Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab (review)

Abstract

VERNACULAR MUSICS Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab. By A. J. Racy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. (Cambridge Middle East Studies.) [xiv, 248 p. ISBN 0-521-30414-8. $60.] Illustrations, glossary, bibliography, index. One of the most powerful and compelling aspects of is its ability to tap into and move human emotions. Yet because of its subjective, elusive, and highly personal nature, as an emotional experience is difficult to isolate, and therefore analyze. A. J. Racy , performer, composer, and ethnomusicologist with strong foundation in historical analysis, has committed lifetime of work to the ecstatic elements of musical expression in the Arab Near East. In this book, Racy draws on multiple perspectives and experiences to reveal the emotionally evocative and affective dimensions of Arabic as they manifest through complex musical and cultural phenomenon known as tarab. Roughly translated to mean musical ecstasy, the word is also used as reference to (1) certain styles of urban, secular or art music, found throughout the Arab Near East; (2) musical aesthetic associated with the early twentieth century; and, (3) an emotionally ecstatic state that is evoked through musical practices emanating from within genres. As musical phenomenon, however, is much larger subject, with no exact English translation or equivalent. Racy describes the phenomenon as a multifaceted domain within which the and its ecstatic influence conceptually and expericntially linked (p. 7). He explains as a complex that embraces an aestheticexperiential core, but also intertwines with thick network of cultural values, economic relationships, and social hierarchies (p. 10). Reflecting on the multidimensional aspects of tarab, Racy skillfully weaves historical research, theory, the thoughts and experiences of individual performers, and personal experience in such way that one organically spills into the other, leaving the reader with visceral sense that elements interconnected. All the while, Racy maintains strong sense of organizational integrity, meticulous research, and clearly presented ideas. The book is organized into five broad categories, or chapters, that simply titled Culture, Performance, Music, Saltanah, and Lyrics. There is short introduction detailing the multiple dimensions of as phenomenon, and the nature of as an ecstatic experience. The concluding chapter, Tarab in Perspective, looks at these and related aspects of the tarab as they are viewed in their broader social and expressive contexts and reinterpreted against related theories and comparable world models (p. 191). Racy begins the first chapter, Culture, by suggesting that exists as specialized cultural domain, which encompasses artists, repertoires, and related ideologies, attitudes and behaviors, including ways of listening and reacting to music (p. 15). In support of this claim, the chapter explores various roles and processes that occur within culture: the role of gender; the role of the student; the role, or expected social etiquette, of both musicians and listeners; and the importance of the sammi' ah, or musically informed, die-hard listeners. Racy illustrates the ways in which culturally accepted reactions to the musical experience, such as physical and verbal responses, reveal the emotional and ecstatic components that define the experience. This chapter also addresses the cultural implications of learning, and the process of becoming artist. According to Racy, each individual within this process has unique story, and each generation has new inlluences that effect musical expression. For instance, unlike artists of the early twentieth century, artists today often trained in both Eastern and Western phenomenon that Racy refers to as bi-musicality. …