Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- A Note on Transliteration -- Introduction: "Arab" + "Avant-Garde" -- Part I: Alternative Modernities: Norms and Innovations -- 1. Transforming Space: The Production of Contemporary Syrian Art Music -- 2. Balancing Integration and Disintegration: Amir Elsaffar and the Contingent Avant-Garde -- 3. Multisited Avant-Gardes or World Music 2.0? Musicians from Beirut and Beyond between Local Production and Euro-American Reception -- Part II: Roots and Routes -- 4. The "People's Artist" and the Beginnings of the Twentieth-Century Arab Avant-Garde -- 5. Challenging the Status Quo in War-Torn Lebanon: Ziad Rahbani, the Avant-Garde Heir to Musical Tradition -- 6. A Look at Lightning: The Life and Compositions of Halim El-Dabh -- Part III: Political Deployments of The Avant-Garde -- 7. Sonic Cosmopolitanisms: Experimental Improvised Music and a Lebanese-American Cultural Exchange -- 8. Activism and Authenticity: Palestinian and Related Hip-Hop in an International Frame -- 9. Noise and Its Formless Shadows: Egypt's Extreme Metal as Avant-Garde Nafas Dawsha -- Selected Discography -- Contributors -- Index.