Participants and lectures in alphabetical order:  

Abstracts in alphabetical order according to the lecturers last name

Zohreh Baradaran - Iran ritual music - Nowruz  Khani

New Year’s feast is one of the oldest feast that handed down from the ancient period in Iran. It is concurrent with the outset of the Spring  and often began on March 21. New Year’s feast in Iran is along with many ceremonies in different cities in Iran, one of these ceremonies held in north of Iran–Mazandaran is called Nowrzu khani that is one of the most popular and strong traditions in Mazandaran.

Nowruz Khani through which various songs about Spring are sung and is done before the new year is traditionally aimed to welcome Spring and anyone who sings these songs is called New Year-singer or Spring-singer. These singers normally start singing about 15 days before Spring and bring it to and end by the commencement of Spring. The spring singers are hawkers and amateur musicians who form groups for this program and travel from village to village reading the poetry and playing music to inform people that Spring is coming.

Each  group consists of three to four members one of whom recites the poetry in praise of the New year and Spring, and the other plays music and the third member goes from door to door and gathers the gifts from people. Inasmuch as the new year singers are ordinary rural people, their poets are very simple; besides, these simple poets leave great impression on the villagers. Sometimes the new Year singer merely sings songs and does not plays any instruments.

Therefore, Nowruz khani related to Nowrooz is carried out indifferent areas. This ritual in the north of Iran in Mazandaran, Gilan, and Talegan has prevailed and in fact is an important part of the religious, ritual music in north of Iran. Today, Nowruz Khani’s rite in some rural regions and mountainous north of Iran (in the regions of Gilan and Dailam ,Talesh) still exist.

Keywords:  New year and music, ritual music, Nowruz  Khani

CV: Zohreh Baradaran Hosseini was born on 9 of Februery 1969 in Mashad, Iran. Between 1976 and 1981 she visited the primary school in Mashad and from 1981 to 1984 she visited the primary school in Mashad. From 1984 till 1988 she visited  the secondary school in Mashad. After four years and in 1992 she got Bachelor Science (B.Sc.) in History from the Faculty of literature and humanities of Ferdowsi at Mashad University. From 1993 to 1996 she got her Master of Science (M.Sc.) in the field of the ancient Iran‘s culture and languages from the Faculty of Humanities at Tehran. From the period of 1997 to 2003 she worked as the libarian and cataloguer and assist library in Tehran and Mashad. From 2004 to present, she is Ph.D. student at the University George–August, Goettingen, Germany.

Her contact address is Seminar for Iranistik, George–August,Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany, Email address:z.baradaranhossein@stud.uni-goettingen.de Baradaran_zohreh@yahoo.com

Veronica Doubleday and John Baily Both Sides of the Curtain: Discovering the Music of Afghanistan

(Joint keynote address for the Leiden meeting)

In the 1970s, before the start of the long war in Afghanistan, John  Baily and his wife Veronica spent over two years researching music in the historic city of Herat. Together they bridged the gender divide. John studied the music of men’s gatherings, concerts and wedding ceremonies, and Veronica frequented these parate world of women’s parties and rituals. They also learned to perform the music they were studying. In this talk they describe the challenges and excitement of  their work, illustrating their account with their own musical performance, and visual and audio recordings from that time. They provide a refreshing picture of musical life in Afghanistan before the Taliban.

CV: Dr John Baily and his wife Veronica Doubleday started their work on Afghan music 30 years ago, when they resided for two and a half years in the city of Herat. As part of their research, Veronica learned singing from the famous Herati woman vocalist Zainab Herawi, while John studied rubab (short-necked lute) with Ustad Mohammad Omar in Kabul, and with Ustad Rahim Khushnawaz and his father Amir Jan Khushnawaz in Herat. He also learned dutar (long-necked lute) from Gada Mohammad Kabutar and from Ustad Karim, the inventor of the large 14 stringed dutar.

John has published Music of Afghanistan: Professional musicians in the city of Herat (1988) and a large number of articles on the music of Afghanistan, as well as the Freemuse-report “Can you stop the birds singing?” The censorship of music in Afghanistan (2001). Veronica’s publications on Afghanistan include a narrative ethnography, Three Women of Herat (1988) which was republished in 2006, and various articles, most recently “9/11and the Politics of Music-Making in Afghanistan” (2007). Together John and Veronica have published CDs of Afghan music with UNESCO. John has worked with the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia (AKMICA) and in 2003 set up a Culture Bearers training scheme to pass on the classical music of the Kucheh Kharabat, the musicians’ quarter in Kabul. This has now grown into two fully fledged AKMICA music schools in Kabul and Herat. At present he is engaged on a project funded by the Leverhulme Trust to see how the Afghan transnational community keeps in touch with itself through music, and to this end he is conducting fieldwork on Afghan music in Melbourne and Sydney.

John Baily and Veronica Doubleday continue to play Afghan music, as a husband and wife duo and with their group Ensemble Bakhtar, which includes Yusuf Mahmoud, son of Ustad Asif, on tabla and Matthaios Tsahourides on Greek lyra. They have published several CDs ontheir own Bolbol label.

John Baily is Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and is Head of Goldsmiths’ Afghanistan Music Unit. Veronica Doubleday is a Visiting Lecturer in the School of Historical and Critical Studies at the University of Brighton.

Jan van Belle Music of the Ismaili Hazaras of Afghanistan

The Hazaras are an ethnic minority group of Turko-Moghol origin, speaking a dialect of Farsi known as Hazagari. Most of them are living in the central part of Afghanistan , the Hazarajat, comprising mainly the provinces Bamiyan, Uruzgan and Ghur, and surrounding regions, such as parts of Herat, Baghlan and Balkh. Also in religious respect they are a minority group, being mainly Shii muslims, including a small group of Ismailis in the region of Kayan, near the city of Pul-i Khumri. In 1996 I made a research trip to Kayan in order to see if there were distinct features in the music and texts of the Hazara Ismailis, especially in comparison with the Ismailis of Tajik and Afghan Badakhshan. Some of the results and recordings will be presented in this lecture.

CV:

• 1942 Jan van Belle was born in Buren, The Netherlands
• 1970 Degree Conservatory of Music, Arnhem, The Netherlands, for     Clarinet, Saxophone, Bass Clarinet
• 1971 Teacher Music School in Doetinchem, The Netherlands, Clarinet, Saxophone and Ensembles for Contemporary and Folk Music
• 1972 Courses and Projects at the Institute for Sonology, Utrecht, The Netherlands
• 1985 Various positions on the Board of the IASPM –Benelux ( International Organization for the Study of Popular Music), organizing symposia, givinglectures and publishing articles on punk and hardrock
• 1989 MA Degree ( in Dutch Doctoraal Examen, (Drs) in Musicology at UtrechtState University, The Netherlands. MA thesis on Time and Music
• 1987 Beginning of research and recording trips in Morocco, Australia, Bulgaria, Tunesia and free-lance work for radio
• 1992- 2003 First trip to Tajik Badakhshan and specializing in music and culture of Central Asia; trips to Tajikistan (1992-1993), Muslim Minorities in Northern China (1994), Afghanistan (1996, 1998, 2001, 2003)
• 2004-2009 Travelling, reading, jogging, playing bagpipes;  preparing, and waiting for possibilities to make a (relatively) safe research trip in the Hazarajat of Afghanistan

Gabrielle van den Berg The performance of quatrains in Central Asia

In the area of southern Tajikistan and northern Afghanistan the quatrain is a favorite form of poetry to be sung a capella or to be sung accompanied by music. In this paper the nature and the background of the vast corpus of quatrains sung in this area will be examined. I will focus on the function and position of the quatrains in different performance contexts, in particular in the genre of falak.

CV: Gabrielle van den Berg is lecturer in Persian at the School of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Leiden. On the basis of her fieldwork in Tajikistan she has published a monograph and a number of articles on the oral tradition of the Ismailis of Tajik Badakhshan. At present she is involved in a project on the Persian Epic Cycle and the Shahnama, funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.

Hans van den Berg Tutankhamen’strumpets

In 1939 a rather unique BBC radio broadcast took place from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. At that occasion bandsman James Tappern of the 11th Hussars blew two ancient trumpets that had been found in the tomb of boy king Tutankhamen in 1922. The attempt was later much criticized by musicologists and Egyptologists as the bandsman managed to produce more notes from them than anyone else before by attaching a modern mouthpiece. However, the fact that a recording was made which still survives today gives us the unique opportunity to relive this impressive happening. Considering their fragile state of preservation, it is very unlikely that any more attempts to play the original trumpets will ever be made again. In my presentation I will follow the exciting events leading up to the broadcast, and discuss the aftermath when musicologists Percival Robinson Kirby, Hans Hickmann and Egyptologist Lise Manniche presented their own view on the ’bandsman incident’.

CV: Hans van den Berg (1964) studied Egyptology and spent many years at Utrecht University pioneering the application of Information Technology in that field. He is best known as author of the hieroglyphic typesetting programme WinGlyph, which became a world standard. Later he served as IT consultant for Egyptology projects at Leiden University, the American University in Cairo, the French Institute of Archaeology in Cairo, and more recently at the University of Oxford. His main interest besides Information Technology is the manifestation of Ancient Egypt in modern media.

