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E-book
Author Witulski, Christopher, author

Title The gnawa lions : authenticity and opportunity in Moroccan ritual music / Christopher Witulski
Published Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2018]

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Description 1 online resource (ix, 181 pages)
Series Public cultures of the Middle East and North Africa
Public cultures of the Middle East and North Africa.
Contents Minute in Meknes -- Defending ritual authority -- African routes and sufi roots -- Making a living as a contemporary ritual musician -- New opportunities -- Light rhythms and heavy spirits -- Fighting new demands -- Heritage and hybridity -- New authorities and authenticities
Summary Traditionally gnawa musicians in Morocco played for all-night ceremonies where communities gathered to invite spirits to heal mental, physical, and social ills untreatable by other means. Now gnawa music can be heard on the streets of Marrakech, at festivals in Essaouira, in Fez's cafes, in Casablanca's nightclubs, and in the bars of Rabat. As it moves further and further from its origins as ritual music and listeners seek new opportunities to hear performances, musicians are challenged to adapt to new tastes while competing for potential clients and performance engagements. Christopher Witulski explores how gnawa musicians straddle popular and ritual boundaries to assert, negotiate, and perform their authenticity in this rich ethnography of Moroccan music. Witulski introduces readers to gnawa performers, their friends, the places where they play, and the people they play for. He emphasizes the specific strategies performers use to define themselves and their multiple identities as Muslims, Moroccans, and traditional musicians. The Gnawa Lions reveals a shifting terrain of music, ritual, and belief that follows the negotiation of musical authenticity, popular demand, and economic opportunity
Notes Online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on August 03, 2018)
Subject Gnawa (Brotherhood)
SUBJECT Gnawa (Brotherhood) fast
Subject West Africans -- Morocco -- Music -- History and criticism
Music -- Morocco -- Religious aspects
MUSIC -- Ethnomusicology.
Music -- Religious aspects
Morocco
Genre/Form Electronic books
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2018029493
ISBN 9780253036780
025303678X