Review: [Untitled]

Reviewed Work(s):
Anthologie musicale de la péninsule arabique [A Musical Anthology of the Arabian Peninsula]
by Simon Jargy; Poul Rovsing Olsen
Habib Hassan Touma

Yearbook for Traditional Music, Vol. 28. (1996), pp. 224-226.

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224 I 1996 YEARBOOK F O R T R A D I T I O N A L M U S I C

rendered differently by each performer and resulting in simultaneous variations. Part-singing,

with clear functional separation of voices, is rare. Most of their songs are strophic. Each stanza
begins with a melodic opening sung by a soloist, who usually leads the song to the end. Some
of the songs rise in overall pitch level and volume, so the leader must begin with a lower pitch
and softer sound.
This recording contains a good sample of Nekrasovtsy song genres, showing the musical
diversity of the culture. There are twenty-six selections, mainly abbreviated renditions of complete
songs. T h e complete song texts are summarized in the notes.
Many Nekrasovtsy songs are connected with important life-cycle or year-cycle events. T h e
album contains several fine examples of laments performed at funerals and weddings, as well
as a Turkish wedding song and a wedding song mocking the svat, or best man. There are five
examples of krylouaia, songs sung during the celebration of spring.
T h e album includes several examples of liturgical singing, including znamennyi (old Orthodox
chants) and dukhovnyi stikh (spiritual verses), which have not survived in other areas of Russia.
In spite of their religious texts, the stikh are considered secular songs. They are not performed
in church but at home during the Lenten season.
Historical and epic songs include the Ignatovy and pod Ignata, songs about their founder Ignat
Nekrasov, as well as byliny In contrast to North Russian byliny, which are long epic texts performed
by a soloist in short melodic phrases, the Nekrasovtsy byliny are strophic choral songs, with long,
elaborate melodies and short texts.
T h e Nekrasovtsy also perform many lyric songs and ballads "anytime and anywhere." T h e
album contains several choice examples, the most interesting of which are perhaps the songs
sung "during the plastering of a new house." T h e album also includes a fine children's song
and lullaby.
The authors should be commended for presenting such an authentic representation of a music
culture which has retained its traditions for the past two-and-a-half centuries. T h e liner notes
are outstanding; I have borrowed freely from them for most of the historical and technical
information in this review. They provide the listener with an accurate context for the songs
and are indispensable for understanding the music. This C D will be particularly valuable to
teachers of ethnomusicology who need authentic examples of old Russian songs in order to
teach how they have functioned within the culture. We can hope to see more newly released
ethnographic compact disks of this quality in the future. CARL RAHKOIZEK

Anthologie musicale de la pkninsule arabique/A Musical an tho lo^ of the Arabian Peninsula.
Vol. 1: PoCsie chantCe des bedouins; Vol. 2: Musique des pCcheurs de perles; Vol. 3:
Le S w t , musique des villes; Vol. 4: Le chant des femmes. Recorded by Simon Jargy
and Poul Rovsing Olsen, commentary by Simon Jargy. Archives internationales de
musique populaire (MusCe d'ethnographie, Geneva) A I M P X X X - X X X I I I and Disque
VDW-Gallo (Rue de I'Ale 31, CH-1000 Lausanne 9; Fax: 41(0)21/312 11 34) CD-780-783.
4 CDs, each with booklet in French and English containing commentary, song texts
and photographs, 1994.
This anthology contains four categories of urban and rural Arabian music that is performed
by the inhabitants of Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
and O m a n . Fifty-six percent of the recorded examples come from Bahrain, 11% from Kuwait,
11% from the United Arab Emirates, 9 % from Yemen, 4 % from Syria and 3% from Abu Dhabi.
T h e anthology is made u p of four volumes: Vol. 1- Sung Poetry of the Bedouins; Vol. 2-Music
of the Pearl Divers; Vol. 3- Sowt, Music from the City; and Vol. 4-Women's Songs. Commentary
in French and English and prepared by Simon Jargy accompanies each CD. It explains the
music presented, discusses the sung pieces and renders a partial translation of the sung poems.
Sung Poetry of the Bedouins contains sixteen pieces which were gleaned from the rich repertory
of the Bedouins living in Kuwait (6 examples), in the United Arab Emirates (7) and in Syria
(3). T h e samples represent several genres of Bedouin sung poetry such as mmhiib, skhiri, gisid.
etc. The published examples on the C D are excerpts of much longer poems; the live performance
of each of these styles may go on as long as half-an-hour or more. O n the C D , their length
is limited to only approximately three minutes, perhaps to present the listener with as many
styles and genres on one recording as possible. T h e recording also contains one instrumental
piece on the rebnb, the spike fiddle, which has been performed by the shn'ir (poet) Jabir bin
Hussain from the United Arab Emirates. Each song type is explicitly described, and in several
cases the scale degrees of the sung poetry are rendered. According to the English translation
REVIEWS R E C O R D S 1 225