Richard Dumbrill Babylonian Quantification of pitches and its influence on music theory of the Abbasids and the Renaissance

In the corpus of Sumero-Babylonian literature, tone quantification derives from interval ratios as an axiomatic consequence because the former is dependent on the latter. Since maths were sexagesimal it is obvious that it was the case also for music. As a consequence tone quantification would be expressed in regular numbers. So, it is proposed that Sumerians, their neighbours and descendants would have perceived their intervals as being just, to the exclusion of any others. At that point one could extrapolate that it was the nature of just intervals, as they stand in natural harmonics of man’s environment which might have been the cause and not the consequence of sexagesimalism.

The hypothetical Babylonian tone-numbers in Mesopotamian theory are remarkably similar to those we find, much later with Plato, and other Greeks. It is my contention that this is where from the Greek theoreticians got them in the first place. It is undeniably from these numbers that Plato reached his famous ‘number’ (already known in Babylon in 2400 BC) to solve all in the universe. These quantification numbers found their way right up to Mediaeval Arabian music theorists such as Al-Farabi, Al-Kindi, Ibn Rushd,Ibn Bajja, A-Urmawi, etc., and later through the Dark ages and the Renaissance without anyone questioning their origins. I will equate their numbers with their assumed Babylonian origins.

This paper is a comparative study of the metrology in UET VII,126 with four Nippur Temple Library tables CBM (11340 + 11402); 11368;11902; 11097.

CV:

• Richard Dumbrill, born in 1947, Dual nationality French/British 
• Educated in France and in the UK
• Studied music (piano, organ, harpsichord), composition, fugue, counterpoint, analysis and improvisation in Reims/Paris,then early music.
• Taught music from 1969 to 1975 at the Lycee de Sezanne
• Moved to Morocco to research various Moroccan musical forms, Berber and Arabian and the organology of moghribi instruments. Organised the first musical festival of Andalusian/Moroccan musicat the palace of Dar Hadara of which he was the director and founder of IMOA (Institut de Musicologie et Organologie Arabe).  Created his own Moorish orchestra named ‘El Haiek’specialised in mediaeval Moorish music.
• Wrote an unpublished and undefended thesis on ‘Las cantigas in relation to Moorish Music’.
• Moved to the Near east to research early music in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
• Last 20 years spent at the British Museum to study the collections of the ancient Near East. 
• Published: 1998 the Musicology and organology of the Ancient Near East, Tadema Press, re-edited 2005 and published by Trafford under the title of The Archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East; 2007: The Idiophones of the British Museum in the collections of the British Museum, LULU; Various articles.
• Created ICONEA in 2008 with the Middle East Dept of the British Museum. First conference at the British Museum, Second conference was held at the Sorbonne, in Paris, 2009.
• Edited: with Irving Finkel: ICONEA 2008/2009 proceedings, forthcoming and ARANE review with Myriam Marcetteau.

Sibylle Emerit La musique dans l’Égypte ancienne etsa postérité dans l’Égypte moderne : continuités et ruptures 

Il n’est pas rare de lire ou d’entendre que la musique égyptienne ancienne s’est perpétuée de génération en génération dans la vallée du Nil jusque dans l’Égypte contemporaine. Deux groupes sont généralement considérés comme les principaux dépositaires de cette tradition musicale : les fellahs et les Coptes. Sur deux mille ans d’histoire, ils auraient été peu sujets à l’influence des autres cultures qui ont dominé l’Égypte, les premiers pour des raisons économiques, les seconds du fait deleur situation de minorité religieuse. Les mélopées de l’époque pharaonique seseraient ainsi transmises oralement au sein de ces deux groupes sociaux.

L’objectif du programme est d’évaluer la validité de l’opinion communément admise de la transmission d’un savoir musical sur plusieurs millénaires en Égypte, de l’époque pharaonique jusqu’à la période contemporaine, à travers l’étude et la comparaison des sources disponibles. Afin d’apprécier le bien-fondé de cette transmission, il s’agit d’étudier le discours des tenants de la continuité, son fondement idéologique et son influence sur les travaux musicologiques puis de mesurer, à partir de l’analyse des sources la valeur de cette idée appliquée à une recherche scientifique.

Pour mettre en lumière les continuités etles ruptures dans la documentation, il est nécessaire d’approfondir, d’une part, notre connaissance de la musique égyptienne ancienne et, d’autre part,les pratiques musicales en Égypte à toutes les périodes historiques considérées.

L’histoire de l’Égypte offre un continuum espace-temps idéal pour une recherche transversale sur la musique. Quelle que soit la période historique concernée, la documentation se répartit en trois grandes catégories : instruments de musique, iconographie et textes en différentes langues et écritures. Pour les 20e et 21e siècles, il faut ajouter les enregistrements audio et visuels des musiques vivantes.

CV: Sibylle Emerit a soutenu, en 2005, sa thèse sur les Musiciens del'Égypte ancienne, leurs titres et leur métier (des origines à la fin du Nouvel Empire) à l'Université Lumière Lyon 2. Recrutée à l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire, d'abord comme membre scientifique (2005-2007), puis en tant qu'ingénieur de recherche (déc. 2007), l'orientation actuelle de ses travaux concerne principalement les catégories socioprofessionnelles des musiciens et des danseurs de l'Ancien Empire à l'époque romaine et le vocabulaire de la musique et de la danse. Son approche de la musique relève de l'histoire sociale et culturelle et s'appuie, de façon ponctuelle, sur des comparaisons ethnologiques. 

John C. Franklin Kinyras and the Musical Stratigraphy of Early Cyprus

Kinyras, featuring already in Homer as a contemporary and peer of Agamemnon, was the central culture-hero of early Cyprus. Splendid, legendary king; beautiful priest and lover of Aphrodite; father by Myrrha, his own daughter, of Adonis; musical beloved, rival or son of Apollo; eponymous ancestor of the Kinyradai, priest-kings of Paphos, and founder of Aphrodite’s great temple in which he was believed to be buried. This is his mature mythological profile in Greco-Roman sources. Yet a remarkable older stratum may be recovered if, as now seems certain, Kinyras is a Cypriote hypostasis of a more widespread West Semitic figure, the Divine Knr. The principal evidence for this is the deified lyre (kinnarum) who is attested in the official pantheon of Ugarit, just opposite Cyprus on the mainland. Kinyras suddenly emerges from the shadowy world of myth into the relatively clear and contemporary light of Bronze Age palace records. The job at hand is to harmonize his mythological function as a royal symbol of pre-Greek Cyprus—now securely identified with the kingdom of Alashiya known from Egyptian and Ugarit records—with what is known of music and deified lyres in the Bronze Age palaces. In the process the two groups of evidence are mutually illuminated, and an important aspect of royal ideology and cultic practice can be uncovered. The monarchs of Bronze Age Cyprus, in their priestly execution (whether literal or supervisory) of key state rituals which involved cultic music—notably royal lamentation and hierogamy—in some sense wore the mask of the Lyre God, donning his symbolic traits for their own 'performance'. This is why Kinyras, in later mythological memory of the island's vanished palace society, was able to take upon himself the mantle of kingship and become a national symbol of the Cypriote golden age. The argument will be supported by a number of Cypriote musical representations, some which are very little known, from c.1200–700 BCE.

CV: John Franklin: I began in music composition (with special interest in electronica), with a degree from the New England Conservatory of Music (1988). I did an M.A. in Classics (University ofWashington, Seattle) thinking that teaching Latin in high school would be an interesting day-job while pursuing a musical career. But one thing led to another and by 2002 I found myself with a Ph.D. in Classics (University CollegeLondon). I tossed about between research fellowships (Rome, Athens, Cyprus,Washington D.C.) before washing up at the University of Vermont as an Assistant Professor in Classics. Most of my research deals with the musical interface between early Greece and the Near East. I am working on two books, Kinyras:The Divine Lyre and The Middle Muse: Eastern Echoes in Early Greek Music. I have also vanity-published a lighthearted CD of'ancient' Greek musical impressions, The Cyprosyrian Girl: Hits of the Ancient Hellenes. For electronic offprints and other information,please visit www.kingmixers.com. 

Yasemin Gökpinar The Qaina-Court Music in the Arabic-Islamic Middle Ages

Islamic scholars’ like Ibn Abī d&#8209unyā’s (d.281/894) discussions of the religious permission or prohibition of the samāʿ (listening to music) contribute to the critique of the secular lifestyle pursued by many rulers throughout the Middle Eastern region during the Middle Ages - even by the caliphs. Nevertheless, the institution of qaina or ǧāriya persisted over the centuries. The qaina was a female slave of high education: Not only did she master at least one instrument and had a beautiful and trained singing voice, she also had a vast knowledge of poetry, adab and tradition. Her task was to entertain the caliph or prince on a high level like her free male colleagues, and therefore the singing-girls were trained and educated by the best musicians of the time, who were themselves often employed by the caliph.

