Whose Is This Song?—A Research Concert by Ameen Mokdad MA ’26

Friday, December 5, 2025 at 12:00pm
Smith Reading Room, Olin Library, 252 Church Street, Middletown, CT

Free and open to the public

What happens when a single melody, text, or story is claimed by multiple cultures as their own? Ameen Mokdad MA '26 digs into the archives for a concert of songs with disputed origins, looking for the music we share in common.

 This research concert by graduate student Ameen Mokdad ’26 is inspired by the 2003 documentary Whose Is This Song? by Bulgarian director Adela Peeva.

As Peeva describes in her synopsis: “In a small nice restaurant in Istanbul I was having dinner with friends from various Balkan countries—a Greek, a Macedonian, a Turk, a Serb, and me, the Bulgarian. There I heard The Song. As soon as it sounded we all started singing it, everyone in his own language. Everyone claimed that the song came from his own country. Then we found ourselves caught in a fierce fight—Whose is this Song?”

Mokdad contends that had he been at that dinner, he also would have claimed this song! As evidence, he cites the fact that the probable composer shares a name with Mokdad's home city of Mosul, Iraq. 

Sponsored by the World Music Archives & Music Library. Visit this webpage or email wma@wesleyan.edu for more information.