Music of the Arab World

Anyone who has music at heart would surely have noted the varied music which emerges from Arab lands spreading from the near east to the Atlantic. These various types of music belong to a common tradition of Islam and spread to the cultural centres of the Near and Middle East, the Maghreb and Spain after the Islamic conquest during the seventh and eighth centuries.

Music, with its songs and dances, is a must while celebrating family events with all strata of society. It grew out of pre-Islamic Arab music with later important contributions by the Islamicised peoples mostly the Persians and Turks. Arab music is essentially monodic and executed within the linear framework of the melody punctuated by vocalisations and improvisations. Such music is characterised by a very great number of vocal timbres, and these give it refined nuances and great expressive power. Indeed everything is done to exploit the capacities of the human voice to the utmost.

The music of Islam is essentially modal. Since the 12th century, the generic term maqam has been used to designate the notion of the mode. The modes are very numerous and bear names which may refer to a place, to a famous man, or to emotions, objects, qualities and so on. In theory the maqam is a characteristic scale in which certain notes are stressed; these notes are often repeated and serve as supports tor the melody, sometimes playing a role comparable to that of the keynote in European music. The music of the tribal encampments in the Arabian peninsula and in the Yemen, and in the towns and courts of the independent Arab kingdoms, was essentially vocal. The most widespread type of song among the Bedouin tribes was the huda song of the camel-drivers which had a rhythm said to mimic the movements of the camel's feet; it may originally have been a kind of charm against the spirits of the desert and may have been very similar to the buka (funeral lament). Such songs were stark and simple in character and were given a rudimentary accompaniment by the mizaf (lyre), qussaba (flute) and duff (frame drum) and must have resembled the present popular songs of the Bedouin tribes and the peasants of the Middle East.

Although the Moslem invaders were in a minority among the civilisations they conquered, they succeeded in imposing a notable degree of unity on family celebrations. In fact, as Arab music came into contact with the music of the conquered countries, especially in Persia, it did gradually lose its religious solemn, serene character and increasingly became a source of diversion. The growing virtuosity of performers contributed to the rise of a host of famous musicians, who enjoyed fabulous salaries and soon rivalled in fame the very rulers and ministers who employed them.

Islamic music achieved its first classical period under the Umayyad caliphate (AD 661-750). During this period the musical form par excellence was the solo lute song and it was in the late 17th century, under Persian influence, that the lute gained its classic shape. Indeed the pressures of foreign styles were great and the first major Islamic musician, Ibn Misjah (d.715), who travelled widely, rejected all such influences which did not conform to the spirit of Arab music. His most brilliant pupil was Ziryab, who eventually had to leave Baghdad on account of his master's jealousy. He took refuge in Andalusia, where he introduced new-teaching methods. From this period Spain was one of the greatest centres of Islamic music reaching its peak in the 10th century when the great theorist, Al-Farabi, was working. The achievements of Moorish Spain never again reached these heights but its music had important repercussions in the rest of Europe. This is demonstrated not only by the adoption of instruments such as the lure and the rabab, European name 'rebec', but also by the new impetus for theoretical researches which European scholars, such as Roger Bacon, derived from the work of their Arab predecessors. After the fall of Granada in 1492, the musical tradition of Moorish Spain was perpetuated in the countries of the Maghreb. Even after the golden age of the Moslem empire music continued to flourish in the various regional centres, and while the old music received new infusions during the long period of Turkish domination, under the Ottoman empire, on the whole, it still remained true to itself. Even today, wherever it has escaped the influence of Europe, the serious music of the Arab world, in the East and in the Maghreb, has remained basically unchanged since the days of Abbasid Baghdad or Moslem Andalusia. The most famous theoreticians were Al-Kindi (d. c. 873), Al-Farabi (d. 950), Avicenna (d. 1037) and Safi al-Din (13th century).

To mention some of the Arab instruments one must start with the `ud ,the most favourite instrument of all times The luwitra is derived from the 'ud, and has eight strings grouped in twos. Like the `ud it is played with a plectrum. The tunhur is a long-necked instrument with strings plucked by hand. The tar and setar now played in Iran are practically the same. The gunbri a popular instrument of the lute type, is widely found in several countries, notably in Morocco, the Sudan and Egypt. The qanun, a trapezoidal zither, has seventy-two strings grouped in threes and is played with a plectra. A similarly shaped instrument is the santur; this has thirty-six strings which are grouped by twos and played by being struck with two wands.

Of the bowed instruments, the most important were those of a family consisting of varieties of the rabab differing in shape and having one or two strings played with a how. The wind instruments include a great variety of flutes of varying length; double-reed instruments of the shawm type; the zurna (in Turkey) which accompanies dances the gafta which is very common in North Africa and is used among the Berbers to accompany dances, processions, pilgrimages and outdoor ceremonies.

The percussion instruments include a great variety of frame drums known by the generic name of duff, some of which are furnished with small cymbals; the zil or the znoudj, small copper cymbals fastened to the thumb and index finger of each hand, and the nuqayrat, of the kettle﷓ drum type, adopted in medieval Europe where the name was modified to nakir or nakers. While mentioning these instruments one should notice that along the years a number of European; instruments, such as the lute, the rebec and the kettle-drums, know their origin to Arab antecedents.

Photo 1: Musical notation from
“Risala fi khubrta;lif al alhan”of Al Kindi (d. 874)

Photo 2: The Shahrud
From the “Kitab Al Musiqi by
Al Farabi (d.950)

F.X. CASSAR