The Arab world is a fairly homogeneous cultural and musical area, unified by the spread of Islam, from the 7th century ad, and by the predominance of the Arabic language. It includes countries of the Arabian peninsula (Saudia Arabia, Yemen and South Yemen), the Arabian Gulf (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman) and contiguous countries (Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria); classical Iranian and Turkish music are closely related to Arab music, as is the music of North Africa. Branches of the Eastern Christian church in this region propagate their own religious music (e.g. the Syrian and Coptic churches); the art music of Israel, though related to Arab music, is closer to European tradition (see Jewish music).
The fundamental characteristics of Arab classical music have been described over c13 centuries in historical, theoretical and poetical texts, including the writings of al-Kindī (c801-73) and al-Fārābī (d 950). Islamic musical scholarship treated melodic and rhythmic modes, the physics of sound, tunings and aesthetics. Although theory and practice did not always correspond, the fundamental features of classical Arab music may be extracted from these treatises since its establishment in the courts of the caliphs, from Central Asia to the Atlantic, after the spread of Islam. These include the predominance of vocal music, monophony (single melody) and heterophony (single melody with variations), melodic and rhythmic modes, highly developed melodies, sophisticated techniques of improvisation, preoccupation with subtle intonation, oral transmission and a close association with Arabic poetry. For Western listeners a marked ‘oriental effect’ is created by Arab scales, distinct from European diatonic forms, and by the characteristic preferred timbre of the region, resulting from ensembles of different instruments performing in unison.
Arab classical music is based on a system of melodic modes, known as maqām. Each mode has prescribed intervals, tonal emphases, cadence formulae, characteristic melodic contours and final tones. It also uses rhythmic modes (not unlike those of medieval Europe), based on short units derived from poetic metre.
Islamic religious music includes the chanting of the Koran, performed in varying styles throughout the region. Koranic chant is independent of the maqām system and more akin to Gregorian chant. The call to prayer, performed five times daily throughout the Islamic region, consists in most areas of seven or eight passages with repetition and variation. While classical Arab music and Islamic religious music are fairly homogeneous repertories, the folk music reflects the diversity of the many ethnic minorities including the Kurdish, Berber, Druze, Tuareg and Beduin peoples.
Classical Arab music is particularly rich in string instruments. Most important is the ′ūd, a short-necked plucked lute, ancestor of the European lute whose name derives from the Arabic al-′ūd (‘the lute’). It has a ribbed wooden body, often with elaborate decorations, and generally five courses of strings. The rabāb (rabāba) is the most common Arab spike-fiddle, an instrument whose neck extends through the body and protrudes as a spike at the bottom. The body has a rectangular or trapezoidal wooden frame with belly and back of animal skin. The qānū n is a plucked trapeziform-shaped box zither (psaltery) with 72-8 strings. The principal string instrument of Arab folk music is the &tdotb;anbūr, a long-necked plucked lute with a pear-shaped body. The main wind instrument is the nāy, an oblique rim-blown cane flute with six finger-holes and one thumb-hole. Drums include the duff (daff), a single-headed frame drum, usually with rattles or jingles (like the European tambourine), and the darabukka, a single-headed goblet-shaped drum with a body of pottery, wood or metal.
