Nūbat Ramal al-Māya in Cultural Context: The Pen, the Voice, the Text

These audio files present selections from a live performance of Nūbat Ramal al-Māya by the Jawq Brihi orchestra of Fez, under the direction of the late ʿAbd al-Krīm ar-Rāyis. The original recording is of unknown provenance, and was recorded in the early 1980s. In this unique edition, Carl Davila takes an original approach to the texts of the modern Moroccan Andalusian music tradition. This volume offers a literary-critical analysis and English translation of the texts of this nūba, studies their linguistic and thematic features, and compares them with key manuscripts and published anthologies. Four introductory chapters and four appendices discuss the role of orality in the tradition and the manuscripts that lie behind the print anthologies. Two supplements cross-reference key poetic images in English and Arabic, and provide information on known authors of the texts. This groundbreaking contribution will interest scholars and students of pre-modern Arabic poetry, muwashshaḥāt, Andalusian music traditions, Arabic Studies, orality, and sociolinguistics.