Research
Moroccan Andalusian music, al-Âla Anthropo-historical approach, transformations and cultural identity
In this thesis, I attempt to place the tradition of al-Âla or “Moroccan Andalusian music” in
its historical context, at least that of the history of Morocco in the 20th century. This first
diachronic approach will lead us to a broader ethnomusicological reflection, intimately
combining musicology and anthropology.
The prestigious musical repertoire of al-Âla, which developed in the shadow of successive
political powers and in the historical continuity of the large cities of northern Morocco, is rooted
in social practices and daily life (weddings, religious songs, military music). It is made up of
refined traditional forms: sung poetry preserved in the form of manuscripts, musical suites
consisting of the Nouba and other forms of the repertoire, musical theory of modes, tubû’,
specific traditional musical instruments.
From the beginning of the 20th century, we have abundant sound archives, but which were
still poorly known: Pathé commercial discs (1910-1940), then recordings of an ensemble of alÂla at the Cairo Congress in 1932 which are important historical musicological testimonies.
Similarly, thanks to the cultural and musical policies of France and Spain (the “indigenous
arts”), Moroccan music was the subject of the first orientalist musicological studies, but also of
Moroccan researchers, which were affirmed at the Moroccan Music Congress in Fez in 1939.
After the Second World War and especially after Morocco’s independence in 1956, we
witnessed a general evolution in the practice of al-Âla, in the conceptions of today’s musicians
and, more generally, in the place of al-Âla in Moroccan society, mainly in the direction of
acculturation under the influence of modernity.
The question of transmission, according to the oral tradition or by means of new tools such
as musical transcription and recording, raises recurrent debates between modernity and fidelity
to tradition, highlighting the concept of authenticity, and the promotion of different experiences
of preservation, patrimonialisation and classicisation of Andalusian music. At the same time, I
attempt to describe empirically the performance of Moroccan Andalusian music in its current
forms, focusing on the relationship between the sung texts and the melodies in the suite, and in
particular their basic element, the san’a.
Finally, confronting this phenomenological description with numerous narrative
representations surrounding Andalusian music in Morocco, I note a strong tension that cannot but raise an anthropological question. The themes of the lost Golden Age of Muslim Andalusia and the very prevalent idea of the decadence of the repertoire (relayed, moreover, by colonialmusicology) present in themselves a flagrant contradiction with the current state of the repertoire, which seems rather to testify to the expansion of its volume. Taking into account, on the one hand, the function that this musical repertoire has had for a long time to represent political power and, on the other hand, the fact that it exemplifies the most valued culture of the Moroccan social elite, Andalusian culture, I note that it is charged with a strong imaginary dimension and collective emotion. I question this infatuation with Andalusian music and its contribution, as a living symbol, to the construction of a collective identity, that of Morocco as a modern political community
