Taarab

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Taarab , also: Tarabu, Twarab , (from Arabic طرب tarab , DMG ṭarab  'cheerfulness') is a musical style that developed under the Swahili society on the island of Zanzibar and combines elements of Arabic , Indian and African music . Taarab is common there and along the East African coast of Tanzania and Kenya .

The centers of Taarab are Zanzibar, Mombasa , Dar es Salaam and Tanga . Taarab is also found in the Comoros . In the 1960s some Taarab ensembles were founded in Burundi .

Taarab should not be confused with its namesake Tarab , a special mood of improvised sung classical and popular Arabic music.

Taarab ensemble from Zanzibar

History and etymology

Tarabu and Twarab are also used alongside Taarab . The connection with arabu ( Arabs ) as well as with ustaarabu (to be civilized) fails. Rather, one meets the definitions: " Music of the coast that is not danced to " or "music of gambusi and zeze, accompanied by singers". Gambusi (cf. gambus ) and zeze are older Swahili stringed instruments.

From around 1820 music was played at the court of the sultans in Zanzibar , which can be attributed to Taarab music. It evidently emerged from a mixture of African and Arabic elements; Indian style elements can only be identified from 1880. From 1900, Sultan Sayyid Hamud bin Muhammed promoted the establishment of the first Taarab clubs based on the example of other music clubs in the Middle East. One of the first clubs was Akhwan Safaa in Zanzibar City in 1905 . The term Taarab probably entered the Swahili vocabulary in the 1930s, as at the time Arabic-Egyptian music was made available to a wider public on record and in Egyptian music films. Taarab (Arabic tarab ) in Arabic music does not refer to a specific genre, but to a feeling (enchantment or rapture ) that should trigger a successful performance in the musicians and listeners.

Taarab exemplarily shows the clash of African and Arab-Islamic music-making practices on the East African coast. In this respect, the two are difficult to separate from each other, because the contacts between the Arabian Peninsula and the East African coast now last a thousand years. The Taarab is the musical expression of a Swahili identity that is the result of the mutual cultural influence on the Indian Ocean.

Wedding celebrations are one of the most common traditional occasions for Taarab performances. Meanwhile the Taarab is also played in bars and is undergoing change processes; not least because of the music industry and the ever faster spread and mixing of styles in the course of globalization.

Instruments

Taarab is played by an orchestra that combines European and African musical instruments. Several violins , cello , double bass and the Indian harmonium , the Arabic zither kanun , the Arabic longitudinal flute nay , the short necked lute ʿūd , African drums ngoma and other percussion instruments are played. In addition, there is often a choir made up of several female voices. The most famous contemporary Taarab orchestra is the Culture Musical Club , which was founded in 1958. The orchestra performs with around 25 musicians and a dozen female singers.

Zanzibar

Musicians from Zanzibar usually date the beginnings of Taarab to the time of Sultan Barghasch ibn Said (1870–1888). The Sultan is said to have sent musicians to Egypt to learn the Kanun game there; Musicians went to other cities to learn a certain style, a certain performance practice or a certain instrument.

Musicians from the Islamic world and India performed regularly in the Sultan's court. These appearances were very popular and, according to Werner Graebner, may have laid the foundation for the development of Taarab.

During the reign of Ali bin Hamad (1902–1919) Taarab teachers were brought to court. They came from Egypt and brought records with them which are said to have served the Swahili musicians as a template for creating their own songs. Graebner thus reports an Egyptian influence in his research, which, however, is only a small part of the whole besides the experiences from prehistoric times, the local traditions and other influences.

During this time music clubs were also founded and the Arabic sound film emerged , so that Arabic music on records also had an influence on musical developments. The income from the music clubs made it possible to buy foreign instruments (oud, kanun, violin) in addition to professional musicians. In fact, larger ensembles developed, which to this day are a hallmark of specifically Zanzibari Taarab.

The musicians continued to visit other cities in order to continue learning there, which means that the styles are constantly subject to change processes. Particularly popular musicians from the Islamic world set the style here. The best-known Zanzibari musicians made trips from the 1930s (especially to India ), where they produced records and brought new influences with them.

