Sawt (music)

Sawt (Arabic: صوت / ALA-LC: Ṣawt; literally "voice"; also spelled sout or sowt) is a kind of popular music found in Kuwait and Bahrain.

It is said that sawt was established in Kuwait by the poet, composer, singer and oud player Abdallah al-Faraj (1836-1901/1903).

[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Sawt is a complex form of urban music, originally performed on the 'ud (plucked lute) and mirwas (a drum), with a violin later supplementing the arrangement.

Sawt also contains a special type of clapping called sherbaka, which means "intertwined," and is usually performed by spectators only on Arabic and Levantine scales.

Some sources indicate that the history of the art of sawt began before the advent of Abdullah al-Faraj, and that it is related to the sound singing that was prevalent in the Abbasid era, as Ahmed Ali notes in his book Music and Singing in Kuwait.