Among the Jasmine Trees. Jonathan Holt Shannon

      Among the Jasmine Trees

      Among the Jasmine Trees

      MUSIC AND MODERNITY IN

      CONTEMPORARY SYRIA

      Jonathan Holt Shannon

      Published by Wesleyan University Press,

      Middletown, CT 06459

      www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

      © 2006 by Jonathan Holt Shannon

      Unless otherwise indicated, photographs © 2006 by Jonathan Holt Shannon

      All rights reserved

      First Wesleyan paperback 2009

      Printed in the United States of America

      5 4 3 2

      ISBN for the paperback edition: 978–0–8195–6944–8

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Shannon, Jonathan Holt.

      Among the jasmine trees : music and modernity in

      contemporary Syria / Jonathan Holt Shannon.

      p. cm. — (Music/culture)

      Includes bibliographical references (p. ), discography (p. ),

      and index.

      ISBN-13: 978–0-8195–6798–7 (cloth : alk. paper)

      ISBN-10: 0–8195–6798–1 (cloth : alk. paper)

      1. Music—Social aspects—Syria.

      2. Music—Syria—21st century—Philosophy and aesthetics.

      3. Syria—Social life and customs—21st century.

      I. Title. II. Series.

      ML3795.S415 2006

      780.95691—dc22 2005028912

      The publisher gratefully acknowledges assistance from the

      Manfred Bukofzer Publication Endowment Fund of the

      American Musicological Society.

      Wesleyan University Press is member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper

      used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.

      In Memoriam

      FATEH MOUDARRES

      (1924–1999)

      Dedication

      To my mother,

      LINDA KAY SHANNON

Damascene jasmineHas white clawsThat pierce the walls of memory . . .—Nizār Qabbānī, Lā Ghāliba ilā Allāh

      CONTENTS

	List of Figures
	A Note on Transliteration
	Preface
	Introduction: The Aesthetics of Authenticity in Contemporary Syria
ONE	Among the Jasmine Trees
TWO	Sentiment and Authentic Spirit: Composing Syrian Modernity
THREE	Constructing Musical Authenticity: History, Cultural Memory, Emotion
FOUR	Body Memory, Temporality, and Transformation in the Dhikr
FIVE	Authentic Performance and the Performance of Authenticity
SIX	Tarab, Sentiment, and Authenticity
SEVEN	Notes Toward Closure
	Epilogue: 2000
	Notes
	Glossary of Selected Arabic Terms
	Selected Bibliography and Discography
	Index

      FIGURES

       Yusef al-Azmeh Square, Damascus, 1996

       Musicians at Omayyad Palace restaurant, Damascus, 1996.

       “Whirling dervish,” Omayyad Palace restaurant, Damascus, 1996.

       Fateh Moudarres in his studio, Damascus, 1981.

       Zuhayr Minīnī, Damascus, 2004.

       Ḥassan Baṣṣal (center), with (from left to right) Abd al-Ḥalīm Harīrī, Muḥammad Qadrī Dalāl, the author, and Ghassān Amūrī, Aleppo, 2004.

       Muḥammad Qadrī Dalāl, Aleppo, 2000.

       Aleppo’s Citadel, 2004.

       Aleppine Courtyard: Bayt Wakīl, 1982.

       Naṣīr Shūra. Untitled, Damascene street scene, c. 1959.

       Fateh Moudarres, Olive Growers from Qalamun, 1982.

       Dhikr, Damascus, 1998.

       Wedding munshid-s, Aleppo, 1997.

       Ṣabāḥ