This dissertation examines the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and the
historical and cultural milieu of which it is a part. Held annually since 1994 in the city of
Fes, Morocco, this festival was first launched in the wake of the first Gulf War as an
interfaith initiative and was conceived with a European and American audience in mind.
It was later housed under the aegis of FES-SAISS, an NGO based in the medina of Fes,
Morocco. Over time, the festival became both more local and more global, with local
residents using the global rhetoric of western democratic ideals and human rights
discourses as a way to shape the festival’s local programming. After 9/11 and the May
16, 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca, the festival took on a new significance as
Moroccans began to think of the festival as an event that would counter its own domestic
extremism. This dissertation looks at the role of sound and music and its place in This dissertation examines the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and the
historical and cultural milieu of which it is a part. Held annually since 1994 in the city of
Fes, Morocco, this festival was first launched in the wake of the first Gulf War as an
interfaith initiative and was conceived with a European and American audience in mind.
It was later housed under the aegis of FES-SAISS, an NGO based in the medina of Fes,
Morocco. Over time, the festival became both more local and more global, with local
residents using the global rhetoric of western democratic ideals and human rights
discourses as a way to shape the festival’s local programming. After 9/11 and the May
16, 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca, the festival took on a new significance as
Moroccans began to think of the festival as an event that would counter its own domestic
extremism. This dissertation looks at the role of sound and music and its place in This dissertation examines the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music and the
historical and cultural milieu of which it is a part. Held annually since 1994 in the city of
Fes, Morocco, this festival was first launched in the wake of the first Gulf War as an
interfaith initiative and was conceived with a European and American audience in mind.
It was later housed under the aegis of FES-SAISS, an NGO based in the medina of Fes,
Morocco. Over time, the festival became both more local and more global, with local
residents using the global rhetoric of western democratic ideals and human rights
discourses as a way to shape the festival’s local programming. After 9/11 and the May
16, 2003 suicide bombings in Casablanca, the festival took on a new significance as
Moroccans began to think of the festival as an event that would counter its own domestic
extremism. This dissertation looks at the role of sound and music and its place in viii
Moroccan spiritual traditions and questions how a local religious musical aesthetic
produced by the festival impacts interfaith efforts beyond Morocco’s borders as well as
local Moroccan conceptions of spirituality. Important components in the shaping of
conceptions of spirituality are interactions in the sphere of tourism, and local and
international efforts at historic preservation, and in the history of how local musics
became world music. Perhaps more than ever before, the preservation of local histories
and traditions are co-constructed at a global rather than a local level, where global
spheres are new grounds for creating local meaning. In conclusion, this dissertation
considers the nature and scope of the impact this festival has as it travels around the
globe. / text
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UTEXAS/oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/7514 |
| Date | 27 May 2010 |
| Creators | Curtis, Maria F. |
| Source Sets | University of Texas |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | electronic |
| Rights | Copyright is held by the author. Presentation of this material on the Libraries' web site by University Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin was made possible under a limited license grant from the author who has retained all copyrights in the works. |
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