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The Arabesk Debate describes the way in which Turkish musicians discuss, dispute, and attribute meanings to their music. Martin Stokes examines the debate over 'Arabesk', a musical genre popular throughout Turkey. His book is an ethnographic study of urban music-making in Istanbul, focusing on the activities of professional musicians and their audiences in the city.
List of contents
- List of Figures
- Introduction to the 2020 Edition
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Discovering the Folk and Their Music
- 3. Rule, System, and Technique: Reconstructing Turkish Folk Music
- 4. Arabesk
- 5. Arabesk Lyrics and Narratives
- 6. The Musical Organization of Arabesk
- 7. Arabesk and Sema
- Appendix A
- Appendix B
- Bibliography
- Glossary of Musical Terms
- Index
About the author
Martin Stokes is King Endward Professor of Music at King's College, London.
Summary
The Arabesk Debate describes the way in which Turkish musicians discuss, dispute, and attribute meanings to their music. Martin Stokes examines the debate over 'Arabesk', a musical genre popular throughout Turkey. His book is an ethnographic study of urban music-making in Istanbul, focusing on the activities of professional musicians and their audiences in the city.
Additional text
“[A] subtle and thought-provoking study of the enormously popular pop genre arabesk…. Stokes has the rare ability to set small, even anecdotal cultural detail into a richly patterned context of great breadth. He circles around arabesk music in ever tighter spirals so that when we reach the heart of the matter we are amply informed and able to put the genre in perspective. Skillfully blending his own fieldwork experiences with the voices of Turkish musicians, he shows us how symptomatic-even constitutive-music can be of an entire society's cultural politics and dilemmas…. In this book it seems possible to combine a cultural studies eye for the larger system with the ethnographer's preoccupation for close observation and participation. Doubtless the book itself will now become an integral part of the controversy it describes, a process ever deepening the ethnomusicologist's involvement with the local society.”-American Anthropologist
