Music of the Gnawa of Morocco: Evolving Spaces and Times
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MUSIC OF THE GNAWA OF MOROCCO: EVOLVING SPACES AND TIMES by Maisie Sum A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Music) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2012 © Maisie Sum, 2012 Abstract The Gnawa are a sub-Saharan-Berber-Islamic society found throughout Morocco with origins in sub-Saharan Africa and slavery. Their music invokes supernatural entities during an all-night ritual for purposes such as healing. Despite being marginalized for their ritual beliefs and practices, Gnawa music has become popular and is increasingly performed in secular contexts alongside sacred rituals. The aims of my dissertation are threefold: to analyze the Gnawa ritual with regard to structure, process and function; to investigate how Gnawa music is context-sensitive; and building on the first two points, to assess the impact of global forces on Gnawa ritual and music, and on its practitioners. My research imparts a musical dimension to the study of the Gnawa sacred ritual and to its secularized form, and engages in comparative analysis of improvised musical practices which articulate a dialogue with an evolving tradition. The inquiry draws primarily from my affiliation with a hereditary Gnawa family. In the first part I examine the world of the Gnawa and their music. This elucidates the habitus that informs the perception of social situations and gives meaning to the musical expression of ritual musicians. The second part investigates patterns and behaviors embedded in sonic structures of varied performances and correlates subtle differences in musical variations to performative intent. By first investigating the interaction between music and dance in a sacred ritual, then analyzing contrasting performances, I demonstrate how the Gnawa musical system operates as a referent to context and to mental activity (cognitive processes). Drawing on discourse of the African diaspora, I challenge the notion that the shift from the ii practice of ritual music for the local community to the performance of ritual music in festivals worldwide supports a concurrent shift towards desecration. Instead, Gnawa ritual musicians establish distinct spheres of practice which delineate the sacred from the secular. iii Preface A version of Chapter 7 appears in an article titled “Staging the Sacred: Musical Structure and Processes of the Gnawa Lila in Morocco,” in Ethnomusicology: Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, Volume 55 (1), Winter 2011. I am the sole author of the publication. Passages from the article have also been incorporated throughout the dissertation. Permission to reprint has been granted by the Society for Ethnomusicology. My research was conducted with the approval of the Behavioural Research Ethics Board, Certificate Number H07-00490. All photos and recordings (audio and video), unless otherwise noted, were taken and made by the author. Original and modified versions of figures published in the journal are indicated in the caption. I use a minimum of Arabic terms and have simplified their usage. I employ mainly the singular form, add a hyphenated ‘s’ for plural forms in most cases, and drop the use of articles entirely for stand alone words. I modify Harrell’s (2006) system of transliteration. I use ‘gh’ in place of ‘x,’ drop the use of all symbols including dots and lines below and above Conventional uses (written and spoken) of place names and .ع letters, and substitute ‘a for proper names are followed, and I am faithful to the transliterations in cited passages. I have translated sources written in the French language and conversations conducted in French and Moroccan Arabic, and bear full responsibility of any errors. iv Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ..................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ...................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ viii List of Audio and Video Examples ....................................................................................... xvi Acknowledgements............................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Initial Encounters ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Gnawa Preliminaries ...................................................................................................... 8 1.2.1 Who are the Gnawa? ............................................................................................. 10 1.2.2 Beliefs and Practices .............................................................................................. 14 1.2.3 Music Basics .......................................................................................................... 18 1.3 Gnawa Scholarship and Beyond ................................................................................... 23 1.4 Approaches to Gnawa Music........................................................................................ 27 1.4.1 Conceptual Tools ................................................................................................... 27 1.4.2 Fieldwork ............................................................................................................... 30 1.5 Dissertation Overview .................................................................................................. 35 Chapter 2 Gnawa Beliefs, Symbols, and Meaning ................................................................ 39 2.1 Introduction................................................................................................................... 39 2.2 Ideological Framework ................................................................................................. 40 2.2.1 Islamic Reverence and Reference .......................................................................... 42 2.2.2 Gnawa Pantheon .................................................................................................... 45 2.2.3 Significance of Lila and Derdeba .......................................................................... 47 2.3 Music’s Affective and Effective Code ......................................................................... 50 2.4 Mythical Structure, Ritual Process, and Ritualization .................................................. 54 Chapter 3 Gnawa Social Structure, Identity, and Context..................................................... 64 3.1 Social Structure and Identity ........................................................................................ 64 3.1.1 Leaders and Assistants ........................................................................................... 65 3.1.2 A Loosely Centralized Organization ..................................................................... 68 3.1.3 Membership, Transmission, and Training ............................................................. 70 3.1.4 Obligations and Ritual Roles ................................................................................. 78 3.1.5 Recent Changes ..................................................................................................... 85 3.2 Social Context of Gnawa and Their Music in Morocco ............................................... 93 3.2.1 Origins: Real, Imagined, and Constructed ............................................................. 95 3.2.2 Efficacious Healers .............................................................................................. 101 3.2.3 A Marginalized Practice: Contrasts with Sufi and Other Trance Rituals ............ 103 v 3.2.4 Secularization and Popularity .............................................................................. 111 3.2.5 A Secret Society .................................................................................................. 119 Chapter 4 Musical Structure ................................................................................................ 124 4.1 Instruments, Timbre, and Strings ............................................................................... 124 4.2 Tuning, Pitch, and Scale ............................................................................................. 128 4.2.1 Tuning .................................................................................................................. 128 4.2.2 Pitch ..................................................................................................................... 131 4.2.3 Scale ..................................................................................................................... 135 4.3 Time I: General Features ............................................................................................ 137 4.3.1 Regulating Pulse .................................................................................................. 138 4.3.2 Durational Framework, Values, and Rhythmic Features....................................