The Musical Citizen

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”? This talk looks at the question of musical “multi-citizenship in multiple places” (Parlati/Chamoiseau) from a postcolonial perspective, and reflects 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. Speaker Martin Stokes, King Edward Professor of Music, King's College London