[Dixielandjazz] More on the History of Jazz

[Steve Barbone]

Oh my, I thought Italians invented jazz but now it appears as if jazz
(improvisation upon a central theme) was invented in the Arabic, pre-Islamic
world, and then refined in the Islamic world. And the first revival of this
music was in . . . gasp . . . Baghdad . . . 8th Century AD. :-) VBG.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone 


The Arab musical tradition as it is known today developed between the AD 7th
and 13th Centuries in the courts of Islam. The first great renaissance of
Arab music occurred in Syria and the surrounding regions during the Umayyad
Dynasty (AD 7th-8th Century). At that time Baghdad, in what is now Iraq, was
a central city for musicians and performers, partly due to its ruler, the
legendary Haroun al-Raschid.

Arabic music, insofar as can be inferred reliably, traces its ancestry in
part to the music of the 3rd Century Persians and the early Byzantine Empire
(AD 4th-6th Century). These traditions in turn can trace themselves back in
part to the works of the Greeks, themselves great lovers of poetry and song.
But both are traced back to the ancient Semitic traditions which may have
their origins in the music of the ancient Egyptians.

The musical forms of the Arab and Islamic world are the predominant form of
music in Egypt in its recent history (two millennia is recent to an
historian). However, there is some weight to the idea that Arabic musical
forms are in fact the product of ancient Egyptian musical forms. The Arabic
forms are the most easily accessible for study and their basic traits have
continued relatively unchanged for several centuries.

Arabic music, like most other forms of the African tradition, is based
largely on variation and improvisation of and upon a central theme. This
makes it very similar in structure to jazz, which also has deep roots in
African music. Central to the musical piece is a complex skeletal rhythm
comprised of strong downbeats (dum), rests, and upbeats (tak). This base
structure, the maqamat, can be played on a variety of instruments, though
the drum and the guitar are the most common. On this framework, the
performers build a sequence of unharmonized melodies, varying the original
rhythm and improvising new ones.

An intriguing side-effect of improvisational music forms is the use of notes
not actually present in the formal musical scale used by the artist. Arabic
music makes extensive use of what are called microtones, or half-flats and
half-sharps, resulting in music that has more notes than many Western forms
(though jazz, with its portmanteau technique, is a notable exception).

A performance of traditional Arabic music is a union of performer and
audience. A silent audience is seen by many Arab musicians as disapproving.
Unlike Western audiences, the perfect audience in the Arab world is expected
to clap, sing along, and make requests for the performer to repeat sections
of the piece. Often, these requests are made during the performance, and a
ten-minute composition may turn into a half-hour one as the musicians replay
and embellish their melody for an appreciative audience. A performance of
traditional music can be quite friendly and informal and hearkens back to
the days before recordings when most Arabic music was played in
coffeehouses.


SOURCES:
Internet Links

*    The Egyptian Castle - By Egyptians, for Egyptians
*    The Encyclopædia of the Orient
*    The Virtual Khan El-Khalili - Listen to samples of and purchase Arabic
     music online!


Books

Danielson, Virginia Louise. The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song,
and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century. Chicago, University of
Chicago Press: 1997.

Farmer, Henry George. A History of Arabian Music. Suffolk, Lowe and Brydon:
1929.

Faruqi, Lois. An Annotated Glossary of Arabic Musical Terms. Greenwood
Publishing Group: 1981.

Liu, Benjamin M. and Monroe, James T. Ten Hispano-Arabic Strophic Songs in
the Modern Oral Tradition: Music and Texts. Berkeley, University of
California Press: 1990.