The 10^th volume of al‑ʿUmarīs (d. 1349) cultural and geographic encyclopedia Masālik al-abṣār fī mamālik al‑amṣār (MAA) represents a unique source of the woman dominated courtly music genre from the ʿAbbāsids to al‑ʿUmarīs contemporaries. Apart from Neubauer’s 1969 essay on “Music around the time of the Mongols in Iran and surround” there does not exist any work on this volume. Thus, I want to close the gap by editing and translating parts of MAA, lest citations preserved of otherwise non-extant texts be lost to future scholars. After that I will analyse the text to see what kind of education and status the musicians had and how they actually exercised their craft. Moreover, I want to examine the relationship between male and female singers as far as possible.

In the presentation I am going to introduce my thesis and provides amples from MAA to shed light on the characteristics and social position ascribed to female singers, who often superseded their male counterparts inskill and power. 

CV: Yasemin Gökpinar studied Arabic Philology, Islamic Sciences and Musicology at Ruhr University, Bochum,Germany. In March 2007 she obtained her Magistra Artium. Since then she is working on her doctoral thesis in Arabic and Islamic Sciences concerning ‘Höfische Musikpraxis in der arabisch-islamischen Kultur des Mittelalters von der Ab­basidenzeit bis zu den Mamluken (The Courtly Praxis of Music in Mediaeval Arabo-Islamic Culture from Abbasidian Times to the Mamluks)’. Her supervisor is Prof. Dr. Gerhard Endress.

During her studies she worked as scientific assistant, taught Arabic literature of the 20^thcentury and Turkish literature (Orhan Pamuk). Mrs. Gökpinar is a fellow of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst since December 2008. Her article ‘Islamische und gregorianische Musik – Wurzeln und Wechselwirkungen (Islamic and Gregorian Music – Roots and interaction)’will be published soon. It is based on a presentation of the same title, which she held during a workshop (‘Religion für die Sinne (Religion for the Senses)’ of the Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (IKGF)(International College of Arts and Humanities), Ruhr-University Bochum, on the 24^thJune, 2009. She is marriedand has a one-year-old daughter.

Rokus de Groot Staging the love story of Majnun and Layla inmusic theatre: A case of mutual learning

The tale of Majnun and Layla (Qays wa Layla; Leyla ile Mecnun; Leyli u Majnun) is one of the most well-known love stories in the world of Islam and abroad. The interpretations of it range from reading it as a tragic love story to extolling it as the very example of total love surrender to the divine.

In 2006, a music theatre performance was staged in Amsterdam, Holland, bringing together musicians, dancers and singers from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Europe. In order to highlight various interpretations of the Majnun and Layla story, aswell as connections with European traditions, these artists engaged in mutual learning: ideally each of them acted as both teacher of his/her own expertise,and as pupil to the expertise of the others.

In this way different styles of music and dance were involved, and different languages for vocal setting (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, English, Spanish).

One of the key words of the performance was ‘night’, as suggested by the name of Layla. ‘Night’ was viewed as the opportunity of complete surrender to the beloved, since total darkness dissolves one’s orientation, whether by means ofthe senses or of thought, on anything else.

‘Night’ served also as a connection between the Majnun and Layla stories in Arabic,Persian and Turkish, and the European mystical tradition of the ‘dark night’ as found in En una noche oscura by Juan de la Cruz.

Parts of this performance as well as its aesthetics of counterpoint will be presented for discussion by the composer and librettist Rokus de Groot.

CV: Rokus de Groot (*1947 Aalst, Netherlands), musicologist and composer, conducts research on music of the 20th and 21st centuries, especially about the systematics and aesthetics of composition, about the interaction between different cultural traditions, as well as about (re)conceptualizations of past and present religious and spiritual ideas. He holds the chair of musicology at the University of Amsterdam, after occupying a personal chair ‘Music in the Netherlands since 1600’, at the University of Utrecht (1994-2000). He obtained his MA at the University of Amsterdam (Frank Ll. Harrison, Ton de Leeuw) and his PhD at the University of Utrecht (Paul Op de Coul, Jos Kunst). Recently he edited, together with Albert van der Schoot, Redefining Musical Identities: Reorientations at the Waning of Modernism (Zwolle 2007), and published ‘Perspectives of Polyphony in Edward Said’s writings’, in F. Ghazoul ed., Edward Said and Critical Decolonization (Cairo2007). In 2009 he delivered the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Cairo at the invitation of the American University.

He composed danced music theatre in which singers, musicians and dancers from different traditions cooperate in mutual learning,such as Song of songs: The Love of Mirabai (New Delhi2005), and Layla and Majnun: A Composition about the Night (Amsterdam 2006). See also; home.medewerker.uva.nl/r.degroot/

Stefan Hagel Tunings, scales and tonal systems in antiquity

Scales may be abstracted from melodies. Much more readily, however, they are abstracted from instrumental tunings, where either the manufacturing or the tuning process may hold clues to musical relations. The present paper tries to interpret the known ancient Near Eastern and Greek models in their relation to instrumental conceptions, arguing especially for the development of Greek notation and theory as a process of abstraction starting from very concrete organological considerations.

CV: Stefan Hagel studied Classics in Vienna, Austria. Starting from an analysis of melody patterns in Greek epic verse he specialised in ancient music, with publications on ancient music theory and its relation with contemporary musical practice, on musical instruments with focus on lyresand double pipes, and on questions of metre and rhythm. His work involves reconstruction of instruments and playing techniques, which have frequently been demonstrated to an international public in form of lecture-concerts. Characteristic for Hagel’s research is an extensive application of computer techniques and mathematical methods; he also created the Classical Text Editor, now the most widely used specialised word processor for critical editions, which has received the European Academic Software Award.

Wendelmoet Hamelink Kurdish Dengbêjî in Turkey: a study of performance in new settings

In the year 2000 the Dengbêj singers of Turkey were almost forgotten. Whereas before the 1980s these singers had played an important role in Kurdish society, they were silenced by oppression and unpopularity for a period of 20 years. Recently this tradition has been revitalized. Dengbêj houses are opened, archives are created, television programs broadcasted, and CDs published by Kurdish recording companies: the voices of the Dengbêj can be heard again. Reasons for this revival are among others a growing freedom of expression of Kurdish culture in Turkey, and attempts of the Kurdish national movement(s) to create a unified, ‘authentic’ and nationalist Kurdish culture.

The folklorization of the Dengbêj tradition brings these singers back on stage, but in different conditions than they were used to. In some ways the new situation is beneficial to them, but it has also disadvantages. Two Dengbêj living in Diyarbakir expressed their views in 2007:

“We came to a situation where the Dengbêj of our regions were unknown. Nobody knew them. But after the cultural center was opened, it was called the place of the Dengbêj. Whereever there was a Dengbêj, he came to this place. We got to know each other, it has become very nice.”

“When a Dengbêj visited a village, people came from at least 10 to 15 km distance to hear him. Something like that doesn't exist anymore.  It's hard to keep the attention. When the people don't get touched, the Dengbêj himself also dries out.”

In this paper I will compare various settings in which Dengbêj perform today, and investigate several performances in detail. In what ways do these performances differ from those in the past? How do Dengbêj singers experience the new settings, and how do they try to communicate with changing audiences?

CV: Wendelmoet Hamelink (1975) studied Turkish Studies and Cultural Anthropology at Leiden University, and graduated in 2005 in Cultural Anthropology. After four months of fieldwork in 2004 she wrote her master thesis on the Turkish Aşık, folkmusicians who tell and sing stories about themes such as love, heroism, death,religion and politics. In 2006 she started her Ph.D. research on Kurdish folkpoets in Eastern Turkey, the Dengbêj. She investigates how the function of Kurdish Dengbêj and Aşık develops in the area of tension between Kurdish attempts to preserve their culture and language, and Turkish assimilation politics. The project focuses on the dynamics of an oral tradition, and on the shifting cultural and political identities of its performers, in a transnational Kurdish society. Hamelink conducted fieldresearch for a total of one year in Turkey, and paid regular visits to Germany for the same research. Currently she is working out the data and writing her thesis.

Scheherazade Hassan Permanence, diversity and evolution The Art music of Iraq: Iraqi maqam

It is difficult to trace the evolution that led to the appearance of the musical genre “the Iraqi maqam” and all the changes that the genre engaged in at different moments of its history, given the oral character of its transmission and the historical gaps in writings on Music and in research on Iraqi music. But it seems reasonable to consider that this tradition had stemmed from a process of evolution that incorporated many historical layers.

The hypotheses of accumulation in time that engendered at the same time elements of loss can be confirmed by studying the 20^th century practice of the Iraqi maqam inherited in great part from the 19^th century. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the formal principal and the musical contents of the repertoire to reveal its convention based on diversity and on a tendency towards change. A fusion of local folk, urban popular and art music, that forms part of the repertoire, combined with neighbouring Persian, Azerbaijani elements to which were added Turkish and Arab more recent influences including instrumental genres makes the Iraqi maqam a historical reservoir of many levels.

CV: Scheherazade Hassan is an ethnomusicologist specialized in the Music ofthe Middle Eastern Arab World and most particularly Iraq. She was trained in Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Islamic Sociology. She got her PhD from “L’école Pratiques des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales” in Paris with Jacques Berque in Islamic Sociology and Gilbert Rouget in Ethnomusicology.

In Iraq she founded and directed the first Centre for Traditional Music in Baghdad. She conducted extensive fieldwork in all the regions of the country and created collections of both recorded music and musical instruments.

