Past and Present Musical Encounters across the Strait of Gibraltar

Informazioni relative al progetto

MESG

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 758221

DOI

10.3030/758221

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 26 Settembre 2017

Data di avvio 1 Aprile 2018

Data di completamento 30 Settembre 2023

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Costo totale

€ 1 498 013,00

Contributo UE

€ 1 498 013,00

Coordinato da

THE UNIVERSITY COURT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MESG (Past and Present Musical Encounters across the Strait of Gibraltar)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-01-01 al 2023-09-30

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

The project has explored how music functions as a form of cultural encounter between different communities across the Strait of Gibraltar. It has examined the social, cultural and political factors that have given rise to these musical encounters, both in the context of French and Spanish colonialism in North Africa, and present-day contexts of immigration and cultural diplomacy. Musical encounter across this region is often underpinned by the legacies of medieval Spain (al-Andalus) and the notion of convivencia (coexistence) between Christians, Jews and Muslims. Yet the idealism associated with al-Andalus obscures the fact that the idea of a shared musical heritage emerged in the context of French and Spanish colonialism. Moreover, the performance of al-Andalus has become a dominant trope that obscures other ways of understanding musical encounters. This project has brought together different geographical, linguistic and musical specialisms to explore the role of music as a vehicle for encounter, underpinned by three research areas: 1) an examination of the musical ‘afterlives’ of al-Andalus – how the utopian history of Muslim and Jewish Spain is interpreted through music; 2) an analysis of how music and sound constituted a form of colonial encounter during French and Spanish colonialism in Algeria and Morocco. Focusing on micro-histories and hidden voices, we explore how music was used to legitimise and oppose colonialism; and 3) a study of intercultural music-making, drawing on ethnographic research with different communities and considering how colonial legacies continue to influence music making. The project has arrived at the following main contributions:
• It has offered a comparative analysis of music making in the Western Mediterranean, leading to an integrated understanding of how music facilitates cross-community dialogue and the negotiation of power relations/identities;
• It has examined the circulation of colonial legacies, demonstrating that music is not a neutral cultural expression, but is implicated in how such legacies are perpetuated;
• It has facilitated interdisciplinary conversation around musical encounter in the region, across a range of areas including ethnomusicology, postcolonial studies, history, cultural studies, visual culture and sound studies.
• It has contributed to society by 1) raising awareness of the diversity of musical expression in this region; 2) illustrating how music is connected with colonial legacies and power inequalities, and thus is not ‘neutral’; and 3) highlighting hidden or forgotten voices, repertoires and archives, some of which were products of colonial history or were marginalised by colonialism and the transition to independence.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

Published Outputs: the team has published or has accepted for publication over 20 peer-reviewed articles or chapters in edited books. One edited book has been published, co-edited by Matthew Machin-Autenrieth, Samuel Llano and Salwa el-Shawan Castelo Branco entitled Music and the Making of Portugal and Spain since the Nineteenth Century (University of Illinois Press). Four other books are under contract: 1) Llano’s monograph The Empire of the Ear: The Musical and Sonic Architecture of Colonial Morocco (OUP); 2) Machin-Autenrieth's 'The Spanish–Moroccan Musical Brotherhood: Colonial Legacies, Interculturalism and Cultural Memory across the Strait of Gibraltar'; 3) Wilford's monograph 'Music and Sound in Franco-Algerian Encounters'; and 4) a volume edited by Elbaz called ‘Sonic Conversations in the Western Mediterranean: Music and Sound, Memory and Meaning’ (OUP, British Academy Proceedings Series).

Engagement in Academic Community and Knowledge Transfer: the team has been proactive in fostering networks with academics across disciplines. The results of our research have been extensively disseminated through conferences, workshops, invited seminars/keynotes, magazines, radio, among other formats. Our research has been international in its dissemination, reaching countries such as the UK, France, Spain, Morocco, Germany, the US, Israel and Switzerland. The team has engaged in a number of knowledge transfer activities, including concerts, exhibitions, workshops and public talks, as well as an online series featuring academic speakers, concerts and lecture-recitals.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

Each researcher has made important contributions to their individual fields of study:
- Matthew Machin-Autenrieth (PI) is the first to analyse the colonial and postcolonial dimensions of Spanish–Moroccan musical exchange. This work brings into dialogue archival and ethnographic sources to explore the contradictory ways in which the idea of a musical brotherhood has been performed according to different social and ideological agendas (colonialism, fascism, cultural diplomacy, interculturalism).
- Samuel Llano (Senior Researcher) is the first to analyse how colonial intellectual writing and discourse about Moroccan music served to consolidate colonial power and shape resistance, while redrawing ethnic, religious and class boundaries. His work adds to growing discussions about the role of music and sound in shaping colonial encounters in Morocco.
- Vanessa Paloma Elbaz (Research Associate) is the first to study Jewish repertoires as part of a larger national conversation around identity and diversity in Spain and Morocco. This work reveals for the first time the complex story of how national identities in the trans-Gibraltar region are enmeshed with mobile and multi-lingual Jewish voices.
- Stephen Wilford (Research Associate) builds on scholarship that explores the relationship between Algeria and France throughout the colonial and postcolonial periods, which rarely addresses the role of music and sound. His work is also innovative in that it looks at the broader picture of the musical and extra-musical meanings constructed by Algerian performers across different genres, rather than focusing upon a single musical style.
- Eric Petzoldt (PhD Student) contributes to an increased interest within jazz studies and ethnomusicology, which seeks to trace local understandings of jazz outside of the USA. His work makes important contributions to discussions around the role of music as a vehicle for intercultural dialogue and how music is implicated in projects of cultural diplomacy between Morocco and the EU.

Overall the project has made the following key contributions:
• It increases an understanding of music as a means for structuring and negotiating colonial power relations in Algeria and Morocco;
• It offers the first study of how the presence of North African musics at colonial expositions in France and Spain reified colonial hierarchies;
• It brings to the foreground forgotten or silenced repertoires of certain groups under colonialism and how such groups continue to be positioned in relation to projects of nationalism and cultural diversity in Spain and Morocco;
• It offers a comparative analysis of the musical ‘afterlives’ of al-Andalus and how the performance of al-Andalus is used for different social and political ends;
• It builds on limited scholarship concerning how music constructs and negotiates multiple identities among North African communities in Europe, set against debates about social integration and multiculturalism;
• It is the first study to consider the role music plays in institutional projects of cultural diplomacy between North Africa and Southern Europe.

Strait of Gibraltar, the sea separating North Africa and Southern Europe