Arabic music

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Five-piece music group in Aleppo , 18th century

Arabic music refers to the traditional, classical and popular forms of music of the peoples of the Arab world: the Maghreb states and Maschreq ( Egypt , the Palestinian territories , Jordan , Syria , Lebanon and Iraq ), the Arabian Peninsula and, with restrictions, in Sudan . Arabic music includes secular music as well as religious Christian-Arabic or Islamic music .

→ Main article: Classical Arabic music

The world of popular Arab music was largely dominated by Cairo as the most populous cultural center, but musical innovations and regional styles also emanated from Beirut and the urban centers between Morocco and Saudi Arabia . The Arab music of the 20th century, which was spread nationwide through media such as radio, film and television, is extremely popular in the entire Arab cultural area. The most outstanding singers and musicians include the Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum , the singer Fairuz and, as composers, the brothers Mansour and Assi Rahbani (husband of Fairuz) as well as their son Ziad Rahbani from Lebanon , the siblings Farid el Atrache and from Syria Asmahan and the Egyptians Abdel Halim Hafez and Mohammed Abdel Wahab . Often these stars have also become known as instrumental musicians and composers as well as actors and for their film music. - In addition to the popular, a much more Western-influenced pop music has developed in the Arab region , which is dealt with in the article Arabic pop music .

particularities

Score example for a maqam

Arabic music achieves its expressive effect mainly through the lyrics and typical instruments as well as through its characteristic melodic and rhythmic means. The majority of Arabic music is linearly unanimous, but today there are also pieces of music (to a significantly increasing extent) that make extensive use of polyphonic harmony.

Arabic music has the following characteristic features:

  • an Arabic tone system ( maqam ) with its own interval structures (such as the use of so-called quarter-tone steps)
  • rhythmic-temporal structures that result in form-giving patterns (إيقاع / īqāʿ , pl.إيقاعات / īqāʿāt ; orوزن / wazn , pl.أوزان / awzān )
  • Heterophony as the predominant form of music in contrast to monophony or polyphony in European art music
  • Instruments that can be found in part all over the Arab world and that clearly shape the sound system
  • a variety of music forms tied to special occasions (religious or secular).
  • the great importance which the singer belongs or the singer in the Arab music since the compositions , especially in the (strongly predominant) Vocal Music a large scope for interpretation and improvisation permit
  • the predominance of predominantly smaller ensembles , which, moreover, are similarly cast in Arabic classical music across the entire cultural area

Instruments

Cymbals , riq and darbuka

Basically, a distinction is made between regionally widespread folk music instruments and classical Arabic instruments that are represented in the entire Arab cultural area. According to medieval classifications of musical instruments , the Arabic lute ( oud ) enjoyed a preferred position, followed by other lute instruments and wind instruments; the latter because, similar to human voices, they can produce a sustained tone. At the lower end of the rank there are therefore drums, which are usually associated with folk dances.

The musical instruments are divided into the groups of wind instruments, string instruments, percussion instruments. The spit violin Rabāb is one of the folk musical instruments. It is characterized by a small body - often half a coconut shell - with only one string. But there are also other shapes such as the box shape. It is then referred to as the box skewer lute.

The following ensemble instruments, however, can be found throughout the Arab world: In the traditional Arab ensemble instruments such as the lute oud (عود / ʿŪd ), the zither Qānūn (قانون), the spit violin Kamanǧa , in folk music the single-string fiddle Rabāba and the longitudinal flute Schabbaba played. The longitudinal flute Nāy (ناي) occurs in folk and classical music. Arabic drums are generally called tabl . These include the tambourine Riqq (رق) and the tumbler drum Darabukka (دربكة). In contrast, the traditional Iraqi ensemble chalghi, in addition to the percussion instruments riqq and darabukka, only knows the two melody instruments jowza , a four-string spiked violin , and the dulcimer santūr (سنتور).

Other Arabic percussion instruments are bendir (frame drum) and tar (طار / ṭār ), which are used in the classical North African music tradition as well as in folk and popular music.

