Music of the Middle East
Common Features and Diversity
Many Arabic nations
 Iran and Turkey are non-Arabic.
 Israel –– a markedly unique culture
surrounded by Arab nations
 Numerous ethnic minorities, such as the
Kurds
Islam (established 622 AD) –– a
monotheistic and egalitarian religion
The Middle Eastern Sound
Monophony –– one melody line played
simultaneously by all performers without
harmonic accompaniment
 Parallel polyphony –– the same melodic line is
played at different volumes or pitch levels by
two or more performers
 Heterophony –– two or more performers playing
the same melody, but with small differences in
timing or ornamentation
 Ornamentation –– tones bent and embellished
with trills, glissandos, or short secondary notes
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Timbre (sound quality) –– vibrato-less;
hard-edged, “raspy” quality
 Solo vocal music dominates
 Improvisation highly valued
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Middle Eastern Vs Western
Vocal Timbre
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Western Opera
Eastern Vocals
Instruments
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Chordophones
Plucked Lutes: oud (most common); bouzouq (Syria, Lebanon,
Egypt, and Turkey) setar (Persian classical music); tar (Iran); dotar
(Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Northern Iran) tambur (Turkey)
Bowed lute: jouzeh and rebab (in Arabic cultures); kamancheh
(throughout the Middle East); and qichak (Eastern sections)
Zithers: plucked qanun (or kanun); struck (hammered) santour
Membranophones
Conical hand drums: darbucca (or tabl); frame drums including
tambourines (daff and riqq); and goblet-shaped drums (dombak)
Aerophones
End-blown flutes: nai (or ney); oboe-like double-reed instruments
(zornah, surna); and a folk instrument type that consists of a pair of
oboe-like pipes (of equal or unequal length), including the Arabic
arghul and zummarah and the Persian qoshmeh
Chordophones
 Plucked Lutes: oud (most common);
bouzouq (Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and
Turkey) setar (Persian classical music); tar
(Iran); dotar (Afghanistan, Central Asia,
and Northern Iran) tambur (Turkey)
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Oud
http://www.youtube.com/v/oT_6pMTz4wo?version=3&hl=en_US
&rel=0
Setar
http://www.youtube.com/v/6PWk84ij3ws?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0
Tar
http://www.youtube.com/v/5QclnG8s-gQ?hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0
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Bowed lute: jouzeh and rebab (in Arabic
cultures); kamancheh (throughout the
Middle East); and qichak (Eastern
sections)
Jouzeh, rebab and kamancheh
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Zithers: plucked qanun (or kanun); struck
(hammered) santour
Santour
http://www.youtube.com/v/I-YxtVM8QrU?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0
Percussion
riqq, daff, dombak (tombak)
Ney
Zurnah
Features and Beliefs
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There are three prominent features and
beliefs that unite Middle Eastern musical
culture:
– Vocal and compositional styles derived from
the recitation of the Holy Koran - there are
two styles of chant: muttaral is syllabic,
unembellished, and subdued; mujawwad is
emotional, ornamented, and melodically
complex.
Mujawad
– Music creates a kind of ecstatic, emotional
bond between performer and audience. The
terms tarab in Arabic and hal in Persian
denote this quality.
The “suite,” or collection of individual pieces played
together, is the major unifying compositional
principle.
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The most common type of suite found
throughout the region is known as the
taqsim (taksin, in Turkey). It consists of
two parts: an improvised, usually
nonmetric solo instrumental number; and
the beshrav or peshrev, a metric,
composed piece usually performed by an
ensemble.
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Other types of suites are the Egyptian
wasla, the naubat found in Morocco,
Algeria, and Tunisia. The Persian dastgah
(the same name is used for this extended
suite as for Persian modes)
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is performed in five parts: pishdaramad
(composed, for ensemble); chahar mezrab
(composed or improvised, solo); avaz
(solo, improvised, non-metric); tasnif
(metric, composed song); and reng (a
light, dance-derived instrumental piece).
Iraq shares a similar form, known as the
“Iraqi maqam,” which also centers on an
extended avaz.
Music in Culture
Professional musicians are lowly regarded, while
cultured amateurs are highly regarded.
 Halal –– a word that means “legitimate.” For
music, it is chanted poetry; music for family
celebrations such as weddings; occupational
folksongs; military music.
 Haram –– a word that means “illegitimate,” in
reference to classical musics as well as musics
associated with unacceptable contexts such as
nightclubs or for belly dancing
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Melodic Modes and Improvisation
Maqam –– the generic term for mode
(makam in Turkish) (mugam in
Azerbaijan) (dastgah in Iran)
 Maqam tones are separated by pitch
distances called intervals that comprise
whole-tones, half-tones, three-quartertones (slightly larger the Western halftone), and five-quarter-tones (slightly
larger than the Western whole-tone).
