The Musical Citizen: Sonorous Bodies and Social Imaginaries

The making of citizens in and through music is a 19th century commonplace. But the ground of this longstanding musicological discussion has shifted with globalization, mobility and the parlous condition of nation and state today. What does it now mean to label a musician an ‘ideal citizen’? And why are the examples that would now spring to mind such complex and puzzling figures? My talk will look at the question of musical “multi-citizenship in multiple places” (Parlati/Chamoiseau) from a postcolonial perspective. I will reflect on Turkish crooner Zeki Müren and French-Lebanese slam poet Marc Nammour – and the grounds they might provide for reconsidering the familiar myths of the citizen composer.

Martin Stokes is the King Edward Professor of Music at King's College London. His books include The Republic of Love: Cultural Intimacy in Turkish Popular Music and, most recently, Theory and Practice in the Music of the Islamic World: Essays in Honour of Owen Wright (with Rachel Harris). He has also taught at Queen's University of Belfast, The University of Chicago, and Oxford, and is honorary professor at The University of Copenhagen. He was a visiting associate professor in the Sociology Department at Bogazici for the summer programme in 1996 and 2006.