Iacobus Leodiensis [Iacobus de Montibus, Iacobus de Oudenaerde]

III. Vernacular traditions.

1. Social contexts.

2. Musicians.

3. Songs.

4. Instruments.

Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions

1. Social contexts.

(i) General.

Music is part of the events of social life, both secular and religious. Its importance varies according to the occasion. Secular songs with religious themes and moral ideas are performed by all communities and can figure within any vocal genre. Songs accompany the daily work of shepherds, masons, farmers and women. Between birth and death any circumstances – such as graduation from school, return from pilgrimage or fulfilment of a wish – may also imply the use of music.

In some life-cycle celebrations, such as baptisms among the Yezidi, the religious chanter (qawwāl) sings indoors with the sacred instrumental duo, while secular musicians play in the outer space. Marriage and circumcision ceremonies and calendar feasts are major and complex multiform occasions in which private indoor and collective outdoor festivities are held simultaneously. They have a very wide spectrum of music with a broadly based repertory and may last for as long as seven days.

In urban centres women hold private celebrations where female professional musicians (mullāyāt) perform popular songs accompanied by drums and tambourines. (Before the 1950s Jewish professional musicians (daggagāt) were available, and they used kettledrums in addition to other drums.) Women in the audience participate with responsorial singing, hand-clapping, dancing and ululations. Wealthier families invite Gypsy groups or well-known Iraqi maqām singers, or they may even organize sacred rituals. More recently, local pop singers have come to dominate such festivities.

In rural areas, festive occasions feature collective open-air dances. Dabka is the generic term for any secular communal dance performed respectively by men, women, or men and women together. The dancers form a semicircle holding each other by the shoulders or waist, tapping their feet on the ground. Among Arabs of the upper Euphrates, the collective dance is called shūbī. Both dabka and shūbī are performed to the music of a solo singer accompanied by drum and shawm (tabl wa zurna) or double clarinet (mitbaj). In the extreme south, the ‘ardh and samrī dances are performed by two groups of dancers who sing antiphonally, accompanied by a round shallow double-headed frame drum (tabl al-‘ardh) or other drums. In central Iraq, a dance originally connected with warfare, the sās, is often performed at marriages, circumcisions and other feasts. Two dancers on foot or on horseback brandish swords (or staves) and shields, accompanied with purely instrumental music from the drum-shawm duo and two kettledrums.

Professional Gypsy musicians (kawlīyya) are the most important element of any Arab festive occasion. The main professional musicians of western, southern and central Iraq, they perform in families and enliven any type of Arab festivity, catering essentially for male audiences. A female soloist dances while singing pieces from the rural and Bedouin Arabic repertory or some urban maqāms. A male accompanist plays the wooden monochord spike fiddle (rabāb) or a modern metallic version of that instrument. Extremely popular is the hasha‘ ‘scorpion’ dance (fig.5), in which either the dancer's head and shoulders are flung back or she crouches on her knees, moving to the rhythm of the participants' hand-clapping and verbal interjections of ‘hasha‘’ (‘lie down!’). All central and southern styles are characterized by use of regular rhythmic patterns and brilliant, fast, ornamental and strongly rhythmic sequences.

In mourning ceremonies, the Qur’an is recited for three days in men's gatherings. Sometimes a mawlīd or a dhikr may complete the mourning ceremony. Women's ceremonies last seven days. A female mourner (addāda) poetically recites the merits of the dead person and expresses the sorrow of separation. The women's extreme grief is released by the short and punctuated guttural sounds they produce responding to the mourner's singing. They also beat their chests and faces and perform a mourning dance (shaina). Bedouins usually mourn in silence. However, in certain cases, marāthī (eulogies) are recited by men.

If the dead person was a child, a youth, an unmarried person or was newly married but without children, the family simulates marriage festivities. The ensemble al-mūsīqā al-sha‘biyya (popular music), with its brass instruments of military origin together with the drum and the shawm, is invited to precede the burial procession. Marriage songs are performed around a coffin surrounded by decorated trays with candles. All Iraqi religious communities observe this practice.

Apart from life-cycle ceremonies, sociable gatherings are an important context for popular music performed by amateurs for pleasure, to entertain themselves and their friends. In the north, Turkmen and Kurdish amateur musicians meet in the evening after work to sing songs about love and separation and epics accompanied by the long-necked lute (tunbūr). In rural areas of the central and southern Euphrates, musicians play music in the communal gathering place (mudīf or diwāniyya). They perform poetic creations and ubuthiyya songs, which have great emotional impact. Similarly, Bedouin people of the western desert region sing and play the fiddle (rabāb) in the mudīf. In the south-east Amarah region, rich feudal sheikhs might hire musicians to entertain visitors with various types of song (mhamadaoui, ubūthīyya and pesta) for several nights on end.

(ii) Shi‘a popular religious ceremonies.

