Publications
This article aims to shed music-theoretical insight on claims that suggest an association between the Arab concept of ṭarab—typically described in English as “musical ecstasy”—and perceived transformations of musical time. In describing the interrelation of rhythm, temporality, and feeling in Arab musical performance, the article develops an analytical model to show how altered senses of time are revealed through a particularly ubiquitous musical strategy that I call “rhythmic-temporal disruptions.” After a brief primer on ṭarab, I apply this analytical model to the opening of the National Arab Orchestra’s live rendition of one of the most canonical songs of the ṭarab repertoire—Umm Kulthūm’s 1969 “Alf Leila wi Leila”—to argue that rhythmic-temporal disruptions function as sonic mechanisms for experiencing the altered senses of time attributed to the musical ecstasy of ṭarab. The end of the article then grapples with issues of physicality and phenomenology to discuss listeners’ relationship to rhythmic-temporal disruptions in experiential terms.
This paper examines the effects of genre on musical hermeneutics and emotion. We argue not only that generic expectations guide listeners toward some musical features and away from others, thus affecting their perception of which features are meaningful, but also that conceptions of genres may vary across listeners. In arguing for the importance of genre in the interpretation of musical meaning and emotion, we begin by defining genre in terms of its musical and non-musical aspects, showing how both affect a listener’s conception of a genre and any associated emotions. Second, borrowing a concept from music studies, we discuss these aspects of genre in terms of “stylistic competency” (Hatten, 1994, 2004). We describe how individual listeners may possess multiple competencies, discuss how these competencies may vary in degree from one listener to another (Echard, 2017), and examine briefly how the notion of stylistic competency may be affected by technologies of musical consumption. Third, we provide a hermeneutic model that accounts for listeners with varying degrees of competency in a genre or style. To do this, we draw from the literary genre theory of John Frow (2008), building on his metaphor for the framing function of genre. Here, we argue that listeners often go beyond associating emotions with musical features alone, claiming that emotions are inherent in a more holistic conception of genre. Finally, we discuss the pedagogical implications of our model for the twenty-first-century classroom.