Kenya

Lamu

Bwana Zena and above all Mohamed Kijumwa were well-known music teachers and poets. The traditional Swahili poetry was declaimed sung, from which the combination between poetry and music emerges as an inseparable whole. According to Graebner, due to the name commonly used in Swahili for Taarab ( mutribu , literally: the one who enchants), this music could not be imagined as instrumental music without singing; the lyrics were an integral part of the performance.

Such gungu songs have also been danced, with the role of the dance and performance practice differing depending on the context of the performance. Kijumwa and the tradition of the Gungu songs are viewed by Graebner as a source for the contemporary Taarab.

Another tradition from Lamu is the kinanda performance practice. There are probably two forms of kinanda: one that is danced to and one that is not danced to. The kinanda performance practice has a strongly interactive moment, as is also known from other African song cultures.

Kinanda (originally a lute, at least a string instrument) now also stands for keyboard instruments such as the Indian harmonium, accordion and keyboards . A linguistically manifested indication, according to Graebner, that the new instruments, which were replacing the original sounds due to increasing economic and thus also cultural contacts.

Graebner also counts the import of records with music from Kuwait and Egypt to be possible and verifiable influencing factors on Taarab. Since the Kuwaiti music enjoyed great popularity, Kuwaiti musicians also came to Lamu. According to Graebner, the music from Kuwait is so popular “because in terms of rhythm there are great similarities between the dances in Kuwait and the dances customary in Lamu. There is an explanation for this: In Kuwait and southern Iraq there are numerous Africans (former slaves) who, with their music, also influenced the music of the Arab population. "

Weddings were the main reason for Taarab performances. Today there are hardly any professional musicians left in Lamu, mainly due to the economic collapse of Lamu after the Second World War.

Mombasa

The port city of Mombasa had been the seat of record companies and a radio station for a long time , so that Taarab musicians could also earn income here. This musical professionalization promoted qualitative musical developments in a special way.

In Mombasa, however, the Islamic-influenced Taarab is less popular than the Taarab with Indian characteristics, which is additionally instrumented with a harmonium and later also with an accordion, today even with a keyboard. Grabner justifies the popularity of the Indian-Pakistani style primarily with the strong economic contact with India, which particularly reinforced the influence of Indian music films . In the music clubs founded in 1910, the Taarab flourished in Mombasa, and from the 1920s onwards it was performed mostly with female voices.

Tanzania

Dar es Salaam

In Dar es Salaam , too , music clubs shaped urban musical life from the 1920s. The members of these clubs were usually elderly and respected Arabs and also Swahili. Here the interest in Taarab with Egyptian characteristics predominated, which is also related to the great popularity of imported Egyptian music films.

As a result, larger ensembles with different casts developed in Dar es Salaam (violins, ūd, mandolin, qanūn, harmonium, accordion, clarinet, drums, alternating vocal soloists, choir), which later simply called themselves dance bands. Today there are many dance bands there (with electric keyboards, e-guitars and drums ), but few professional musicians, due to poor economic conditions.

tanga

In Tanga also existed music clubs, where in the 1960s the singer Shakila drew attention to himself. Their singing was an Arabic-Indian crossover, accompanied by accordion, organ, electric bass and two electric guitars. The music was no longer only performed at weddings, but had also conquered the market on radio and vinyl. In this way, the music was able to deal more closely with socio-political issues with its lyrics. In Taarab, which is often only characterized as "Swahili love songs", it is customary anyway for all areas of life to be thematically covered by the texts.

literature

  • Kelly M. Askew: Performing the Nation. Swahili Music and Cultural Politics in Tanzania. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL et al. 2002, ISBN 0-226-02980-8 ( Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology ).
  • Werner Gräbner: Tarabu - Popular Music on the Indian Ocean. In: Veit Erlmann (Hrsg.): Popular music in Africa. Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-88609-213-5 , pp. 181-200 ( Publications of the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin NF 53, Department of Music Ethnology 8).
  • Werner Graebner: "The Swahili Coastal Sound". 2000. In: Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Eds.): World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East , pp. 690-697. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swahili Dictionary
  2. ^ Standard Swahili-English Dictionary
  3. ↑ a b Graebner, Werner. The Swahili Coastal Sound In: Frederick Dorian, Orla Duane, James McConnachie (Eds.). World Music: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rough Guides, 1999, pp. 690-697. ISBN 978-1-85828-635-8

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