Founded in 2006, under the original name of Center for Musical Traditions of the Arab and Mediterranean Worlds, within the framework of the Higher Institute of Music at the Antonine University (UA). This unit adopted since February 2016 the (more compact) designation of Center for Research on Musical Traditions, in parallel to the transformation of the Higher Institute of Music into the Faculty of Music and Musicology (FMM).
Following its mission, the Center for Research on Musical Traditions (CRTM) is dedicated to the study of the monodic modal musical traditions of the Mašriq and, by extension, those of the Arab and Mediterranean worlds and related Asian cultural spheres.
This study is the result of contextualized general musicological research, which is at once analytical, semiotic, anthropological and historical, and which is part of an interdisciplinary perspective, articulated in particular with cognitive research, educational sciences and artificial intelligence, cultivating excellence, in compliance with international standards, and whose results are original, relevant, peer-reviewed, effectively valued, transferable and applicable.
The achievement of this mission is based on three frameworks:
- The work in thematic teams;
- The publication of the works:
- within the UA Press:
a) the publication of two peer reviewed journals, quasi-exclusive in their specialization and field:
i. the Revue des Traditions Musicales (RTM, Journal of Musical Traditions) and
ii. the Arab Journal of Music Education Sciences (AJMES);
b) the publication of peer reviewed books;
- within international journals;
- The organization of the International Musicological Encounters of the Antonine University (RMIUA), according to a biennial rhythm.
Over the years, the CRTM has asserted itself at the national, regional and international levels as a benchmark research unit in the field of the study of modal monodic musical traditions of the Orient. Now, it aspires to become (at the international level) the pioneer in musicological research about Oriental musical traditions and their valorization in practice, education and technology.
Professor Nidaa ABOU MRAD
Dean of the Faculty of Music and Musicology
Director of the Center for Research on Musical Traditions