Women out Loud: Hearing Knowledge and the Creation of Soundscape in Islamic Indonesia

The study of listening—aurality—and its relation to writing is the subject of this eclectic edited volume. Theorizing Sound Writing explores the relationship between sound, theory, language, and inscription. This volume contains an impressive lineup of scholars from anthropology, ethnomusicology, musicology, performance, and sound studies. The contributors write about sound in their ongoing work, while also making an intervention into the ethics of academic knowledge, one in which listening is the first step not only in translating sound into words but also in compassionate scholarship.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1112/thumbnail.jp

The Sound of Culture, The Structure of Tradition Musicians\u27 Work in Arab Detroit

Metropolitan Detroit is home to one of the largest, most diverse Arab communities outside the Middle East, yet the complex world Arabic-speaking immigrants have created there is barely visible on the landscape of ethnic America. In this volume, Nabeel Abraham and Andrew Shryock bring together the work of twenty-five contributors to create a richly detailed portrait of Arab Detroit. The book goes behind the bulletproof glass in Iraqi Chaldean liquor stores. It explores the role of women in a Sunni mosque and the place of nationalist politics in a Coptic church. It follows the careers of wedding singers, Arabic calligraphers,restaurant owners, and pastry chefs. It examines the agendas of Shia Muslim activists and Washington-based lobbyists and looks at the intimate politics of marriage, family honor, and adolescent rebellion. Memoirs and poems by Lebanese, Chaldean, Yemeni, and Palestinian writers anchor the book in personal experience, while over fifty photographs provide a backdrop of vivid, often unexpected, images. In their efforts to represent an ethnic/immigrant community that is flourishing on the margins of pluralist discourse, the contributors to this book break new ground in the study of identity politics, transnationalism, and diaspora cultures.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1094/thumbnail.jp

Setting the Scene

Women, the Recited Qur\u27an, and Islamic Music in Contemporary Indonesia takes readers to the heart of religious musical praxis in Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world. Anne K. Rasmussen explores a rich public soundscape, where women recite the divine texts of the Qur\u27an, and where an extraordinary diversity of Arab-influenced Islamic musical styles and genres, also performed by women, flourishes. Based on unique and revealing ethnographic research beginning at the end of Suharto\u27s “New Order” and continuing into the era of “Reformation,” the book considers the powerful role of music in the expression of religious nationalism. In particular, it focuses on musical style, women\u27s roles, and the ideological and aesthetic issues raised by the Indonesian style of recitation.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/asbookchapters/1114/thumbnail.jp

Middle Eastern Music and Dance since the Nightclub Era

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Theory and Practice at the \u27Arabic Org\u27: Digital Technology in Contemporary Arab Music Performance

The synthesizer is ubiquitous on the Arab–American musical scene. Heard at every party, and on every recording, the synthesizer sings the lingua franca of international popular music. While the facade and the body of the synthesizer consist of neutral, slick, black plastic and metal technology, the soul of the instrument, when played by Arab–American musicians, is capable of a completely indigenous, if synthetic, musical idiom. In this article I draw on my experience of six performers of the Arabic ‘org’, commonly known today as ‘keyboards’, to present a sketch of a modern musical tradition

George Abdo and His Flames of Araby Orchestra: Belly Dance!

Known as The King of Belly Dance Music, George Abdo and his Flames of Araby Orchestra combine Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian, Armenian, Greek, and Turkish musical traditions to create a uniquely American belly dance soundscape. Abdo\u27s music is based on the repertoire, instrumentation, and performance styles of the Middle East while also incorporating influences from American pop and jazz. A prototype for World Beat, Abdo and His Flames of Araby helped bring Middle Eastern music and belly dancing to mainstream North American audiences. Culled from his 5 best-selling albums, this compilation showcases rich vocals and lively rhythms played on violin, oboe, \u27ud, qanun, darbukka, and bouzoukee as well as guitar, piano, bass, and drums. Extensive notes, photos, 15 tracks, 75 minutes

The Executive Revolving Door: New Dataset on the Career Moves of Former Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries

Concerns have been raised that transfers of bureaucrats and politicians into the private sector might create unfair advantages for their future employers and even lead to distrust in government. Not surprisingly, the study of the revolving door has therefore gained prominence in the academic literature. Importantly, however, less attention has been paid to the executive branch. We add to the study of the revolving door by presenting the first dataset on the executive revolving door in Denmark. To do so, we trace the frequency, timing and character of the career moves of Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries who held office from 2009 to 2019. Our data document that the Danish executive revolving door is widespread: more than a third of Danish Ministers and Permanent Secretaries end up in a private job within the same year or the year after they stop their job. If we extend the period and investigate the entire period after public service, the number is above 60 percent. Moreover, a substantial share of the jobs obtained is in companies and at a senior level. Our note concludes with reflections on how our data can be used to fill existing research gaps and should be complemented in future research.publishedVersio

Negotiating the Personal and Professional: Ethnomusicologists and Uncomfortable Truths

The panel, “Negotiating the Personal and Professional: Ethnomusicologists and Uncomfortable Truths,” presented at the Forty-third ICTM World Conference in Astana, Kazakhstan, grew out of informal conversations common among ethnomusicologists. As practitioners in our discipline, we are involved in complex webs of experience, relationships, and representations focused around music, broadly defined. Our work is inherently social and, when in the field, we develop close relationships with our teachers and consultants as we become comfortable in our sites of research. We are grateful for priceless access to communities and individuals. The intensity and combination of certain relationships and circumstances, however, can lead to conflicting expectations, unanticipated misunderstanding, and situations of personal and professional conflict