Middle East (North Africa, Central Asia)
NOTE: These lists are intended to be representative only and to pique curiosity. These basic sources can help you narrow down a topic and find useful keyword search terms to try in HOLLIS+ and article databases.
Archival Collections at Harvard
Archive of World Music, Loeb Music Library (also includes many commercial recordings of music from the Arab world):
- Stephen Blum Collection of Music from Iranian Khorāsān (1968-2006)Fieldwork conducted in the northern part of Iranian Khorāsān, with an emphasis on sung poetry in Persian (Farsi), Khorasani Turkish (Torki), and Kurmanji Kurdish. Includes streaming audio.
- Sema Vakf Collection of Turkish Classical MusicOne of the most extensive collections of its kind in the United States, this vakf, or trust, is named for the art of engaged listening (sema), and is dedicated to the preservation of classical Turkish music, particularly court music composed before 1850.
- The Marie-Thérèse, Baroness Ullens de Schooten Collections at Harvard UniversityField recordings of music, ceremonies, and daily life of some of the major nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes of Iran; recordings of radio transmissions from Radio Iran; music recorded at the Ethnography Museum in Tehran; and interviews with musicians, officials, and friends. Includes streaming audio.
- Laura Boulton Collection of Byzantine and Orthodox MusicsRecordings, primarily of Byzantine and other Orthodox Eastern church music and services; the collection also contains folk and classical music, and miscellaneous commercial recordings and books. Includes streaming audio.
Reference Sources
The Garland encyclopedia of World Music. Volume 6, The Middle East by Call Number: Also available in print: Loeb Music ML100 .G16 1998 v. 6 Seeger Room
The Voice of Egypt by Call Number: Loeb Music Library, Seeger Room ML420.U46 D36 1997
Music in Turkey by Call Number: Loeb Music Library ML345.T8 B37 2011 [+ 1 CD ]
Music in Egypt by Call Number: Loeb Music Library ML355.E3 M37 2007 [+ 1 compact disc ]
Internet Resources
- Middle East and North AfricaUniversity of Washington libraries ethnomusicology research guide including links to archives, websites, instrument collections, and more.
- Music in the Afghan North, 1967-1972Presents Mark Slobin's fieldwork in Afghanistan; includes text, images, sound and video files. Maintained by Wesleyan University.
- Music of Yakutia: Research GuideCreated for a symposium that centered on the Eduard Alekseyev Fieldwork Collection of the Musical Culture of Yakutia (Archive of World Music, Harvard)
- The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary Digital Collections: Music CollectionsField recordings of Jewish liturgical music from pre-state Israel and Cochin, India; early 20th-century sheet music from Russia and Central Europe; Cantorial School theses.