She also conducted fieldwork in Syria, Bahrain, Qatar,the Arab Emirates and the regions of Aden and Hadramawt in Yemen. She taught at the University of Baghdad and at the University of Paris X Nanterre. 

Andrew Hicks Ghaznavid Minstrelsy and the Poetry of Farrukhi Sistani

This study explores the figure of the minstrel and the imagery of musicin early Ghaznavid court poetry, focusing on the court poet Farrukhi Sistani (d.1037), with occasional reference to his contemporary and fellow Ghaznavid poet, Manuchihri Damghani. Farrukhi’s poetry teems with evocations of a lively minstrel culture, a culture he knew first-hand, as he was not only poet at the courts of both Mahmud (r. 998–1030) and Mas‘ud (r. 1030–1041) but was also, as Nizami’s Chaharmaqala boasts, a ‘dexterous performer on the harp.’ My remarks center on the nasib (lyrical introduction) of a single qasida (no. 100), which offers a vivid accountof a nocturnal encounter between poet (the lover) and minstrel (the beloved). My interpretive intent will be reciprocal: to situate Farrukhi’s musical metaphors, puns, and allusions within the context of our (admittedly incomplete) knowledge of minstrel performance and, in turn, to allow his allusions to shed further historical light on the minstrel tradition. I highlight three aspects in particular. First, minstrels were often, both poetically and historically, Turkish slaves (ghulaman), and this fact may have broad implications for Ghaznavid minstrelsy. Second, Farrukhi’s poetry attests to the growing distinction between the role and status of minstrel(mutrib) and poet (sha‘ir), a distinction likewise evidenced by the poetry ofManuchihri and the roughly contemporaneous history of the Ghaznavid court, the Tarikh-eBayhaqi. Finally, Farrukhi’s qasida subtly inverts the conventional relationship between poet and minstrel, and the inversion pulls the intimate encounter out of the historical register and elevates it to the symbolic.

CV: Andrew Hicks is a doctoral candidate at the Centrefor Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, where he is completing a dissertation on the reception of Late Ancient harmonic theory in twelfth-century (Latin) cosmology and natural philosophy. The dissertation reflects one aspect of a broad interest in the use of harmonic theory within different philosophical and literary contexts, primarily Greek, Latin, and Persian. He has articles published or forthcoming in the Journal of Medieval Latin, the Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine, and the Oxford Handbook of Medieval Latin Literature, and has editions of several Medieval Latin texts (by Eriugena, William of Conches, and anonymous Neoplatonic commentators) published and forthcoming in Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaeualis.

Ralf Martin Jaeger ‘TürkMusikisi Klasikleri’. The musical historism in 19th century Turkey and the origin of the ‘classical’ repertoire.

Among the music cultures of the Middle East, that of the Ottomans is in regard to the musical praxis outstandingly documented. Since the middle of the 17^th century there have been manuscripts for musical praxis, which evolved for different purposes and diverse intentions. Those manuscripts allow an increasingly good over­view of the repertoire of Ottoman Art Music.

The existing manuscripts dating from the late 19th century contain for the first time indications of the development of an historic repertoire, and with the Türk Musikisi Klasikleri, re­leased and published by Darü l-Elhân in the 1920s, first efforts and attempts were undertaken in order to form a canon of as classical conceived works of traditional Ottoman Art Music.

Based on the outlined source material situation, my contribution will aim to investigate the development of the repertoire of Ottoman Art Music particularly between ca. 1850 and 1930. Beside the general question, that is to say which factors led to the development of the ‘classic canon’, how the canonisation asa music historical process took place, and which musical qualities a canonised work should possess, other central questions will be referred to such as the importance and role of the diverse ethnic minorities in the Ottoman Empire to the transmission process.

Altogether we may say that the processes, which have been taking place in Turkey since the Middle of the 19^th century and to large extent ended in 1930 and led for the first time to the development of a musical historism in a non-European music culture, are considered to be paradigmatic for similar developments,which could be currently noticed and followed in other countries of the Middle East as well as in a wider global context.

CV: Univ.-Prof.Dr. Ralf M. Jaeger b. Lengerich (Westphalia), 1963. Studied Musicology (K. Hortschansky) and Ethnomusicology (Chr. Ahrens), English literature and Education sciences at Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster. Ph.D. 1993 (with K. Hortschansky and Chr. Ahrens) on “Turkish Art Music and its Manuscript Sources from the 19. Century”. 1999 Habilitation in Musicology with a paper on “Europe and the Ottoman Empire in Music, ca. 1500 to 1800”.

1999/2000 deputy professor in Bonnand from 2000/2001 until 2004 deputizing the chair of Musicology in Muenster. Since 1995 head of the “Dissertationsmeldestelle” (Doctoral Dissertations inMusicology) of “Gesellschaft fuer Musikforschung” (German MusicologicalSociety); 2000 to 2004 vice-president of the German national committee of the International Council for Traditional Music; 2002 to 2005 deputy chair of the study group “Ethnomusicology” (German Musicological Society).

Lecturing in Goettingen, Istanbul, Mainz, Saarbruecken and Zurich. 2005 awarded with “Hendrik Casimir-Karl Ziegler research grant” by the North-Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.2005-2009 Lecturer and Senior Researcher both at the Musicological Departmentof Muenster University (since 2008 Professor) and University of Music "Franz Liszt" in Weimar. Since 2009 he holds the Chair for Ethnomusicology at the Department of Music Researches of Julius-Maximilians-UniversitaetWuerzburg.

Tala Jarjour Syriac Chant of Edessa: An Auditory Sample of Historical Depth

As proud descendents of the earliest Christian communities in the Levant, the members of the modern Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch uphold a chant tradition that has survived for millennia. In today’s Syria, members of this minority community are known as Suryanis.  The Suryanis employ a liturgical tradition that has undergone a gradual process of canonization over the centuries. While the liturgical texts have been preserved in manuscripts and are largely homogeneous throughout the various Syriac churches, the music to which these texts are sung is far from homogeneity, and continues to be an oral tradition.  There are six distinct schools of Syriac chant, among which the school of Edessa remains in practice by a small community in Aleppo resident in ḥay al-Suryān, the Suryani Neighbourhood.  Known as the Urfallis, this community of refugee migrants who fled for their lives in the aftermath of the First World War prides itself for maintaining some of the most celebrated melodies of the Edessan school of Syriac chant. I present in this paper a sample of Edessan chants from Holy Week celebrations as practised today at St George’s church of ḥay al-Suryān.  I argue that an ethnographic approach that employs an interdisciplinary set of methodological tools offers better insight as to the wealth and complexity of the tradition of Syriac chant as an ancient Levantine tradition of ecclesiastical singing in continuous contemporary practice.

CV: Tala Jarjour is interested in studying music inculture. A classical violinist by training, she is involved in learning, teaching and writing on music making in the Arab World, particularly in the Levantine countries.  Her interest in European as well as Eastern musical practices in the region focuses currently on religious music.  She is writing up her PhD at the University of Cambridge on the chant of the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, focusing particularly on the school of Edessa as a contemporary tradition in the Syrian city of Aleppo. In previous work on Syriac chant, she studied the school of the town of Sadad in inner Syria. Currently a Cambridge Gates Scholar, she got her BA in Music (violin performance) from the Higher Institute of Music in Damascus.  She holds a dual MA in Music History and Violin Performance from Ohio University, and an MPhil in Ethnomusicologyfrom the University of Cambridge.

Olaf E. Kaper Rhythm and Recitation in Ancient Egypt

The Music of ancient Egypt is lost to us, except for depictions ofmusicians and some actual instruments being preserved. In my lecture I will explore other avenues of research, such as the use of rhythm in the recitation of religious texts and information about the sounds produced in the temple cult. The priests in the temples are said to imitate the sounds of animals during the temple rituals, as well as using their voice in particular ways that had to be learned in the temple schools. Papyrus Carlsberg 589 seems to preserve annotations for rhythmical accompaniment of a recitation from the Roman period, and for earlier periods there are images of a click technique in use in the temples as well as in daily life. The Egyptian goddess of music, Meret, uses her hands in a peculiar way that may be paralleled by techniques in use in modern dance in the Middle East. Hans Hickmann already observed some parallels in rhythmical accompaniment between ancient and modern Egypt, as also in the use of certain instruments. Thus, observations of musical traditions in the modern Middle East may assist in recreating the sounds of ancient Egypt. The distinction between secular and religious traditions appears to be largely in our modern minds, because the same techniques and practices can be observed in the two domains.

CV: Olaf E. Kaper studied Egyptology in Leiden and he was subsequently employed at several universities (Leuven, Berlin, Melbourne) and at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. Since 2005 he holds the chair of Egyptology at Leiden University. In his publications, he has written on the religious tradition of ancient Egypt in its various historical periods and in particular about Egypt under Roman occupation and about his fieldwork in the Dakhleh Oasis. Musically, he has been a member of various choirs, and in Egypt he developed an interest in the musical traditions of the Middle East.

