"What has music meant to people in Palestinian society during the 20th Century?"
This main research question will be divided into three intermediate questions:
- What has music expressed in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic values and concepts?
- What has music represented at the levels of individuals, social units, communities, and national groups?
- How has music functioned as an act of resistance against occupation, oppression and other manifestations of colonial domination?
Palestinian music in this study will be regarded as a cultural domain that has bearing on culture and society at large.
The scholars will study these aspects of the research question. With the aid of field studies and meta-studies, musicological, ethnomusicological, and social and political sciences will be applied in an interdisciplinary analysis of musical utterances and socio-cultural changes. The participants of the network are chosen out of their previous research and other experience within the thematic field of study.
The principle significance of the proposed project is that it contributes in providing a deeper understanding of a culture that has experienced widespread upheaval during the last 100 years, in a society that has long been under the international spotlight. It is a tool to bridge part of the gap that exists between Western and Eastern modes of understanding; to better inform the constantly increasing foreign cultural interaction with Palestinian culture; and to add transparency to this relationship.