Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

II. Art music and related traditions

The art music of Iraq revolves essentially around the Arab modal system called maqām (see Mode, §V, 2). Its repertory serves as a formal and melodic reservoir for religious, ritual and secular art music, for instrumental improvisations and sometimes even for arranged music. Prior to the mid-1930s (with the creation of the Fine Arts Institute and formal teaching of written theory), local art musicians were not conscious of the theoretical concept of maqāms as melodic modes. A complex oral verbalized theory existed, and from the 1950s this was combined with the written tool of Arab music theory.

Iraqi Bedouin and rural popular music is, in fact, based on a number of tetrachords known in Arab music, while Iraqi art music (Iraqi maqāms and religious vocal genres) is based on the combination of similar or different tetrachords forming a modal scale of one or two octaves with possible changes of some degrees.

1. Iraqi art music (‘maqām’).

The local performance tradition, al-maqām al-‘irāqī represents an important secular repertory of many semi-improvisational compositions, linking classical and popular poetry and based on a sophisticated unwritten traditional theory. It is believed that the oldest extant repertory, transmitted orally, dates back at least four centuries, probably with some even earlier features.

According to early 20th-century ideas, the seven basic modes or maqāms (maqāmāt asliyya) are rāst, beyāt, segāh, ajam, nawā, hijāz and sabā. All others are ‘derived’ maqāms (maqāmāt far‘iyya). In inventories dating from the 1970s, chahārgāh replaces nawā as a basic maqām. In the 1960s and 70s the Iraqi maqām repertory numbered some 50 individual maqāms. Since then the tradition has undergone certain changes (see §IV below). However, the total number of maqāms in the repertory has always been subject to variation. New maqāms may be introduced and others may be dropped or altered (because they resemble others or because they are difficult to perform). During the 1990s important maqāms continued to be performed in small gatherings, but they were otherwise avoided (for large or non-connoisseur audiences).

Each maqām in the repertory has a particular preconceived multi-parameter scheme concerning its modal, melodic, rhythmic and formal organization. The performer is expected to respect its traditional framework and to enhance its formal skeleton with personal improvisations, ornamentation and musical developments.

Different maqāms make variable use of the following elements. Tahrīr currently designates the opening of a maqām, sung on vocalizations (syllables, words or phrases) and preceding the beginning of the sung verse. Badwa has the same function as tahrīr but differs in its very brief opening. Jaisa, a descending cadence, marks the end of the first part of the maqām. Meyāna is the ‘middle’ formal melodic part in tripartite maqāms, sung in a high register. Sayha, also in a high register, is (unlike mayāna) musically undeveloped. Qarar designates either a descending movement to the lower degree or any sung portion in that register. Quta‘ or awsāl are melodic pieces occurring in any part of the maqām, serving as modulations or structural bridges to higher or lower registers, as aesthetically embellishing sections or as a means to enhance or change a prevailing mood. In general, their place is predetermined, but some are used freely.

In the early 20th century, the secular maqām repertory was performed in five cycles termed fusūl (sing. fasl). The remaining maqāms were sung outside the order of the secular cycle, either in religious cycles or as independent, important maqāms.

Other forms play a role in maqām performance: instrumental rhythmic introductions and solo improvisations, as well as vocal genres. Singers also use free poetic verses followed by popular melismatic songs (ubūthīyya). A pesta (metred song) normally follows each maqām, preparing the audience for the one to follow.

Melodically, the Iraqi maqām repertory draws on the music of all communities living in Iraq. Within it, one finds melodies from Arab rural and Bedouin people, and from Kurds and Turkmens. Melodies from outside Iraq also appear: Turkish, Persian and Arabic material from other parts of the Arab world.

Three sung poetic forms are used in Iraqi maqām proper: (1) the qasīda (classical Arabic ode); (2) the takhmīs (quintary verse based on two hemistiches of a known qasīda, with three added hemistiches); (3) mawwāl (a major colloquial poetic form, also called zheiri). Classical texts are used by 33 Iraqi maqāms, and some 20 maqāms employ the mawwāl.

In secular performances, the Iraqi maqām is accompanied by al-shālghī al-baghdādī (the Baghdad ensemble). This consists of the santūr (hammered dulcimer) and jūza (four-string lute or fiddle with coconut resonator; fig.2) accompanied by two or three drums: tabla (single-headed drum), duff zinjārī (frame drum with discs set into the frame) and naqqāra (double kettledrum). Occasionally a large frame drum replaces the naqqāra. The traditional role of the shālghī ensemble was to anticipate and lead the singer. Some singers prefer to avoid this constraint, choosing to perform with al-takht al-sharqī (the oriental ensemble). Al-takht al-sharqī performed Arab art and light music in Egypt and the Levant and was introduced into Iraq in the 1920s. It consists of the qānūn (plucked zither), nay (end-blown flute), ‘ūd (lute) and two types of drum, one being a frame drum.

