Music is not only an art form defined by certain formal elements, such as rhythmic and melodic modes. It is also a cultural form that implies significant social interaction. Music naturally evokes deeply felt emotions and can touch upon important social identities, because it helps people to experience feelings and express insights into their own lives. Moreover, the fact that it is performed situates any given musical genre within a specific set of sociocultural frames. Unpacking the social, economic, and political contexts surrounding musical genres can deepen our understanding of larger processes at work. An obvious North African example is Rai music, whose explosion in popularity in the 1980s underscored very important social and economic transformations taking place in Algeria and among migrant Algerian communities in France.Footnote ¹

Musical genres also index underlying social and cultural phenomena when they take on the characteristics of tradition. Traditions serve to mark communal identity and collective memory, which make them important expressions of local cultural values. But even more, when identity and memory are contested, as a result of the colonial experience or in the context of the postcolonial nation–state, the ability to define, study, or otherwise control a musical tradition can take on powerful sociocultural importance. Two sister Andalusian music traditions of North Africa, al-maʾlūf in Tunisia and al-āla in Morocco, offer contrasting examples of what can happen when an ancient and prestigious musical genre, defined and maintained by traditional methods, is confronted by the social, economic, and political changes wrought by modernization in colonial and postcolonial contexts.

At least half a dozen distinct Arab-Andalusian music traditions lie scattered across the Maghrib from Morocco to Libya. Although they differ amongst themselves in many details, all comprise Arabic song texts, make use of a modally defined suite form called a nūba, and were preserved until the colonial period chiefly by oral methods across generations. In addition, all are held to descend from the elite music of al-Andalus. As problematic as this ascribed origin may be,Footnote ² it gives these traditions significant social prestige and marks them as both “classical” and erudite within their cultural milieux. These genres therefore have been drawn into discourses of national identity and modernity, which in turn have changed their social and cultural positions. Al-maʾlūf and al-āla both confronted colonial-era efforts at study and formalization and then full-blown institutionalization in the postcolonial period. However, the results of these processes have been determined as much by local realities as by large-scale processes.

Ruth Davis has done the most extensive work on the social and historical contexts of al-maʾlūf. Her book Maʾlūf: Reflections on the Arab-Andalusian Music of Tunisia reveals the processes by which this genre of music was transformed from a diverse tradition with historical roots in local cultural identities into a national classical music of Tunisia.Footnote ³ As with the other Andalusian music traditions, the popular association of al-maʾlūf with al-Andalus gave it social prestige and attracted scholarly and ultimately political attention. The postcolonial state formalized and homogenized it for the purpose of reinforcing national identity at the expense of its local variants and certain traditionally valued religious dimensions. The repertoire, transmitted traditionally by oral methods, was committed to writing and standardized, based upon the style found in Tunis. This facilitated institutionalization and transformed the social basis for the tradition, making its authenticity dependent not only upon materials preserved by masters of the art but also upon discourses deriving from the state, which has attempted to appropriate the tradition as part of Tunisian national culture. Only recently has the pendulum swung away from cultural centralization; while this may allow more diversity, the social foundations of the tradition have been irrevocably transformed.

In Morocco, al-āla has experienced a similar process of systemization and formalization since the late 19th century but in a much less centralized way, with correspondingly different results. Committing the texts to writing began as an indigenous project at the end of the 18th century, much earlier than in Tunisia. Scholarly study commenced with the colonial period and was in fact a project of the colonial government. The institutions established for this purpose were the direct ancestors of the National Conservatory, to which the Moroccan government assigns comprehensive teaching of the tradition, much as in Tunisia. Also like Tunisia, the Moroccan monarchy has sought to present al-āla as part of the nation's authentic heritage. However, in Morocco the masters have retained control of authenticity, partly through participating in the conservatory system, where they have been able to resist the introduction of written music and thereby perpetuate the traditional oral teaching methods. At the same time, private associations of music lovers, largely dominated by recognized masters and scholars of the tradition, have taken up much of the practical work of preserving and presenting the music to the public. Al-āla thus survives somewhat independently of state-driven institutionalization, but at the same time it has become the province mainly of educated urbanites who can afford to support the performers by paying to see concerts.

Discourses of modernity and national memory in Tunisia and Morocco have shaped al-maʾlūf and al-āla very differently. The distinct paths they have taken in the 20th century highlight the fact that, far from being uniform processes, modernity and discourses of the state have had rather different sociocultural implications in different parts of the Maghrib. A common theme in both cases examined here has been institutionalization, but the functions of the relevant institutions, and the sociocultural terms upon which they have been established, have been driven less by alien influences than by local histories and cultural values.