The History of Arabic Music

The Historical Development of Arabic Music

Arabic Music from Ancient Egyptian Music to Modern Arabic Music

Arabic Music: The Near East Musical Style

All through the centuries, Arabic music has interacted with music from Ancient Greece, Persia, Assyria, Turkey, India, Gypsy music, and African music (particulary Berber and Swahili). Arabic music influenced these regional styles and in turn was influenced by them, resulting in a pan-regional style sharing common characteristics. This style transcends linguistic and ethnic boundaries and covers a vast geographical area stretching all the way from India in the East to Morocco in the West.

Because this style of music gained sophistication and momentum during the height of the Islamic Empire between the eighth and the thirteenth centuries, it is sometimes called the Islamic style or Arabic style. However, Peter van der Merwe, a South African musicologist and author of "Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music," has suggested that this common style should be called "the "Near East style." This article, however, focuses specifically on music in the Arabic language, so I will refer to it as Arabic music.

Evolution of Arabic Music During the Islamic Golden Age

The Arab musical tradition as it is known today developed between the AD 7th and 13th Centuries in the courts of Islam. The first great renaissance of Arab music occurred in Syria and the surrounding regions during the Umayyad Dynasty (AD 7th-8th Century). At that time Baghdad, in what is now Iraq, was a central city for musicians and performers, partly due to its ruler, the legendary Haroun al-Raschid.

Arabic music, insofar as can be inferred reliably, traces its ancestry in part to the music of the 3rd Century Persians and the early Byzantine Empire (AD 4th-6th Century). These traditions in turn can trace themselves back in part to the works of the Greeks, themselves great lovers of poetry and song. But both are traced back to the ancient Semitic traditions which may have their origins in the music of the ancient Egyptians.

The 10th Century music theorist Al-Farabi translated the major works of the ancient Greeks on music into Arabic: Aristotle's Problems, Themistius' commentaries on the Problems, Ptolemy's Harmonics, and the Elements of Music by Euclid. This increased the effect of the Greeks on Arabic music, but also gave a foundation upon which to build a concrete theory of Arabic music, which Al-Farabi did.

Like Euclid before him, Al-Farabi was a mathematician and physicist, and so was able to examine musical structure from the scientific standpoint. But what was more, he was a musician and was perhaps better equipped mentally to study music as an art form and not cold mathematics. He focused not only on the science of sound but also the aesthetics and the enjoyment of music, a subject which the Greeks apparently had ignored.

The Turn of the Century and the Arabic Music Recording Boom

It was the invention of the phonograph and its later descendants that put Arabic music in the hands of the people at large. Obviously, before recordings, Arabic music was limited to performance only, and depending on the genre, this could greatly limit the audience. Orchestral pieces, for example, were the mostly the province of the rich due to the cost of maintaining facilities and performers and the high ticket prices to cover that cost. With the coming of recorded music, people could listen anytime they wished.

In 1909, Britain's Gramophone Company created its first record label, "His Master's Voice," whose famous dog-and-gramophone logo still exists as part of RCA. "His Master's Voice" began a massive campaign a few years later to record traditional Arabic music as well as the newer forms that were created. In 1914, Decca introduced the famous mass-produced "case" gramophone. Although the gramophone was still expensive, and only the richest individuals purchased them, many public businesses would buy them to play for their customers. It became quite common a decade or so later in Egypt for people to travel to the local coffeehouse to socialize and listen to the latest performances by famous Egyptian singers such as Umm Kulthum and Mohamed Abdel Wahab.

Shortly before this time Arabic music began to change, especially in Egypt. Arabic music composers like Sayed Darwish were adopting Western elements into traditional forms, resulting in what was considered to be the first truly Egyptian music in centuries. The new music became more orchestral and modern while still retaining the power and freedom of the older. Many of these pieces are still alive today, being arranged for contemporary Arabic musical artists like Sabah Fakhri and Fairouz.

As recording technology became cheaper, so did records and players. More people could purchase them, and did. The gramophone became a household item much in the same way the radio would soon after. The "new" music of Egypt and the Arab world spread, bringing with it a strong cultural identity.

Modern Day Arabic Music

However, the evolution of Arabic music was not one-way. Being one of the oldest musical traditions in the world still existing it naturally had its influence on other forms. Spanish music shows a strong ancestry of Arabic music due to the conquest of Spain by the Islamic empires (8th-15th Centuries), as does the "Mediterranean" music of Greece and Italy. The effects of Arabic music can even be felt as far as the United States as traditional maqamat surface in nightclub techno music and the Tejano music of the Southwest.

Modern Arabic music now fills all genres. There are musicians who perform traditional melodies and there are those that are closer to the Western conventions of pop and "Top 40." Throughout the years the Egyptians have never lost their love for music. If anything, it has intensified, and today Egypt is seen as a major focus for music in the Arab world. Lebanese-born conductor and composer Salim Sahab, now a citizen of Egypt, once said, "No matter how brilliantly an Arab singer or artist shines in his own country, he or she will never fulfill dreams before setting foot in Egypt."

Egypt's importance in Arabic music is shown by the fact that many of the great masters of Arabic music were Egyptian: Sayed Darwish, Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Umm Kulthum, Mohamed Al-Qasabji, Zakariyya Ahmad, and Riad Al-Sunbati just to name a few. Egypt has also opened its doors to artists of other countries, some of them persecuted in their own lands. For example, when Abu Khalil Al-Qabani was accused in Syria of being a negative influence on the youth, he went to Cairo and there founded the first true orchestra for Arabic music.

Egypt loves its musicians, and it is said that the funeral of Egypt's greatest singer, Umm Kulthum, in 1975 was larger than that of President Nasser.

Today the ranks of Arabic musicians are filled out with names like Ilham Al Madfai, Fairouz, and Magda El Roumi. Yet the name that is truly taking Arabic music to the world is that of Amr Diab. His talent for music has garnered him numerous accolades including the 1998 World Music Award for his song "Nour El Ain," making him only the second Arabian singer ever to win the award. His English version of that song, called "Habibi," was a top song in Europe and became popular in dance clubs in the United States. He has toured around the world and is an artist with broad appeal because his songs show a variety of musical styles, from traditional Arabic rhythms to European dance to the soulful ballads of the Americas.

The music of the Middle East is now coming full-circle as the modern musicians assimilate elements from many of the musical forms that had their beginnings in Arabic music. Guitar virtuosos like Ilham Al Madfai play with a deep, rich Mediterranean sound that comes from the Moorish Conquest, and the techno and rave music of Ibiza comes now to Alexandria and Cairo.