Is the concept “postcolonialism”, considered through a conceptual framework deeply indebted to Edward Said’s examinations of imperialism and its cultural manifestations, adequate to account for discursive practices of describing non-Western music? What tensions remain, and to what extent can we speak of a “postcolonial” analytic tradition?

Scheherazade Hassan (CNRS, Paris)
West and East on Arabic Music

This presentation addresses the contempt expressed in the 19th century by the dominant Eurocentric colonial powers, especially the French, regarding Arab music without understanding its differences from European music. In the first half of the 20th century, many central Arab capitals—recognizing that civilizations had always interacted in history, seeking modernity and progress—started to adapt some Western musical elements. By constructing big orchestras and introducing Western instruments, the traditional musical space took partly the shape of polyvalent “in-between” music that with time, in parallel to traditional music, became an important element of contemporary presentations.

Martin Scherzinger (New York University)
Precolonial African Music and the Antinomies of Colonial Time

One challenge facing representations of historical processes of cultural globalization, transnationalism, and hybridization concerns the legacy of their colonial-capitalist coordinates. This presentation argues that an analysis of African musical techniques and technologies from the precolonial era is an entryway into disrupting the Newtonian antinomies of colonial time. The presentation engages time and tonality in two precolonial African musical practices: an ancient mbira song from the Mutapa Dynasty of the Great Zimbabwe, and an ephemeral fragment of amadinda music from the Kampala region in Uganda from the era before the colonial assault on the Lubiri Court in the 1890s.

Wouter Capitain (University of Göttingen)
Edward Said on Authority and Transgression in Opera

This presentation will discuss Edward Said’s unfinished book on opera (forthcoming from Columbia University Press as Said on Opera in December 2023), focusing, in particular, on the relations between Said’s work on opera and his postcolonial criticism. Due to its historical power relations and its often problematic forms of representation, operatic performance indeed forms a most urgent domain for Saidian criticism. At the same time, the genre also offers the potential to “transgress” its historical associations through which it can become relevant today.

Curated by Prof. Dr. James Helgeson & Prof. Dr. Regula Rapp

The lectures and symposium will be presented in English. Admission is free, prior registration required.