Thread: Resources for Studying Arab music

This is sort of off-topic, but I'm looking for English-language resources (books, journals, dvds, seminars, whatever) that will help me understand more about Arab music -- not just the dance kind, but all kinds :)

I have Racy's book "Making Music in the Arab world" on order but what else should I be looking at? Suggestions?

Thanks!
:) Amanda

good question! i'm afraid i can't help you, but i can't wait for some responses on this one for my own edumacation.

last saturday a friend of mine showed me some youtube videos of Longa and asked me if i could dance to it. there's not a lot of information online, and the cheater, he did all his youtube searches in arabic so i can't rewatch the videos he showed me when i got home. not sure if my youtube searches are as accurate. surely there's something documented somewhere...

Can you be more specific about what kind of information you're looking for? Are you looking for resources on historical music such as the muwashahat? Are you looking for music theory information such as what a maqam is? Are you looking for comments on historical singers and musicians such as Oum Kalthoum and Mohammed Abdel Wahab? Something else?

I highly recommend Music in Egypt by Scott Marcus. It comes with a companion CD which is such a great idea for a book about music! Obviously the focus is, well, music in Egypt, but he also offers some comparisons to larger Eastern Arab musical traditions and trends. It is a great read (and listen).

I can't speak for Aziyade, but I'd love to have some documentation of the some of the subgenres of all Middle Eastern music, and which country/region they originated from. I know there's Turkish music, and there's Egyptian music, but how can it be further classified. Saidi, Shaabi, Khaleegi, Zar, Debka*, etc. etc. I know these particular ones, but I know there's more out there too that I've never heard of (such as Longa which I mentioned earlier). Just wondering if anybody has a nice outlined overview of all or even some of it. And I'm not really looking for dance styles, but actually musical genres.

*I know Debka varies between country/region, that might be a separate can of worms.

I apologize if this has already been discussed before, feel free to send me to former discussions. And is this what you were asking Aziyade, or am I way off?

Thanks everybody! I've learned so much from Bhuz in the past month, this is the best site ever. :-)

I was reading an article about music in Islam, and it mentioned books by Al-Kindi (which apparently haven't been translated?) and Al-Farabi who wrote the Kitab al Musiq al Kabir, which I can't find in English. Apparently these guys were some of the first people to write about Arab music theory, or music in Islam. I've just read a lot about Western music theory through the centuries, and I'd like to compare that to Arab music theory and the relationship between the musician or singer and the music. So theory stuff, I guess.

I'm less interested in biographical stuff about musicians and singers, unless it's really focused on how they went about creating and making their music. But hey -- at this point I'll take any recommendation with a bibliography! I'm more interested in Arab music, rather than Turkish or African, but I'm sure other people would appreciate suggestions on those lines too.

Thanks :)

These are books I have purchased but haven't read yet. Because I haven't read them, I don't feel I can "recommend" them, but I offer them as titles you could research:

• The Music of the Arabs. By Habib Hassan Touma. Comes with a CD.
• Making Music in the Arab World. By Ali Jihad Racy.
• Guitar Atlas Series: Middle East, Your Passport to a New World of Music". By Jeff Peretz. Comes with a CD.
• Rough Guide to World Music Volume One: Africa, Europe & The Middle East. Edited by Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham. A collection of essays, each covering a different region.

Then of course, there's the book and the documentary video titled Umm Kulthum: A Voice Like Egypt.

Thanks! I'm hoping Racy's book will have an extensive bibliography. I really wish I could find the historical sources I've mentioned, though :(

There used to be a summer seminar in Chicago maybe? on Arab music. Does anybody know anything about this? Is it still going on?

Originally Posted by aziyade

Thanks! I'm hoping Racy's book will have an extensive bibliography. I really wish I could find the historical sources I've mentioned, though :(

There used to be a summer seminar in Chicago maybe? on Arab music. Does anybody know anything about this? Is it still going on?

I have read Racy's book. And yes, it is extensively footnoted and has a huge bibliography.
Some might find it quite esoteric, but I am a scholar at heart and ate it up with spoon. The overarching theme of the book is tarab--the concept of tarab music stylization, tarab musicians and singers, the state of sultana (or being in tarab) and what affects it, audience participation. Many interesting tidbits about the tarab greats including Om Kalthoum. A passing knowledge of maqams wold be useful. I believe that if I had not read both A TRADE LIKE ANY OTHER and BALADI WOMEN OF CAIRO I might not have gotten as much from the book simply because that allowed me to access more of the sense of what Racy was portraying. And, of course, I have listened to much of his music and read some other things he has written so I had an idea of what I was in for.

al-Kindi was a very famous muslim philosopher from the 9th century, but like many philosophers in the old times he was also a music theoretician. He wrote some books about Arabic music theory and it was said that he added a fifth string to the ud.

Bits of his work have been translated to English, but I don't think there is an English translation for all of his remaining books. We translated some al-Kindi (philosophical essays) in class last year, very difficult!