MUSIC

While the history of music in Islam covers at least fifteen centuries, with orally transmitted repertoire and no significant notation system, its geography and distinct musical cultures include many diverse regions in the world. By necessity, this article excludes many folk musical traditions, popular musics, and other local styles; instead, it focuses on some of the universal aspects of music within the Islamic world.

The Concept of Music

While a word of Greek origin, musiki, was used in many theoretical works, an Arabic term, ghina (song), has been used also for music in secular contexts. Other terms, as well, are used for what a Westerner might call music in folk and sacred contexts—for example, kü is used for song or music in the Kazakh epic tradition and ir is used for both song and poetry in certain Turkic languages.The terms qawwal (one who says), and ?ashiq (lover), are used in Pakistan and Azerbaijan, respectively, for certain types of musicians. "Singing" is never used in describing Qur?anic cantillation; instead, the term "reading" is used in both Arabic and other main languages spoken in Islam.

An article by Lois Ibsen al-Faruqi, based on a modern interpretation of historical sources, includes an illustration of a hierarchy of "sound architecture" (handasat al-sawt). In this hierarchy, genres are placed on continua between music and nonmusic, and legitimate and illegitimate. Consequently, "sensuous music associated with unacceptable contexts" is considered illegitimate (haram), and is labeled as music. Qur?anic chant (qira?a), other religious chants, such as the adhan, chanted poetry with noble themes (shi?r), family and celebration music (lullabies, women's songs, wedding songs, etc.), "occupational" music (caravan chants, shepherd's tunes, work songs, etc.), and military music are all considered legitimate (halal), and labeled as nonmusic. Then again, while vocal and instrumental improvisations, serious metered songs, instrumental music, and music related to pre-Islamic or non-Islamic origins are considered music, their legitimacy remains controversial, either forbidden or discouraged in Islamic law (al-Faruqi, 1985). Based mostly on al-Ghazali's (d. 1111) Ihya? ?ulum al-din (Revivification of the religious sciences), Al-Faruqi makes the case that the status of any handasat alsawt genre depends on its context. Nonetheless, attitudes for this kind of labeling change in different countries. Two contrasting views may be observed in Turkey and Egypt.

In Turkey, Qur?anic recitation is considered to be music and imams, or leaders of religious services in mosques, are formally educated in music theory and practice at special state high schools and universities. As recently as 2002 the State Directorship of Religious Affairs organized a mandatory camp of intensive courses in musical theory and practice for mosque employees. However, Turkish scholars distinguish between mosque music (cami musikisi) and Sufi music (Tasavvuf musikisi) and, as in the rest of the Islamic world, musical instruments are not permitted in mosques. Many performers operate in both domains. Furthermore, some Turkish performers of Qur?anic recitation function in both religious and secular contexts. For example, Kani Karaca (b. 1930), a celebrated singer of the sacred Ayin of the Mevlevi (Sufi order), the Mevlid, and a Qur?anic reciter, is also recognized as an exceptional artist in the secular Ottoman classical tradition.

In Egypt, on the other hand, an ideal Qur?anic recitation is considered nonmusic. While Egyptians expect the reciter to demonstrate tasteful aesthetic skills, they also consider that the act of listening to the Qur?an (sama?) should not engage a musical perception because of music's association with worldly and even blasphemous irreligious contexts. Hence, in the context of Qur?anic recitation, the practice of "musical" composition is learned not through straightforward melodic exercises, but through providing a learning environment for individuals where there is no direct teaching of musical melodies.

National and local competitions of Qur?anic recitation for men, women, and children, like the Musabaqah Tilawatil Qur?an in Indonesia, and instructional and commercial recordings (especially in Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey) help to perpetuate certain styles, and a net of artistic and spiritual critics protects the balance between the music as an enhancer of spirituality and the meaning in the text.

Qur?anic Recitation

Two equally complex systems with specific sets of rules control most aspects of the Qur?anic recitation throughout the Islamic world. While a melodic modal system (maqam) helps to shape the melodic progression of a recitation (see below), the tajwid determines the exact pronunciation of the text.

The rules of tajwid have been transmitted orally generation after generation throughout the centuries. Properties of sound and rhythm are clearly articulated in the rules of tajwid. Some of the specific performance instructions include, for example, appropriate places for taking a breath, when to repeat a word or section, relative length of a syllable or phoneme, and so on. The degree of tajwid's effect over the recitation varies in the two main styles: murattal and mujawwad.

Murattal (also known as tartil) is plainer and it emphasizes the meaning of the text itself. The pitch material of a maqam used in this style is often limited—usually within a fourth or a fifth—and elaborate melismatic contours where there is more than one musical pitch per syllable are considered inappropriate in that they obscure the meaning. Accordingly, there are no maqam modulations. Similar to the European recitative style, the tempo of murattal is relatively fast.

