Orientalism and Musical Mission
Palestine and the West

Offers a new way of understanding music's connections with Orientalism and imperialism by using the concept of 'mission'.

Rachel Beckles Willson (Author)

9781107036567, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 18 April 2013

380 pages, 5 b/w illus.
24.4 x 17 x 2.2 cm, 0.86 kg

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.

Introduction
Part I. Holy Land, 1840–1948: 1. Revelation
2. Distinction
3. Education
4. Separation: the Palestine Broadcasting Service
5. Provincializing mission
Part II. State(s), 1987 Onwards: 6. Culture
7. Dialogue
8. Musical missionaries
9. Conclusion
Glossary
Interview database
Archival sources.

Subject Areas: Middle Eastern history [HBJF1], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]