Related Papers
Programme Brochure of the Conference "Music, Migration, Belonging/s in 21st-Century Europe"
Paper Abstract: "Echoes of the 2011 Syrian Uprising in Europe – Music and Political Belonging among Syrian Forced Migrants in Greece and Austria"
2023 •
Ioannis Christidis
The paper was presented at the conference "Music, Migration, Belonging/s in 21st-Century Europe," which was organized on 24-25 November 2023, at the University of Music and Performing Arts, within the research project "Women Musicians from Syria: Performance, Networks, Belonging/s after Migration."
ARTS
Music, Migration, and Public Space: Syrian Street Music in the Political Context
2021 •
Evrim Hikmet D R . Öğüt
Due to the lack of social systems supporting the cultural productions of migrant societies in Turkey, the venues and opportunities to which migrant musicians have access for the maintenance of their musical practices are limited. Under the given circumstances, especially in the first years after their arrival, street musicianship emerged as a new musical practice for Syrian musicians in Istanbul,andBeyog ̆luDistrict,thecity’sculturalandpoliticalcenter,hasbecomethevenueforstreet musicians’performances.Despiteundergoingarapidneoliberaltransformation,Beyog ̆ludistrict, with Taksim Square and Istiklal Avenue, is a venue of interaction among locals, tourists, and various migrant groups from diverse social classes and identities. As such, it still possesses the potential to be the public sphere which can operate as the space of “a democratic ideal.” For migrant musicians, the street music practices, which fill the very heart of city with their voices and sounds, are means of claiming their existence in the city as potential actors of this public sphere. However, conducting the interaction with the other public space actors and the state officials through street music is not an easy task for Syrian musicians, and it requires the use of tactics from them. In this article, I summarize thegivencircumstancesofSyrianstreetmusicperformancesanddiscusstheBeyog ̆ludistrictinthe frame of being—or not being—a public space. I propose street music practice as political action, a “social non-movement”, as Asef Bayat calls it, and situate migrant musicians as political actors who are possible allies of other subaltern groups in Turkey.
Central European Journal of Communication
Revolutionary Music in Lebanon and Egypt: Alternative Imaginaries for Self-representation and Participation
Bouthaina El Kheshn
Globally, mainstream media excludes or misrepresents many societal groups, resulting in significant community absences. In these contexts, alternative media plays a vital role in offering meaningful self-representation and political participation. This type of media becomes crucial in revolutionary contexts, where people rise against the injustices of their governments in hopes of change. This article offers a case study approach to revolutionary music in the Middle East, where we review the socio-economic and political contexts behind the emergence of alternative media in Lebanon and Egypt. We analyze our cases by using Bailey et al.’s (2007) comprehensive approaches to alternative media. We propose that revolutionary music evolves and adapts to larger changes in the public sphere. Still, as the article concludes, while music can enable a persistent community when demanding change, it does not guarantee an actual change in the political system.
Music and Resistance in the Middle East
Hugh Lovatt
Rast Musicology Journal
From silence into song: Affective horizons and nostalgic dwelling among Syrian musicians in Istanbul
2019 •
Jonathan Shannon
What roles might music play in how Syrian migrants in Turkey navigate new socioeconomic , political, moral and affective terrains? How might music serve as a source of comfort and nostalgic remembrance in conditions of displacement, or even as a touchstone for contestation over collective memory and the meanings of belonging? This article explores the contradictions of lived experience among Syrian migrant musicians in Istanbul. Based on ethnographic research Istanbul since 2015, this article analyzes the growing Syrian musical culture in Istanbul, focusing on shifts in the relationship of Syrians to their urban environment, changes in their understanding of future horizons (afaq), and how this produces new forms of affective engagement both with their homeland and with their new home. Focus on a single artist reveals the contours of more significant shifts occurring among Syrians in Turkey more generally.
POLITICS, STRUGGLE, VIOLENCE, AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EXPRESSIVE CULTURE: AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF KURDS' MUSICAL PRACTICES IN TURKEY
Gönenç Hongur
The issue of how the relationship between music and resistance-based nationalist politics come into being has been systematically covered by ethnomusicologists lately. Music, as the current study attempts to discover a small part of it, is one of the main channels through which Kurdish resistance and nationalism in Turkey have been nurtured for nearly four decades. Many researchers imply the musical transformation of Kurdish resistance and nationalism when they employ the word “politicization” for the change of the characteristics of Kurdish music especially after the mid-1970s. However, this thesis contends that this term could hardly clarify the prevalent position of politicized music in Kurdish culture and society in Turkey. A number of cultural, ideological, and artistic sources, on the face of it, have had a lot to carry presumably because of Kurds’ lack of a nation-state institutionalization. Discursively speaking, because of the lack of institutionalization, in addition, there has not been a well-defined distinction between refined and popular culture in Kurdish society. Music, which could somehow be produced, distributed, and listened to, has featured many intertwined and multifaceted characters together such as entertaining, instructive, and source of sophisticated culture and taste. With this claim, resistance politics in Kurdish music overflow within the broad scope of nationalism. In addition to the investigation of a number of music-centered political events in relation to their musical-related contents, chapters of this thesis have also focused on raison d’être of these events. It attempts to discuss, therefore, the functionality of proclaimed themes of these events in Kurdish culture and political movement. Seeking to offer an ethnographic snapshot that ascertains the effects of the transformative power of warfare, violence, and contentious politics on Kurdish culture, music, and musicians in Turkey, this thesis explains the authoritative role that music and music-centered practices have played in the process of Kurdish cultural and political movement in Turkey. The study not only describes the impact of music on Kurdish national identity and culture; it also ethnographically analyses the impact of music on the transformation of Kurdish expressive culture. Ultimately this thesis concludes that while music has established itself as a cultural force that affects Kurdish people in Turkey from many directions, it has, at the same time, had a particular role in the expansion of political and armed movement. I conclude that further research on the role of dance practices and popular culture in Kurdish political movement as well as in Kurdish culture and society should be undertaken
Ethnomusicology Forum My Voice is My Weapon: Music, Nationalism, and the Poetics of Palestinian Resistance
David McDonald, Rayya El Zein
Music and Conflict in the Middle-East
Jack Fordham
This thesis will critically discuss cultural leadership and the social impact of culture on conflict in the Middle-East, with a particular focus on music. Exploring the works of two case studies, (Daniel Barenboims East-Western Divan Orchestra and Paradise Sorouri), the paper will discuss the complex roles of cultural leaders in conflicted regions, their relation to their contextual environment, and their potential social impact. Drawing from Kay et als. ‘Cultural Leadership Reader’ (2010), literature on social impact of the arts, and academic theory regarding culture in relation to conflict, this thesis demonstrates the apparent roles for cultural leaders and institutions to provide various socially developmental services to society, as well as highlighting the issues inherent in this approach to cultural intervention (instrumentalism, ideological agenda’s, and the proposed ‘impotence’ of art in affecting culture). In doing so, I hope to further academic discourse and research into the relationship between music and conflict, and cultures role in post-conflict development.
Popular Music and Society
Introduction to Music and the Politics of Memory: Resounding Antifascism across Borders
Monika E. Schoop, Ana Hofman
''Music of Peace'' at a Time of War: Middle Eastern Music Amid the Second Intifada"
Galeet Dardashti
