Arabic Music – From Marrakesh to Cairo

Arabic music is not one sound. It is a musical journey.

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Travel from Marrakesh towards Cairo and beyond and the landscape changes dramatically — and so does the music.

The rhythms and instruments of Moroccan music are not quite the same as those heard in Egypt, Syria, Iraq or elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.

Yet listen closely and there are threads connecting them: ancient instruments, expressive melodies, improvisation, poetry and wonderfully intricate Arabic rhythms.

Our journey takes us from the markets of Marrakesh across North Africa and into the wider world of Arabic and Middle Eastern music.

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The History of Arabic Music – A Story of Travelling Sounds

The history of Arabic music is really a history of movement.

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Long before today's national borders existed, merchants, musicians, scholars and travellers were moving between North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, Persia and Asia. Musical instruments travelled with them. So did rhythms, melodies, poetry and new ways of making music.

The great cities of the Arab world became important centres of culture and learning.

Damascus flourished under the Umayyads, while Baghdad became one of the great intellectual and artistic centres of the Islamic Golden Age.

Arabic musical traditions absorbed influences from neighbouring cultures while developing distinctive characteristics of their own.

Persian, Byzantine, African, Mediterranean and later Andalusian influences all became part of an extraordinarily rich musical mixture.

That exchange is one reason why trying to define a single traditional Arabic music style is almost impossible.

The musician is not simply playing a tune.

The musician is telling a story.

Marrakesh – Where Africa, Arabia and Europe Meet

Our musical journey begins in Marrakesh, Morocco, on the western edge of the Arab world.

And immediately things become interesting.

Moroccan music reflects the country's extraordinary geographical and cultural position.

Arabic musical traditions meet the indigenous Amazigh music of North Africa, influences from sub-Saharan Africa
and musical traditions that crossed the Mediterranean from al-Andalus.

That mixture gives the traditional music of Morocco a flavour quite different from the sounds we will encounter farther east.

One of Morocco's most distinctive traditions is Gnawa music, with hypnotic repeated rhythms,

call-and-response singing and the deep sound of the guembri, a three-stringed instrument that can provide both rhythm and bass.

 

Add hand drums, metal castanets known as qraqeb, voices and repeated rhythmic patterns and the effect can become almost trance-like.

Anyone who has wandered through Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakesh will understand that here music doesn't necessarily belong on a concert stage.

It belongs in the street.

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Across the Desert – Music That Could Travel

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Move away from the great cities and another part of the history of Arabic and Middle Eastern music appears.

For centuries, nomadic and Bedouin communities travelled across enormous distances. Music accompanied journeys, celebrations, storytelling and poetry.

And the instruments had to be practical.

You cannot take a grand piano on a camel!

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A voice, a drum, a flute or a portable stringed instrument is another matter.

The rababa, a simple bowed string instrument found in several Middle Eastern traditions, became associated with Bedouin poetry and song. Hand drums and clapping supplied rhythm, while voices carried stories from one generation to another.

The repeated rhythms we now associate with desert music and cinematic images of caravans have much older roots in music designed to accompany communal life and movement.

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The Instruments That Give Arabic Music Its Character

Although every region has its own musical flavours, several traditional Arabic instruments appear time and again.

Together, instruments such as the oud, qanun, ney and darbuka have become some of the most recognisable sounds of Arabic and Middle Eastern music.

The Oud

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Perhaps no instrument is more immediately associated with Arabic music than the oud.

The oud is a short-necked, fretless lute with a warm, rounded sound. Because it has no frets,
the player can move smoothly between pitches and produce the subtle ornamentation needed for Arabic maqam music.

The oud has relatives across a vast geographical area, and its history is intertwined with the
development of other lute-like instruments.

Listen to a solo oud improvisation and it can sound remarkably intimate —
sometimes contemplative, sometimes dramatic, occasionally almost conversational.

The Qanun

The qanun provides a completely different sound.

This many-stringed instrument is laid horizontally and plucked with the fingers or small plectra.
Its bright, shimmering notes can cascade through an Arabic music ensemble,
providing both melodic decoration and remarkable rhythmic energy.

The qanun is found in musical traditions across the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean.

Visually impressive and instantly recognisable, it is one of the instruments
that gives classical Arabic music its distinctive texture.
 

The Ney

Then there is the ney.

This ancient end-blown flute has a breathy, haunting quality quite unlike the sound of the modern Western concert flute.

The ney is used across Arabic, Persian and Turkish musical traditions and is particularly effective when a piece of music needs space.

One sustained ney note above a drone or quiet percussion can conjure an entire landscape.

Sometimes less really is more.
 

Darbuka and Arabic Percussion

If the oud and ney provide melody, the darbuka helps provide the heartbeat.

Also known by names including tabla and dumbek in different regions,
his goblet-shaped drum can produce deep bass strokes and sharp higher attacks.

Traditional Arabic percussion rhythms can be surprisingly complex, with strong beats,
ighter strokes and spaces combining into characteristic rhythmic patterns.

Add the riqq, a small tambourine-like instrument capable of extremely sophisticated playing,
and an Arabic percussion section can generate an extraordinary amount of rhythmic energy with very few instruments.
 

Cairo – A Powerhouse of Arabic Music

Continue east and eventually we arrive in Cairo.

Egypt has its own enormously rich musical history, but Cairo also became one of the great centres
of the wider Arabic music world.

During the nineteenth and particularly the twentieth century, Egyptian music gained an influence
extending far beyond Egypt itself.

There was an important new ingredient: mass media.

Records, radio and Egyptian cinema carried songs and performers from
Cairo across North Africa and the Middle East.
Egyptian singers became household names throughout the Arabic-speaking world.
 

Cairo's orchestras also brought together traditional Arabic instruments such as oud, qanun and ney with
violins and other instruments familiar from Western orchestras, creating the lush sound associated with
much twentieth-century Egyptian and Arabic popular music.

Egypt deserves a musical journey of its own — and we'll return to the music of Egypt in another article.
 

Music isn't simply something to listen to.

It is something people do together.
 

One Musical World – Many Local Flavours

So what does Arabic music actually sound like?

The answer depends on where you happen to be standing.

In Morocco, you might hear Amazigh, Andalusian and African influences alongside Arabic traditions.

Travel into the Sahara and the music reflects centuries of nomadic movement and storytelling.

In Egypt, Cairo developed into a powerhouse of Arabic popular music, radio and cinema.

The Levant has its own mixture of classical music, folk traditions and dance rhythms.

In Iraq, the highly developed Iraqi maqam tradition creates yet another distinctive musical world.

And continue farther east and the boundaries become even less distinct as Arabic musical traditions meet those of
Persia, Turkey, Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Start in Marrakesh.

Head east.

Stop in Cairo.

And then keep listening.

Because there is always somewhere beyond.

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