The Iraqi maqām is generally performed by a specialist singer known as qāri’ al-maqām. Nowadays other types of singer (mutrīb or mughannī) perform some maqāms, but only real specialists can perform the complete repertory. The best representative of the old school of maqām singing was Rashid al-Qundarchī (d 1945). Other important 20th-century masters were Ahmad Zaydān (d 1938), Muhammad al-Gubanshī (1901–89) and his disciple Yūsuf ‘Umar (1918–87), perhaps the last important maqām singer (fig.3). At present the tradition is in decline, due to lack of patronage.

Before the emergence of modern music and life-styles, the Iraqi maqām was the main form of entertainment for city-dwellers in Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk. It could be heard everywhere and was performed at weddings, circumcisions or any secular occasion. Concerts were organized in music-lovers’ homes. Until the 1940s, well-known singers performed for large audiences in a number of public coffee-houses. Certain maqāms were also performed in the traditional gymnastic houses (zūrkhāna) to accompany muscular exercises.

Ever since its creation in 1936, the national radio station has regularly broadcast maqām singing, and from 1950 there have been weekly programmes on the national television. Today maqāms are performed on stage, in concert halls and other modern multi-functional gathering-places (notably, the Museum of Popular Art in Baghdad, on Fridays) but seldom in traditional circumstances.

2. Islamic religious chanting.

Qur’anic recitation (qirā’a or tilāwa), call to prayer (adhān), supplication (du‘ā) and glorification (tamjīd) are types of religious chanting performed in mosques. They are not regarded as singing (ghinā’), although they use melodies that follow the rules of the melodic modes used in the Iraqi maqām. Indeed, Qur’anic reciters usually excel in maqām singing, and thanks to them hundreds of Iraqi melodies have been preserved.

Recitation is normally performed solo. Collective recitation is used in teaching and in some Baghdad mosques on the eve of Friday. During recitation of the whole Qur’an, sometimes as many as 30 reciters might successively perform. Alternation between two reciters is common during mourning ceremonies.

Qur’anic recitation has its own local Iraqi style. As elsewhere, it varies between a simple form with limited-range melodies (tartīl) and more developed forms which include improvisation, ornamentation, repetition and changes of register. In the Iraqi school of recitation, a good voice is of prime concern, followed by knowledge of melodies (anghām) and mastery of the linguistic science of recitation (tajwīd). An Institute of Melodic Studies (ma‘had al-dirāsāt al-naghamiyya) exists for teaching these. The rules of tajwīd (correct recitation) are also taught in the Institute of Melodic Studies (Ma‘had al-dirasat al-naghamiyya). In the 1970s the noted religious scholar, prayer leader and maqām specialist Shaykh Jalāl al-Hanafī (b 1915) opened a centre for teaching Qur’anic recitation to women in a 13th-century Baghdad mosque (Jāmi‘ al-Khulafā’).

The Iraqi school of Qur’anic recitation has always been known for using melodies, and in Iraq the use of melody has not been a polemical issue for religious debate. But Qur’anic recitation is not supposed to lead to secular ecstasy or to a possible confusion between purely secular singing and religious recitation. Consequently, religious orthodox authorities sometimes criticize Qur’anic reciters for the beauty of their execution, if it diverts the intent of worshippers.

3. The Prophet's birthday ritual (‘mawlīd’).

This widespread and popular ritual, al-mawlīd al-nabawī, is practised in both sacred and secular urban life. Two versions apply to diametrically opposed types of occasion. Mawlīd farah (happy anniversary), based on the text of Ahmad bin Hasan al-Bakrī, is performed on the Prophet’s anniversary or any happy occasion (marriage, circumcision, benediction, fulfilment of a wish or return from Mecca). Mawlīd kidir (sad anniversary), based on the text of Barazanchi, is organized on solemn national and state occasions and to commemorate death.

A mawlīd ceremony is performed in four cycles (fusūl), each composed of a succession of several predetermined maqāms. Vocal parts are performed either by a religious sheikh or by a secular maqām singer who enjoys greater freedom of interpretation here than in secular contexts. The soloists relate the life and deeds of the Prophet in classical odes (qasīda) or mawwāl poems in vernacular Arabic, with intermittent frame drum accompaniment.

