Music in Global America

TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN THE ARAB WORLD

INTRODUCTION


Arabic music is the music of Arabic-speaking states sharing common music practices, theories, and instruments. There are 22 members in the Arab League, as shown in the figure above. There is much diversity in musical cultures throughout the Arab World. The two main cultural regions are the Mashriq and the Maghreb.








 






 

From the tenth century, Arabic music maintained close contacts with Persian [present-day Iran] music theory, song, and instruments. During the Ottoman Empire beginning in the thirteenth century, Turkish culture dominated Arabic musical life. A distinctly Arabic consciousness was reborn in the nineteenth century, launched by anti-imperialist Islamic reformers, scholars, and musicians. Fundamental change occurred during the colonial rule of the Arab World by European powers following World War I when Arabs began to adopt Western musical styles and instruments. From the mid-twentieth century to today Arabic music has been influenced by American popular music as well, especially jazz and hip hop.

                    [Habib Touma, The Music of the Arabs]
 

TRADITIONAL ARAB MUSIC

Anne Rasmussen, in The Music of Multicultural America, counts as the distinguishing features of Arab music:

Melodic Style

Traditional Arabic music is almost wholly melodic, and singing is held as the ideal of musical expressiveness. Melodies are often melismatic and highly ornamented. The beginning section of "Seyouff el Ezz" performed by Mohammed Assaf is an example of florid singing style. Singers are almost always accompanied by an instrumental ensemble playing in unison, or near-unison, with the singer.

Maqam System

The maqam system is the basis of both composed and improvised Arab music, whether vocal or instrumental. The theory behind the maqam system of Arabic music stretches back to the ninth century. There are eight commonly used maqamat, for example maqam ajam, maqam hijaz, etc.  Each contains a distinct collection of seven notes, somewhat analogous to the seven-note European scales. Some maqamat have certain notes that are referred to as "microtones"  because the are smaller than the smallest interval in conventional European music (the difference in pitch between two adjacent piano keys). The European instruments of the violin family — particularly the violin — have become integrated into Arab music ensembles, since players are able to produce these notes on those instruments, which evolved from  the Arab rebab and the bowed string instruments of Byzantium.

Melodies are constructed from a musical vocabulary of melodic fragments (ajnas) of a few notes, different for each maqam. The unique characteristics of a maqam give it a unique "flavor" and makes it recognizable. Each maqam theoretically produces a particular mood or emotional state in the listener — joyful, sad, amorous, etc.  Musicians must learn and memorize the ajnas by extensive listening to traditional playing and singing.


Comparison of Maqam Ajam and Maqam Hijaz

The tuning of maqam ajam is identical to the European major scale and induces happiness. The first example maqam ajam is a short instrumental solo (taqsim) played on oud. The second example is a composition played by a takht, small instrumental ensemble described below.

Maqam Hijaz has two tones that are outside of the European tuning system and that give Hijaz a sound shared by Semitic people throughout the Arab World. The first example of maqam hijaz is a taqsim on oud. The second example is played by a takht.
[Wikipedia: "Maqam"]


Rhythm in Arab Music

"definite rhythm" (or "metric rhythm") refers to music  when rhythmic motion is governed by equal times units called beats. can be either "free rhythm" and "definite," or "metric" rhythm refers to rhythmic by a stream of continuous equal time units called beats ("definite" or "metric" rhythm). Or rhythmic can be independent of beats, irregular and unpredictable ("free rhythm"). Definite rhythm is Arab music is structured by establishing a cycle with a certain number of beats, which are grouped into smaller units. For example, a cycle of 10 beats, may be grouped by clapping on beats 1, 6, and 7.  The percussionist(s) articulates the rhythmic groupings using combinations of a low-pitch sound, a high-pitch sound, and rests (measured silences) to articulate the rhythmic groupings. These patterns can be varied by decoration in performance, similar to improvised melodic ornamentation. 

 

TRADITIONAL ARAB INSTRUMENTS

The representative instruments of traditional Arab music includes the oud, ney, qanun, riq, and darbuka. The violin has largely displaced its Arab ancestor, thev earthy gruff-sounding rebab.

Oud

The oud is the most important instrument in traditional music of the Middle East. The progenitor of the oud dates back over 5000 years to Central Asia. Other instruments that were derived from this common ancestor include the Chinese pipa and the European lute.

Omar Bashir and ensemble perform a set of jazzy improvisations on Syrian folk song "Al Bint al chalabiya" ("The Beautiful Girl"), mixing Arabic, European, and Latin instruments during Bashir's "Oud around the World" tour:

Nay

The nay is an end-blown flute commonly made of cane or bamboo. The  du-kah (larger, lower-pitched) nay and the nawa (smaller, higher-pitched) nay are the most frequently played of the various lengths of the instrument. By slight movements of the lips and head a player is able to produce all of the tones and microtones in a large number of maqamat. The nay is a common wind instrument throughout the Middle East. Below is a modern depiction of a woman playing nay in pre-Islamic Persia.

Qanun

The qanun is a trapezoidal box zither. Ordinarily the quanun is strung with seventy-two gut or nylon strings in sets of three, producing twenty-four tones in total. The qanun is plucked with tortoise-shell plectra affixed to rings that are worn on the right and left index fingers.

Percussion

The player on the left holds a riq. The two men in the middle each play a darbuka, a type of goblet drum recognizable in Sumerian images from over 3000 years ago and played today throughout the Arab world.  Modern darbukas are made of copper or aluminum (rather than clay or wood), and fitted with membranes of synthetic material (rather than fish or calf skin). Darbukas creates rhythmic patterns with two contrasting tones: doum, produced by striking the head, and tek, produced by striking the rim. In this video the player on the right begins by playing a frame drum, then switches to finger cymbals (zills).

Takht Ensemble

A takht is an ensemble associated with the Mashriq that includes at least one singer and several instrumentalists. The typical combination is shown in the photo of an early 20th-century Egyptian takht. The singer is seated in the the center, surrounded by musicians with instruments (from left): riq, qanun, violin, nay, oud, and cello. A takht may perform a stand-alone composition, or the ensemble may play a suite (nuba) — a series of linked vocal and instrumental sections, with free-form vocal or instrumental improvisations alternating with ensemble playing in strict rhythm.


This video is a performance of Awil Marra, composed by Mounir Murad with lyrics by Ismail El Barouk, and made popular by the great Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez in a movie of 1957. It is sung here by the popular Lebanese-American musician Usama Baalbaki. The instrumental includes nay, violin, qanun, oud, and riq. A second percussionist plays a darbuka. The bass line is supplied here by a string bass rather than cello.
 

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