To feel safe and at home
Music’s power to create belonging among
Dutchmen and refugees
Master thesis Cultural Musicology
University of Amsterdam June 2018
By: Freija Poll (11856521)
Supervisor: dr. Anne van Oostrum Second reader: dr. Marianne Riphagen
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Table of Contents
Introduction: Migration and its complications
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Concepts and questions
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● Homing and Belonging 4
● Racism, Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia 5
● Bi-musicality or Intermusability and Research questions 6
Chapter One: How music creates belonging for Dutch people
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● 1.1
Dutch migration history and attitudes 8●
1.2 Xenophobia and music 9● 1.3
Initiatives regarding making music with refugees in the Netherlands 12Chapter Two: How music creates belonging for refugees
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● 2.1 Current situation and feelings of belonging for refugees in the Netherlands 14
● 2.2 The musical ideas of the Arab world 15
2.3 Examples of the usages of music by refugees 20
Chapter Three: Catching Cultures in an Orchestra
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● 3.1 Internship and research 22
● 3.2 Methods 22
● 3.3 Social fields 23
● 3.4 Results 33
● 3.5 Discussion 51
Chapter Four: Conclusion
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References
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Appendixes
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Appendix 1.Musical evenings 62
● 1.1 Recruitment 62 ● 1.2 People 63 ● 1.3 Musical instruments 63 ● 1.4 Actions 64 Appendix 2. Rehearsals 65 ● 2.1 People 65 ● 2.2 Objects 65 ● 2.3 Actions 66 ● 2.4 Forming groups 67
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Appendix 3. Meanings 68
● 3.1 Meanings of music for Dutch people 68
● 3.2 Meaning of music for refugees 69
● 3.3 Contact between refugees and Dutch people 71
Appendix 4. Challenges when Dutch people and refugees play music together 72
● 4.1 Ambiance during the musical evenings 72
● 4.2 Differences between cultures during the musical evenings 73 ● 4.3 Differences between cultures during the rehearsals 73
● 4.4 Improvements 74
Appendix 5. Original Dutch Quotes 75
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Introduction: Migration and its complications
It is unarguably that migration into Europe has increased substantially over the last few decades (Hooghe et al. 2008, 276). Europe received about 1.3 million new asylum claims in 2015 and many more people are expected to flee to Europe as conflicts in the Middle East and other regions linger on. This current ‘migrant crisis’ has resulted in political conflict and social tensions widely across Europe (Bansak 2016, 1). Moreover, after 9/11, ‘strangers’ are seen as a threat to the cohesion of the political and cultural community and as potential terrorists (Yuval-Davis 2006, 213). So there is a presumed threat from ‘hostile’ identities that are embodied in the ‘war against terror’. There are a lot of fears regarding unskilled, dependent migrants, asylum seekers and refugees whose culture and ways of life are seen to be incompatible or undesirable within Western societies. This causes fear of social breakdown and unrest (Anthias 2016, 174).
In the Netherlands, the public has also developed critical attitudes towards refugees. In the 80ties, guest workers who traveled to the Netherlands were not seen as threatening because they were very similar to the Dutchman. However, the flow of refugees since the mid-1980s is seen as very different than the Dutch population. In political debates and everyday conversation, it is suggested that they have other religions, other culture patterns and there are so many and their numbers are increasing (Scheepers 1998, 13-14). For this reason, Scheepers (1998, 13-19) said that the Netherlands cannot say anymore that they maintain a tradition of hospitality and openness towards migrants. For example, a study of The Volkskrant, a Dutch newspaper, showed that 47% of native Dutch people held a neutral view of Muslims, while 36% held a negative view. Those surveyed felt especially physically threatened by non-native youth on the streets and by the danger of terrorist attacks by extremist Muslims (Ziebertz and van der Tuin 2008, 53-54). Moreover, very recently the CBS (central bureau for statistics) showed that although in 2017, 77 percent of the adult population of the Netherlands thinks the Netherlands must receive refugees who flew their county because of war or persecution, 1 in 5 people thinks refugees pose a threat to safety in the Netherlands (Kloosterman 2018, 6-8).
Refugees face a lot of difficulties when they must flee their country. In this thesis, the term refugee will refer to people who do not live in their home-country because they fear persecution and therefore can’t or are not willing to claim protection by their country. Some of them, whom I will call asylum seekers, try to claim asylum status (ten Holder et al. 2012, 11). These refugees are often robbed of much of their dignity as they are for example impoverished, live on welfare or have to take on poorly paid and low-status jobs in the country they flew to. Therefore, they suffer a loss of self-esteem and self-identity (Baily and Collyer 2006, 171-175). Furthermore, Strijk et al. (2010, 49-50) showed that refugees in the Netherlands often experience grief, gloom and loneliness, which is in most cases, directly related to their displacement and the associated sense of loss. Besides, they are afraid of being discriminated against or being misunderstood because of differences in language and culture and therefore feel isolated (Strijk et al. 2010, 50-53).
Even in this tense climate, a variety of initiatives exist to connect Muslims and non-Muslims (Ziebertz and van der Tuin 2008, 53-60). One kind of initiative that could bring more solidarity among refugees and Dutch people could be musical initiatives. Gazzah (2008, 28-74) states that music makes it possible for people to feel a connection with others and feel less lonely, without knowing whether other people have anything more in common with them than this sense of solidarity encouraged by music. According to Cohen (in Urbain 2008, 26) music can be of great importance because artists and peace builders regard it as a universal langue that can facilitate communications, understanding and empathy across differences of all kind and can bring non-violent social change and build bridges. However, some artists or peace builders might misuse the potential of music to build bridges by contracting or augmenting feelings of affinity among adversaries without engaging in grappling with differences and confronting questions of past and present injustice (Cohen 2008, 26). Some music can even divide people, like music about war viciousness, hate and humiliation (Kent 2008, 104).
Aside from this, the re-enactment and repetition of cultural practices, such as music, continues to provide a source of comfort for refugees. It is a partial antidote to the hostility
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experienced in the new society, reinforcing and responding to feelings of nostalgia. Music may be used to recreate the culture of the past, to remind refugees of their home-county but migration can as well lead to musical innovation and enrichment. This can lead to the creation of new forms which are indicative or symptomatic of the issues facing the refugee and which help one in dealing with a new life in a place of settlement and the articulation of new identities (Baily and Collyer 2008, 174-175). According to Baily and Collyer (2008, 174-175), a good example of this is the re-invented
bhagra music in England. These traditional Punjabi folk songs are modernized and westernised with
the addition of elements derived from Western popular music. For young British-Asians this provides a means through which to create a new identity between two polarities (Benerji in Baily and Collyer 2008, 174-175).
Because of all this, I am curious about what music can do when we refugees or Dutchmen feel threatened by unknown situations or loss of home. I will try to study this with the help of some concepts, which I will set out in the remainder of this introductory chapter. The first once are homing and belonging. These concepts are very important when we look at how people deal with
threatening situations, as I will explain based on important authors in this field such as Ahmed et al. (2003), Yuval-Davis (2006) and Anthias (2016). Also, concepts that hamper creating a safe feeling are important in this. In this regard, auteurs such as Anthias(2016) and Billiet et al. (1992) have talked about xenophobia, racism and ethnocentrism. Last of all I will explain the concept of bi-musicality (Hoods 1960) or intermusability (Baily 2008) to explain the importance of performative practice together when it comes to creating a safe feeling for different people. I will end this chapter by setting out the questions and the further design of this thesis.