Group singing of colloquial metric songs (called tanzila, madih or shughul) follows, with continuous frame drum accompaniment. Tanzila songs usually glorify the Prophet and his family, but they may touch on contemporary social events. An extremely emotive part of the ritual is preseved for popular vocal forms called fragiyyāt (songs of separation). Performed in dialect, these include the rural ubuthiyya and Bedouin rukbanī or ‘atābā.

In many historical circumstances, al-mawlīd rituals have been transformed into platforms for social or anti-colonial protests. A most important performer and composer of tanzila songs was mulla ‘uthmān al-Mausīlli (1854–1923).

4. Sufi ritual (‘dhikr’).

The two main Sunni Sufi local orders, Qādiriyya and Rifā‘īyya, use music, poetry and dance as a means to help attain mystical ecstasy in their quest for union with God. The Qādirī rituals (dhikr or tahlīla) are sung without musical instruments and can be performed in mosques. One to four solo cycles, based on some parts of the Iraqi maqām, are sung by the sheikh or a secular performer. This is followed by metric praise-songs madīh (pl. madā’ih) performed by the chorus of maddāha (glorifiers), while devotees perform dance movements with vigorous respiratory exercises based on a repetitive vocal ostinato invoking God. This results in an impressive polyrhythmic and polymelodic effect.

The Rifā‘ī ritual differs in that it involves musical instruments and techniques of body mortification. A classical ode (qasīda) is sung in turn by each glorifier, while the others vigorously beat their frame drums between the lines of sung text. Depending on the intensity of the ritual, the number of frame drums can increase, in addition to cymbals and a kettledrum.

The Mawlawiyya (Mevlevi) order dwindled in Iraq after the fall of Ottoman rule, but some aspects of its traditions persist in other orders. The nay (end-blown flute) and kettledrum were used by the Talabiyya order in Kirkuk, and some malawi dancers regularly perform in Qādirī rituals. Since the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurdish Kasnazaniyya has become the most prominent order in Baghdad, though it was originally based in the north. This order combines Qādirī-style singing with Rifā‘ī techniques of body mortification. (See Islamic religious music.)

5. The Baghdad ‘ūd school.

The relatively recent creation of this school of ‘ūd-playing is based on conccepts of music that were previously foreign to Iraqi traditions. It was the product of a unique encounter between the Arabo-Ottoman ‘ūd and Western music technique derived from the cello. Its founder was Director of the Fine Arts Institute, the King of Iraq’s cousin, Prince Muhieddin al-Din Haidar (1888–1967) [al–Sharif] of Hijaz in Saudi Arabia, a virtuoso ‘ūd player in Turkish style. He opted for a fundamental change in the status of the ‘ūd from a traditional instrument for accompanying the voice to a solo concert instrument.

He taught the ‘ūd according to the methods and techniques of the violin family. He changed the ‘ūd’s left hand technique, the position of the fingers on the neck (introducing permanent use of the 4th finger), imposed the systematic use of positions and designated strings, and added a sixth single string to the instrument (in addition to its five double strings). These changes increased the instrument’s technical facility and speed of playing.

For many decades, these technical advances were unpopular, rejected by major traditional players and the general listener. Exponents of the Baghdad ‘ūd school were criticized for being unable to play in a traditional group and for not knowing the local music. Not wanting to be marginalized, ‘ūd soloists began using local melodic material based on the Iraqi maqām, and they started performing traditional improvisations.

Among al-Sharif’s many disciples were Salman Shukur (b 1921) and the brothers Djamil Bashir (1921–77) and Munir Bashir (b 1930). Most important from the younger generation are Ali al-Iman (b 1940s) and Nassir Shemma (b 1963; fig.4). The activities of the Baghdad ‘ūd school resulted in a gradual increase in acceptability of instrumental solos in general. Important soloists on other instruments are: Salem Hussayn (b 1923), Khudair al-Shibli (b 1929), Hassan al-Shakartchi and Bahir al-Ridjab (b 1951) on the qānūn; Khidr al-Yas (b 1930) on the nay; Hashim al-Ridjab (c 1921) and Muhammad Zaki (b 1955) on the santūr; Shaubi Ibrahim (b 1925) and Dakhil ‘Arran (b 1960) on the jūza; Jamil Bashir and Ghanim Haddad on the violin. Some percussion players also developed great virtuosity, among them Ahmad Jirgis and Sami Abdul Ahhad.

Iraq