A Bali-inspired Musical Suggestion

On this sunny Friday afternoon, we would like to offer you a musical suggestion for your listening pleasure: Colin McPhee’s Balinese Ceremonial Music for Two Pianos

Colin McPhee was a Canadian composer, pianist, writer and ethnomusicologist born in Montreal in 1900. He spent several years, from 1931-1938, in Indonesia, mostly Bali and Java studying the art and music from these regions; the tones and rhythms of gamelan ensembles inevitably influenced many of his compositions. McPhee wrote a number of books on his experience in Indonesia, including the hefty Music in Bali: A study in form and instrumental organization in Balinese orchestral music.

In this YouTube recording, Colin McPhee performs his piece on piano accompanied by the renowned British composer, Benjamin Britten. Another recording of this piece, as well as other compositions by McPhee, is available through McGill Libraries on CD, and by online streaming: Tabuh-Tabuhun and Symphony No.2, Balinese Ceremonial Music.

Image result for balinese gamelan

Balinese gamelan instruments, from http://www.soniccouture.com

You can read more on the music of Southeast Asia in the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, v.4, and on Colin McPhee here, or on these sites:

And for books on gamelan, music and ensembles, see here. For information on l’Université de Montréal’s Gamelan ensemble, Giri Kedaton:

Majallat al-Adab Archives

The literary and cultural journal al-Adab was founded in 1953 by the famous Lebanese novelist, short-stories writer, journalist and translator Suhayl Idris (1925-2008). A monthly periodical, Majallat al-Adab is still considered one of the leading literary journals.Since 2015, al-Adab has been published electronically. But back issues (1953-2012) are now also available online, on the al-Adab Archives website. Issues can be browsed by date of publication, and articles can be individually downloaded and saved as PDF, or printed.

Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative

The Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative (MEPPI), a strategic multi-year program, launched in 2009 aiming to raise awareness about the value and importance of preservation of the region’s photographic heritage. Since then, it developed into a multi-faceted initiative expanding over research and capacity building objectives.

The Middle East Photograph Preservation Initiative consist of 3 parts:

  • MEPPI courses
    Since the beginning of this program, three introductory photograph preservation courses have been held to train collection personnel in the region. Up until now, more than 60 professionals from institutional and private collections in the Middle East benefited from the training. Topics covered are as follow: an overview of the technical history of photography and photographic processes; an introduction to the history of photography; digitization fundamentals; emergency preparedness and response; preservation planning and the care, handling and storage of photographic materials
  • MEPPI survey
    The MEPPI survey focus is on identifying signification photograph collection in the Middle East and North Africa in order to develop an online directory of collections
  • MEPPI Symposium
    Between 2015 and 2017, MEPPI focused on the long-term preservation of photographs in the Middle East. Intensive workshops, and a symposium were held in 2017 on the photographic legacy of the Middle East and North Africa.

Digital South Asia Library

The Digital South Asia Library makes openly accessible digital materials for reference and research on South Asia. DSAL is a collaborative program of the University of Chicago and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), built upon a two-year pilot project funded by the Association of Research Libraries’ Global Resources Program and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Participants in DSAL include leading American Universities, CRL, the South Asia Microform Project (SAMP), the Committee on South Asian Libraries and Documentation, the Association for Asian Studies, the Library of Congress, the Asia Society, the British Library, the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, MOZHI in India, the Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in India, Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya in Nepal, and other institutions in South Asia. More details on the program are outlined in the grant proposal available in PDF or HTML.
The Digital South Asia Library can be searched and/or browsed according to the following categories:

  • Scholarly reference books with a link to full text dictionaries at Digital Dictionaries of South Asia (DDSA)
  • Images organized by the original collections
  • Maps ranging from historical to topographic
  • Statistical data from the colonial period through the present, available in a variety of formats
  • Electronic catalogs and finding aids for dispersed resources and collections
  • Periodical indexes and document delivery mechanisms
  • Pedagogical books, general scholarly titles, journals and newspapers
  • Other Internet resources.

Jerusalem Maps

When complete, Jerusalem Maps should include not only original maps of the city but also links to existing collections of both historical and contemporary maps of Jerusalem. Currently, the website “contains five maps based on a ten-year survey of the old city undertaken by Riwaq: The Centre for Architectural Conservation” which can be downloaded and used by researchers as long as properly referenced.Jerusalem Maps is another of the numerous resources accessible on Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies website, along with Families Interrupted, Al-Quds Archive, or Dreams of a Nations.