Songul Karahasanoğlu Islamic Resurgence in the Age of Globalization: Emotion or Music Market in Turkey

The distinction between traditional and contemporary devotional Muslim music is an essential one, as it highlights the social and cultural changes which have resulted from the evolution of Turkish society in the modern era. In particular, changes in the music policy of the republican regime as well as the rise of popular music and rapid social change in Turkey have all had decisive effects on Islamic Music. The influence of popular music on contemporary Islamic music has been both dramatic and distinct from the influence of traditional religious music; however they have both been influenced by the same political, musical and cultural forces. Religious music has an important role in Turkish culture. It encompasses not only a huge variety of musical styles, but also has a close relationship with Ottoman/Turkish music, so much so that the styles sometimes overlap, and some styles are even linked to folk music.

This presentation is primarily concerned with a phenomenon that may be called as “booming Islamic popular music” in Turkey and its historical background. Since the early 1980s there have been a steady growth in the production and consumption of a newpop-Islamic musical market in Turkey, and today the industry has become massive. Artists such as Abdurrahman Önul and Hasan Dursun have released dozens of albums, and have drawn throngs of adoring fans to their neo-musical representations of the faith. The question is whether this phenomenon should be seen as a tool of emerging Islamic politics in current Turkey; or it should be evaluated as a reflection of a structural aspect of globalization, namely the market economy, or possibly both. While modern day Islamic pop music has roots in older traditional religious styles, performing artist often use anyavailable musical forms in order to broaden their fan base.  Islamic pop artists combine modern popular styles, such as hip-hop and rock and roll, with rhetoric of faith and piety. Because of their willingness to incorporate new styles into religious music, performers of Islamic pop often find themselves at odds with the practitions of older styles. In this presentation, I will examine the music market in Turkey, highlighting the overlaps and contrasts between older religious musics and both secular and Islamic pop. I debate on whether this phenomenon is a tool of emerging Islamic politics in current Turkey; or it should be evaluated as a reflection of a structural aspect of globalization, namely the market economy, or it stems out of both facts.

CV: Songül Karahasanoglu is a professor in the Turkish Music State Conservatory inIstanbul Technical University. She teaches Mey, ethnomusicology and popular music. She is the author of ‘Mey ve Metodu’, “Muş Türküleri ve Oyun Havaları”. She continues her research and publications in the area of Turkish Popular Musicand Devotional Muslim Music in Turkey.

Theo J.H. Krispijn MA (Drs) Singing and Singers in Ancient Mesopotamia

In Mesopotamian literature, especially in the context of religious festivals, we regularly find references to ensembles of musical instruments accompanying singers. We also often find artistic depictions of music being played in official as well as informal scenes of Mesopotamian life. It therefore becomes an interesting exercise to compare the sets of names of musical instruments accompanying singers that are recorded in the literature with the instrumental ensembles depicted in similar periods. Attention will also be paid to the archaeological sites where excavations have revealed some human remains in association with musical instruments (apparenly musicians) and others with no such association (possibly singers). By combining the textual, archaeological and iconographical evidence it becomes possible to sketch in a few developments in the art of singing in Ancient Mesopotamia.

CV:

• Born: 1949 The Hague, the Netherlands
• Academic Studies: Theology (1967-1972) and Semitic Languages/Assyriology: specialisation Sumerian Language at Leyden University,the Netherlands (1968-1974); Assyriology in Munich, Germany 1976 -1977.
• Research Assistant Assyriology for the Sumerian Language.(1974-1975).
• University Teacher for the Sumerian Language (1975-)
• Publications on the grammar and the lexicography of the Sumerian Language, Sumerian Religion and Literature and Ancient Near Eastern music.

Email: t.j.h.krispijn@hum.leidenuniv.nl

Publications on archaeo-musicology by Theo J.H.Krispijn:

• "Beiträge zur altorientalische Musikforschung 1: Šulgi und die Musik", Akkadica 70 (1990), 1-27.
• "Musik in Keilschrift. Beiträge zur altorientalischen Musikforschung 2", in Hickmann, E. - Killmer, A.D. - Eichmann, R. (ed.) Orient Archäologie Band 10, Studien zur Musikarchäologie III, Rahden (2002), 465-479.
• "Music and Healing for Someone far away from Home HS 1556, A Remarkable Ur III Incantation, revisited", in Van der Spek, R.J. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern World View and Society (M. Stol Anniversary Volume) Bethesda (2008), 173-193.
• “Musical Ensembles in Ancient Mesopotamia”, in R.J.Dumbrill and I.L. Finkel (ed.), Iconea 2008 (forthcoming),183-207.

Magdalena Kuhn Coptic Music

The Coptic religious music culture indicates an entire spectrum of music performances from old traditional melodies to modern church songs. Little is known about the roots of the old traditional melodies. This lecture about music will try to provide in two parts more information about this very special music tradition. The first part contains a kind of survey about the history of Coptic music; the second part will show more about structure and variations in Coptic music.

Today on the one side, a typical secular Coptic music has disappeared and is mixed together with the Egyptian secular music. On the other side liturgical music has survived and is still alive. Right up to the present day, we still don’t know to which period the Coptic hymns date back to. Some people claim that the melodies must originate from the ancient Egyptian temple music; others are of the opinion that their roots are Jewish or Byzantine.

Ancient Coptic liturgical music is vocal music and has a strong oral tradition. The Western Music notation is still not common between Coptic chanters, but there are several personal notations and teaching techniques to assist, as for example the ‘cheironomie’.

This brings us to the second part of this expose about music, the structure of Coptic melodies and their variations. In Coptic chants we find two principal melodies, the more simple ‘syllabic‘ melodies and the ‘melismatic’ melodies with their long cadences, called “vocalises’, a speciality of the Coptic hymns. The comparison of different interpretations of the same chants,sung by various cantors, shows us a great choice of ornaments and rhythms. The analyses of the melodies confirm that there is an old tradition in the ground melody of a song in combination with a freedom in ornaments and rhythms. This freedom of the singers does meanwhile not restrict the energy and the power of this music and is the expression of an active performance and a strong musical tradition.

CV: Magdalena Kuhn combines two professions, musician and coptologist. She studied flute in Bern, Switzerland and with the famous flutist René Le Roy in Paris. As a flute instructor she worked on the Academies of Music in Biel, Switzerland and Arnhem, The Netherlands. For many years she played solo flute as a member of the Radio Symfonie Orkest. Together with the famous guitar player Julian Coco she made several records and many programs forradio and television. Actually she is guest professor in Georgia for flute and music education at the Zakaria Paliashvili Central Music School and the Conservatorium Tbilisi.

She organized two expositions in the Allard Pierson Museum of Amsterdam entitled: ‘Kopten, Christelijke cultuur in Egypte’ (1998) and ‘Coptic Texts and Artefacts, hidden in Amsterdam’ (2000). For the Graeco-Roman Museum of Alexandria she developed a catalogue of a collection of Coptic Ostraca. Regularly she gives lectures in The Netherlands, Switzerland, Egypt and in Georgia. She worked several years with the Hungarian musicologist Margit Toth. On December 1 2009 she has defended her dissertation entitled Die Struktur der koptischen liturgischen Melodien at the University of Leiden. This dissertation includes transcriptions of melodies of the Coptic Psalmodia sung by famous Coptic chanters.

Frédéric Léotar Sung poetry among the Turkic agro-pastoralists of Central Asia

Among the Turkic agro-pastoralists of Central Asia, sung poetry traditionally accompanies the activities of everyday and ritual life. Today, it is still possible in certain remote regions to hear shepherds singing during the milking of the herd’s females; the churning of the butter; the making of coats and carpets, etc. In these regions, mothers still sing lullabies every evening to their newborns until they fall asleep. These musical traditions constitute the last fragments of an ancient and rich heritage spread among all the Turkic populations of Southern Siberia and Central Asia, which together form a homogeneous culture.

In reality, these fragments come from a much richer past when music was integrated in the social and daily life sphere at a much greater and deeper level. Consequently, the study of the lyrics and the ethnografical datas invite to wonder if a difference between everyday life, on one side, and ritual life, on the other side, does really exist.

It seems rather that such a dichotomy was imported and then strongly encouraged by the implementation of the Soviet empire, and all the human activities were influenced by a certain atheist vision of the world. The sacred aura of the everyday life was taken away by the banning and the subsequent oversight of many deeply rooted traditions that previously transmitted orally from one generation to another. Nevertheless, based on selected ancient musical repertoires and fieldworks conducted these last few years in different agro-pastoral zones from Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan, Kazakhstan and Kirghizistan, we will try to project some light on several aspects of an ancient culture deeply linked with the nature, and a sacred view of the world still alive beyond the borders of the Republics of Central Asia inherited from the Soviet Union.

CV: F. Léotar received a Doctorate on Ethnomusicology (summa cum laude) from the Université de Montréal, a Masters Degree on Ethnomusicology from the Université Paris X-Nanterre and a Bachelors Degree on Russian Studies from INALCO (Paris). After a post-doctoral research funded by the Canadian government (2007-2009), he was recently hired at Université de Montréal as a Research Assistant. Dr. Léotar specialized in the study of the nomadic musical cultures of Turkic Inner Asia. He began to conduct his researches among the Tuvinian pastoralists (Southern Siberia) and progressively extended its territory to Central Asia, especially in southern Uzbekistan, Karakalpakstan, Kazakhstan and Kirghizistan. The academic studies of Dr. Léotar’s research were supervised by such scholars as S. Arom, B. Lortat-Jacob, J.J. Nattiez and R. Qureshi.Recent long-term fieldworks in Central Asia led F. Léotar to participate in several projects designated to the preservation of ancient repertories by their numerization and their restoration (Karakalpak branch of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences), the recording of living traditions spread among the agro-pastoralists (Buda Records), and the creation of standardized protocols of inquiry to develop the collection of intangible heritages by local ethnomusicologists (UNESCO). He just finished a book dedicated to the Musical Culture of Turkic Inner Asia based on the fieldworks he has been conducting in this area since 1998.  

