Pierre Cachia
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640867
- eISBN:
- 9780748653300
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640867.003.0016
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
This chapter focuses on the social values found in Egyptian popular ballads, and their moralising and philosophising effects. One of the most celebrated values in ballads is that of a man of honour ...
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This chapter focuses on the social values found in Egyptian popular ballads, and their moralising and philosophising effects. One of the most celebrated values in ballads is that of a man of honour and unlimited physical courage. In such ballads, the theme of umda surfaces as the core element. Another social value that pervades ballads is the theme of love. Most of the ballads are concerned with elemental human forces operating within a framework of long-established and virtually unquestioned priorities. It seems to be assumed that in any situation the right course will be immediately and glaringly obvious to the hero, to the narrator, to the audience, to any right-thinking, noble-minded person. Suspense and tension are created entirely by the obstructions that bar the hero's path and make the pursuit of the right course costly.Less
This chapter focuses on the social values found in Egyptian popular ballads, and their moralising and philosophising effects. One of the most celebrated values in ballads is that of a man of honour and unlimited physical courage. In such ballads, the theme of umda surfaces as the core element. Another social value that pervades ballads is the theme of love. Most of the ballads are concerned with elemental human forces operating within a framework of long-established and virtually unquestioned priorities. It seems to be assumed that in any situation the right course will be immediately and glaringly obvious to the hero, to the narrator, to the audience, to any right-thinking, noble-minded person. Suspense and tension are created entirely by the obstructions that bar the hero's path and make the pursuit of the right course costly.
Michael V. Pisani
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300108934
- eISBN:
- 9780300130737
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300108934.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
This book offers a comprehensive look at musical representations of native America from the pre-colonial past through the American West and up to the present. The discussion covers a wide range of ...
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This book offers a comprehensive look at musical representations of native America from the pre-colonial past through the American West and up to the present. The discussion covers a wide range of topics, from the ballets of Lully in the court of Louis XIV to popular ballads of the nineteenth century; from eighteenth-century British-American theater to the musical theater of Irving Berlin; from chamber music by Dvôrák to film music for Apaches in Hollywood Westerns. The book demonstrates how European colonists and their descendants were fascinated by the idea of race and ethnicity in music, and it examines how music contributed to the complex process of cultural mediation. The book reveals how certain themes and metaphors changed over the centuries and shows how much of this “Indian music”, which was and continues to be largely imagined, alternately idealized and vilified the peoples of native America.Less
This book offers a comprehensive look at musical representations of native America from the pre-colonial past through the American West and up to the present. The discussion covers a wide range of topics, from the ballets of Lully in the court of Louis XIV to popular ballads of the nineteenth century; from eighteenth-century British-American theater to the musical theater of Irving Berlin; from chamber music by Dvôrák to film music for Apaches in Hollywood Westerns. The book demonstrates how European colonists and their descendants were fascinated by the idea of race and ethnicity in music, and it examines how music contributed to the complex process of cultural mediation. The book reveals how certain themes and metaphors changed over the centuries and shows how much of this “Indian music”, which was and continues to be largely imagined, alternately idealized and vilified the peoples of native America.