Since the middle of the 19th century, through contact with the colonial powers and their musical culture, more and more European musical instruments found their way into Arabic music, for example the European violin , cello , double bass , but also accordion , saxophone and finally piano and keyboard , what As a result, certain maqāmat were no longer playable because they were difficult or impossible to perform on keyboard instruments.

Regional folk or popular music

Popular music has developed differently in the various regions of eastern Mashriq and western Maghreb . Regional styles of popular music today include, for example, Algerian Raï , Moroccan Gnawa , Egyptian al-Jil, as well as Chaliji from the Gulf States and Sawt ( Sout, Sowt ) from Kuwait . They are partly influenced by western pop music, but partly also by traditional African music .

One of the numerous, independent, traditional music styles in the Arab world are the poetic Sanaa songs, which are accompanied by the singer on the lute Qanbus or the copper plate Sahn Nuhasi . The music of the village of Joujouka in the Rif Mountains is also shaped by Sufi traditions .

In the Suez Canal region, the style of dance music Bambutiyya , which is still popular today, developed in the second half of the 19th century among sailors and dock workers , whose leading melodic instrument, the lyre simsimiyya, is supported by the fast rhythms of several drums and tin canisters.

Arabic music is also very popular in other countries outside the Arab world such as B. Turkey , Iran and also in Western countries such as France , the United Kingdom , Germany , Italy and also in the United States of America .

Further developments

Flute player in Iraq , 2007

Today something like a return to the Arab tradition is taking place. But there are also currents of modern composers who consciously try to link polyphony and European harmonics with Arabic homophony (music) , in which all instruments play the same melody.

Attempts to further develop Arabic music based on knowledge of European concert music or other types of music can also be observed. Anouar Brahem (composition, oud ) from Tunisia , for example , created his own, globally successful synthesis by combining the different modal peculiarities of Arabic or Western music or with complex improvisations by jazz musicians . The same applies to the composer and oud virtuoso Rabih Abou-Khalil , who is based on the music of Lebanon and jazz , but also to musicians living in France like Safy Boutella , who incorporate elements of Raï and fusion music .

Also Wust El-Balad , the most famous rock band from Egypt, used in their songs elements of traditional Arabic music. Acrassicauda , an Iraqi thrash metal band, on the other hand, shows significantly stronger influences from western rock music.

literature

  • Monographs
    • Wilhelm J. Krüger-Wust: Arabic music in European languages. A bibliography . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 3-447-02339-2 .
    • Frederic Lagrange: Al Tarab - the music of Egypt . Palmyra, Heidelberg 2000. ISBN 3-930378-31-0
    • Issam El-Mallah : Arabic Music and Notation . Verlag Schneider, Tutzing 1996. ISBN 3-7952-0850-5 (+ 2 CDs; plus habilitation thesis, University of Munich)
    • L. Manik: The Arabic sound system in the Middle Ages. Leiden 1969.
    • Frank Tenaille: The Music of Raï . Edition Palmyra, Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-930378-49-3 (+ 1 CD)
    • Habīb H. Tūmā: The Music of the Arabs (pocket books on musicology; 37). Noetzel Heinrichshofen books, Wilhelmshaven 1998, ISBN 3-7959-0182-0 .
  • magazine
    • Al-maqam. Journal for Arabic Art and Culture / New Series . mediaAGENT, Berlin 2006 ff. (formerly: Al-Maqam, magazine for Arabic music)

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fikrun wa Fann - Topics - Music between cultures - Goethe Institute. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Mansour Rahbani, Legacy of a Family and a Generation | Al Jadid. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  3. ^ Ulrich Wegner: African string instruments . Museum of Ethnology, Berlin 1984, p. 124-135 .
  4. ↑ Fig. Also in Edward William Lane: An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians . London 1842 (2 volumes).
  5. ^ Tuija Rinne: Sing, o simsimiyya. El Hosseny Dance