12 februari 2009

Interplay of differences and union of shared values and practices: The traditional art genre of Iraq by Scheherazade Q. Hassan

The traditional Iraqi art music, designated as Iraqi maqam, is an urban learned genre with a substantial repertoire. Its performance is based on specific erudition and skills as well as on other characteristics reflecting a complex society and old culture.
The aim of this presentation is to show how the Iraqi maqam, as a musical genre, is constituted of terminological, theoretical and structural elements that represent the ethnic, religious and social diversity of Iraq while embodying the musical culture of Islamic areas. The musical inclusiveness that takes a unified formal shape is stretched out to include performers, performances and socio-cultural aspects.
It is possible to suggest that this genre represents an inherent two level model, known in Islamic civilization, that draws on both the supra national and the local. Both levels function together in an interrelated way, forming a musical style that is specific to Iraq.


Scheherazade Hassan is specialized in the Music of the Middle Eastern Arab World.

She was trained in Musicology, Ethnomusicology, and Islamic Sociology. She received her PhD from “L’école Pratiques des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales” in Paris, studying under Jacques Berque in Islamic Sociology and Gilbert Rouget in Ethnomusicology.

In Iraq she taught at the University of Baghdad and she founded and directed the first Centre for Traditional Music in the capital. She conducted extensive fieldwork in all the regions of the country and created collections of both recorded music and musical instruments.

She also conducted fieldwork in Syria, Bahrain, Qatar, the Arab Emirates as well as the regions of Aden and Hadramawt in Yemen

She taught at the University of Paris X Nanterre. She is currently a fellow at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study and a Research Associate at SOAS (London) and at the CNRS (Paris).

Her new project in progress consists of exploring the different aspects of the vocal art tradition al maqam Iraqi, from musical, cultural and social perspectives.