of the commentary, "the musical and poetic traditions of the Arabian Peninsula are products
of diverse cultural influences having coalesced into two distinct strands . . . the desert and . . . the
Gulf area" (p. 20). Furthermore, the music of the nomadic and sedentary Bedouins is not separate
from the poetry that is sung in Arabic and represented,in Arabic social contexts, yet this sung
poetry has been falsely described in the English translation as "so-called Arabian"! T h e French
version of the same sentence states, "il se presente comme arabe" (p. 3), or "it is called Arabian."
O n the other hand, the commentary states that the other kind of traditional music, that of the
Gulf region, is "of a more regional character, [and] results from interaction with surrounding
musical cultures (African, Iranian, Indian)" (p. 29). Nevertheless, both statements describing
these two musical categories as of the "desert" and of the "Gulf' relate in truth only to the
Bedouins and inhabitants living along the desert area of the Gulf shores, i.e., only to the Gulf
region itself. Vast territories of the Peninsula - such as Saudi Arabia, with its various regional
musical styles, Yemen, with its Hadramawt music styles, as well as O m a n - are not included
on this CD. Therefore, the statement cited above remains hypothetical to its core. Furthermore,
it remains questionable as to whether it is correct to include Syria in an anthology of the Arabian
Peninsula, for there are also Bedouins living in Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and other countries
in the proximity of the Peninsula.
In spite of these considerations, the value of the examples of Bedouin sung poetry in this
volume lies in the variety of recorded styles, a variety that certainly contributes to a better
understanding of Arabian classical verse meters and of Arabic musical practice during the pre-
Islamic era, the j~hiliyyah.Ever since the jiihiliyyah, we know of two singing styles: that of the
nomad Bedouins and that of the sedentary population (ah1 al-hadar). T h e singing of the nomadic
Bedouins, w h ~ c hwas limited to the genres hid2 and nasb, is generally described in literary works
as simple and naive, while the singing of the sedentary population is characterized as virtuosic
and extraordinary. T h e sixteen examples on this C D are actually virtuosic and extraordinary
in spite of their simplicity and naivete. Complete versions of the sung poetry belonging to a
specific style could have given us better knowledge of the vocal aesthetics, particularly if they
had been published in complete form.
T h e second C D is dedicated to the M u i c of the Pearl Diuers. Fjiri is the term designating the
music of the pearl divers and seamen of the Arabian Gulf. Belonging to thefunan al-bahr ("sea
music") tradition, it is among the oldest forms of music to have been documented in the region
of the Persian Gulf to date. Fjiri includes a very rich repertory and is cultivated along the entire
coast, especially in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and O m a n .
Performed by the pearl divers themselves, it consists mainly of vocal music accompanied by
dancing. The pearl divers accompany their singing with handclapping and percussion instruments.
All the items on this C D were recorded in Bahrain. T h e recordings include three performance
sessions with the legendary late Salim al-'Allan that took place at diir Jin8 in Muharraq,
Bahrain, together with the best singing ensembles of the pearl divers living in Bahrain. T h e
pearl divers learnedjfjiri from their ancestors, and the repertory has been handed down for
generations. Still, for them, t h e j i r i has its origins in a supernatural world (Touma 1996:91).
Unfortunately, the C D excludes the music of the pearl divers of Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia
and O m a n , thus depriving the listener of a more extensive repertory of Gulf region sea music.
Perhaps this deficit could be compensated by a future publication that would enable the listener
to compare the different Gulf sea music styles.
T h e third C D is dedicated to the sawt. a vocal form sung in countries along the shores of
the Persian Gulf. It contains eleven ~awt-s(two from Abu Dhabi, six from Bahrain and three
from Yemen) and presents five fine singers, who present three sawt-s in the shnmi style, two
in the bahraini style, one in the 'arabi style, four in the san%ni style and one in the Cadanistyle.
T h e sawt is a song form known in all countries of the Persian Gulf and is identified as a Bahraini,
Kuwaiti, Qatari (etc.) sawt. T h e melody and the patterned rhythmic accompaniment impart
a unique character to its performance. Rhythmic accompaniment and melody are chosen by
the singer for each individual performance from the rich sawt repertory, whereas the sung poem
does not undergo any appreciable change from one singer to the next. T h e singer usually chooses
this poem from the vast repertory of Arabic poetry. T h e sawt uses Arabic text and is Arabian
in its modal and rhythmic structure, in its accompaniment on the Arabian ' ~ d ,and in terms
of its social context. T h e form reminds us of the pre-Islamic ~ a w of t the qaynah-s and the ghina'
a/-mutqan, the perfect singing, of Tuways (632-710), one of the early masters of Medina and
the first effeminate singer (mukhannath) in Hijaz. Al-ghina' al-mutqan was characterized by a
definite melody sung to a rhythmic pattern used as an accompaniment. Therefore it is difficult
226 I 1996 Y E A R B O O K F O R T R A D I T I O N A L M U S I C