Jane Lewisohn The Golha Radio Programs (1956-79) and their Impact on Persian Culture and Society

The first half of the twenty century was a period of great change and development in Iran not only in the spheres of Politics and Economics but also in the spheres of Literature, Music and popular culture. The forces of modernity and tradition were performing a delicate balancing act and the national Radio of Iran was an important stage where this dance of tradition and modernity was played out. In this powerpoint-illustrated lecture, based not only on contemporary literary journals but also on recent interviews conducted over the last two years, in Iran, Europe and the United States, with all the living founders, musicians, singers, poets and writers associated with these programs, I will try to show what role the contemporary literary and musical atmosphere in Iran had on the appearance and reception of the Golha programs. Some musical highlights from the programs will be featured during my lecture as well. I will begin by giving a brief overview of the musical and literary influences that were being felt in the early 1950's in Iran and then show what effect they had on the later development of these programs. Lastly, I will examine and give an overview of the legacy of the Golha programs, demonstrating their lasting effect on Persian Music and Literature. 

CV: Jane Lewisohn lived in Iran during the 1970s for over five years and is a graduate of Pahalavi University, Shiraz, Iran. She has been involved in the research and promotion of various aspects of Persian Studies for the last three decades. Since 2005 she has been directing the Golha Project under the auspices of the British Library, London, and the Music Department of SOAS,University of London. She has archived and digitalised the whole archive of the Golha radio programmes broadcast on Iranian Radio from 1956 through 1979. She is now working in collaboration with the IHF to make this Golha Archive and all the related research concerning the Golha Archive available over the internet. At  http://www.golha.co.uk.

• Research interests include all aspects of Persian culture and society.
• Research Associate at the Department of Music School of Oriental andAfrican Studies University London.
• Research Fellow Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies University of Exeter
• Director of the Golha Project.

Lisa Nielson Musical identity and courtesanship: Singing girls and theembodiment of music, poetry and seduction in the 9^th and 10^thcentury Abbasid courts

Patronage of women musicians has ancient roots in Arabia and Mesopotamia, and with the advent of Islam use of women musicians did not substantially change. The professional classes of women musicians were predominately slave concubines who were first obtained via trade and conquest, but by the 8^th century, demand for musical slaves soon supported alucrative industry where women were carefully selected for training in poetry, music, and courtly etiquette. These “singing girls” were differentiated in the literature from other slaves through the Arabic term qayna (pl. qiyan) and by the 9^thcentury became an essential part of musical entertainments at court.

As a result of their popularity, qiyan became the focus of both praise and controversy. Much of their notoriety lay in their musical identity, which was intricately linked to their place in aristocratic society as courtesans. Though male musicians had similar musical training, they had different, gendered, expectations for performance. In contrast, the performance of qiyan was invested with layers of musical, sexual and textual meaning.  They not only composed and sang songs; they wrote poetry on their clothes, instruments, and even used perfumed oils to inscribe poetic texts – and the names of their lovers – on their bodies.  Poetry and music were therefore embodied through every aspect of their performance as courtesans.

In this paper, I will discuss the intersection of music, poetry and thebody in the performance of the qiyan as evidenced in select 9^thand 10^th century Arabic sources. I suggest that the performance of qiyan took place inboth physical and poetic spaces, and that their extension of performance spaceswere part of their musical and, often transgressive, social identities.

CV: Lisa Nielson is a doctoral candidate in Historical Musicology, with a concentration in Women’s Studies, in the Interdisciplinary PhD program at the University of Maine, Orono, Maine USA. Her dissertation research is focused on the uses and perceptions of the singing slave girls (Arabic qayna, pl. qiyan) in the courts of the early Islamic dynastic eras (661 – 1,000CE), and their symbolic influence on debates regarding the morality of music and performance as seen through select texts from the 9^th and 10^th centuries.  Her Bachelors and Masters degrees are in cello performance and she is also a specialist in Western early music performance practices.  When not writing or traveling, she maintains an active performance schedule playing contemporary cello music and medieval and Baroque bowed strings.

Anne van Oostrum Songs of Arabia: the musical heritage of  the Dutch Arabist Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936).

The Dutch Arabist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936) collected important ethnographical and musicological material during his travels abroad. By using ‘modern’ devices, such as a camera and a phonograph,he was far ahead of his time. In service of the Dutch government he travelled via the Arab world to the Netherlands East Indies, present-day Indonesia, where he had accepted the post of advisor of the colonial government. Later he became professor of Arabic at the University of Leiden, but he never found time to describe his unique treasure. Nowadays this heritage is preserved in the library of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

Apart from taking photographs and collecting various artefacts, among other things a number of musical instruments, Snouck Hurgronjemade about three hundred recordings on wax cylinders with a phonograph in the region of the Hijaz. It is an amazing experience to listen to these sounds registered in the city of Mecca at the beginning of the twentieth century. Not only music was recorded, but also stories, calls to prayer, street life, and recitations of the Koran. The music collection consists of children’s songs, wedding songs performed by women, songs of workmen and poetry set to music by professional musicians.

This paper will focus on this last genre for it represents an interesting compilation of styles. Songs in the style of the Egyptian dor are found, as well as qasidas composed by either classical poetsor local masters. This musical treasure will be placed in both its poetical and musical tradition, illustrated by audio-visual material.

CV: Anne van Oostrum is a lecturer of Arabic music at the University of Leiden (School of Middle Eastern Studies and Academy of Creative and Performing Arts) and the University of Amsterdam (Department of Musicology). She studied music at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and Arabic at the University of Leiden. She has written a PhD thesis on the Egyptian nay (reedflute), the Art of Nay playing in Modern Egypt. As a researchfellow of the Scaliger Institute she has published a catalogue of mediaeval Arabic manuscripts on music preserved in the University Library of Leiden. At present she is working on the collection of wax cylinders recorded by the Dutch Arabist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje (1857-1936). Apart from her academic work she has made radio and television programs on Arabic music for the Dutch broadcast, see for instance www.vpro.nl/dewandelendetak.

Email address: a.h.van.oostrum@hum.leidenuniv.nlor anne.vanoostrum@gmail.com

Ulaş Özdemir Traditional Environments, New Dimensions: Mission of the Tanbur in Ahl-i Haqq Society

World’s one of the old rooted instrument the tanbur played by adherents to the Ahl-i Haqq faith is a folk instrument considered sacred by this community in Iran. The sacredness of this instrument stems from the fact that during the gatherings (cems) of the faithful, certain makams known as “secret” are played. The opening to the “outside” world of the Ahl-i Haqq, which has until the present day lived quite a secluded existence, and of their instrument, which is one of the most important vessels for their collective memory, has become a new subject of debate. Alongside the living Ahl-i Haqq leaders’ insistence on the preservation of the sacred repertoire, the emergence of new works, and their performance outside of traditional environments, has added new dimensions to the mission ofthe tanbur in Ahl-i Haqq society. Consequently, the tanbur, which achieves communication within the society, has been the vehicle for the society’s communication with the outside world. Works for tanbur, which can today be learned and played in a variety of places even by non-members of the Ahl-iHaqq, are carried on with respect for the instrument’s status and identity. This research examines the identity of the tanbur in its social and cultural context, beginning with its sacred status. From this standpoint, the elements that form the identity of Ahl-i Haqq tanbur and their relationship with collective memory, the role these elements play in social relationships, and the instrument’s cultural mission and the values it carries, demonstrate that the instrument has a status beyond that of “folk instrument.” This status suggests that the tanbur has a special position in Ahl-i Haqq society, and is one of the basic elements that carry the collective memory of the community. 

CV: Ulas Ozdemir was born 1976 in Maras, Ulas Ozdemir completed primary, middle and high school in Maras. After attending İstanbul University, Political Science Faculty,Department of Finance for three years, he entered Yildiz Technical University and earned his Ethnomusicology Master’s Degree from the Art and Design Faculty, Department of Music and Performing Arts. He is still working on his phd thesis at the same department.

He has participated in a variety of concerts in Turkey and abroad, as well as world music festivals performing on the traditional instruments of Alevi-Bektasi music, the dede sazi and ruzba, He has also given several lectures on Alevi-Bektasi musical culture.

Along with collection efforts focused on the music of the Alevi-Bektasis and the different ethnic groups of Anatolia, he has conducted works with Ahl-i Haqq communities in Iran. He has also accompanied Iranian artists and ensembles on baglama and vocal. 

He has composed film scores and written arrangements that employ a broad array of instruments, with references to various music cultures from his country.

Since 1997, he also has worked for Kalan Muzik as producer.