Concepts and questions
Homing and Belonging
When people are uprooted and try to reground because they feel threatened, the process of making a home takes time and can entail mourning, nostalgia and remembering as well as physical sickness and experience of trauma (Ahmed et al. 2003, 9). According to Ahmed et al. (2003, 9), this so-called homing entails a process of home-building whether at home or in migration. This making of homes is according to her about what Eva Hoffman would call ‘soils of significance’ in which the effective qualities of home and the work of memory in their making cannot be divorced from the more concrete materialities of rooms, objects, rituals, borders and forms of transport that are bound up in so many processes of uprooting and re-grounding. So, homing is about the reclaiming and
reprocessing of habits, objects, names and histories that have been uprooted in migration or threatening situations. Inherent in this process of making a home in the place where you are, is the gathering of intimations of home. These intimations can be fragments that can be imagined to be traces of the past of the home as well as signs of its future (Ahmed 2003, 9) and they could be songs, instruments or other musical fragments.
Another important concept to look at when people feel threatened is belonging. The need to belong is a fundamental human motivation as countless psychological, psychoanalytic, and social psychology studies have been devoted to the fear of separation or exclusion and to the individual need to conform to a group ( Zhang 2015, 2; Yuval-Davis 2006, 198). When people feel threatened they have resilience that makes it possible for them to adapt. In the process of resilience in new situations not only material goods can be important but social relationships and the feeling to belong to a group can be of fundamental importance too (ten Holder and de Boer 2012, 25).
Belonging can counter threatening feelings of exclusion as this concept entails the feelings of home and safety. Individuals and groups want to belong to something as well as become part of a group. This is therefore, a cognitive process as well a process that is fed by desires from an individual or a group and is always a dynamic process (Yuval-Davis 2006, 197-202). Belonging is about our affective placement in terms of what we share with others and to what this sharing relates.
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Belonging is always in relation to something outside the self. This can be in relation to a place, in the social as well as geographical sense. Or it can be in relation to ‘belonging with’ (for example others), though this is not always premised on similarity but can be forged in relation to solidarity and values of dialogue and engagement. So, it is about ‘to what’ and ‘with whom’ you are a member, where and by whom you are accepted and you feel attached to (Anthias 2016, 176-178). According to de Bree et al. (2010, 291-292), belonging is more than only integrating. This is because integrating is mostly seen as a process where newcomers simply seem to blend in with the people of the host-county which deflects attention from the complex societal mechanisms involved in the production of narratives and practices of identity and belonging. Thus, it is not just about adhering to the dominant norms but also about feeling at home and safe in a new society on your own terms (de Bree et al. 2010, 291-292).
Furthermore, there is a firm link between belonging and social inclusion. Although this does not mean that belonging in itself can provide social inclusion, establishing and experiencing social inclusion can ensure that people are (partly) accepted and remain in a group and therefore feel as if they belong (Anthias 2006, 21-22). Strongly connected to this is the politics of belonging. The politics of belonging is about the boundaries of the political context that makes the difference between 'we' and 'them' (de Bree et al. 2010, 491) as well as the challenging and provoking of these boundaries by other (political) authorities (Yuval-Davis 2006, 204-206).Furthermore, people can have multiple belongings to multiple groups like, age, gender or cultural groups (Ibid., 197-202) or people can connect to different places globally (‘transnational sense of belonging’) which can reinforce local belonging as well (Anthias 2016, 183; de Bree et al. 2010, 505-507). However, in this thesis, I am not going to look at all these kind of belongings people can have . I am only going to look at how
Dutchmen and refugees can have a feeling of belonging in the Netherlands through making music, which could be one of the intimations of home.
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Racism, Ethnocentrism and Xenophobia
Racism can prevent belonging to come about. Racism forges and reconstitutes forms of
non-belonging that are central to inequalities and forms of boundary and hierarchy making (Anthias 2016, 172). Racism, according to Anthias (2016, 179), can be linked to discourses, practices and outcomes that serve to inferiorize, subordinate, exclude and exploit based on an imagined collective origin. Thus Race-making is the making of boundaries and hierarchy and this often marks the boundaries in particularly violent and dehumanizing ways. An example of this is that migrants and refugees are nowadays seen as unwilling or unable to integrate. In this case, the impossibility of some undesirable differences that need to be eliminated, are emphasized because these constitute a threat to western values and society (Anthias 2016 179-183).
In this regard belonging to one group can also have a negative effect that is grounded in ethnocentrism. This is because ethnocentrism can be about a positive attitude toward the own social group and a negative attitude toward the ‘other’ group. People often have positive prejudice about their own group and negative prejudice about the ‘other’ (Billiet et al. 1992, 301). The superlative of this could be xenophobia, the fear of strangers. Although this is not a modern phenomenon, it has a modern face that sometimes takes on ugly characteristics, such as when prejudice is openly voiced against migrants, or when more serious hate crimes take place (Ziebertz and van der Tuin 2008, 58).
Bi-musicality or Intermusability and Research Questions
However, one way to overcome racism might be the learning of another musical style than the one of one’s own culture. Hood (1960, 58-59) calls the capability or willingness to learn a second, third or fourth ‘musical language’ from another culture, bi-musicality. With this, he emphasized that
executed practices and the training of ears, eyes, hand, voice and fluency gained in learning musical skills from another culture, assures a real comprehension of theoretical studies (Shelemay 2008,
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143).However, Hood never explicitly mentioned that engaging in performative practice might cause deeper measure of understanding instead of observational or passive learning (Wong 2008, 80). In ethnography there has been a shift from focusing on explanation to focusing on musical knowing and understanding (Titon in Stobart 2008, 14). Subsequently, Baily (in Stobart 2008, 14) coined the term intermusability to emphasize the intersubjectivity in participating in musical practice. Baily had problems with the term bi-musicality because it implies that people have become fluent in two musical styles in childhood and that people only become fluent in two musical styles (Baily 2008, 118-1). Therefore, he coined the term intermusability to include people’s ability to become fluent in more than two musical styles later in life. Furthermore, Baily’s emphasis on performative proficiency during research suggests that this could lead to musical understanding and knowledge, alongside a change in the capability to reflect deeply and critical on the music in question. Hence, Baily thought we should engage with music from a practical and performative perspective, as well as intellectual perspective, to gain a ‘musical experience’, a term developed by Clayton (in Stobart 2008, 14). Although I will not focus on how best to do research and gain understanding during this, in this thesis, it is important to note that there has been a recognition that performing in another musical style than the one of once own culture can generate understanding.
In this thesis, I look at how musical practices can make Dutchmen and refugees in the Netherlands feel as if they belong. Therefore, my main question is: In what way can a safe feeling be
generated for refugees in the Netherlands and Dutch people through making music? For refugees this
can involve the homemaking process and a process of creating belonging in their new country. For Dutch people this can be a way to counter ethnocentrism and xenophobia and create belonging. Last, for both groups this might be a process that is about creating belonging through acquiring intermusability. Therefore I have formulated the following sub-questions:
1) In what way can music make Dutch people feel safe from the experienced threats of migrants who come to live in the Netherlands?