to grasp the doubts expressed in the commentary concerning the origins of the sawt that favor
the thesis of non-Arabic origin (p. 24). T h e term sawt, denoting a vocal form, has existed since
the 10th century and has been mentioned, for example, in kitnb al-laha wal-maliihi of Ibn
Khurdadhbab (d. 912), in al-'iqd a1;farid of Ibn 'Abd Rabbihi (860-940), in m-samm8 of
at-Tifashi (1184-1251), and in ar-risdah and ki!nb of al-Urmawi (d. 1294), among others. We should
also mention the collection of one hundred selected sawt-s made for the Caliph H a r a n ar-
Rashid in the 9th century; its existence emphasizes the popularity and kinship of the saw! form
in Arabia. Nonetheless, the commentary explicates each raw! at length and contributes to a
better understanding of the sung texts. To my knowledge, this C D embodies the best collection
of sawt songs, in terms of quality and abundance of number, that has ever been published.
The fourth C D is entitled Women? Songs, with twelve examples from Bahrain, two from O m a n ,
one from Kuwait and three from Yemen. In one case the commentary does not disclose the
origin of the example. T h e collected songs are classified as songs of the sea, wedding songs,
children's songs and work songs. Each song has good commentary and in many cases includes
a translation of the song text. A number of the songs were performed by professional women's
ensembles such as 'Ayshah Idris and her group (Bahrain), Salhah Sallam and her group
(Bahrain), Sultanah (Bahrain), Fatimah bint M u h a m m a d (Oman), Shammah Mahmiah and
her group (Bahrain) and a few groups of school children and a Koranic school. T h e musical
texture of the songs weaves around the solo singing of the lead singer, who declaims a short
melody that is repeated immediately by the singing group. I n most cases, the singing group
accompanies itself with handclapping o r by beating a hand drum. O f special artistic quality
are the 'iirhiiri songs and the darzah performed by the ensemble of Sultanah from Bahrain (nos.
7 and 8) and the khammiiri and 'arabi songs performed by 'Ayshah Idris (nos. 9 and lo), as well
as the dnn dnn songs performed by Fatimah bint M u h a m m a d from O m a n .
This anthology comprises excellent examples of musical genres of high artistic and technical
quality. T h e commentary is excellent and is illustrated with superb photographs. T h e four C D s
are recommended to laymen as well as to scholars who seek to know more about the music
of the Persian Gulf region, especially of Bahrain. T h e title Anthology o j the Arabian Peninsula is,
however, hardly appropriate because this collection neglects a large portion of the repertory
of Yemen and Hadramawt, as well as the entire repertory of Saudi Arabia. Rather, this is a n
Anthology of the Gulf Region, with a special emphasis on Bahrain, and it provides the listener
with genuine musical documentation of that area
References Cited
Touma, Habib Hassan
1996 The M u i c of the Arabs. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.
HABIB HASSAK TOC'MA

Centrafnque: Musique pour sanza en pays gbaya/Central Afnca: Sanza Music in the Land of
the Gbaya. Recordings by Vincent Dehoux, commentary by Dehoux and Paulette Roulon.
Archives internationales de musique populaire (Musee d'ethnographie, Geneva) A I M P
X X V I I and Disque VDW-Gallo (Rue de I'Ale 31, CH-1000 Lausanne 9; Fax: 41(0)21/312
11 34) CD-755. C D with 35-page booklet in French and English containing commentary,
map, photos and bibliography, 1993.
We know through other publications of V. Dehoux and P. Roulon (Dehoux 1986 and 1992;
Roulon and 'Doko 1983) that these two scholars have spent several months among the Gbaya
and have become very familiar with the Gbaya musical culture. T h e Gbaya Bodoe of the Central
African Republic, whose sanza music is presented in this record, belong to the Kara Gbaya
and number about 5,000 individuals. T h e Gbaya group as a whole number about half a million
and occupy the western part of the Central African Republic and part of the eastern region
of Cameroon.
T h e orally transmitted Bodoe culture, including music, is accessible to all members of the
group; everyone sings, dances and plays a musical instrument. But since ability and taste vary,
the result is not always the same. As the author indicates, the Gbaya Bodoe distinguish between
two types of sound production. T h e first type, called koger (voice), comprises human and animal
cries as well as speech, while the second, tigir (melody), refers to all music.
T h e songs, whose lyrics are fixed by tradition, all alternate between solo part and response.
Purely instrumental music is nearly nonexistent among the Gbaya, and instrumental playing
is generally accompanied by some form of vocal expression. Concerning the Gbaya sanza jsanzi),