An Ethnomusicological Approach to Orientalism: The Musical and Historical Study of the Moors and Christians in Villena (Spain)

Abstract

This article examines the historical and musical forms of Orientalism found in the festival popularly known as Moros y cristianos (the Moors and Christians) in Spain and, in particular, the town of Villena in the province of Alicante. Since the 12th century, this traditional festival is mostly celebrated in towns along the eastern Mediterranean coast of Spain which includes Villena. The contextualization of this festival through Orientalism provides an understanding of the exoticization of Muslim-Spanish music through the música festera (the music composed for Moros y cristianos), a musical style with more than four thousand pieces composed by more than three hundred Spanish composers over the course of the last two centuries. This article reveals by conducting ethnomusicological studies using Orientalism, there is a possibility of reconsidering the colonial narrative embedded in the cultural and musical symbolism of música festera.