Orientalism in Music
Taught by Kristy Barbacane
Kristy Barbacane received her Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from Columbia University and has taught at Barnard College and Fordham and Columbia Universities. Her research interests include nineteenth-century France, music in Algeria and its diaspora, and the relationship between colonialism and music. Kristy spends her spare time playing flute, running in Central Park, and searching for the best patisserie in the city.
Literary theorist Edward Said noted, “The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences.” Representations of this imagined Orient infiltrated literature, art, architecture, and music. This class will examine Orientalism in music starting from the 18th century with the Turkish marches of Mozart and Beethoven to the Egyptomania of Verdi’s Aida and eroticism of Strauss’s Salome, extending to Sting’s Desert Rose.
Music also became a powerful tool for governments in establishing and exercising control over their colonies, thus, eschewing claims that it was purely superfluous entertainment. We will discuss the political ramifications of colonialism and music and address questions such as; What does the Orient sound like and how did empire-building alter local soundscapes?
No previous musical experience required!
