University of Texas Press Tarab: Music, Ecstasy, Emotion, and Performance

"Often described as "ecstasy" or "rapture" brought on by listening to and producing music, tarab is a central concept within Arab music traditions. With A.J. Racy's Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab (Cambridge, 2004) came the first book-length examination of the phenomenon in English-language scholarship. Tarab: Music, Ecstasy, Emotion, and Performance in the Middle East is a follow-up to Racy's pivotal work, combining an assortment of geographic and disciplinary focuses to expand beyond the Arab world and into the present day. The volume asserts that the transnational character of tarab and its spread is critical to understanding the concept's historical, geographic, and sociological impact"-- In Arab culture, at the ineffable point where music meets emotion, lies ?arab. Often glossed as the ecstasy experienced and expressed when performing or listening to singing, instrumental works, and recitations of poetry, ?arab is both a practice and an orienting concept central to musical aesthetics and spirituality characteristic of Middle Eastern cultures. Gathering fifteen essays by scholars of music, affect, literature, religion, and education, ?arab extends the study of ?arab historically, geographically, and sociologically. Historical essays explore ?arab’s role in the medieval Middle East and the Ottoman Empire. Turning to the modern era, authors examine ?arab and related concepts in Egypt, Albania, and Iraq, and among Turkish Roma and Lebanese Maronite Christians. The contributors also address contemporary practitioners and the intersections of ?arab and maqam, belly dancing, music streaming, and university music ensembles. Situating this unique cultural concept in a global context, these studies enrich the story of ?arab and provide new insight into music’s powerful emotional appeal. How the concept of ?arab has impacted music and culture across the Islamic world. Autorid: Michael Frishkopf, Scott Marcus, Dwight Reynolds