2) In what way can music generate the coming together of refugees living in the Netherlands and Dutch people?
3) In what way can music make refugees living in the Netherlands feel safe and at home? 4) What challenges may arise when Dutch people and refugees living in the Netherlands come
together by making music?
In the first chapter, I will focus on the first and the second sub-question by focusing on Dutch people. The first paragraph of this chapter will be about the migration history of the Netherlands as well as the feelings towards migrants this history has generated. Some important authors in this domain are Penninx (2006), Buijs (2009) and Lucassen and Lucassen (2015), with regard to Dutch migration history and Crawley et al. (2013) and Bansak (2016) and Kloosterman (2018), with regard to different attitudes towards migrants. In the second paragraph, I will focus on theories about how unsafe feelings regarding refugees can be generated and how music can be an antidote to these feelings (sub-question one) and bring people of different cultures together (sub-question two). I will use the dynamic group conflict theory to show why authors like Meuleman et al. (2009) and Crawley et al. (2013), think there is a fear of migrants in the Netherlands. Thereafter, I will continue with
demonstrating music’s role in creating belonging. First, I will do this by showing how authors like Baily and Colleyer (2006) and Bergh (2007) have thought about showing refugee music to native people. Second, I will show this by considering how Turino (1999) and Clayton (2001) have thought about a universal effective response towards music. After which I will look at how Ansdell and Pavlicevic (2005) have thought about bringing people together through music in a therapy setting. I will end this chapter with looking at the initiatives there are in the Netherlands regarding creating music with refugees and what they want to accomplish for refugees and Dutchmen. These will be Musicians Without Borders, Stichting de Vrolijkheid (foundation of happiness) and Catching Cultures Orchestra.
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refugees. I will start by describing how it is to live in the Netherlands as a refugee. Important authors in this domain are ten Holder et al. (2012) and van Dijk (2001), with regard to how it is to live in an asylum seeker center (AZC). Gerritsen et al. (2006) and Laban (2005) describe the mental issues of people living in an AZC. In my second paragraph, I will describe how most refugees of different cultural backgrounds living in the Netherlands think about music, which is related to my fourth sub-question. Important authors in this domain of ‘Arabic music perceptions’ are for example Plenckers (2014), Racy (2003), al Faruqi (1985) and Shannon (2006). In the last paragraph, I will talk about how music can be an antidote to hostile experience faced in a new country for refugees (third sub-question). I will do this by showing some examples of how music is used in therapy settings (for example Orth (2005) and Jones and Day (2004)) and how music is used in refugee or migrants’ communities (for example Baily (2005), Haï (2001) and Reyes (1986)).
I will include all of my sub-questions in the third chapter, which will be about my own
research during my internship at Catching Cultures Orchestra. During this internship, I tried to gain an insight into which meaning music has for Dutch as well as refugee participants in this orchestra and how the activities of this orchestra could be improved. I did this by using (participatory) observations during their evening rehearsals and the musical sessions they organized at an AZC and by semi-structured interviews with refugee and Dutch participants of these activities. I also made an ego-centered map with all the participants of the musical evenings I interviewed and all the people I interviewed made a top-five ranking of their favorite musical artists. Although this research was not focused on how music can make Dutch people or refugees feel safe, I will use the data collected in this research to generate insights into this question. In my conclusion, I will summarize everything already said and answer my main question.
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Chapter One: How music creates belonging for Dutch people
1.1 Dutch migration history and attitudesAfter the Second World War, the Netherlands faced considerable levels of immigration of diverse origins. In the 1970s and 1980s, these migrants were mostly labor migrants who were expected to return home (Penninx 2006, 242; Lucassen and Lucassen 2015, 76-77). At that time, the policy that was based on this ‘myth of temporary stay’ which made that migrants in the Netherlands were mostly encouraged to maintain and develop their cultural identity of home (Buijs 2009, 426-427). Furthermore, historical events that took place just before, like the Holocaust, prompted international awareness of the grave dangers of racism and discrimination. It was seen as morally wrong to expect migrants to give up their cultural heritage (Lucassen and Lucassen 2015, 83-84)
In the 1980s, it becameclear that the labor migrants were settling permanently in the Dutch society. Due to their settling and because discrimination was still seen as wrong, the new policy was about ‘integration with maintaining cultural identity’. Furthermore, migrants to Dutch society were seen as people who faced serious deprivations in important areas such as language, education and access to the labor market (Buijs 2009, 426-427; Lucassen and Lucassen 2015, 88). Among others the Ethnic Minorities Policy in 1980 was formulated, which aimed at including unprivileged groups and reducing discrimination against them (Penninx 2006, 243-244).
However, since 1990, the emphasis in the policies was more than ever before on individuals’ citizenship responsibilities in integration processes and ‘good citizenship’ and ‘civic integration’ became key policy concepts (Buijs 2009, 427; Bruquetas-Callejo et al. 2007,8-12). Moreover, the economic recession, which set in during the late 1990s and early 2000s, put the over-representation of immigrants in statistics on unemployment and school dropout rates high on the public agenda. (Lucassen and Lucassen 2015, 74, 75). Because of this, the government pushed for more restrictive policies towards immigration, and several policies were developed to make the integration of newcomers more mandatory and demanding (Buijs 2009, 427). Also in 2003, the Integration Policy New Style was introduced which was intended to encourage common citizenship based on common norms and values (Buijs 2009, 427).
Furthermore, in the 1990s the initially warm asylum seeker reception of the early 1980s had become much soberer (Penninx 2006, 249). For example, already in 1987, the Regulation on the Reception of Asylum Seekers (ROA), was introduced because there was a growing number of refugees and therefore there was a housing shortage and an increase in the costs municipalities had to pay for social benefits. Therefore, the first aim of this regulation was to curtail giving asylum seekers access to independent housing and social benefits and instead offer them central reception and modest sums of pocket money. In the early 1990s, the Ministry of Justice introduced several measures in order to reduce the number of asylum requests and due to the large inflow of migrants, numerous applicants remained in limbo for years, not allowed to work or to access education. The number of asylum seekers who were denied refugee status but not sent back increased and swelled the ranks of illegal residents. This resulted in a growing conviction in politics that integration could not work because of a lack of control on immigration and admission (Bruquetas-Callejo et al. 2007, 9-10; Penninx 2006, 249).
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a rise of the populist politician Fortuyn, who
talked about the defeat of multiculturalism and the danger of ‘Islamisation’ of Dutch society (Buijs 2009, 423). Pim Fortuyn's party won a great victory in the local elections of March 2002 in Rotterdam and although a few weeks later, Fortuyn was murdered, his newly established LPF Party (Lijst Pim Fortuyn) won a landslide victory in the national elections of May 2002 as it entered the Parliament as the second largest party. Furthermore, after the murder of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who made an anti-Islam movie, serious political problems were activated and it caused authorities to panic. It was the starting point of a series of arson attacks and threats between Islamic extremists and native
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Dutch right-wing extremists and many Muslims experienced a feeling of exclusion (Buijs 2009, 421-422).
