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“The Notes that bathe the Mediterranean”: Spanish Flamencos and Moroccan Musicians in Creative Convivencia

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https://doi.org/10.5070/D83139508Creative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
Abstract

Recent scholarship in ethnomusicology foregrounds issues of globalization; transnational identity, deterritorialization and migration as they are articulated in musical practice. For centuries the music of the peoples of Spain has moved back and forth between Andalusia and North Africa. The recent collaborations between Spanish and North African musicians present a discourse of a pan-Mediterranean sensibility which articulates shared historical roots and shared contemporary realities, as it simultaneously references notions of convivencia (the shared co-existence of the three cultures in medieval Spain) and expresses contemporary inter-dependence. This article explores musical collaborations in Spain. ranging from interactive musical dialogues to hybrid fusions between musicians of both cultures. In what ways do these musical collaborations articulate identities; acknowledge shared histories and musical affinities; reflect contemporary socio/political realities and function as expressions of solidarity? In presenting the collaborative work of Spanish and North African musicians, I address issues these collaborations represent. I examine these collaborations from the perspectives of the musicians involved, and the discourse surrounding these musical creations. In so doing, I explore concepts of transnational and pan-Mediterranean identities, as well as the role of cultural imagination in constructing narratives of community and collective memory.

 

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