E. Şirin Özgün Women Frame Drummers in Central Anatolia

The tefçi (women who play frame drums) tradition in Central Anatolia and its links with ancient and current women’s cultures are the main focus of this paper. Wedding rituals and especially henna evenings among them are significant milieus where women’s music and women’s cultural expression take place in Anatolia. The henna ceremony is a rite of passage for the young bride: it signifies the end of childhood and the beginning of a new life in a new family.  As a rite of passage, henna ceremony is constructed with multiple symbols. The three key elements of the henna ceremony are: the bride, henna and the tefçi. The henna ceremony is a realm where the millennia-old tefçi tradition, a tradition closely associated with the ancient goddess cults, continues in a different path. The henna itself links the present to the past and to the future with its symbolical meanings concerning life, birth and death. The henna and the drummer women/the music the drummer women produce construct together the often neglected characteristics of the women’s culture in Anatolia and its symbols, which can be traced back to the ancient times. In this paper the role of the tefçis during henna ceremonies in a Central Anatolian district, Akşehir, will be analyzed in terms of symbolic meanings.

Keywords: frame drum, goddess, henna, Anatolia.

CV: E.Şirin Özgün has studied sociology in Bosphorus University, Istanbul. Her interest in traditional musics in the Middle East began as an undergraduate student in the folklore club of the university, where she performed first as a dancer, then as a percussionist. She got her MA degree in ethnomusicology, from the Center for Advanced Studies in Music, Istanbul Technical University. Her MA project focused on the traditional drummer women in Anatolia. She continues her doctoral studies at the same centre on ethnomusicology. She is actually working on her doctoral dissertation on the soundscapes of Istanbul and recording her own soundscape compositions. She also teaches musical anthropology courses in different universities in Istanbul as a part-time instructor.

Leo J. Plenckers Structural Similarities Between the Spanish Saeta Flamenca and the Algerian Istikhbâr.

This study deals with two specific vocal genres, the saeta and the istikhbar, which belong to two different musical cultures, the west-European resp. the Arab one. A comparative study of these two genres seems appropriate, as both have many features in common as far as their structure is concerned.The first genre, the saeta, or more precisely the saeta flamenca, is found in several cities and villages of Andalusia, the most southern province of Spain, where it is performed by skilled, often professional, flamenco singers at religious processions held in town during Holy Week. The other genre, the istikhbâr, belongs to the Algerian urban music tradition and to a certain extent may be seen as an instance of one of the major ways of vocal improvising that is practiced in the Arab world.

Generally, similarities between genres of different cultures do not necessarily indicate an historical relation. They may rather be seen as coincidental. In this case, however, a historical relation may be assumed, because of the amount and the nature of the similarities the two genres display. In support of this assumption it may be stated that the music cultures of the two genres are indeed different, yet geographically very close to each other. It may also be noted that Spain and the Arab world had a common history for several centuries, during which the music of Spain could have been influenced by the Arab music culture.

We try to show that both the saeta flamenca and the istikhbar belong to a type of improvisation which may be labeled ‘fixed-form improvisation’  and that this type  is not uncommon in Arab vocal music, whereas it do not seem to be practiced in the vocal music traditions of Western Europe. The thesis that the modern saeta flamenca still shows a way of music making that may be coined Arab is mainly based on this evidence.

CV: Leo Plenckers was assistant professor of music at the University of Amsterdam till he retired officially in 2003. His two man fields of interest and research are the theory of music and the music of the Arab world. He wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on the muwashshah-tradition of Algeria. Since then his research and publication in the Arab field mainly focused on the music of the Maghreb. Actually he is preparing a general survey on the music of the Arab world, meant for a broad public.

Allan Prosser Oral Tradition of Egyptian/Pythagorean Musical Interval Structures.

Outline of the links between Pythagoras and the Egyptian temples and the evidence of music instruments depicted on Egyptian wall paintings. Tracing the oral tradition of the Egyptian / Pythagorean music system through 2,500 years from evidence which has emerged at various times in history. 

Transfer of the tradition more than 1,000 years after Pythagoras to the middle east through Al Kindi, Al Farabi and Safi al Din, used and preserved by the Sufi groups including the Mevlevi dervishes.

The secretive nature of the brotherhoods who have preserved this music.  Oral tradition = lack of documentation. Some parts have been written down.  Other parts were only transmitted from teacher to pupil who is trained to hear the subtleties.

The use of music for spiritual development is outlined.  Description of the way this works through two interval structures which operate side by side, one of which is well known through documentation the other which has been kept mainly within the oral tradition. 

Examination of the secretive inner octaves which have revealed themselves in the form of microtonal divisions within the structure of the Makams (musical modes).  A demonstration of the just intonation intervals by playing part of an Ottoman classical piece (Saz Semaisi).  Description of the other special intervals and a demonstration of these by playing an appropriate Dervish hymn (Ilahi) with the words of a Sufi poet set to music. 

The description of the high art form of the Mevlevi whirling dervishes ceremonial music and how it interweaves the two system of intervals to generate the opportunity for a devotional atmosphere using the mystical poetry of Rumi. Demonstration of a section from one of these Ayin compositions on Turkish Ney (reed flute) and Kudum (kettle drums).

CV: Alan Wenham-Prosser (MA) was born in UK 1944 -  took deep interest in music and mathematics from early school years. Studied engineering at Kingston in Surrey -  eventually becoming a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers.  Spent 14 years in consulting engineering in the London area after which 32 years in statutory building control – eventually becoming Principle Building Control Officer in the City of London, taking early retirement from this in 2001 so as to further his lifetime interests in philosophy and music.

From teenage years took a deep interest in Eastern philosophy and later Sufism and Sufi music. Accepted into the traditional Mevlevi (Whirling Dervish) Order in 1976.  Has spent more than 30 years with the aim to restore Mevlevi music to its authentic glory through research and practise.  More than 40 visits to Turkey for this purpose taking many lessons from Tanburi Necdet Yaşar, Nezih ~zel and others.  In 1996 tested the knowledge and understanding gained in Turkish and Mevlevi music through a work based Masters programme at Middlesex University London, which lead to a Masters Degree in Ottoman Art Music.  This has leadon to further research and currently a Doctorate program in professional studies at Middlesex University (Philosophy of Music), to this end currently working on a book entitled “The Music of Rumi”.

Concurrent with music studies has taken an avid interest for the traditional study and practice of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of India, and in 1991 was accepted into an ancient Bhakta tradition of India.

Tansy Honey  BSc.(honours)(nee Wenham-Prosser) -  Born in UK 1971– Grew up with Mevlevi Music from early childhood.  Has travelled with her father on most of his visits to Turkey since 9 years of age to the present and is co-researcher in the music.  Continues to play and study Mevlevi music for the joy of it, sharing her father’s love of the ancient reed flute called the Ney.

Obtained a degree in environmental science from Queen Mary’s –University of London in 1993.  Now works at Eco Local, an environmental organization in South London, which introduces environmentally friendly initiatives to local communities.

Jan van Reeth The oktoèchos: between philosophical theory and musical praxis

In the stoic and neoplatonic cosmology, the eight musical modi symbolized the seven planetary spheres of the cosmos, having also soteriological implications. In our contribution we will try to demonstrate that the eight modi in origin were only a speculative theory, developed by Syriac Hellenistic philosophers, not by musicians.

Only after the completion of the modal system’s theoretical framework, musicians were endeavoured to fit older compositions into this system and to provide new compositions in accordance to it. 

CV: Studied ancient and Eastern languages (MA Classical Philology and MA Eastern Philology and History from the Universities of Antwerp, Ghent and Louvain), followed by one year of advanced studies at the University of Leiden, with a scholarship of theBelgian Ministry of Education. PhD (University of Louvain), with a thesis on Mithracism and the myth of Spontaneous Generation (bugonia) in Vergil’s Georgics.

Member of the UnionEuropéenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, member of the board of theBelgian Society of Oriental Studies, of Solidarité Orient andvice-president of the ‘Nederlands Klassiek Verbond’. Together withthe musician Peter Strauven he also founded ‘Organiek’, a concert associationfor organ music, of which he is the president.

He is teaching the history of the religions of the Middle East, encyclopaedia of religious studies, history of the Eastern Churches, Mystery religions, ancient philosophy, koinè-Greek and kalâm.

His scientific research is mainly focussed on the comparative study of religion (heathen, Christian and Islamic) in late antiquity and the early middle ages, especially about ancient Syria. Recently he published a series of studies about the Syriac (Christian) religious background and sources of the Koran.

Nahid Siamdoust Politically Potent Poetry – Verse and Music in Iran’s Social Movements   cancelled  

My paper examines Persian poetry used for song in social movements inpost-revolutionary Iran. Interestingly, many of the songs that were produced around the time of the 1979 were based on verse written at the beginning of the 20^th century in support of the country’s constitutional revolution. Now again, thirty years into the Islamic Republic, some of the same songs are being used by the so-called “green” movement to awaken sentiments forlong-desired, yet never fully achieved political and social goals. I study the nature of this poetry, and its political potency in the modern Iranian communicative context. How are this poetry and the subsequent songs different from newer verse in resonance of the country’s political situation? Also, since the 1970s, this subtly political poetry has been set to traditional Persian music by some of Iran’s most accomplished maestros. My paper examines the form of this particular carrier of politically potent poetry, and compares it to more current musical genres that are also used for the purpose of transmitting political content, such as rock and rap music.