Later on, another politician named Geert Wilders, contributed to anti-immigrant views by owing to the nuisance behavior and street criminality of some Dutch-born Moroccan boys and youngsters from the Dutch Antilles, the increasing public visibility of Islam, and illiberal tendencies among some Muslims. These kind of politicians fuelled the ideas that certain segments of the population had with immigration and with the integration of foreigners (Lucassen and Lucassen 2015, 72-73). This caused that, all kinds of politicians wanted to show that they were in control and tried to win back the confidence of the voters through a demonstration of determination (Buijs 2009, 423). Therefore, most new measures have a strong symbolic, political message and attempt to respond primarily to the populist vote. The tone is authoritarian, and policies are increasingly mandatory, laying the burden of integration unequally on the shoulders of immigrants because they are meant to restrict immigration (Penninx 2006, 252-253).
So, nowadays there is an increasing emphasis on integration and adaptation to Dutch norms and values. However, although the government wants to exclude ‘failed asylum seekers’ from social benefits and insist on their return to their home-country, this kind of measures are directly opposed by local authorities and immigrants themselves. In Rotterdam, for example, migrants have
contributed significantly to the exit of the local LPF’s power by voting systematically for leftist parties (Bruquetas-Callejo et al. 2007,3-22). In the Netherlands, the anti-immigrant or Islam sentiments have turned somewhat especially after the electoral loss of Geert Wilders’ party in the 2012 elections, but the basic ideas of Fortuyn and Wilders, which were anti-immigration ideas, are still alive in the Netherlands (Lucassen and Lucassen 2015, 94-95).
1.2 Xenophobia and music
The most common theory about why people feel threatened by groups that are different than their own is the dynamic group conflict theory. This theory claims that negative attitudes toward so-called ‘outgroups’, which are the groups that are not one’s own group, essentially stem from the
the view that certain advantages of the own group are threatened by other groups. Negative ‘outgroup’ sentiments can thus be seen as a defensive reaction to perceived intergroup competition for scarce goods. These scarce goods can relate to material interests such as affordable housing, well-paid jobs, resources of the welfare state, but also include power and status (Meuleman et al. 2009, 354). Scheepers at al. (1998, 16-17) states that people in the Netherlands, for this reason, see the arrival and presence of newcomers as a threat. When there are at current times, according to public reports, large inflows of ‘other’ people into the country, people are scared they will get a piece of their scarce goods while the natives then get a smaller piece of the national scare goods (Scheepers et al 1998, 17-18).
Besides, less favorable economic conditions can cause the material goods that are the object of competition to be scarcer. Moreover, sudden changes in ‘outgroup’ size or economic conditions can cause negative attitudes toward the ‘outgroup’ because rapid changes in immigration or economic conditions might affect labor, housing, and other markets more strongly than slow-paced evolution. Also, these sudden changes can have an important impact on popular perceptions because they usually receive wide media coverage (Meuleman et al. 2009, 354), as is also to case in the Netherlands. However, some researchers suggest that people living in London display less negative attitudes towards migrants than people living in other parts of the United Kingdom and a possible explanation for these findings include that London has a very diverse population, and thus are more exposed to ‘outgroups’ (Crawley et al. 2013,12-13). A recent study of the CBS, showed that contact with refugees, positive contact in particular, goes together with a more positive attitude towards refugees (Kloosterman 2018, 9).
In this regard, it is believed that music can be a way for European people to see part of the culture of refugees in a non-threatening way (Smith 2017, 5). Some migrant communities use music not only as an inner-directed manner and a means of maintaining cultural identity. In many
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situations, music is used to address the wider community, as a way of establishing a group’s identity in the eyes (and ears) of others (Baily and Collyer 2006, 175). In conflict studies it is believed that music can bring cross-cultural links by representing the other, joining in an activity together and evoking emotions (Bergh 2007, 148-149). Baily and Collyer (2006, 168) actually said that music has a power to evoke memories and capture emotions in the lyrics as also in other aspects of the music with which we can all identify, migrants and non-migrants alike.
Thus, music mostly involves signs of feeling and experience and most of the time people do conceive that music conveys something about mood or character (Clayton 2005, 365; Turino 1999, 224). Even modern Arabic musicians and musical connoisseurs stress that above all Arab music must engage listeners emotionally (Racy 2004, 4-5). So, Peirce (in Turino 1999, 224) said that music can communicate an emotion, sense, sentiment, or feeling which, most people can understand, and therefore it has an energetic interpretant, a physical reaction caused by music, for example unnoticed foot tapping to music. However, according to him, not everything happening in music necessarily causes an effect. This is connected to what Gibson (in Clayton 2001, 7-8), calls the affordance of a sound. He says that a sound may present us with a possibility, which could be an emotional or physical affordance.
It is believed that performative practice is very important when we want to understand music of the ‘outgroup’. According to Clayton (2001, 5-6) and Krueger (2013,1) the different ways that we actively engage with and use music to animate behavior, which they call ‘Musicking’ 1,
cultivate and refine affective experience and therefore it is a way to orient ourselves to understand the world. Titon (2008, 27) agrees with the continental European philosophy that understanding proceeds through interpretation during practice, instead of through analysis, as explanations do. Therefore, music generates ‘knowledge of’ instead of ‘knowledge that’. For Titon (2008, 32) this meant that he experienced music as something that enters him and moves him. He states that he got to know people through lived experience, namely through making music together.
Moreover, music can even make people understand others on a more global scale. Connell and Gibson (in Hudson 2006, 628) say that the rise of ‘world music’ is centred on fusion and
hybridity. These processes create new identities that fused local and global, traditional and modern, at the same time de-territorializing culture. In that sense ‘world music’ might create an alternative home. Thus, the music of migrants or refugees or a mixture of different musical styles might contribute to so-called musical cosmopolitism. This term means the potential this music has to contribute to enlarge to thoughtful awareness of the world (Robins 2011, 151). An example of this is rap music, which has in the past countered hegemony. Therefore, it created awareness, educated and fought against marginalisation of African-Americans (McNair and Powels 2008, 351).
This view on music can be connected to the approach of applied ethnomusicology. This approach is according to the members of a study group devoted to this within the International Council for Traditional Music (ICTM), guided by principles of social responsibility. It extends the usual academic goal of broadening and deepening knowledge and understanding towards solving concrete problems. This can apply to the domain of conflict studies and to the domain of helping marginalized groups or therapy (Harrison et al. 2010, 1-11). Regarding communication across cultural values that seem threatening, musical therapist are trained to understand the process of communication, and they use music as a tool for initiating or enhancing interpersonal or social communication through developing musical companionship and musical community (Ansdell and Pavlicevic 2005, 193), which could help Dutch people to understand the stories of refugees or feel a companionship with them.
