarrej)
11. Heroism, Desire, Ecstasy: Qamili i VogËl, Kosova Albanian Urban Song, and the Cultivation of Elation (Jane C. Sugarman)
12. Sweaty Transcendence and Affect: The Labor of Musical Ecstasy (Sonia Tamar Seeman)
13. Teaching Ṭarab: Embodied Interpersonal Learning in University Ensembles (Anne Elise Thomas)
14. Songs of the Ṭarab Repertoire: Sites for Understandings Beyond Affect (Scott Marcus)
15. Curating Tarab on Music Streaming Services: The Cultural Politics of Localization on Spotify, Anghami, and Deezer (Darci Sprengel)
Contributors
Index