Afghanistan Digital Collections = دافغانستان دجیتال کلکسیونونه = گردآوردهای دیجیتال افغانستان

Since 2007, the University of Arizona Libraries has been collaborating with the Afghanistan Centre at Kabul University (ACKU) to preserve, catalogue and digitize Afghan Literature from the Jihad Period (1979-1989). Initially supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) until 2012, the project is now jointly funded by the University of Arizona Libraries and ACKU.

The Afghanistan Digital Collections website includes unique documents in English, Pashto and Dari about Afghan history and culture, and the development of Afghanistan between 1979 and 1989. Among the important titles, readers will find:

  • Established in 1927, Anis is a newspaper in Dari and Pashto still currently published with approximately 2,500 copies circulated daily
  • Established in 1962, the Kabul Times was the first English language printed newspaper in Afghanistan. After 1978 and the Coup d’Etat, and its renaming New Kabul Times, the editorial line of the newspaper changed for Communist and anti-Western culture rhetoric
  • Published by the Government from 1932 to 1990, Da Afghanistan Kalanay -also known as Salnamah-i Afghanistan- is both an almanac and yearbook covering political and economic history and activities of the country. Texts are mostly in Dari/Persian and Pashto, but some issues have added titles and notes in English or French.

The website is in English.

Families Interrupted

Families Interrupted presents a series of anonymous but intimate portraits of Palestinian families living under the Israeli Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. This Law, passed in 2003, prevents Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) married to Israeli citizens from obtaining a legal status in Israel, violating their right to a family life in Israel.

Photographs and related testimonies of Rawiya, Yara, or Kifah, provide invaluable insight into how the Israeli Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law makes their family life extremely difficult if not impossible, and give snapshots of their daily human existence.

Initially produced for Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Families Interrupted is one of the numerous resources available on Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies website. The photographs are taken by professional photographer Jenny Nyman, and the collection is curated by Rula Makram Khoury, art historian and art critic.

The website is trilingual English, Arabic, and Hebrew.

Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project (DILP)

Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project (DILP) was originally launched in 1995 by a registered Non Profit Organisation operating through the collaborative effort of volunteers based in many countries around the world. The goal of DILP is to digitize, and make available on the internet a growing number of materials related to the history, law, practices, and societies across the Muslim world or areas where Islam is present, with a particular focus on Twelver Shiism.

Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library includes over 1,800 textual, audio and video documents in twelve different languages (Arabic, Bengali, English, French, Gujarati, Italian, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish and Urdu). Audio materials can be downloaded in MP3, Video can be shared (vimeo), and textual documents can be saved in PDF, and printed.

Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project is not a scholarly website and should be used as such. If “all reasonable attempts have been made to prevent inauthentic information from being carried on this site” (…) Ahlul Bayt does not “guarantee the absolute authenticity of all of the data (…).”

The website interface is available in the same twelve languages mentioned above.

Bibliothèques d’Orient / مكتبات شرقية

Initiated in 2016, Bibliothèque d’Orient is a collaborative effort of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) and seven heritage and research libraries based in Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut, Istanbul, and Jerusalem. Bibliothèque d’Orient is an ever-growing digital collection that currently (Sept. 2017) includes over 7,000 textual documents, photographs, maps, etc. covering the Levant including Iraq and Arabia Petrea from 1798 (i.e. Expedition of Bonaparte to Egypt) to 1945.

The website is organized in seven  themes discoverable from the content page (above):

  • Crossroads includes photographs, travel accounts, travel books, maps, etc.
  • Communities includes documents relating to the everyday life of people and their traditions
  • Religions focuses on the religions present in the area as well as holy places
  • Knowledge gathers a variety of documents about libraries, research institutions, and languages studies
  • Politics is further divided in four themes: Wars and conflicts, Treaties and borders, Reforms, and Nationalisms
  • Imaginery focuses on literary sources
  • Personalities (incomplete section) presents people identified as important.

All documents are accessible full-text, and can be either read online, downloaded (PDF), printed, or shared. It is also possible to order art reproductions for a fee.

The website is available in Arabic, French, and English, but the online reader interface is only in French.

Hikmat

Hikmat is an academic blog about “Texts, Translations, Thoughts, Philosophy, Literature, Shi’i Islam, Urdu, Persian, Iran, India” active since October 2007.

The owner of the blog, who calls himself Mulla Sadra, is a British historian of intellectual life with particular interests in philosophy and literature, in both the past and contemporary Muslim world.

Hikmat publishes primarily academic books and articles reviews. But the blog also includes some research notes, and basic bibliographies. As such, it is a valuable research tool, and will appeal to anyone working on Shi’i and Iranian studies.