The Middle East

Background

• Borders: “Potentially encompasses everything from Morocco in the west to China’s westernmost province, Xinjiang.”
• Separated in three sectors:

1. Maghrib: North Africa – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya.
2. Mashriq: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.
3. Arabian Peninsula: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and smaller nations on the Persian Gulf.

• Religion: predominately Muslim, but also Christian and Jewish.
• “Alexandria, Egypt, was home to what was perhaps the world’s greatest library until 642, when its contents were burned on the orders of the city’s conquerer, Omar, Caliph of Baghdad.”
• Culture passed in both directions between Asia and Europe through the city now known as Istanbul (aka Byzantium or Constantinople).
• Most European instruments can be traced to Arab sources.

Islam and the Arabic World

• 1.5 billion populace – 23% of the world’s population.
• “Islam is not just a major religion but a profound influence on culture – both generally and musically – around the globe.”
• Muslim countries beyond the Middle East:

1. Southeast Asia: northern India, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.
2. South Asia: Afghanistan, western China, and the southern Philippines.
3. Central Asia: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
4. Africa: Nigeria.
5. Muslim is even spreading to places like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States.

• Qur’an (aka Koran): Islam’s most sacred writings.
• Sunnah: record of the prophet Muhammad’s life.
• Two branches:

Sunni:

• 80-90% of Muslims.
• Believe that Muhammad specified no particular leaders to follow after him, therefore Sunni Muslims have no hierarchy.

Shia:

• Believe that Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib, was his designated successor, and they consider Ali to have been the first imam, who are religious leaders of Shia Islam.
• Though only 10-20% of Muslims, the Shia have been prominent politically because of conflicts in Iraq with Sunnis and because Iran is mostly Shia.

Islamic Adhan, “Call to Prayer”

• The adhan is said five times a day.
• It is transmitted through loudspeakers mounted on towers at any local mosques.
• Though Islam discourages “sensual arts,” the spoken words take melodic characteristics through the message.

Christianity, Judaism, and Islam:

1. All are monotheistic – they worship the same god, though each religion has a different name for this god.
2. All trace their lineage back to Abraham and recognize the biblical prophets.
3. The role of Jesus of Nazareth is the basis of Christianity, yet in Judaism he is seen as a “false messiah.”
4. For Muslims, Muhammad is perceived as the central prophet. He founded Islam, yet after his death subdivisions of the religion arose.
5. Muhammad also designated Mecca as Islam’s holy city and built the Ka’ba, Islam’s holiest shrine. It is expected that every Muslim makes a hajj, or pilgrimage, to the Ka’ba in their life. When they pray, Muslims face toward Mecca, no matter where they are in relation to the city.

• While the term mosque is often used, it is only an English term denoting any place of Islamic worship. The Arabic term is masjid.
• Any Muslims out of hearing range of the adhan still pray. They may tune into a radio station that sounds the adhan, or they may use any computer device to play a recorded adhan five times a day.

Islam and Music

• Many branches of Islam are suspicious of music because it is perceived as overly sensual.
• “In Islamic aesthetic theory, expressions that combine pitch and rhythm…are divided into a higher-level category called non-musiqa (non-music) and a lower-level category called musiqa (music).”
• All things that fall into non-musiqa, like the reading of the Qur’an or the adhan, are considered “legitimate.”
• Classical genres of musiqa and “folk music” are considered “controversial.”
• “Sensuous music” is at the bottom of the hierarchical scale. This includes American popular music, and it is branded “illegitimate.”
• Realistic representation of art is also frowned upon, especially in the form of the human body.
• Mosques are often extravagant, and this is paralleled by the busy characteristics of Arabic music.

Arabic Taqasim for Ud and Buzuq

• The ud is a pear-shaped lute with a short fretless neck. It is found throughout much of the Middle East and is associated with the “classical” tradition.
• The ud’s history goes back to the eighth century, and as is such has undergone many changes in terms of its size and number of strings.
• Today the ud has five “courses” of strings – a “course” being a pair of strings tuned in unison.
• It is considered that the ud is the original form of the Chinese pipa, the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese tyba, and the European lute.
• The ud is played with a plectrum to pluck the strings.
• The buzuq is used in both classical and non-classical music. It has a rounded body, nylon frets wrapped around its neck, and three double courses of strings played with a plectrum.

1. One course plays the melody.
2. The two other courses are strummed to create intermittent drones.

• Maqam: a “mode” or system within which improvisation occurs.

1. Each maqam consists of a scale and specific melodic forms, moods, and other non-musical associations.
2. Each maqam has a name and is characterized by a specific starting and ending note – as well as a set of specific pitches organized into two groups of four pitches (a tetrachord in English).
3. The basic seven steps of individual scales consist of combinations of two, three, four, or six quartertones – two quartertones make up one Western semitone, and four quartertones make up one whole tone, but three quartertones comprise an interval that is between a semitone and a whole tone. This system is very complex, and it is used with variance in practice.

Iran

• It is roughly the size of Alaska or Quebec, and it has a population of 70 million.
• It was previously known as Persia until the 20th century.
• Most popular religion is Shia Muslim. This leads to more emotional and militant expression than Sunni Muslims.

History:

1. 6th century: Iran’s first flourishing under Cyrus the Great.
2. Iran’s rule changed between Alexander the Great, the Parthians, the Turks, and the Mongols, until its independence in the 18th century.
3. 20th century: modern Iran was created, along with a hereditary line of rulers called shahs. The last shah was deposed by a revolution in 1979. It has since been a theocratic democracy, ruled by uneasy semi-official rulers.

Dastgah for Santur

• Iranian classical music often has a melancholy mood, encouraging an intimate atmosphere.
• “Dulcimer” or “hammered zither” – an instrument with strings that are parallel to a soundboard without a neck, and it is struck by mallets.

Santur:

1. Iran’s most distinctive and centrally important instrument.
2. Considered as the predecessor of the rest of the world’s dulcimers. It is even considered that the santur is the predecessor of the piano.
3. Trapezoidal body, with a lower side around 3 feet long, and an upper side of about 14 inches across. Courses of four strings each stretch from tuning pins on the right over two rows of moveable bridges.
4. The strings are hammered near the bridges.

Tar:

1. A plucked lute in many Iranian styles.
2. Has a skin-covered body, resembling the number “8.”

• Dastgah: an elaborate modal system in Persian music. There are 12 dastgah, each having seven pitches, plus a number of sub-modes.
• Dastgah performances typically unfold in several sections and require a long amount of time, because sections can differ vastly from each other.

1. The opening is called the daramad.
2. The daramad is then followed by the tahrir.
3. The tahrir is followed by the kereshmeh and chahrar-mezrab.
4. After the kereshmeh and chahrar-mezrab, the daramad is then repeated.

Source:

Book: World Music: A Global Journey, 3rd ed. – Miller and Shahriari