Since it does not demand any musical training, many practitioners of murattal are nonprofessionals and include both women and children. Professional woman reciters, whether they perform for a mixed audience or only females, often perform in the less ostentatious murattal. They are especially encouraged to recite in murattal since a woman's voice with elaborate melodic creations is believed to distract male listeners from the meaning of the text. On the other hand, professionals of the more elaborate mujawwad style are almost always men.

The mujawwad style—also known as tilawa (and more problematically as tartil and tajwid)—came out of Egypt during the first half of the twentieth century through recordings of such reciters as Shaykh Mustafa Isma?il and more notably Shaykh ?Abd al-Basit ?Abd al-Samad. Many reciters outside of Egypt emulated the mujawwad style from these recordings and other performances from the powerful Egyptian radio broadcasts. The mujawwad style gives more importance to musical composition and the emotional intensity of the melody.

Call to Prayer

Perhaps, the most familiar sound in the world of Islam is the voice of a muezzin (Ar., mu?adhdhin) reciting the adhan, or call to prayer. Wherever there is a mosque one may hear the adhan regularly five times a day from a minaret or a loudspeaker attached to the main building. People may also experience the adhan in other contexts: broadcast on radio or television, or from a recording on an alarm clock.

Each adhan is semi-improvised within a maqam (melodic mode) in a rather plain style. Unlike murattal style, certain syllables of the fixed text of the adhan may incite a melodic melisma within a particular maqam. Muezzins are often professionals employed by a mosque. However, they may have additional duties in the mosque. During the Ottoman Empire (1299–1918) palace muezzins were among the highest-paid employees.

Theory

Music, along with mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy, was one of the main scientific fields studied by the early Islamic scholars and today it remains one of the most studied art forms in the Islamic world. A number of scientific and philosophical treatises by ancient Greek scholars like Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, and Archimedes were translated into Arabic starting with the second and third centuries of Islam (700–800 B.c.e.). These works provided a model for later studies by Islamic scholars with their contents on cosmological associations of music, the healing affects of music, instruments, and other technical specifics such as tuning systems and melodic (maqam) and rhythmic modes (iqa).

An international congress on Arab music held in Cairo in 1932 renewed attention to many theoretical issues within the Islamic world—including Turkish and Persian—and resulted in a number of recordings by eminent musicians from the Middle East and a significant six-volume publication on music theory in French by Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger, La musique arabe (1930–1959).

Melody

Theory, in general, provides a shared vocabulary of concepts and technical aspects of music for communication. Therefore, knowledge of maqam (melodic mode) theory has been essential for musicians' education in the art of both composition and improvisation. A maqam articulates a number of rules in a musical composition regardless of whether the piece is composed or improvised, the most important of which are:

• pitch material (scale);
• melodic progression (shape and direction);
• modulations (to other maqams);
• and stereotypical melodic cells.

There are many maqams and each maqam has its own set of rules. These rules are deduced from a large body of existing compositions. The number of maqams used (Ar. maqamat, Turkish, makamlar, Moroccan Ar. tubu) varies from country to country and from one period to another; also, they may go in and out of fashion. Understanding the intricacies of maqam might secure a high status among musicians; in the same way, inappropriate use of a maqam in an improvisation, for example, could lower a musician's status significantly.

Even in the twenty-first century, musicians continue to invent new maqams and compose new pieces in these complex modal entities.

Rhythm

Most early Islamic treatises included sections on the rhythmic modes (usul or iqa?). An usul, the counterpart of maqam, is a fixed rhythmic pattern and used to measure individual compositions. There may be one or more usuls in a given number of beats; for example, there are four known nine-beat usuls. Similar to the Indian rhythmic modal system tala, special nonlexical syllables like dumm, takk, or tek-ka are used to articulate usuls. There is often a direct correlation between usul and form. For example, the nine-beat usul Evfer is always used for the second section (selam) in a Mevlevi ayin composition; and the ten-beat Georgina (Turk. Aksak Semai) is used for the instrumental Sama?i (Turk. Saz Semaisi). Rhythmic modulation is an important compositional tool used by the composers.

Form and Genre

The suite form appears to be a significant genre in many religious, classical, and military musical traditions of the Middle East and Central Asia. The cyclical structure of these musical traditions goes back to the early centuries of Islam, and descriptions of early suite forms may be found in the writings of Islamic scholars such as Isfahani and Meraghi as early as the tenth century. A suite tradition often has a fixed body of repertoire, and shorter individual compositions are selected for performances. A specific order of pieces is determined by their rhythmic patterns (usul) and form.

