English Liner Notes from the CD

Records of Arabian Music AAA 007

Traditional Instruments of the Classical Maghrebian Music

The instruments used nowadays in playing orchestras
traditional music are the ones which already existed in the
classical Andalusian ensembles.

Holding musical supremacy, the ûd or lute or barbet is
mentioned in several ancient Arabian poems. It
accompanies the singer and is still the favourite instrument
of composers.

There are different sorts of lutes:

* the Oriental ûd with a body made of fine walnut or maple
wood, a soundboard of white deal. Its body is about 40 cm
long, its neck only 20 cm. It has five double strings, three of
which being tuned in perfect fourth, the fourth and fifth
strings in second. The three former ones are gut strings, the
two latter made of metal-wired silk. The plectrum is in fact
an eagle feather.

* the Tunisian ûd, used in Tunisia but also in the district of
Constantine, (Algeria), is smaller than the Oriental one. Its
soundboard is made of oakwood. It has four double strings
tuned in fourth, fifth and octave. In Algeria the remaining
string is tuned in sixth.

* the kuwitra, very similar to the Tunisian ûd especially as
to its facture, is used in Algeria and Morocco. It is tuned like
the lute of Constantine.

Among the instruments used in art music, second in
importance after the lute, is the qanûn, a trapezoid-shaped
psaltery, the two bases of which being respectively 95 cm and
25 cm by 42 cm in height. Under every group of three strings
there are small flexible metallic plates, a device imagined to
allow modulations and microtonality. This instrument
accompanies the singers in their improvisations. A really
skilful qanunist is able to reproduce exactly the singers
improvised melodies. The qanun is placed horizontally in
the player's lap. The strings are plucked by the two
forefingers equipped with horny nails.

To play the North African rabab a bow is necessary. The
instrument is provided with two gut strings and tuned in fifth
(G-D). Its soundbox is made of walnut, its soundboard has
an upper part made of engraved brass - or wood in Morocco
-. The lower part is made of goatskin. In the East there are
other types of rabab. In Egypt for instance its soundbox is a
coconut shell, the strings as well as the bow are made of
horsehair. It is used to accompany story-tellers and street
poets. In Syria and Iraq the rabab is also used in folk music;
its soundboard is a rectangular wooden box, its soundbox is
made of goatskin. It has but one string and it is the only
instrument for which the position of the thumb is used to
change tune.

The violin was introduced into Arab ensembles as early as
the XVllth century either to support the rabab or to replace
it; that is probably why it is held on the knee as the rabab
is. According to connoisseurs it gives the player a better
command of the bow. One may also point to the fact that
Arab orchestras prefer the viola to the violin and make more
use of the two low strings than the high-pitched first string,
two facts which seem to corroborate the above-mentioned
supposition.

The nay is a flute made of reed or bamboo. In Turkey it is
considered as the sacred instrument of the mystical
Mawlawiyah brotherhood. It must possess nine equal
intervals separated by eight nodes. The only posterior hole
of the nay is equidistant from both ends. The inferior part
of the pipe being divided into four equal parts, two frontal
holes are to be found, one at a quarter of the length between
the posterior hole and the extremity, the other one at a
quarter of that same length from the said extremity. The
interval between those two holes being in its turns divided
into three equal parts, two more frontal holes find their exact
place at one third and two thirds of the said interval. The two
last holes are respectively equidistant from the two superior
and inferlor ones. This instrument has a range of three
octaves: it allows to play microtones, and a note and its
octave at the same time.

The zorna, a kind of oboe, is made of hard jujube-wood. It
is 30 or 40 cm Iong and has a range of only one and a half
octave. In the East it is called "mizmar", in Tunisia
"zokra", in Algeria and Libya "gayta". This instrument is
used in folk music and for ceremonies for instance in the
Constantine malûf music.

The North African tar - called riq in the East - is a small
tambourine covered with goat or fish skin. It is the
conductor's special instrument. There are four sizes of it. Its
diameter ranges from 12 to 15 cm in Morocco, to 20 cm in
Tunisia, to about 25 cm in the East and even up to 40 cm.

The darabûkka is an earthen vase-shaped drum, the head
of which is made of goatskin. There are darabûkka-s of two
sizes: the bigger one is found in the Sahara districts, the
smaller one in the coastal regions. It is also found in capitals
to accompany folk dancing. In Egypt it is called tabla.
When it is used in traditional music its drumhead is made of
fishskin.

In Algeria the introduction of the piano into classical
Andalusian music is recent and was mainly caused by the
eviction of the qanûn, which has come back into the
classical orchestras even more recently, thanks to the
Fakhardji brothers.

When they started playing the piano, a Spanish factor of
instruments who was living at Bab El Oued (Algeria) began
to make banjoes, mandolins and mandoras specially factured
for shaâbi music.

In this album we have gathered most of the instruments used
in classical Arab music.

We are indebted to Dr Salah El Mahdi for most of the
informations contained in this article.

A. Hachlef
May 1989

after «Anthologie de la musique arabe»
published by Publisud - Paris. Translated by M. Stoflel
Adapted for the web by Lars Fredriksson with the kind
permission of the author Amin Hachelaf.
Copyright remains with the author!