The Music of the Arab World

Islamic call to prayer, heard 5 times a day from mosques and over mass media among Muslim communities throughout the world.

during the Abbasid Kalifite, .the house of learning/knowledge where the translation of Greek treatises were written.

nomadic groups that inhabit the desert regions throughout the Arab world.

a long-necked lute with 24 movable frets and two sets of strings in triple courses C and G and a single bass string tuned to C.

jumping up or down the interval (Chapter 1 p x) of 8 notes or an octave, for example from the note G below middle C to the note g above middle C.

pattern (usually with a melodic and rhythmic component) that repeats over and over

the Arabic term for a cadential phrase.

a zither with 75 strings in triple courses with a series of small tuning levers that allow the strings to be retuned in the course of performance.

(also Koran) the holy scriptures of Islam, comprised of 114 chapters and believed by Muslims to be the word of God as transmitted through the angel Gabriel to the Prophet Muhammad.

bowed fiddle held upright with an end-pin resting on the ground (if seated cross-legged) or on a chair. This instrument was the prototype for the the rebec and viol family of early European music. A version is also used by the folk poet-singer called or shair.

a genre of North African pop music, also popular in France.

The progressive .re-conquest in the early 1500s of southern Europe (also known the Spanish inquisition) by European Christians that resulted in the gradual exile and migration of Muslims and Jews.

the Arab tambourine.

I use this term to refer to people who specialize in cultural traditions and who facilitate the experience of these traditions for others (Rasmussen 1991).

a group of notes or musical idea that is repeated several times in succession, often shifting up or down in range.

poet-singer, often associated with nomadic Bedouin life, who accompanies himself on a one or two stringed fiddle called rabab.

the system of rules for chanting the Qur'an.

Arabic, an ensemble of 3-8 instrumentalists, sometimes including a singer.

The Takht Ensemble

• • seven-piece musical ensemble

  • two performers are playing the ‘ud, a short-neck, pear-shaped fretless lute (a chordophone).

  • the buzuq, a long-necked lute with 24 movable frets; chordophone

  • the violin, identical to the Western violin, but with the highest two strings tuned down a whole step; a chordophone

  • the nay, a reed flute that is blown at an angle; an aerophone

  • the qanun, a zither with 75 strings with small tuning levers that permits retuning during performance; a chordophone

  • the riqq, the Arab tambourine, also known as the daff; a membranophone.

an improvisation

defined in chapter

an ancient network of trade routes spanning from Japan to Morocco in North Africa and Southern Europe.

the color and quality of a tone produced by an instrument or the voice.

the first note or the bottom note of a scale. The tonic note of C major is C. Also called .do.

the collective body of Jewish teaching embodied in the Hebrew Bible; sometimes printed on a parchment scroll used during services in synagogues.

strumming or picking up and down on a string as fast as you can

oscillating between two notes that are right next to each other

an ornament that includes a note above and below the main note

community of Muslims throughout the world.

singing or playing the same melodic line.

rhythmic and melodic ostinato or repeating pattern that is usually played .underneath or .against or as a backdrop for the main melody.

syllables, often without meaning used for singing (see Chapter 2 for a discussion of the use of vocables in Native American Music.

a procession of the bride and groom that includes musicians, dancers, instrumentalists, and all of the invited guests.

a high-pitched trilling cry that proclaims excitement.

a short-necked, pear-shaped fretless lute, usually with 11 strings in double courses.