Arab Music

The Arab music (الموسيقىالعربي) is a whole of Musique S Eastern exits of a vast geographical area going from the Central Asia in the Atlantic. It constitutes the branches of the same musical family having evolved/moved in the cultural hearths of the Middle East and the Middle East but also in different contexts.

In spite of their multiple appearances, these musics, which all come from the Oral tradition, show certain common characteristics, especially the study of the erudite Musique; that is less obvious in the ethnic musics, where the regional characteristics are marked. The traditional concerts of this music generally associate vocal and instrumental interpretations, often in alternation. Long sometimes of several hours, these continuations gain their culminating point in the exercise of vocal performances.

The " terms; music arabe" can lend to certain ambiguities: they are justified if one indicates by there the historical expression of a civilization whose Arab language and the Islamic culture constitute the two fundamental axes (but they are unsuitable if one understands by " music arabe" forms of an art inherent in the Arabs and Arabia defined ethniquement and geographically. This art covers in fact of esthetic and ethnomusicologic realities varied and sometimes extremely moved away, but it is marked with the unifying seal of the Islam, which took root and was mainly expressed in Arabic.

Sources of influence

The multiple sources of influence of this music are mainly Semitic and go back at the period which is between Ve century and the expansion of Islam at VIIe century, but also to the indo-Persians influences and Greek. In addition, the major traditions forged in Arabia developed and were subject to the influences of old cultures of the various countries where Islam and Arab civilization were essential, in particular in Persia, in Anatolia, in the Middle East and the Maghreb.

History

It is necessary to see in civilization arabo-Moslem woman the convergence point of old civilizations of the East mésopotamien, Egyptian, assyro-Babylonian, Indo-Iranian and Byzantine, synthesis to which the Moslem East wants to be the heir. Arabic becomes thus a common denominator to the people as with their cultural expressions, of the Arabo-Persian Gulf in the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, while Islam, religion and civilization, will melt in the unit of faith and the same way of thinking, to feel and living, the two parts formerly separated from the Mediterranean East and Indo-Iranian: very beyond its surface of domination, its influence will reach the Asia extreme and will extend towards the Occident as far as Europe as of the East and West. It consequently creates for itself an easily ambiguous identity between " arabe" and " islamique" , which applied more particularly to the field of the musical language. " Music arabe" and " music of Islam" or of the " World musulman" either are confused, or regarded as two completely distinct musical cultures.

At the beginning of the Islamic era, the Moslem Arabs often relegated the musical practice to the slaves and the prisoners (like the singers called Qayna), which supported in particular the Persians influences.

The Arab music knew a rebirth at the XXe century, under the combined effects of certain techniques and the introduction of Western instruments which were adopted there, and of the growing will to safeguard the Arab musical inheritance. Egypt in particular saw the blossoming of immense talents, type-setters or singers, like Mohammed Abdel Wahab, the singer Asmahan or Oum Kalsoum which borrowed its name besides from the preislamic Arab poetry and whose career had started since 1932 by incarnating at the Al-Nasser time the ambition of one return to the size first of Islam. At the end of the Sixties, it works out a new style which found also its aficionados. But it was only largest of a whole host of stars.

Common characteristics of the Arab erudite music

To the difference of the Western music in which developed the art of the Polyphonie and the Harmonie, the Arab music is anchored on the song and the melody, which most of the time homophonic (i.e. only one note at the same time) and is built on an extremely rich system of melody modes, called Maqâm. The old Arab works on the music listed up to 400 maqamat, of which at least thirty remain used in practice.

Inspired by the scale of the sounds and the intervals of the old Greek Music, the modes were adapted to the Arab music. Like the Greek modes, they rest on intervals of thirds (tricordes), quads (tétracordes) and fifths (pentatonic), and reflect the diversity of the cultures met during the expansion of Islam.

The Arab music does not use, like the Western music, the moderate Gamme, but the natural Gamme, which allows an interpretation very different from the scale of the sounds inside an octave, and their reports/ratios (intervals). Consequently, the intervals in these modes are lower than the Western semitone: more running of them represents three quarter tones, but one meets intervals of a ninth, four ninth and five ninth of tone. If, in the modern music, the Arab world often adopted the Western mode of notation, the term “range” is inappropriate, since it covers a octave theoretically, and that the Arab music is built on modes lower than the octave.

Intervals lower than the Semitone; one uses the Lima (1/3 of tone) and the Comma (1/9 of tone). But more used is the 1/4 of tone. Deteriorations used to indicate the 1/4 of tone are the “Demi flat” and the “Demi sharp”. To note these unknown intervals in the Western music, one used formerly the Bémol reversed (like a d). Today the barred flat is used

Another characteristic of this music, brought by a very sophisticated and melody vocal art (resulting from the modal system and these microtones), lies in the ornamentation of the homophonic melody lines (the instruments are then used in unison or the octave). Trille, glissando and other variations rhythmic and melody constitute a continuous and often complex ornamentation.

Originality in training of the Arab music

The pupil learns the technique and the traditional repertory transmitted by a Master (maâlem) thanks to the Oral tradition. After a certain control of these elements, the musician evolves/moves and puts himself at the play of the improvisation and the art of musical creation. As creator it draws from the tradition of the elements which were transmitted to him for then assembling them according to its aspirations, or from which it invents variations which will come to enrich a common repertory.

