Cross-cultural musical encounters: Muslim Mediterranean in the Enlightenment imagination
Abstract
The rise of Enlightenment thinking during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries prompted many thinkers to search for new knowledge in varied ways. This shift motivated travelers to journey to places farther outside of Europe and bring back information to publish for the public in the form of the travelogue. Cross-cultural encounters became more prominent in the eighteenth century for reasons such as maritime work, trade, politics, colonial conquests, and Grand Tourism, leading to many travelogues' publications. Travelers described music in the Muslim Mediterranean with either critical commentary or ethnographic documentation. Ideas of Muslim Mediterranean cultures were filtered through mediums such as published travelogues and staged works creating exoticist stereotypes that lasted throughout the century.
This thesis explores how cross-cultural musical encounters by Europeans in the Muslim Mediterranean during the eighteenth century influenced musical production in Europe. I reassess known experiences in published European travelogues for political, economic, and travel rationales during the eighteenth century. I then analyze musical discourse from these travelogues to show a dichotomy between the critical judgments of politically motivated travelers and the descriptions of Grand Tourist travelers. Lastly, I investigate the influence of published travelogues upon European musical production throughout the eighteenth century, showing that the Muslim Mediterranean ultimately had a larger impact on European musical culture than the latter did on the former.
Table of Contents
Introduction and literature review: establishing Enlightenment ideals that prompted travel -- European travel motivations and their publication for the public -- Dichotomies of description: musical accounts of the Muslim Mediterranean in Eighteenth-century travelogues -- Filtering ideals: an analysis of how the exotic was portrayed in selected operas and oratorios -- Epilogue
Degree
M.M. (Master of Music)