Representations of the Orient in Western Music

Dr Nasser Al-Taee is the director of Education and Outreach at the Royal Opera House, Muscat, Oman. Prior to this, he was an associate professor of musicology in the School of Music at the University of Tennessee. He holds a Ph.D in Musicology from the University of California, Los Angeles. His primary research focuses on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music, including issues concerning representation, appropriation, race, and east-west relations.

Contents: Preface; Part I Introduction: Between violence and sensuality: Orientalism in musicology. Part II Prophets and Concubines: Models of Violence and Sensuality: The character of Muhammad: a model of violence and sensuality in the European image of the Orient; Slaves, sultans and concubines: the components of illusion. Part III The 18th and 19th Centuries: the Contextualization of Knowledge: Music as noise: barbarity, deficiency, and intrusion in Western accounts of Turkish music; Osmin's rage meets Selim's benevolence: the Oriental other in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail; 200 years of Orientalism: construction of the Orient in Wieland's, Wranitzky's, Weber's, and Burgess' Oberon; Whirling fanatics: Orientalism, politics and religious rivalry in Western operatic representations of the Orient. Part IV The Arabian Nights in Music and Film: Under the spell of magic: the Oriental tale in Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherezade; Reel bad Arabs, really bad lyrics: villainous Arabs in Disney's Aladdin; Select bibliography; Index.