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Music
Islamic music goes back to the Middle Ages and can be examined as a performing art, a branch of science, and a medium of spiritual devotion. Middle Eastern and North African musicians sing and play a wide variety of instruments to intricate rhythms and melodies. They use music to celebrate both spiritual and secular occasions. Muslim scholars have written extensively on music theory, and Sufis have popularized the use of chanting and certain musical instruments. Contact with the West has influenced Islamic performers, and Muslim musicians have contributed to music in Europe and the United States.
The Mawlawiyah (or Mevlevi), a Sufi order, uses music and dance as part of its religious ritual. The order is known as the Whirling Dervishes in the West.
Islamic Musical Traditions
The Qur’an says little on the subject of music. The hadith contain many statements condemning the art, although Muhammad displayed some tolerance for war marches, pilgrimage chants, and festival songs. Muslims generally interpret the hadith as cautioning against music for pleasure. Some consider music acceptable only for rituals and religious occasions, while others value it as a form of entertainment. Many Muslims view music as a means of connecting with God or of promoting religious values.
History And Origins
In pre-Islamic2 societies, music served as an inspirational force. For example, the Bedouins had shairs (poet-singers), who they believed had supernatural powers. Shairs chanted verses to inspire the tribes in war and to praise them in times of victory. Female shairs accompanied warriors in battle, singing elegies (songs of sorrow) when they fell. Many Middle Eastern villages held dances and music and poetry competitions, attracting artists from neighboring regions. Qaynat (singing girls) performed in courts and taverns. Music also served practical functions. For example, camel drivers sang special songs as a charm against desert spirits (pre-Islamic, Arabic traditions).
After the rise of the Islamic empire, music served as a means of entertainment and became elevated to a high art form, despite Muhammad’s warnings. Wealthy Muslims acquired slave musicians and held lavish concerts and competitions. Complex musical styles developed, and some musicians gained widespread fame. Islamic music reached its height during the Abbasid dynasty (750 – 1258), when every educated person played an instrument, and music became a subject of study for philosophers and scholars. The Persian singer, composer, and lute player Ish Aq , for example, wrote nearly 40 books on music and developed the first theories on Islamic musical styles.
Folk And Religious Uses
Music enhances both secular and religious occasions in the Islamic world. It often serves to commemorate weddings and other major life events. Music can also enliven tasks of labor, as in the case of the fjiri (pearl-diving songs) performed by groups of musicians in the Arabian Gulf. In some Islamic regions, musicians have maintained their traditional roles as poet-singers. In Arabian deserts, for example, Bedouin shairs continue to recite poetry accompanied by an upright fiddle. Poet-singers in central Turkey perform moral and devotional songs while plucking a long-necked lute called a saz.
Many religious practices in the Islamic world also involve music. The chanting of passages from the Qur’an has become a standard feature of worship. Muezzins deliver the call to prayer five times a day in an improvised, melodic style. In some Muslim countries, music appears in plays that celebrate the lives of imams.
Sufis have developed the most advanced musical traditions. Mystics use both music and dance as vehicles for spiritual enlightenment. Early scholars, such as Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058 – 1111), taught Muslims how to attain spiritual purification through careful attention to music. Sufi choruses engage in a musical tradition called dhikr, in which they repeat religious phrases while performing rhythmic body movements, singing hymns, and improvising melodies. The Mevlevi order in Turkey gained fame in the 1200s for its elaborate musical performances, its use of the ney (reed flute), and its creation of a religious dance involving whirling.
Influence Of The West
Beginning in the late 1700s, Europeans colonized much of the Islamic world. Their musical traditions influenced Muslim artists and inspired leaders. The Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali hired European musicians to teach band music at military schools, and Cairo opened its first opera house in 1869. Similar developments occurred in Turkey and Iran. The Turkish president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk even banned Ottoman classical music, hoping to promote Western styles. By the 1900s, many Middle Eastern composers and music teachers had undergone training in European music theory, notation, and teaching methods.
