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The structure of Arab music is complex and
TH€ music sophisticated. Solidly supporting the singers
and flute players with their cadences and micro
tones and astonishing capacity to prolong and
OF THC control a particular note, is the beat of the
drums and tambourines, which give expression
to that innate sense of rhythm which informs
RRABIflfl GULF all the activities of the Arab. So characteristic
is this of the people that intricate patterns of
handclapping are a recognized form of enter­
tainment, and even the humblest tasks are
enlivened by the snapping of fingers, the chin­
king of metal against metal, the double rhythm
by Molly Izzard of finger and palm on any utensil that can do
duty as a drum.
The instruments of the Arab orchestra are
percussion, woodwind, wind and string. They
have no brass. There are many sizes of drum,
Wherever one goes in the Arab world one from the larger shoulder drums used in the
hears music, jingling racily from the radio and ceremonial war dances, to the smaller daf,
TV sets in the ‘ souks ’, wafted out of passing rimmed with coins or shells to produce an
taxis, hummed by men busy about tasks or wai­ additional swishing rhythm. Some are struck
ting patiently in a convenient patch of shadow. with index finger, others with palm and finger
The rhythms are pervasive, the tunes catchy, to produce a counter rhythm. The derbanka is
and popular singers have a following akin to an open ended shape, skin-covered at one end,
that of western pop stars. which is played with both hands. Sometimes
There is nothing ethereal or unworldly about sharp or dull sounds are produced from the
this music. There are no soaring angelic drum by the use of different textures of hide
choirs- no philosophic statements. It is a for the two drum surfaces.
music of the human emotions, and its themes Of wind instruments the naily or cane flute
are love, longing, homesickness and courage. is the most important. This is the instrument
The classic songs are love-songs, recognized and which produces the clear, liquid sound so
sung in all Arabic speaking countries, and the characteristic of reflective and absorbed immer­
favoured vehicles of the most famous singers. sion in the production of some plaintive
Of these, the Egyptian Um Koulthoum was un­ melody ; at other times it shrills bravely in the
doubtedly the greatest. concert of other instruments. It is a 7 - holed
Her song recitals, despite her 70 years, were
universally regarded as the finest expositions of
the classical style. The younger Lebanese
singer, Ferooz, with a warbling voice of great
sweetness and purity, follows her closely in
popularity, while of the men Farid el Atrash
and Mohammed Abdel Wahab have a richness
and flexibility of tone and a power of feeling,
which transcends the formal structure of the
music and makes them the acknowledged
masters of their art.
Feeling, and the capacity to project that
feeling, is the quality most sought for in the
Arab singer. No virtuoso brilliance of execu­
tion can compensate for the lack of that quality,
or surpass it. It is a quality which must well Derbanka
up spontaneously from the deepest spring of
human emotion, and it is the universality of its
appeal that gives it its binding force and
attraction. As Latin was once the universal
language of the medieval scholar, a cultural
passport which transcended regional peculiari­
ties, so is love and understanding of his own
music to the Arab, and it operates at every
level of society.
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