Looking at the 'Other' through the Ear: Contemporary Traces of Protectorate Politics through Music

Abstract

Inspired by Kenbib’s Les Protégés (1996) this article will develop an exploration of the way Spanish protectorate scholars used musicology to “look” at their Jewish protégés in Morocco and how traces of this scholarly gaze remain in place until today. Through an exploration of various works from the time of the protectorate and others from after Independence, I will show how protectorate tropes continue to operate within the manners in which the Spanish study and sometimes ignore the music of Moroccan Jews. Some will claim Jewish music for their own nationalistic projects, others disengage from Moroccan Jewish repertoires, showing a general political indifference towards the cultural and intellectual particularity of Jews and most importantly the very Moroccan experience of their musical expression.