Music of Islam:

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Music of Islam

• A Brief and Broad Overview

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Pre-Islam

• Assyrian Babylonian kingdoms
• Later, Persian Kingdom
• Arabian civilization cradle of intellectual
  achievement (i.e. music/theory, instruments, math
  medicine)
• Pre-Islamic music oral tradition

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Earliest documented instruments

• Lyre
• Frame drum
• Reed Double reeds

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The Ud (oud)
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Other lutes
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Theorbo (lute family)
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The shaum
Fore-parent to the modern oboe Ultra-Orthodox
muslims call this instrument the Devils Penis
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Music genre

• Huda simple folk songs, camel songs (aka
  caravan songs)
• Nawh lamentation or elegy
• Ghina generic term for art music
• Iranian (Persian) Dynasty (Sassanians) 224 AD
• khosovania systems or modes (Barbad)
• Poetry driven (Persian roots)

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What is it??
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The Good, the Bad, the Scary

• Nasheed voice percussion only religious
  content, poetry, or concepts of the prophet
• Sufi (sect of Islam) - mystics
• Qawaali (qawwali) utterance voice,
  percussion, harmonium
• Whirling dervishes voice, percussion,
  woodwinds, strings
• Gnawa voice, strings, percussion, woodwinds

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Conservative, orthodox Halal or Good

• Quranic recitations (chant),
• Call to prayer
• Huda simple folk songs, camel songs (aka
  caravan songs)
• Nawh lamentation or elegy
• Ghina generic term for art music
• Nasheed 10 religious content, praise of the
  Prophet, poetry

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Umm kulthoum

• Considered the Star of the East or Diva of the
  Arabic Song
• Began her career reciting Quranic verse
• Most popular during the 1950s 60s
• Peasant - cultivated perfect Arabic
• Still highly revered in Egypt

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Nasheed (anasheed)

• Predominately male oriented
• Reminiscent of western male a capella quartets
• Contemporary groups have the boy band sound
• More political rhetoric appearing
• Western in flavor
• Pushing envelope

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Nasheeds

• Raihan Indonesian quintet
• Rakan Selawat (Seal of the Prophet)
• 786
• Straight Path
• Shaam
• Mercy Like the Rain
• Mustaqiim Sahir
• This is Islam

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Moderates View Halal (technically) Haram (Bad)
in eyes of the Orthodox

• Sufism
• Whirling dervish can convert traditionally
  men, long study, dhikr (remembrance of Allah)
• Qawalli Gnawa hereditary cannot convert
• Sufis are in love with God and seek to establish
  an ecstatic relationship with Him.
• Imagery language used is one of lovers
• Music is the means by which to ascend unto God
• If its in praise to Allah it cannot be bad

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Whirling dervishes

• Followers of Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
  (13th cent. Persian poet, Islamic jurist,
  theologian)
• Mevlevi Order originally founded in Turkey after
  Rumis death
• Dervish lodges were banned in 1925 contem-porary
  communities were persecuted under penalty of
  death
• 1950 laws relaxed Mevlevi viewed as an
  association performances only permitted
  annually (Dec. 17)
• Many tourist performances

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A dervish theater
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The Sema

• Symbolizes Divine Love mystical ecstasy of
  union with the Divine Being
• Actualized dhikr
• Opens with the recitation of the Nat-I Serif
• Then instrumental (ney) introduction
• Salutations circumambulations
• Concludes with recitation from the Quran

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The Sema music

• The Ney end blown reed
• Only reed allowed in the Sema - often a chorus
  of neys used
• Human voice, percussion (frame drum, doumbek),
  and strings (dependent on the region zither
  or type of fiddle) are also used

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Order based in Omaha, nb
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Qawaali

• East Indian / Pakistani
• Hereditary families old as 600 yrs
• Ensemble called a Party
• Hierarchy within family and performance order
• Voice, tabla (drums), harmonium cymbals
• Urdu, punjabi, arabic
• Seek ecstasy (wajad) through
• song

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Harmonium and tabla
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The Scary Haram (Bad)

• Gnawa
  (Gnaoua)
• Extreme sect of Islam (pluralists)
• Descended from African slaves mercenaries
• Hereditary
• Practice spirit (demon) possession via lila or
  derdba
• Commonalities with Voodoo
• Becoming major contributor to world beat or
  gnawa fusion (diffusion)
• Some looked upon with same distain as gypsies

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Taureg tribe with guimbri
Guimbri
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Sufi music

• Whirling Dervish
• Mevlevi Order (Ottoman Empire/Turkey)
• Qawaali
• Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
• Gnawa
• Mustapha Baqbou

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World Beat

• Term gained use 1980s
• Marketing/classificatory device for music
  industry
• Music that uses distinctive ethnic scales, modes
  and musical inflections (ethnic instrumentation)
  for western audiences
• Jazz infusion/diffusion