It may seem obvious that art musics of the East are rightly called “traditional,
” particularly because many Eastern cultures themselves use that term: aṣīl or sonnatī in Persian and Arabic, an’anevi in Turkish. But “traditional
” is an ill-defined concept, and the reality is not nearly so simple. While certain musical practices may well have developed somewhat more slowly or more regularly, others have undergone breaks in continuity and renewals that in some cases have been...
