Music and the Armenian diaspora
Subtitle: searching for home in exile
By: Sylvia Angelique Alajaji
Series: Public cultures of the Middle East and North Africa; Ethnomusicology multimedia; Public cultures of the Middle East and North Africa; Ethnomusicology multimedia
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 192
ISBN-13: 9780253017550; 9780253017611
Copyright date: 2015
Subjects: Armenian diaspora; Music; Musicians; Social conditions; Expatriate musicians; History and criticism; Armenians
Description: Survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915 and their descendants have used music to adjust to a life in exile and counter fears of obscurity. In this nuanced and richly detailed study, Sylvia Angelique Alajaji shows how the boundaries of Armenian music and identity have been continually redrawn: from the identification of folk music with an emergent Armenian nationalism under Ottoman rule to the early postgenocide diaspora community of Armenian musicians in New York, a more self-consciously nationalist musical tradition that emerged in Armenian communities in Lebanon, and more recent clashes over music and politics in California. Alajaji offers a critical look at the complex and multilayered forces that shape identity within communities in exile, demonstrating that music is deeply enmeshed in these processes. Multimedia components available online include video and audio recordings to accompany each case study [Publisher description]
Notes: Companion media includes audio, video, and still images associated with specific passages in the text.

"Guide to online media examples": page xvii-xix.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-185) and index.

To access online media, reader must first create a free account on the Ethnomusicology multimedia web site.
Table of contents: title: Ottoman Empire, 1890-1915; title: New York, 1932-1958; title: Beirut, 1932-1958; title: Beirut, 1958-1980; title: California.