Among the Jasmine Trees - Music & Modernity in Contemporary Syria

How does a Middle eastern community create e modern image through its expression of heritage and authenticity ? In Among the jasmine trees : Music and modernity in contemporary Syria, Jonathan H. Shannon investigates expressions of authenticity en Syria'musical culture, which is particularly known for embracing and preserving the Arab musical traditions, and which has seldom been researched in depth by Western scholars. Music plays a key role in the process of self-imaging by virtue of its ability to convey feeling and emotions, and Shannon explores a variety of performances genres, Sufi rituals, song lyrics, melodic modes, and aesthetic criteria. Shannon shows that although the music may evoke the old, the traditional, and the local, these are re-visioned as signifiers of the modern national profile. A valuable contribution to the study of music and identity and to the ethnomusicology of the modern Middle East, Among the jasmine Trees details this music and its reception for the first time, offering and original theoretical frame-work for understanding contemporary Arab culture, music and society.