This oral tradition remains one of the major elements in interpretation as in the teaching transmission of the music. A good control of the melody and rhythmic systems is thus essential for the composition and the interpretation of the Arab music. The pupils study vocal and instrumental pieces, but they interpret them seldom exactly such as they were initially made up. In the Arab tradition, the good musicians bring musical variations and improvisations on the known pieces or models, like the traditional musicians of India or the musicians of Jazz. The improvisations can be relatively long, transforming compositions of ten minutes into one hour interpretations and having sometimes only few common points with the model origin.

Musical instruments

The most used instruments in the Arab music are the Oud (عود), ancestor of the European lute employed sometimes like low melody or rhythmic as a whole instrumental, and the nay, a flute of reed. The most current percussion instruments are drums in the shape of sand glasses (like the Derbouka دربكة and of the tambourines with or without small bells (Daf or târ). The names and the shapes of the instruments vary according to their area of origin. Instruments with double sheer, various sizes, such as the mijwiz with Lebanon and the mizmar in Egypt, are used at the time of celebrations in the open air. The Arab Rebab, violin with point played vertically, can be historically related with the European violin, itself adopted in many Arab areas, in particular in the orchestras arabo-Andalusians. Among the other traditional instruments the Qānun (قانون) appears - adoptee in medieval Europe under the name of gun), zither with soixante-douze metal cords.

Musical evolutions and disparities

During centuries, distinct local musical practices developed, by forging an cultural identity particular to each company. There exists thus, in cities of the Maghreb such as Fez, Tétouan, Tlemcen and Tunis, of the versions distinct from the sprees, which form integral part of the local musical culture. Slightly different melody modes bear the same name to Syria, to Egypt, to Iraq and in the countries of North Africa. The rhythmic modes of these musics can be articulated differently, and their interpretations vary. Sung popular poetry, also change according to the local dialect. The Iraqi maqam is not simply a melody mode but a succession of parts in a particular mode. In Iraq, the maqam term has a significance closer to that of the waslah or nawbah that of that of the maqâm in other Arab areas.

Because of absence of partitions of music written until the XXe century, it is impossible to date the melodies with exactitude. Certain melody kinds, in particular those of the Muwashshah Andalusian or Syrian (This type of poem in Arab language is distinct from the Qasidah (in Arabic قصيدة, into Persan قصیده) to only one rhyme and authorizing larger subtleties and possibilities of creation and musical composition. the poem is composed in broad verses monorythmic. According to García Gómez, at the end of the 9th century, an anonymous Arab poet borrowed some of these songs in an Arab poem entitled moajaxa, which gave him a particular strophic structure), must go back to several centuries, but it is probable that they underwent some modifications.

Hundreds of local musical traditions coexist in the Arab world, which often carry the traces of the musical practices people with which the Arab populations were in contact. Thus, the practice of the drum in the Gulf States Persique could be explained by the relations with the African tradesmen. The tradition Gnawa would draw its name from the slaves of the Black Africa brought to Morocco. Nubian music, in Egypt, fact call to a particular melody system using a pentatonic range (with five notes) and integral of the distinct rates/rhythms.

The popular Musique Arab contemporary borrows at the same time from the traditional style and the traditional style Arab. The electronic keyboards granted for the maqamat and the drums generally accompany the singers by poetries and popular songs. In certain cases, the singers adapt their vocal style or their language to the public not Arabic-speaking person, while endeavouring to preserve the Arab musical tradition partly. The Spoke, come from the suburbs of Oran to Algeria, knew to associate the Rock, the funk and the Reggae with the arabo-Andalusian Musique traditional.

The tradition of the Arab music côtoie of others musical traditions in Turkey, Iran and Central Asia. Common points exist among the systems with melody prevalence of the Persan dastgah, of the mugam of Azerbaïdjan, the Turkish makam, the shashmaqam of Ouzbékistan and the maqâm of the Ouïghour people of China. The traditions of Koranic recitation and hymns originating in the Arab areas are shared by the whole of the Muslim communities, for example in Indonesia and in Pakistan. In the same way, the traditions of sacred music of the Christian Churches of the Middle East, in particular those of the Church Maronite in Syria or in Lebanon and of the Egyptian Church copte, can be attached to the Arab musical tradition.

This diversity did not save the erudite music of Islam itself insofar as the ethnic substrate, so present in the popular musics, marked of its print the evolution of the musical language in the three large ethnolinguistic surfaces of traditional Islam, especially on the level of the forms and the practice: what justifies that today one distinguishes and analyzes separately the musics known as Arab, Turkish and Persian.

Artists

Famous names as Oum Kalsoum (1904 - 1975) could popularize this music through the whole world.

Fairuz (born in 1935), Lebanese singer;
Sayed Darwich is regarded as a precursor of the revival of the Arab music in spite of its untimely death in 1923, just like the type-setters Riyadh el Sounbati or Bayram Tounsi. Here Masters of the tarab :
Mohammed Abdel Wahab (1907 - 1991) is the first Arab singer to reach popularity. He plays in 1st Arab musical film (the white pink) in 1932, and devotes himself later to the composition.
Abdel Halim Hafez (1929 - 1977): one of the most beautiful voices of the Arab world. These songs still meet a great success.
Farid El Atrache (1915 - 1974): Egyptian of Syrian origin, known singer to have been one of the best players of the Oud.
Najat Essaghira (Egyptian singer)
Fayza Ahmed (1930 - 1983), of Syrian origin

One can add innumerable musician like Sayed Mekawi (Egypt), Oulaya (Tunisia), Sabah (Lebanon), Sabah Fakhri (Syrian singer)

See too

Algerian Music
Egyptian Music
Moroccan Music
Palestinian Music
Syrian Music
Tunisian Music
Yemeni Music

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