Traditionally highlighting solo performance, Islamic music began to take on Western elements, such as large ensembles and electronic amplification. Songs became shorter and some featured Western melodies and rhythms. Musicians began to use Western instruments, such as the cello, accordion, and saxophone. Western music has also been influenced by Islamic styles. Europeans have adopted such instruments as the lute and the kettledrum. Modern European and American pop artists use Middle Eastern instruments and rhythms, and Islamic music has gained in popularity in the West.
Features Of Islamic Music
Islamic music has many distinctive characteristics. It typically features a solo singer or instrumentalist with a high level of skill and a mastery of many different techniques. The performer exhibits his or her talent through improvisation, the spontaneous invention of new melodies and themes. The structure of a song matters far less than detail and embellishment. Islamic music typically takes on an improvised, unformed quality, emphasizing the abilities of the performer over the composition as a whole. Soloists perform in several styles, such as layali, which involves long vocalizations of meaningless sounds, and taqsim, which is the instrumental equivalent.
Melody And Rhythm
Most Middle Eastern melodies, whether sung or played, are highly intricate. Textures include solo, unison (playing or singing the same melody with others), singing or playing in octaves, singing accompanied by a droning sound, and heterophony, in which two or more musicians play the same part with subtle differences. Islamic musicians rarely use harmony. While Western music relies on whole- and half-steps between notes, Islamic music makes use of a much wider range of intervals. Islamic music also features microtones — pitches created when notes are partially flattened or sharpened.
Islamic musical tradition relies on melodic modes, or maqamat. These dictate the scale patterns, units of measurement, and notes of emphasis used in each song. Over 100 maqamat exist in Islamic music. Each bears a title referring to a place, object, individual, or event. Maqamat also correspond with certain philosophical or emotional concepts, such as love. Musicians improvise within the confines of the maqam, but sometimes switch from one to another during a performance.
Rhythms in Islamic music also come in different modes, or iqaat. These are organized into cycles of strong beats, weak beats, and pauses. As with the maqamat, over 100 rhythmic patterns exist, and all are subject to improvisation. Musical styles, such as the North African nawbah and the Turkish fasil, have sections that share the same melodic mode but differ in rhythm and structure.
Middle Eastern Instruments
Musicians in the Muslim world have developed many different instruments. Islamic music typically makes heavy use of stringed instruments. The oud (short-necked lute, from which many wooden instruments evolved) predominates in classical music. Other stringed instruments include the qanum (zither), the Turkish tanbur (long-necked lute) and kemence (upright fiddle), and the Afghan rubab and the North Indian sarod (lutes with unplucked, resonating strings). Islamic musicians also use the Western violin. Muslim music also relies on certain wind instruments, such as the ney (flute), the buq (horn), the nafir (long trumpet), and instruments similar to the clarinet and oboe. Percussion instruments in the Arabic world include the Iranian santur (hammered dulcimer) and dumbak (hand drum), sunuj (cymbals), tambourines, snare drums, and kettledrums. See also Art; Sufism.
Rapping For Ramadan
Just as Western music has gained popularity in the Muslim world, music with Islamic themes has attracted a following in the United States. Muslim rap groupsn, such as Native Deen in Washington, D.C., have won acclaim for their distinctive style and lyrics. Rapping to traditional drumbeats, Native Deen sings about such subjects as reciting morning prayers, wearing headscarves, and avoiding drugs. Muslim musician and actor Mos Def also works to promote Islamic values, portraying women respectfully in his videos and using Arabic terms in his songs. Muslim groups also encourage celebration of Islamic festivals. Native Deen’s song “Ramadan” includes the lyrics, “Ramadan is here/The blessed month of the year/Fasting and not eating food/Acting nice and not rude/Instead of watching movies today/Let’s go to the masjid (mosque) and pray.”
Music
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Last Updated: 08/2021
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