The communication through music that therapists use is however not so much build on a model where there is a sender and receiver, but it is more about a co-activity, harmonization and a
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Musicing is a term defeloped by Small (1999). It meant to take part in any way in a musical performance. Therfore the meaning of musicking lies in the relationships that are established between the participants in the performance. Musicking is part of an iconic, gestural process of giving and receiving information about relationships which unites the living world, and it is in fact a ritual by means of which the participants not only learn about, but directly experience, their concepts of how they relate, and how they ought to relate, to other human beings and to the rest of the world by being in a musical performance togheter.
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co-regulation (Tonsberg and Hauge in Ansdell and Pavlicevic 2, 199). The pioneer sociologist Alfred Schultz (in Ansdell and Pavlicevic 2005, 208) says that when people make music together they synchronise their experience (either with the composer or other performers) in the inner subjective time of shared consciousness, which he calls ‘mutual tuning in-relationship’; the subject of two or more individuals are brought into alignment through being synchronised (Ansdell and Pavlicevic 2005, 208).
Furthermore, meaning is created during musical synchronization. Charles Keil (in Clayton 2001, 3) says that musical meaning is a syntactic coding of emotional response and music meaning is the direct experience of feeling through synchronized action. According to Clayton (2001,3), music meaning can be found in a synchronous interaction like a dance. So, we can, by synchronizing our attentional rhythms to those we detect in an auditory stimulus (such as sounds produced by another human), achieve not only synchronization of action (as in dance) but also a profound sense of connectedness to other people (Clayton 2001,8). Hall (in Turino 1999,241) says that rhythmic
synchrony in moving and, or sounding together, is key to the way actual experiences of social identity creates unity and participation. Hence when music makers and dancers are in sync, such signs move beyond felt resemblances to experienced fact of social connections and unity. This functions as a kind of dialogue as the signs that emerge from each performer's manner of interacting sonically and kinetically affect and are directly affected by the kinetic and sonic signs of others. Direct kinetic and sonic response to others may well be experienced as a deep type of communion. Although one cannot fully express the feeling in words, the participants in a musical act do feel as if they belong with each other (Turino 1999, 241). So, as Small (1999,9-13) says, a musical performance is a human encounter where relationships are established and meanings generated.
Thus, music is commonly thought of as something that unites people, hence it is frequently deployed in multicultural contexts (Bergh 2007, 141). However, these are ideal scenarios and you probably need a lot of ‘tuning in’ to each other to create such a companionship through music (Ansdell and Pavlicevic 2005, 209). Moreover, this intimacy and companionship that are created by synchronising in musical practice can only be created within a cultural space. Two people in an act of music must share culture (both know some things that are similar in their culture), because just as with language, the tone is half the tone of somebody else. As with an act of speaking, cultural conventions also play a role in music and therefore social experience in music is mediated through shared cultural experience. Thus, there can only be musical communication if there is recognition in some way (Ansdell and Pavlicevic 2005, 203-209). Furthermore, many non-musical factors such as cultural demographics, non-verbal communications and the degree to which participants speak the same language all influence what it means when refugees and Dutch people make music together (Smith 2017, 18).
A good example, in which you can see that creating musical companionship needs more effort than simply letting people listen to music of a ‘outgroup’, is the ‘’Resonant Community project’’. This project consisted of musical performances and workshops from different cultures on high schools in Norway. Although all participants remember the music from other cultures they heard during this project thirteen years later and generally enjoyed this project at the time, in particular the rhythmic and participatory events, it had little impact on their daily lives and their relations with other groups. The lack of impact seems to be due to the fact that the pupils did not see any connections between the musical performances or the musicians and the local population from these countries and they were not involved in choosing music and therefore they did not connect to the music themselves. Therefore, it is true that just representing another culture is not enough to create cross-cultural links and more inclusive group formations are not automatically emerging simply by different groups partaking in shared musical experiences (Bergh 2007, 145-151). For example, Dutch people can love migrant’s music, as north-western Europeans do regarding music from the Mediterranean, but still they are unsure about those migrants who travel with this music (Dueck 2011, 30).
Furthermore, music can have an exclusionary character. For example, Cloonan and Johnson (in Hudson 2006, 630) have observed, throughout history a considerable amount of popular music
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has been integral to exclusionary, divisive and oppressive identities and social relations. According to Turino (1999, 234) the subtle rhythmic patterns which are basic to how we speak, how we walk and how we dance and how we play music are unspoken signs of who we are, whom we resemble, and thus whom we are with. These sonic and kinetic signs, comes to the fore in participatory musical and dance occasions because in such occasions these signs are the focal point. So, divergences in kinetic and other features of social style directly identify outsiders, those who are not like us and similarities identify the ones who do are part of our own group. Therefore, musical signs are typically felt as relative comfort or discomfort with others in daily interaction (Turino 1999, 234). Because of this in a shared musical action, xenophobia can be reinforced as well as overcome by musical practices.
1.3 Initiatives regarding making music with refugees in the Netherlands
There are many projects in the Netherlands that try to connect refugees and Dutch by making music. There are Dutch initiatives that want to provide an extra support system for refugees who face a complex bureaucratic and political situation as also many initiatives that consist of (former) refugee or migrant musicians who want to use their musical knowledge as a means of helping other refugees cope with their situation (Smith 2017, 18). A good example of this is Orchestre Partout. This is a band that is founded in 2010 in Alkmaar and consists of refugees and other newcomers. They believe that in the current world full of babel, music is a common language as it connects, regardless of
background or culture (Orchestre Partout 2018a, 2018b). There are many more musical groups in the Netherlands like this, for example Trio Qasyon whose basis consists of two Syrian sisters, the Ornina Ensemble, which consist of five musicians from Syria and Iraq, or Farah, a band that has
bandmembers from Somalia, Syria, Morocco, Angola, Iraq and the Netherlands (De-x 2018; Incubate 2018; Omroep Flevoland 2017;Smith 2017, 30-32).
There are also some bigger initiatives regarding making music with refugees in the
Netherlands. One initiative, that doesn’t partially focus on refugees making music but more on the power of music to bridge ethnic, religious and political differences and heal the wounds of war and conflict, is Musicians without Borders. This initiative was founded in 1999 and they want to create community music project in places where people struggle with traumas, anxieties and isolation caused by conflicts (Musicians without Borders 2018a, 2018b). So, this foundation believes that music can create equality and connection in a safe space and empathy between people with
different backgrounds (Musicians Without Borders 2018c). One way to do so is the usage of culturally neutral music, which is music from anywhere that can be used to build trust while making music together, without showing preference for one musical culture over another (Smith 2017, 19-20). Furthermore, they stated the so-called ‘Welcome Notes’ in 2015, to help hospitable musicians in Europe to welcome refugees from war (Musicians Without Borders 2018b). Together with ‘the Roots Amsterdam Festival’, they organised a musical flash mob action called ‘All We Are Saying’, which was created to oppose the climate of fear in the Netherlands and promote acceptance of refugees (Hassler 2016, 3-4). Furthermore, they worked together with other European arts organizations for social inclusion of refugees in Europe and countering xenophobia (Musicians Without Borders 2017).
