not a rejection of modernity. Yet, the turn to heritage in Arab arts participates in a broader concern among intellectuals, artists, and politicians with articulating the contours of a society and culture at once authentically Arab and modern—and neither “Arab” nor “modern” constitutes an exclusive or welldefined essence. Rather, these terms are cultural and political constructions that serve different interests. In the Syrian case, the construction and evaluation of authenticity articulate with conceptions of culture, ethnicity, and the nation that inform debates over postcolonial subjectivities in a variety of contexts.5
By investigating how Syrian musicians conceptualize and articulate their music, my aim is not only to provide ethnomusicological detail, but also to offer an interpretation of Syrian culture through its music, using the music as a window or rather as an “ear” into contemporary Syrian society and culture, and by extension onto debates that echo around the Arab world today. In turn, the Syrian case provides comparative material for an understanding of the aesthetics and politics of musical performance in diverse postcolonial contexts and contributes to a growing awareness of the sonic dimensions of cultural modernity.6
Aleppo and Its Musical Legacies
What would account for Aleppo’s importance both in discourses of authenticity and in the history of Arab music, past and present?7 Although some Syrians questioned my interest in Arab music and even the existence of “Arab” music altogether, almost no one questioned my desire to study that music—of whatever origin it might be—in Aleppo. Many people I encountered in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria mentioned Aleppo’s status as an important musical capital and the great preserver of Arab musical traditions (Saadé 1993). For many residents of the city, Aleppo’s strong and venerable musical traditions are a source of pride along with the city’s fabled architectural, literary, and culinary legacies. Although Damascus, as a result of the traditional rivalry between the two ancient cities, might challenge Aleppo’s claims to fame in architecture, literature, and cuisine—to name just a few domains—few would challenge Aleppo’s role as a great center for music. Indeed, Damascenes and others from elsewhere in Syria commonly assert their musical identity by praising Aleppo’s achievements, especially in contrast to the more often recognized achievements of Egyptian musicians. Aside from recognizing the “Big Three”of famous modern Arab musicians—the Egyptian artists Umm Kulthūm, Muḥammad ‘Abd al-Wahhāb, and
Historically, the musicians of Syria have contributed significantly to the development of Arab music in terms of both theory and practice, with Aleppo enjoying a particularly prominent place (Shiloah 1995: 72; Touma 1996: xix).8 Known in local discourse as “The Cradle of Arab Music” and “The Mother of Ṭarab,” Aleppo has been home and host to many of the Arab world’s greatest musicians, composers, and theorists.9 The great tenth-century philosopher and music theorist al-Fārābī wrote much of his Kitāb al-mūsīqā al-kabīr (The Great Treatise on Music) while resident in Aleppo at the court of Sayf al-Dawla al-Ḥamdānī.10 While resident in Aleppo in the same period, al-Iṣfahānī wrote sections of the monumental Kitāb al-aghānī (Book of Songs), the first great encyclopedic reference on Arab music and poetry (Shiloah 1995: 72). During my first residence in Aleppo (1997–1998), an enlarged copy of the index to this work could be found on the wall above the card catalogue in Aleppo’s National Library, indexing not just the great work but also its importance in Aleppo’s musical-cultural consciousness and memory. Aleppine artists also played a significant role in reviving and preserving the Andalusian muwashshaḥ genre in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Touma 1996: 83); the muwashshaḥ remains the staple of the Aleppine musical suite (waṣla), the premier “authentic” performance genre.11
In the modern period, Aleppo has been home to a large percentage of the Arab world’s leading vocalists, performers, and theorists. Perhaps Aleppo’s most famous musical son in the modern era is
The Aleppine composer and musician Kamīl Shambīr (1892–1934) worked along side Sayyid Darwīsh (1892–1923), the great Egyptian composer and popularizer of the musical theater and Arabic operetta in the early twentieth century (Mahannā 1998: 150). Shambīr is thought to have notated some of Darwīsh’s works and himself wrote some twenty-seven musicals while working for the theatrical troupes of Najīb al-Riḥānī and Amīn
Zuhayr Minīnī, Damascus, 2004.
With respect to composers and performers of the muwashshaḥ, few names stand out as much as that of
