Orientalism and Musical Mission presents a new way of understanding music's connections with imperialism, drawing on new archive sources and interviews and using the lens of 'mission'. Rachel Beckles Willson demonstrates how institutions such as churches, schools, radio stations and governments, influenced by missions from Europe and North America since the mid-nineteenth century, have consistently claimed that music provides a way of understanding and reforming Arab civilians in Palestine. Beckles Willson discusses the phenomenon not only in religious and developmental aid circles where it has had strong currency, but also in broader political contexts. Plotting a historical trajectory from the late Ottoman and British Mandate eras to the present time, the book sheds new light on relations between Europe, the USA and the Palestinians, and creates space for a neglected Palestinian music history.
in East Africa and in the UK reminds us that the current "migrant crisis" is perhaps only named as such because it is in Europe. Her research on music as oral history and public testimonial has sought to highlight local responses to forced displacement and post-conflict social integration, and explores new epistemological approaches to re-center the needs, interests, and agencies of affected people. I would like to start my talk with two scenarios. The first involves a concert that I attended recently in a small church in London that was hosted by the Anglo-Azerbaijani society, whose membership comprises some of the 7000 ethnic Azeri refugees who settled in Britain in the 1980s and 90s following the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan-
Armenian border).The first thing I noticed upon entering the hall were the massive speakers located on either side of the stage. As expected, when the music finally began -two accordions, keyboard, tar, darbuka and singer -the volume was indescribable. Yet I seemed to be the only one in the audience who was physically cowering under the force of the sound. When, after a couple of numbers, every musician on stage indicated to the sound engineer to increase the volume, the distortion became so unbearable that I politely escaped through a side exit, leaving behind a spirited crowd happily singing along to their favorite tunes.
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