Another big initiative in the Netherlands regarding music with refugees is Stichting de
Vrolijkheid (foundation of happiness). The objective of Stichting de Vrolijkheid is to reach children
and young adults with creative workshop in arts like music, dance, theatre, film or handicrafts. This foundation does not play music or partake in any art forms directly, but organizes and finances projects to make it possible for several musicians and music teachers to work with various groups of refugees within an AZC (Smith 2018, 21, Stichting de Vrolijkheid 2018c). By partaking in these creative activities that Stichting de Vrolijkheid organises for more than 15 years and nowadays in more than 25 asylum seeker centers (AZC), young refugees can proces their experiences, tell their
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stories and develop their talents (Stichting de Vrolijkheid 2018a, 2018b). Stichting de Vrolijkheid believes that music can heal you and has an enormous connecting power, because the language of music is universal and it unites regardless of differences in the social sphere, language, religion or age (Stichting de Vrolijkheid 2018d, Stichting de Vrolijkheid 2018e, 24). Furthermore, they believe that when people create art together, they can meet each other with the help of a story and people can communicate and connect with each other (Stichting de vrolijkheid 2018e, 39). In this regard a study from de Ruijter and Haaij (2014, 5-16) demonstrated that the activities of Stichting de
Vrolijkheid could bring refugees out of their isolation and into contact with society.
Finally, there is an orchestra that tries to connect refugee musicians and local Dutch people. This is Catching Cultures Orchestra. During my internship I have done research among their members and participants. Catching Cultures Orchestra in Utrecht is established in 2015 as cooperation
between Orchestra Tegenwind, a wind ensemble and the Band zonder Verblijfsvergunning (Band without residence permit, a band formed by inhabitants of an asylum seekers center and Stichting de
Vrolijkheid) and they are an independent foundation now (Catching cultures Orchestra 2017, 1). The
Orchestra consists of an amateur wind orchestra, other local musicians and refugee musicians. They organise a lot of different events, but all these events have in common that they want to bring refugees who want to make music in the Netherlands together with other musicians. The orchestra wants to connect them and make the refugees integrate in Dutch society more easily. Furthermore, they want Western musicians to be inspired by the newcomers in our country and apply this new experiences and impulses together during productions, workshops and in cultural education (Catching Cultures Orchestra 2018; Catching Cultures Orchestra 2017, 1).
To make this happen this organisation gets funding from Stichting DOEN (foundation DOING), who supports initiatives that are either environmentally conscious, creative or initiatives that give vulnerable people a place in our society. They want that their funding will be used to give these people a place where they can work, develop and feel part of society. According to Stichting DOEN this ensures personal development and involvement with each other and the environment and art and culture amuses the public and confronts and connects people (DOEN 2018). Moreover, Catching Cultures Orchestra gets funding from Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie (foundation for cultural
participation), who not only believes that making art can generate fun, but also brings people together and make stories visible (Fonds voor Cultuurparticipatie 2018). Thus, Catching Cultures Orchestra clearly want to give refugees (vulnerable people) a place in society as well as connect local Dutchmen and refugees by creative musical activities. How the musical activities are actually
experienced by the participants in their musical activities is something I will explain in the third chapter of this thesis, which consist of the findings gathered during my research among them.
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Chapter Two: How music creates belonging for refugees
2.1: Current situation and feelings of belonging for refugees in the NetherlandsWhen refugees arrive in the Netherlands and they want to request asylum, they must report to the central reception location (COL) at ter Apel or Schiphol Airport. From there they are placed in a registration center (ten Holder et al. 2012, 11). If the access to the asylum procedure is granted, the refugee is transferred to one of the investigation centers were a first extensive interview with an officer of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service takes place. In these large centers, there is little privacy and the people living there are not allowed to do any kind of work, except inside the center. Refugees who are granted residence in the Netherlands while waiting for the outcome of the asylum procedure are transferred to one of the more than one hundred AZCs. At this time they are able to follow Dutch courses and are allowed to work up to 24 weeks a year, as they wait to be granted a residence permit and regular housing (van Dijk et al. 2001, 287; ten Holder et al. 2012 14-15). When they enter this center they get some money to buy for example cookware and clothes and afterward they receive 57 euro’s a week if they are an adult, an additional 43 euro’s if they have children under 18 years and 36 euros if they have children below 11 years with them. When somebody must return home he or she can stay for a maximum of 4 weeks in the AZC and afterward for 12 weeks in a so-called freedom-limiting location (ten Holder et al 2012, 11-16).
The AZCs can be a big (old) building, temporary houses or caravans (Kramer 2010, 8). Asylum seekers mostly live in a remote area that is shared with others who also suffer and have a lot of pain and grief with them to carry (ten Holder et al. 2012,7). For example, refugees suffer from the loss of family members and from having to leave behind their homes, culture and customs. It is difficult for refugees to be left with virtually no rights and from one day to the next be regarded as a nobody (Strijk et al 2010, 51). They are expected to face uncertainties for years, as for example, in the
Netherlands in January 2003, approximately two-thirds of the 60,000 asylum seekers were more than 2 years in the procedure (Laban et al. 2004, 843). In this time, they are according to Watson (in Baily and Collyer 2006, 171), seen as belonging not here in the country they live, neither to their home-country.
Furhtemore, refugees face some concrete problems. For example, Iraq refugees have problems about family issues, discrimination, the asylum procedure, socio-economic living conditions, socio-religious aspects, and work-related issues (Laban et al 2015, 825- 827). In AZCs, there is most of the time not much privacy, noise and poorhygiene because people have to share their kitchen, sanitaria and rooms when they do not live with their family on one room (Kramer 2010, 8-9).
It also has been observed that asylum seekers are to a high extent excluded from Dutch society. This is caused by the decreasing of the quality and variety of the facilities offered by the AZC, in recent years. The sober but humane reception of asylum seekers nowadays, causes that centers provide only lodging and limited educational and recreational facilities. For facilities such as health care, socio-cultural activities or sport-activities asylum seekers have become increasingly dependent upon the community around the AZCs (van Dijk 2001, 287-288). So, it is hard for refugees to find things to do during the day and therefore they get bored, stressed or feel excluded. Moreover, aspect like language barriers, limited financial means and geographical distance reduce the possibilities for interacting and socializing with the Dutch. Moreover, most asylum seekers must move at least one time and they then have to establish new contacts, all over again (Kramer 2010, 8-9).
The current climate in the Netherlands, in which refugees are not really welcomed, makes living in an asylum seekers center harder (ten Holder et al. 2012, 7). For example, media stories about high criminality among asylum seekers and about an influx of ‘economic’ refugees contribute to an increasingly negative image (van Dijk et al. 2002, 288). A qualitative study showed that refugees
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living in the Netherlands feel as if they are not heard when it comes to health care and they are badly treated and discriminated against (van Dijk et al. 2001, 284).
Migrants that must live in AZCs or freedom-limited locations could, therefore, be susceptible to the adverse effects on mental health associated with detention, like anxiety, depression,
posttraumatic stress disorder or suicidal ideation (Robjant 2009, 306). A study of Gerritsen (2006,18) has shown that both physical and mental health problems are highly prevalent among refugees and asylum seekers in the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, ten Holder et al. (2012, 3757) report that sometimes asluym seekers are open and optimistic regarding their situation. This resilience was depended upon taking part in daily activities, social connections with others at their home-country and in the new surrounding and the finding of meaning in life through their beliefs and dreams (the Holder et al. 2012, 3757).
