Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:06:10.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tripoli's musical soundscape: experiences and meanings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2015

Philip Ciantar
Philip Ciantar*
Affiliation:
Mediterranean Institute, University of Malta
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Exploring the musical soundscape of a city like Tripoli is fascinating as much as it is challenging to retrieve meanings underlying the same soundscape. The fine blend between, for instance, ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’ musical practices and aesthetics, appertaining to this soundscape, presents the music researcher with a complex scenario to investigate. For this purpose, contemporary music research recognises music ethnography (superficially defined as the writing about the way people get involved in and make music) as a means by which such scenarios can be explored. In line with this, the present article explores Tripoli's musical soundscape by presenting vignettes of people listening to music, actively participating in musical events, as well as making music. Such depictions must shed light on the musical life in contemporary Libya with particular focus on the musical life in Tripoli. The commentary accompanying these vignettes links the sound not only with the people interacting with it, but also with the events that generate it, the place in which it evolves and the socio-cultural context that endows it with meaning.

Type
Articles
Information
Libyan Studies , Volume 36 , 2005 , pp. 79 - 88
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Libyan Studies 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anon. 1962. Tourist Guide: This is Libya. Tripoli.Google Scholar
Bertarelli, L. V. 1937. Libia. Milano.Google Scholar
Blum, S. 2002. Hearing the Music of the Middle East. In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: The Middle East, Vol. 6, edited by Danielson, Virginia, Marcus, Scott and Reynolds, Dwight. New York.Google Scholar
Cerbella, G. and Ageli, M. 1949. Le Feste Musulmane in Tripoli: Appunti Etnografici. Tripoli.Google Scholar
Ciantar, P. 2003. Continuity and Change in die Libyan Maʾlūf Musical Tradition. Libyan Studies 34: 137–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danielson, V. 1997. The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kidthūm, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century. Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El Sibaei, A. E. 1981. Traditional and Folk Music as a Vehicle for Music Education in the Libyan Society. M.Mus (Music Education) Dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Nettl, B.et al. 2001. Excursions in World Music (3rd ed.). New Jersey.Google Scholar
Racy, A. J. 1978. Arabian Music and the Effects of Commercial Recording. World of Mime 20: 47–58.Google Scholar
Racy, A. J. 1998. Improvisation, Ecstasy, and Performance Dynamics in Arabic Music. In In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of Musical Improiisation, edited by Nettl, B. widi Russell, M., 95–112. Chicago.Google Scholar
Lee, T. S. 1999. Technology and the Production of Islamic Space: the Call to Prayer in Singapore. Ethnomusicology 43: 86–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stokes, M. (ed.). 1997. Ethnicity, Identity and Music: The Musical Construction of Place. Oxford.Google Scholar
Tully, R. 1983. Narrative of a Ten Year's Residence at Tripoli in Africa: from the Original Correspondence in the Possession of the Family of the hate Richard Tully, ESQ. London.Google Scholar