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Every Arabic or Turkish maqam or Persian
dastgah has a name. Some give the place of
origin (like the Greek modes). (Listening Guide:
Major Maqams)
Taqsim –– a nonmetric improvised instrumental
piece based on a maqam, consisting of several
short sections
Iq'a (or wazn in Arabic; usul in Turkish) ––
rhythmic modes, or meter
Radif –– in Persian classical music, the body of
music, consisting of 250––300 short pieces,
memorized by students and then used as the
basis or point of departure for improvised
performance
Gusheh –– in Persian classical music, a
subdivision of a dastgah and smallest
constituent of the radif
Vernacular and Popular Music and the
Diasporas
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Tahkt –– literally “platform;” an ensemble of musicians,
often including violin, santour, ney, and two drums, used
to accompany singing and sometimes dancing, in Arabic
popular music
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Arabesk –– in Turkish popular music, a traditional Middle
Eastern sound symbolizing the Turkish people's
association with Islam and to older cultural traditions of
the area
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Dervishes –– individuals associated with Sufism who
dance by whirling to achieve transcendence
Alireza Mashayekhi –– the first Iranian composer of
electronic music
Rai –– a modern popular music developed in Algeria and Morocco that
combines traditional singing styles and Arabic modes with Westernstyle synthesized accompaniments
Umm Kulthum (1908-1975) –– an Egyptian singer
who achieved international prominence, becoming
a star of radio and film
Ideas about the Definition of Music:
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Ideas about music are not universal. In the Middle East,
music is generally considered an indulgence and
therefore not good. Musicians also are not publicly
valued. Yet, there are a lot of human sound phenomena
that have musical content; although, they are not
considered as music within the culture. The people of
the Middle East in general, by conceiving humanly
organized sound to exist on a continuum between
“recitation” and “music,” from khandan to musiqi, they
have rationalized different types of sound as more or
less acceptable. This definition of musiqi is actually
narrower than music in the West.
Ideas about the Nature of
Musicianship:
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In Western culture, professional musicians (some types
more than others) are valued over amateurs. In the
Middle East, however, amateur musicians play what they
want when they want, and therefore maintain a higher
status than professionals, who play to order. While
instrumental music may be lascivious, the scholarly
study of music (which associates it with language) is
admired. This attitude has produced a vast number of
treatises by informed “amateur” scholars. Amateur
musicians have a higher status than their professional
counterparts because they have the freedom to
improvise at will, not according to the demand of their
employer.
Ways Musicians Learn to
Improvise:
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In Western culture, improvised music even
has a tonal and structural framework.
Arabic music has maqam. The Iranian
radif is an example of an articulated set of
motifs used by musicians as the basis for
improvisation.
Musical Texture:
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Almost always heterophonic.
Improvisation:
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Within a strict framework, its overall form
is predetermined but its details are
determined by the improviser.
Rhythmic Organization:
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Metric or non-metric, or somewhere in
between.
Melodic Organization:
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Based on systems of modes called
maqam (in Arabic countries) and dastgah
(in Iran).
Singing Style:
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Tense with harsh, throaty tone; highly
ornamented but without vibrato; men sing
high in their range, and women low.
Instrumental styles imitate vocal styles.
Khandan
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Sacred
Improvised
Non-metric
Vocal
Solo
Musiqi
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Secular
Composed
Metric
Instrumental
Ensemble
Chanting of the holy Qur’an
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http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/hss
_nettl_worldmusic_6e/active_listening_gui
des/index.html#nettl6e_alg05_ch03-lg
zurkhaneh (traditional Persian ceremonial exercises performed to the
accompaniment of a drummer who chants from the epic
poem,“Shahnameh”)
vocal avaz (non-metric
improvisation)
Instrumental avaz
vocal and instrumentaltasnif
(metric and composed)
Belly Dance
Typical Iranian performance
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A full performance of one mode (or dastgah) ideally consists of five parts arranged in
the following order. The central piece of the performance is the improvised avaz.
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Pishdaramad:
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Chahar mezrab:
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Avaz:
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Tasnif:
Metric, composed song with words, may be performed instrumentally. May be based
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Reng:
Lit.: “before the introduction.” Stately, metric, composed, instrumental piece always
based on the radif, but may go through several gushehs. (slide 48)
Lit.: “four plectrums.” Fast, virtuosic solo instrumental piece, composed or
improvised, with rhythmic ostinato. May appear at this point or internally in an avaz.
Usually based only loosely on the radif.
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/hss_nettl_worldmusic_6e/active_listening_guid
es/index.html#nettl6e_alg04_ch03-lg
Improvised and non-metric, may be instrumental or vocal. Based specifically on the
radif. Normally between three and eight gushehs are used. (Slide 44)
on the radif, but only loosely. (slide 45)
Fast, composed instrumental dance-like piece. Loosely based on the radif. (slide 49)
Pishdaramad:
Reng
Summary
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The Middle East encompasses a large,
diverse geographical and cultural area,
and is generally known as the heartland of
Arab and Islamic cultures.
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Although very diverse, Middle Eastern
music generally is highly improvised, with
a single melody played by all instruments
simultaneously in heterophony.
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Vocal and instrumental music is generally
highly ornamented, featuring trills,
glissandos, or short secondary notes.
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Vocal music predominates.
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The primary instrument is the oud, a type
of lute.
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The most common musical form is the
suite, a grouping of individual pieces.
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The best music is thought to inspire a
trance-like, higher experience of life.
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Maqam (or a system of scales) are used as
the basis of all melodic creation.
There is a strict hierarchy observed
between types of music and performers,
with talented amateur musicians usually
coming from a higher social class.
 Professional or popular musicians are
typically looked down upon.
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Discussion Questions
– On a sliding scale, as between khandan and
musiqi, where can we place different types of
American music, from church hymns to punk
rock?
– What are some similarities between Middle
Eastern and Indian music improvisation?
– What are the differences between Middle
Eastern and Indian ensemble textures?
– What are the similarities and differences
between the Middle Eastern chordophones
and chordophones found elsewhere
throughout the word?
– How can Middle Eastern music improvisation
be compared to jazz or blues improvisation?
What are the similarities between the tonal
and rhythmic structures?
– What is the commonality of beliefs in
Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, concerning
the origin of their vocal and instrument
music?