Furthermore, Kramer (2010, 5) showed that refugees in the Netherlands are often grateful for their current housing and the security they experience in the Netherlands. This study showed that meaningful daily activities and contacts within and outside the AZC are important aspects for refugees as well because it reduces stress among them (Kramer 2010,35). In this regard a research from Strijk et al (2012, 50-54) showed that refugees in the Netherlands for example wanted some peace and security and feel less lonely or less boredom by living in a house that does not feel like a prison as the asylum seekers centers did, connecting with people outside the center without being afraid not to be understood or being discriminated, or purposeful daily activities. Sharing their stories with people who suffered from the same experiences empowered refugees to go on and encouraged them to connect with other people (Strijk et al. 2012, 53).
2.2 The musical ideas of the Arab world
Most refugees in the Netherlands are from Africa and the Middle East. From 2014
onwards-substantial numbers of Eritrean and Syrian refugees entered the Netherlands. In 2015, 3,3 thousand Eritrean and 20,6 thousand Syrian refugees came to the Netherlands and a lot of other refugees came from Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Somalia. This resulted in that 56 thousand people living in the Netherland on 1 January 2016 had a background from Iraq. Next to this, there are 44 thousand persons with a background from Afghanistan and 44 thousand from Syria (CBS 2016, 36-37).
Furthermore in the last quarter of 2017 most refugees were from Syria, Eritrea and Iraq (Werkwijzer Vluchtelingen 2017).
However, in a migrant or refugee community, there is usually a range of cultures from different societies of origin. There likely will be divisions within this community, such as ethnicity, social class and level of education, as well as very important gender and generational differences (Baily and Collyer 2006, 172-173). Moreover, in such a community, it is very likely that there are a lot of different perceptions on music. Therefore, we can never speak of ‘the musical ideas of refugees in the Netherlands’ as there are probably many differences in their musical practices and ideas about music, even when we consider the current refugees in the Netherlands to be from Africa and the Middle East, which could be considered as places where Arabic ideas about music prevail. However, I do want to give some ideas in this paragraph about Arabic music to cover some ideas about music refugees might bring with them when they come to live in the Netherlands, because this could be some ‘musical sign’ which could identify the once we belong to or not, of which I spoke before (Turino 1999, 234).
Even when we try to speak of Arabic music and we consider that Islam is the binding factor, this could encompass the music of the territories where Islam spread, like Arabia, the Fertile Crescent, Persia, Turkey, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Indonesia and parts of Africa, India, Spain, Sicily, southern Italy and parts of East Europe. Therefore, among Arabic music we could consider pre-Islamic music that was predominantly tribal music that developed during the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of Islam to sophisticated urbanised art music, as well as more modern music or music of the
Andalusian tradition or Turkish or Persian tradition who attained further heights of Islamic civilisation and later on produced musical styles of their own. This overall term in this huge geographical area
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still covers a variety of musical styles and genres, from learned and sophisticated types of music, elaborated in the context of supra-national Islamic civilization, to simple forms of sacred music and nomadic or sedentary folk musical traditions (Shiloah 1995, xv-xvi).
Plenckers (2014, 16) considered that there are two styles of Arabic music. This coincides with the usual splitting into east and west of the ‘Arabic word’ of which Egypt, Syria and Iraq are
considered the most import countries of the east and Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are considered the most important countries of the west. This dichotomy was probably already visible in the 13th
century when in the west people preferred Persian court music while along the north coast of Africa people prefer the Arabo-Andalusian music tradition. Besides, in the west (North African countries such as Morocco), people preferred a diatonic tuning, which is also preferred in Europe, and the usage of a string instrument called the rabab, while at the north coast of Africa (for example Egypt and Syria) people preferred to use three-quarters tones and the flute. Even in this dichotomy,
Plenckers (2014, 16-18) distinguish three other musical traditions. These consist of art music, popular music and folk music, although there is some overlap. The first category was mostly played by elite or aristocracy. The second is mostly made to reach as many people as possible through mass media. This is music that is easy to remember and easily appeals to a lot of people. According to Plenckers (2014, 16-18), this music lives a short life, but I disagree as I witnessed that some famous popular singers like Fairuz are still popular nowadays among many refugees. The third category consists of mostly simple music that is mostly played in small communities and they consider this music of their own (Plenckers 2014, 16-18).
Sometimes, music is seen as prohibited in Islam. However this is only believed by people who interpretated some part of the Quran in this way while there are only parts of the Quran that
implicitly refere to the prohibiton of music (Shiloah 1995, 31-33). Others believe that only portraits (making images is even more explicitly prohibited in the Quran) which possessed religious sanctity and led people into worshipping them had been prohibited, while music and songs which possessed an element of immorality in them also only had been forbidden in Islam (Kutty 2015, 44-45).
Moreover, in Islam, there is a distinction made between different kinds of what Europeans would consider music. For most English-speakers the term music means the art and science of combining vocal and, or instrumental sounds or tones, as to form a wide variety of structurally, aesthetically, and emotionally satisfying expressions. Musiqa is the Arabic term often equated with this concept, although it has had various connotations in Islamic religious history. Only when used in the loosest sense has it been regarded by members of Muslim society as synonymous with the term music. Instead, in most instances, it applies only to certain secular musical genres of the Islamic religion. So, all types of what many Europeans would consider being music have not been considered so by Muslim society. In fact, Islamic religion has provided an inexplicit, but powerfully implied, hierarchy of sound-art expression (al Faruqi 1985, 6-7).
The pitched recitation of the Holy Quran stands at the peak of importance and acceptability in the Muslim hierarchy of sound-art expressions. Just below Quran chant on the hierarchy are religious chants that have as well been regarded as unquestionably legitimate forms of sound expression in the Islamic religion, like the adhan (call to prayer), which is chanted five times daily from the minaret of every mosque. Below this, there are the recitation or intoning poetry with noble themes that suffered a minimum of cultural suppression. Three more levels are included among the forms of sound-art expression, which are consistently regarded as legitimate. The first of these includes various types of family and celebration music such as lullabies, women's songs and music for weddings, family and religious celebrations. The next level of the hierarchy is occupational music such as shepherds' tunes and work songs. The last level comprises music of the military Band that has been used through the centuries to rally for battle and provides entertainment for public
celebrations (Ibid., 8-11).
All other forms of musical expression that have arisen in the Islamic world are considered by some to be questionable or even dangerous. At the top of this hierarchy, there are free rhythmed vocal and instrumental improvisations. Because of their formal and stylistic similarity to religious chants these genres have also been favored by a large percentage of the population, though they
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were not universally approved. Below this, there are metered vocal and instrumental compositions. These have also been enjoyed and considered harmless by a sizable though a somewhat smaller segment of the society. Below them is the level of music related to pre-Islamic or non-Islamic origins. It includes music of which Muslim religious leaders have generally disapproved because of its
relationship to other religious traditions. Finally, the lowest level of the hierarchy is given to sensuous music that is performed in association with condemned activities, or that is thought to invite to such prohibited practices as consumption of drugs, alcohol, lust or prostitution (Ibid 11-12).
