Arabic music
[1] In Yemen, the main center of pre-Islamic Arab sciences, literature and arts, musicians benefited from the patronage of the Kings of Sabaʾ who encouraged the development of music.
[2][3] For many centuries, the Arabs of Hejaz recognized that the best real Arabian music came from Yemen, and Hadhrami minstrels were considered to be superior.
Most historians agree that there existed distinct forms of music in the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and 7th century AD.
Singing was not thought to be the work of these intellectuals and was instead entrusted to women with beautiful voices who would learn how to play some instruments used at that time such as the drum, the lute or the rebab, and perform the songs while respecting the poetic metre.
[6] Abulfaraj (897–967) wrote the Kitab al-Aghani, an encyclopedic collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions.
A similar geometric representation would not appear in the Western world until 1987, when Kjell Gustafson published a method to represent a rhythm as a two-dimensional graph.
The English words lute, rebec, and naker are derived from Arabic oud, rabab or Maghreb rebab, and naqareh.
[11] In the early 20th century, Egypt was the first in a series of Arab countries to experience a sudden emergence of nationalism, as it became independent after 2000 years of foreign rule.
[17] In the 1990s, Arab artists who took up this style were Amr Diab, Moustafa Amar, Najwa Karam, Elissa, Nawal Al Zoghbi, Nancy Ajram, Haifa Wehbe, Angham, Fadl Shaker, Majida Al Roumi, Wael Kfoury, Asalah Nasri, Myriam Fares, Carole Samaha, Yara, Samira Said, Hisham Abbas, Kadhem Al Saher, Ehab Tawfik, Mohamed Fouad, Diana Haddad, Mohamed Mounir, Latifa, Cheb Khaled, George Wassouf, Hakim, Fares Karam, Julia Boutros, and Amal Hijazi.
[18] He also composed for famous singers of that era in Iraq and the Arab world, such as Salima Murad, Afifa Iskandar, Nazem al-Ghazali, Umm Kulthum, Mohammed Abdel Wahab.
The respect and adoration for Pasha were unusual at the time, since public performance by women was considered shameful in the region, and most female singers were recruited from brothels.
[23][24] They include the lute, which shares an ancestor with the oud; rebec (an ancestor of the violin) from rebab, guitar from qitara, naker from naqareh, adufe from al-duff, alboka from al-buq, anafil from al-nafir, exabeba (a type of flute) from al-shabbaba, atabal (a type of bass drum) from al-tabl, atambal from al-tinbal,[24] the balaban, castanet from kasatan, and sonajas de azófar from sunuj al-sufr.
[30] A number of medieval conical bore instruments were likely introduced or popularized by Arab musicians,[31] including the xelami (from zulami).
[32] Some scholars believe that the troubadors may have had Arabian origins, with Magda Bogin stating that the Arab poetic and musical tradition was one of several influences on European "courtly love poetry".
[33] Évariste Lévi-Provençal and other scholars stated that three lines of a poem by William IX of Aquitaine were in some form of Arabic, indicating a potential Andalusian origin for his works.
[34] The theory that the troubadour tradition was created by William after his experience of Moorish arts while fighting with the Reconquista in Spain has been championed by Ramón Menéndez Pidal and Idries Shah.
Beech adds that William and his father did have Spanish individuals within their extended family, and that while there is no evidence he himself knew Arabic, he may have been friendly with some Europeans who could speak the language.
Other groups view improvisation as only learned through trial and error taking many years to perfect thus being a style played professionals.
The Moroccan singer Elam Jay developed a contemporary version of the Gnawa genre that is fused with R&B, named Gnawitone Styla.
A combination of electronic music with traditional Middle Eastern instruments has been popularized by Richii with songs like "Ana Lubnaneyoun".
Ziad Rahbani also pioneered today's oriental jazz movement, to which singers including Rima Khcheich, Salma El Mosfi, and (on occasion) Latifa adhere.
[citation needed] Another notable performer of this genre is the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani who blends jazz with Arabic music, both in her own compositions and in her arrangements of traditional songs.
Arabic rock has been gaining attention in the Middle East since the early 2000s, with bands such as Tanjaret Daghet, JadaL, Kayan, Autostrad, El Morabba3, Akher Zapheer, The Wanton Bishops, Mashrou' Leila, Adonis and Meen, Cairokee, Massar Egbari, Sahara, Wyvern, Cartoon Killerz, Khalas, Chaos and Acrassicauda all gaining popularity.
[46] Secular art musical genres include maqam al-iraqi, andalusi nubah, muwashshah, Fijiri songs, qasidah, layali, mawwal, taqsim, bashraf, sama'i, tahmilah, dulab, sawt, and liwa.
It should also be added, in reference to Habib Hassan Touma's comment above, that these quarter tones are not used everywhere in the maqamat: in practice, Arabic music does not modulate to 12 different tonic areas like the Well-Tempered Klavier.
Its traditions come from pre-Islamic times, when female singing slaves entertained the wealthy, inspired warriors on the battlefield with their rajaz poetry, and performed at weddings.
A vast number of female Arab vocalists are mezzo-sopranos who cultivate darker and richer tones than generic Soprano voices.
In Iraq, the traditional ensemble, known as the chalghi, includes only two melodic instruments—the jowza (similar to the rabab but with four strings) and santur—accompanied by the riq and dumbek.
[54] Making use of digital archives for texts, pictures and sounds, detailed information on the history of Arabic music is also made accessible over the Internet.
The Lebanese foundation AMMAR, for example, is committed to the preservation and dissemination of traditional Arab music and has published a host of historical documents.
