OA · The impact of amplification on the practice and aesthetics of the oud between the Arab World and the West

The oud, or Arab lute, is an instrument whose practices are full of paradoxes. It is both the emblematic instrument of ‘Arab music’ and its avant-garde. It disappeared from Arab orchestras in the mid-20th century, the instrument no longer being audible in the face of the growing number of strings. Yet, many of the most adventurous musicians in the Arab world are oud players, who have succeeded in bringing this instrument back to the forefront of local and international stages.The objectives of my research project are 1) to describe contemporary practices involving the oud in relation to its amplification, its use in sound reinforced performances and its electrification process, and to link these practices, which are increasingly visible in the Arab world, to the history of amplification in Western countries (mainly the electric guitar, but also the synthesizer); 2) to study the impact of these technologies on oud playing techniques, its sound/musical aesthetic and its organological evolution (lutherie); 3) to fill the gap in anthropological studies on the impact of amplification on the musical soundscape of the Arab world.The methodology applied will be that of the social sciences (anthropology, ethnography) combined with history (archives) and musicology (musical analysis). The multi-sited fieldwork will cover three areas (North Africa, the Middle East and the Arab diaspora in the West), which will complement the work already done on the European network of Arab oud players (PhD thesis). The results will take the form of four peer-reviewed articles that will be compiled into a book, but also a non-academic dissemination : an online audio podcast series (in English/Arabic) and a digital manual (summarizing the amplification processes discovered during this research which are of interest to countless oud players, in the Arab world and beyond).