An unmeasured solo instrumental improvisation, like Turkish and Arab taqsim or Persian daramad, appears in most suite traditions. A taqsim may be played at several points in a performance, for example, as an introduction to a suite in a given maqam, or as a transition between pieces. Although it is improvised, a taqsim follows the rules of the maqam and has a definable form. A Turkish taksim usually falls into three sections. The introduction shows the main pitches and other characteristics of the mode, and demonstrates the performer's mastery of a particular makam. The next section shows the performer's ability to modulate to other makams within the rigid aesthetic rules of the tradition. Finally, the performer recapitulates and summarizes the original makam.

Arab layali and qasida,Turkish gazel, and Persian avaz are some of the vocal counterparts of taqsim that are often set to a secular poetry with additional words and other nonlexical syllables, for example, aman, of, yar, yalel, and so on.

The Moroccan Andalusian tradition also includes a quasi-improvised orchestral taqsim, known as bughia. While they follow a slow-moving specific main melody in a highly heterophonic texture, performance of bughia usually accommodates individual performers with some freedom to improvise. The origins of bughia possibly go back to a solo improvisation.

Na?at and durak may be shown as examples of unmeasured pre-composed genres whose text praises the prophet Mohammed. The best-known na?at is the Rast Na?at-e Mevlana, which is fixed as part of the ayin suite performed during the rituals of the Mevlevis, also known in the West as the Whirling Dervishes.

Some of the main Islamic suite traditions begin with a composed instrumental form performed by the entire ensemble. The pesrev, for example, appears in Turkish Mevlevi ayin, fasil, and military mehter performances. Measured in large rhythmic patterns, pesrevs (Ar. bashraf) consist of four independent sections (hane) and a refrain (teslim) following each section. The Arab bashraf, Moroccan Andalusian tushia, and Persian pishdaramad similarly occur at the beginning of each respective suite.

A sama?i, on the other hand, is the last instrumental composition of the traditional Egyptian and Syrian suite wasla. The basic structure of the sama?i is identical to the bashraf, that is, four sections (hane) with a refrain (teslim). The standard rhythmic pattern (usul) of this genre, however, is a short one, Georgina (3+2+2+3). In the final hane the meter typically modulates to Darij (3+3). The Turkish fasil and Mevlevi ayin also include an instrumental semai at the end.

Mevlevis typically use a compound musical form (ayin) during their rituals (sema), mixing the fixed Rast na?at-e Mevlana, several taqsims, a pesrev, a four-section vocal composition with a text chosen from Jalaluddin Rumi's poems, instrumental interludes, various hymns, and Qur?anic recitation. A sequence of Son pesrev and Son yuruk semai is the last instrumental section played by the Mevlevi ensemble (mutrip). Turkish classical musicians frequently perform this particular form and certain other instrumental selections from the ayin form in secular concerts.

Dhikr (remembrance) is one of the most common forms performed by worshippers at Sufi gatherings of different sects. It is performed through formulized repetitions of words or short phrases in highly rhythmic specific patterns—"Allah" (God) or "la ilaha illallah" (There is no God but Allah), for example. Specialists or volunteers from the congregation may perform on frame drums or other percussion instruments during dhikr. Qur?anic recitation, hymns, and vocal improvisations with religious texts are often included into the ritual.

Education

Starting in the nineteenth century, the adoption of the Western system of musical notation in certain parts of the Islamic world changed the nature of music education in the classical genres, and, consequently, sheet music replaced memory for many in the younger generation of musicians. Conservatories and other music schools in countries like Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, and Iraq produced literate musicians with high technical skills during the twentieth century. The famous Iraqi oud virtuoso Munir Bashir may be given as an example.

In most Islamic countries oral transmission between the master and pupil was broadened with the advancement of the recording technologies during the twentieth century, and recordings of masters on radio, television, cassettes, compact discs, videos, and even CD-ROMs became virtual teachers for young performers. Consequently, regardless of whether it is sacred or secular, listening to the great performers remains the principal way to reach the level of mastery.

Instruments

In most locations, musical instruments are not allowed in mosques. A certain kind of inclusiveness and tolerance, on the other hand, makes it possible for a variety of musical instruments and dance to be incorporated into Sufi rituals. Most notably, the Mevlevi order, both in Turkey and Syria, features a large orchestra with classical instruments like oud, ney, and rebab, to name a few. The most commonly used instrument among Sufis is the drum. While the shapes and names of drums may change from one culture to another, the most common Sufi drum is a frame drum. Some peripheral countries with Muslim populations (e.g., Indonesia, Ghana), furthermore, use indigenous instruments in their Islamic rituals.

See alsoArabic Literature ; Persian Language and Literature ; Qur?an ; Umm Kulthum ; Urdu Language, Literature, and Poetry .

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Munir Beken