CV: Nahid Siamdoust is a doctoral candidate in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at St. Antony's College, Oxford University. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University. Before returning to academia, Nahid worked as TIME magazine’s correspondent in Iran, and last joined AlJazeera English in 2006 to work on the channel’s global launch out of Doha. Her thesis examines the field of music production in post-revolutionary Iran. 

Max Stern Reconstructing Ancient Music of the Near East

References to the ethos of ancient music abound in the writings of ancient philosophers. Plato in his Laws praises the dignity, serenity and nobility of Ancient music lamenting its degeneration into licentious pleasure rousing novelty. What was the sound of this sobre and sublime art, ancient evento Plato in the 4^th century B.C.? What was its character, logos, melos, rhythm? Is it possible to recapture its mysterious ethos, reclaiming it to pulsating life?

Ancient  Mesopotamian hymns were set to music in a free, recitative style. The melodic line was determined by word accent, frequently punctuated by accompanying instruments. Perhaps incidental sounds enriched its recitation. The remains of sistra and jinglingplates were discovered at the Royal Cemetery at Ur in the 1930s. Drones ofvarious kinds, another form of archaic counterpoint were known 5000 years ago.We rely on iconographic evidence on stone reliefs, the testimony of ancient philosophers, the insights of contemporary researchers, the remains of ancient instruments, and imagination to help us venture a hypothetical guess.

This lecture presents a reconstruction of the Hurrian Hymn (ca. 1400 BC)is one of the earliest examples of notated music known to mankind. It antedatesthe earliest sources of Greek music by over a millennium. Its clearly diatonic and harmonic character suggests kinship to modern Western Culture, demonstrating that micro-tonal and melismatic music, once considered the earliest source of Western music, may well be an overlay from a later period. The lecture-demonstration is accompanied by a DVD performance of the hymn by a "Bronze Age" choir under the direction of the author.

CV: Max Stern (b. 1947 USA) is a composer, conductor, double bassist, musicologist and music critic. He has created a rich genre of biblical compositions blending East and West in contemporary and traditional genres. A recipient of the Israel Composer's League Lieberson Prize, 1990, and an award from the Japanese Society for Contemporary Music, 1991, his opera Messer Marco Polo was performed at the New York City Opera Vox-2006 show case. He has represented Israel at international conferences and festivals in Israel, USA, Europe, and the Far East as composer, conductor and lecturer on the "Contemporary music," "Bible & Music," and "Ancient Music". He serves as music critic for The Jerusalem Post since 1988; founded the orchestra and chorus of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in 1995 and since 2000 serves as founding professor of music at the Ariel University Center. Thirteen CDs of his compositions have been released in cooperation with the Israel Broadcasting Authority, IPO, and others.

Harry Stroomer Amarg: Sung Poetry of South Morocco

My contribution is about the ambulant poet-singers of South Morocco. They are called rrways and represent the oral sung tradition called amarg. In my contribution I will try to characterize the performance and the poetic contents of their songs.

CV: Harry Stroomer is specialist in Arabic dialectology and in Berber Studies, University of Leiden.

Razia Sultanova Hidden voices, sacred poems: female singing in Uzbek and Afghan communities

My paper is based on data collected during extensive fieldwork in Uzbekistan and Northern Afghanistan.  In remote parts of Uzbekistan one can meet women who have hardly ever been beyond the inner female part of the house, ichkari, who have spent all their lives behind high clay walls bringing up their children. Usually, ichkaris of one household are inter-connected with those of neighbours, and so the female part of the society lives a hidden life, spreading from one house to another through the whole village. The lives of these women developed in this enclosed environment subject to few outside influences. The ladies who lead the female spiritual chanting widely practised in those circles are called Otin-Oys (‘religiously educated women’). What kind of poetry do these ladies perform? How do they sing it? How do they pass their performing skills to younger generations in Uzbekistan and within the Uzbek Diaspora in Afghanistan? These are the main questions of my presentation.

CV: Dr Razia Sultanova is a Fellow of Cambridge Central Asia Forum, University of Cambridge, is a graduate of Uzbek State Conservatory and of the Moscow State Conservatory, where she completed her PhD in musicology. She has taught musicology and ethnomusicology at Uzbek State Conservatory, Moscow StateConservatory, Goldsmiths College and SOAS, University of London, and at Leeds University. Her primary areas of research are Central Asian and Middle Eastern music, Islam and music, and gender and music. For the last fifteen years she has been conducting intensive fieldwork in Afghanistan, Turkey, the Caucasus, and the Central Asian republics (Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), publishing articles in English, German, French, Chinese, Russian and Uzbek.  Her recent publications concern the musical traditions of the Islamic world, at present produced by I. B. Tauris as a monograph “From Shamanism to Sufism: Women and Islam in Central Asian culture”. She has acted as a music consultant for several international organizations including UNESCO (2005). She has been awarded a large number of scholarships:in Germany (DFG in 1993, the Ministry of Culture of the Land Brandenburg 1994,1997); in France (1996, 1997); in Japan (1998); and in the UK (1999 onwards).Whilst at SOAS in 2006 she was the initiator and organizer of a new Study Group within the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music). She set up the first Workshop and Conference which attracted participants from twelve countries to an event considering the place of music in the huge area of the Turkic speaking world from an ethnomusicological and anthropological perspective. On the basis of that Conference Razia Sultanovahas  edited the book “Sacred Knowledge: Schools or Revelations. Master-Apprentice Music Training in the Turkic Speaking World” published in October 2009 by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany.

Lisa Urkevich Camels, genies, and raids: Bedouin musical influences in the Arabian peninsula

Dwelling in a ruthless climate with no permanent home and little sustenance, the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula could turn to few sources for musical genre inspiration. The camel, genies (jinn), and raiding/battle were three primary elements prevalent in desert life that became directly tied to Bedouin song and dance. The camel influence is mostly evident in rhythmic modes and timbre. Camels, crucial to Bedouin life, provided transportation, milk, meat, shade, urine for medicine, droppings for fire fuel,and leather for daily items. This beloved animal, from whose name the Arabic word “beautiful” is derived (jamel [camel]—jameel [beautiful]), is imitated in Bedouin song: camel vocal resonances are represented by human vocalizations and the camel gait is featured in rhythmic modes. Raids and battle, while not supplying roots of musical elements like the camel, are however key in establishing a basis for musical function. With so few vital resources in the desert, as a matter of course, intense competition was common among Bedouin tribes or between the different sections of individual clans. Raiding was part of daily life, with the norm being a continual state of combat or rivalry.Several important song genres, both male and female, developed around this character of battle and competition. And genies, spirits, who are associated with healing rituals or exorcisms, provide a third common and significant source for Bedouin music. In a culture with little to draw upon in regard to applied medicine, Bedouin often looked toward the spirit world for help. Like raiding and competition, these trance events call for important functional music. It is the music and the accompanying body movements that evoke the genie or put oneinto an altered state that will eventually assist in freeing them of the troublesome entity who is causing the emotional or physical duress. This paperwill discuss Bedouin traditional music from what is now present-day Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Gulf, focusing on the three sources in Bedouin life that were significant to primary music genres, that is, camels, genies, and raids.

CV: Lisa Urkevich is Associate Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology at the American University of Kuwait (AUK), where she also serves as Director of the Arabian Heritage Project, a center focused on outreach and preservation of the music of Arabia and neighboring lands. Her research focus is on the traditional music of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Gulf cultures. She is currently completing a book on the Sea Songs of the Arabian Gulf  (www.urkevich.com).

Burak Yedek Reformed tradition via instrumental education: Meşk

Meşk (prnc. meshk), a method of education intraditional arts, based on master-disciple relationship is used in various areas such as music, sema and caligraphy. The ney (nay) of Sumerian origin, is still taught via meşk. Meşk of the ney, in the Niyazi Sayin style is tracked back to seven generations, that corresponds to the beginning of the 19^th century. The contemporary representation and development of traditional Turkish music will be discussed and explored in this paper through a reflexive and historical perspective. The method is not only an imitation and listening based educative method, but also a technique where the participants listen to the monologues of the master about music and practice techniques as much as various subjects such as philosophy, history, traditional arts (ebru, bead making,calligraphy etc.). This transmission is a mutual and emotional process, mainly influenced by sufi culture. But among other Turkish instruments, only the ney has a concrete historical background in means of education. The content of meşkcan be classified as musical practice, musical knowledge transfer, listening and conversation. The meşk, tries to establish a holistic artistic perspective and pass it through the experience of the master to the disciple by complete submission. It is proposed that this method is a way to reform and reactivate the music tradition which the author believes has been partially passive and is under the risk of corruption in modern society.

CV: Burak Yedek was born in 1981, Germany. He started to play the guitar at the age of 12. He studied cinematography in Universite Paris-8 St. Denis. While doing a research for a documentary about Turkish Classical Music and its relations to the call for prayer, he felt curious about the makams and especially the ney. He started to take lessons from Salih Bilgin in 2005. He is contributing Taksim Musterek (dance and musicimprovisation project) as a ney player (www.taksimmusterek.com) and is continuing his masters degree in the Turkish Music Program, Institute of Social Sciences, Istanbul Technical University. His main research is focused on the meşk educative method and its change in the modernization period of Turkey and its cultural and musical consequences.