Shaping tradition in Arabic song: The career and repertory of Umm Kulthum
Danielson, Virginia Louise
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22525
Description
Title
Shaping tradition in Arabic song: The career and repertory of Umm Kulthum
Author(s)
Danielson, Virginia Louise
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Ringer, Alexander L.
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Music
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Biography
Anthropology, Cultural
History, Middle Eastern
Music
Language
eng
Abstract
This dissertation attempts to account for the phenomenal popularity of Umm Kulthum (1904?-1975), considered the most famous singer in the Arab world, whose repertory came to be viewed as a model of modern, yet authentically Egyptian Arabic musical expression. Rather than emphasize the talent of an exceptional individual, attention is focused upon Umm Kulthum's repertory, which is treated as the widely shared cultural property it became through her extensive use of mass media. The repertory and the criticism which accompanied it are examined in light of other existing forms of Egyptian Arabic musical expression and of contemporary social and economic circumstances with the aim of distilling relevant musical concepts, categories and aesthetic principles which appealed to so large an audience for so many years.
The work is broadly based and interdisciplinary, drawing upon historical, anthropological and musicological models. The thesis is addressed to the larger issues of modernization and Westernization, the relationship between sacred and secular in Middle Eastern society, the roles of women in musical life, and the impact of mass media and of national policies governing the media and the arts. It sheds light on ways in which musical expression affirmed and, in fact, incited and supported attitudes, cultural values and political alignments not commonly articulated in speech. Thus the musician is seen as a contributor to major social and political trends.
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