In Islamic culture making music can also interfere with the actualization of higher goals like prayer, care for the family and other social or economic responsibilities. According to some Islamic sources, this kind of activities needs to be avoided because life allows little time for such frivolous entertainment (Ibid., 17-18). Bailey (in Doubleday 1999,104) says that people in Afghanistan who she interviewed, believed that music has the power to deflect people from work, to lead people astray, indulging in illicit activities, especially sex and imbibing alcohol and it can bring people into contact with Satan. Therefore it is said that when musicians or listeners of music devote to much time to this, such activities become a detriment rather than an innocent pastime. There always has to be a proper involvement in musical practice, because over-commitment to these activities of musical
entertainment has been condemned by the society (Faruqi 1985, 17-18).
Next to the differences that are made between musical ‘genres’ within Arabic music, this music has some commonalities. Besides language and the history of spreading of Arabic music are determining factors in what should be considered Arabic music, some musical characteristics justify the use of this term to encompass different musical styles within this framework. Most notably, Arabic music is monophonic. Hence, the musical expression in this music is mainly concentrated in the melody and rhythm. There is hardly or no polyphony as in Western music. Furthermore the tone-pallet not only consist of diatonic tones, as it is in western music (do,re,mi,fa,so,la,si), but also of three-quarter tones alongside whole and halftones. Because of this Arabic music consist of much more tonal series than western music, which from the seventeenth century onwards only consist of major and minor (Plenckers 2014, 14). So, the Arabic scale (sullam al-arabi), doesn’t consist of five whole and two halve distances between tones as the European scale does, but of three whole and four three-quarter distances between tones. In comparison with the European major scale the third and the seventh step of this scale sound too low. Between the notes on a basic scale in Arabic music there are a lot of notes in between so an octave in Arabic music consist of 24 notes instead of eight tones that is usual in Europe. In practice however, a lot of musicians in the ‘Arab world’ derogate from this scale to not let them hinder in their personal expression. They feel free to interpret a tone higher or lower. In different countries some tones are interpreted higher or lower than in others (Ibid., 143-144).
Furthermore, in Arabic music there are three very important terms. First, Arabic music consist of so-called jins. This is a set of consecutive tones with certain distances between them, most of which consist of four tones. Every jins has his own character, color and therefore its own name. So, an Arabic melody can be described as a set of tonal movements between certain ajnas (singular:
jins)(Ibid., 147-156). Secondly, an important term in Arabic music is maqam which is considered to be
a tonal set the size of an octave (a heptatonic scale). This maqam consists of the first note; the fundamental note and the following distances between the following notes within the octave set. Both determine to with maqam an improvisation or composition belongs. However, according to different musicians, the maqam is not only determined by these characteristics but also the affective and emotional response they aroused in the audience which they consider as inherent to the maqam (Ibid., 147-156). Moreover, until the nineteenth century, a lot of sources connected the maqam to ethical, therapeutically and cosmological values, like planets, seasons, humors or day and night (Shiloah 1995,110-120).
Last, rhythm has always been an essential and predominant component in Arabic music (Shiloah 1995, 120). Arabic music, which is not improvised doesn’t have bars but instead some metrical aspects that indicate time. In Arabic music, time is expressed in drum patterns (Plenckers 2014, 156-157). These patterns have four characteristics. These are the number of beats per pattern;
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the variety of heavy and light beats in a pattern, the time between the beats (long or short) and the tempo, which means the duration of a pattern. The heavy beats on the drums are the ones in the middle of the drum, the light ones on the sides and there can also be a pause which is the absence of a beat (Plenckers 2014, 156,162) With this dum and tak refer respectively to the beat near the center of the drumhead and to the strike near or in the rim (Shiloah 1995, 120-125).
Moreover, in Africa and the Middle East, music is considered to be a kind of dialogue. In Africa, a musical performance is conceivedof one voice singing a part and another voice responding, in a call-and-response kind of dialogue (Stone, 1997, 10). This pattern can represent an omnipresent duality between two interlocking parts in instrumental music or between a voice and an instrument in solo music. There can be an equal as well as an unequal relationship in this dialog. There is a wide range of possible relationships, for example a leader-dominated relationship, a group-dominated relationship, an alternating relationship and a simultaneous relationship (Kauffman 1980, 403-406). Also, in the Middle East, it is believed that voices are used much more for dialogue and conversation than for monologues. Singing to oneself is even best understood as internalized dialogue through which a singer responds to remembered voices of others (Danielson and Reynolds2001, 6).
Besides, Arabic music is an oral music as most of this music is traditionally transferred by listening, remembering and singing or playing after the ones who are teaching the music. This way of transferring the music brings along a variety of performances and constant variation. Musicians in the ‘Arab world’ are more appreciated when they can improvise and vary and decorate their music (Plenckers 2014, 14). Master musicians have actually regarded face-to-face communication over an extended time as the only adequate channel for the transmission of musical knowledge in the ‘Arab world’ (Danielson and Reynolds 2001b, 9).
Notation of music in the form of sheet music was considered to be limiting free expression and imagination at the beginning of the twentieth century. Even when in the course of the twentieth century, notating music did accrue in the ‘Arab world’, this notation is not considered as a detailed prescription of a composition and as an interpretable but unchangeable prescription of how it should be performed. These notations are more like a reminder or a didactic tool. Because all the notations steam from remembered pieces, sheet music in the ‘Arab world’ varies a great deal (Plenckers 2014, 14-21).
Next to the introduction of sheet music in the ‘Arab world’ in the early twentieth century, Arabic music witnessed the growing influence of European music theory, the assimilation of Western instruments, compositional techniques, and methods of musical instruction. At the beginning
ofWorld War II, many indigenous musical genres and performances mannerism had gradually disappeared or had been drastically transformed (Racy 2003, 5). So although we can in some way distinguish Arabic music this music is clearly influenced by western music nowadays.
Thus far, we have seen that it is important in Arabic music to express the self and that Arabic music is connected in, for example, the different maqam, to the idea that music can transform humans mentally, physically and emotionally (Racy 2003, xi). These kinds of ideas about music as a ‘spiritual food’ are connected to the numerous religious usages of music during rituals in the ‘Arab world’ (Doubleday 1999, 104). Furthermore since the late nineteenth century ‘Near Eastern or Oriental music’ has been considered to be first and foremost an emotive expression and the instruments of Arabic music possess a tremendous varied expressive means and depictive powers, whereas European music was considered to be a technical perfection. Although this is, a culturally biased perception of that time and the emotional essence of European music is ignored, this kind of statements alludes to an essential affective component within Arabic music. Certainly, it can be argued that all music is one way or another, emotionally effective. However, specifically in the case of the ‘Arab world’, one is struck by the centrality of emotional evocation (Racy 2003, 3-7).
In the ‘Arab world,’ the musically induced state of ecstasy or enchantment or the feeling aroused by music is called tarab. As an ecstatic experience, this tarab tends to occur in relatively distinct social venues and in specialized contexts that are separated from the flow of ordinary life. Actually physical and emotional manifestations that can be quite noticeable and therefore also tarab is usually approached with an air of discreetness. When it becomes excessive or when publicly