Shi‘a Muslims commemorate the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Imam Husayn at Karbala (central Iraq) in 680 ce with wide-scale and complex ceremonies. They begin on the first of the month of Muharram, continuing for a period of ten to 40 days. Many thousands of pilgrims arrive at Karbala and Kadhimain from all over the Shi‘a world. Ceremonies feature collective responsorial and antiphonal singing, ritual dances, theatrical presentations, body mortifications and instrumental music.

For the first ten days, there are mourning gatherings (al-qirāyāt al-husayniyya). The martyrdom story is developed on a daily basis, with specific focus on a character or major event. Each day several narrators circulate from group to group repeating the story of the day. At women's mourning gatherings a specialist female narrator (mullāya) declaims in a highly dramatic style. Participants weep loudly, striking their faces, chests and thighs according to her instructions, and assistant mullas perform a mourning dance (jūla). At men's sessions, which are held in a public place used by devotees, participants beat their chests and heads or twirl in circles as the male narrator (qāri’/qāri’ husaynī) declaims.

Passion plays (tashābah) portray the historic events surrounding the death of Husayn. They are organized during this ten-day period, either concurrently with the recitation sessions or separately in the street. They are staged with costumes, horses and other decorations. Specific melodic rhythmic motifs and musical instruments symbolize the major characters of the drama. An ensemble of ‘sad instruments’ plays when the drama concerns Husayn, and long trumpets adopt the scornful tones of his enemies with ‘Umayyad melodies’.

Events culminate on the tenth of Muharram, ‘Ashūrā (‘the tenth’). Thousands of participants from different regions and countries form processions. In each procession group (dasta) the people respond to a solo lead singer, beating their chests in rhythm to the words or scourging their backs with metallic chains to the accompaniment of the instrumental ensemble (fig.6). Here there is no prescribed melody: Bedouin, rural and even pop melodies can be heard alongside Bahraini, Indian or Persian melodies sung by pilgrims.

(iii) Rituals of spirit possession.

These rituals are practised by the African-derived population in Basra. A musical ceremony, dagg (pl. dgūg), which implies music, songs, ritual dances and a specific ensemble of musical instruments, is regarded as an offering made to conciliate the good spirits and is never addressed to an evil spirit. Depending on the type of spirit, which varies according to its nature and familial or tribal origins, one of a number of musical traditions is prescribed. In all musical ceremonies, solo singing alternates with mixed group responsorial singing. Repetitive rhythm, provided by African-type drums, is a fundamental element of any possession ceremony. The six-string lyre (tambūra) appears only in the most widespread and important ceremony, which is called al-nūbān.

Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions

2. Musicians.

Social attitudes towards musicians are equivocal. They are regarded as indispensable for the communal expression of joy, and their talent is recognized and appreciated. At festivals and social gatherings the very best musicians are sought out.

Amateur musicians command respect, but it is traditionally deemed to be degrading for professional musicians to provide entertainment for remuneration and to depend on the whims of others. The situation changed somewhat in the 1970s, when modern institutions gave musicians diplomas, job security and welfare support. The male professional drum and shawm duo (tabl wa zurna) is common throughout Iraq. These musicians perform solely in a secular context, at popular dances and festivities.

In the north, professional instrumentalists are often drawn from the Yezidi sect or minority ethnic groups. They provide musical accompaniment to the various collective dances. The amateur ‘āshūq (‘mystic lovers’) or shu‘arā’ al-‘ishq (‘poets of mystic love’) are itinerant, travelling from village to village singing religious songs and chronicles of their people. They compose words and music and play the long-necked lute.

Among the true Bedouin nomads of the west, there are no professionals. The three terms used to designate the musician relate to the text rather than to the music itself: al-shā‘ir (‘poet’), rā‘ī al-qasīd (‘guardian of the poem’) and al-adīb (‘man of letters’). Professional musicians, al-qāsūd (‘he who searches’) or al-shā‘ir al-mutakassib (‘poet who expects to be paid’), are found among the semi-settled tribes and among the Sliba, the only tribe willing to perform at other people's festivities for financial gain. Among the peasant populations of rural regions, the very act of earning a living from music automatically excludes the individual from his group. The peasants play for their own enjoyment. For celebrations they may hire the professionals of the region: Gypsy musicians or players of the drum and shawm.

In the Basra region of the south-east, contrary to Mesopotamian soloistic traditions, musicians play collectively in ensembles. The black inhabitants of Zubayr have polyrhythmic shadda ensembles with multiple drums and frame drums. Another type of instrumental group is known as the khasshāba ensemble of Abūl’-Khasib, and essentially employs hourglass drums. In both these ensembles, singers, instrumentalists and hand-clappers have a complex division of musical parts. They are remunerated communally for their performances, but as individuals they are not professional musicians.

Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions

3. Songs.

Throughout Iraq there are two types of song: melismatic and rhythmically measured or metrical. Melismatic songs are solos in free rhythm, which facilitates improvisation, whereas metrical songs are sung in unison, responsorially or antiphonally (with a soloist). Some metrical songs are dance-songs.

(i) Melismatic.

In the north, among the Kurds, Turkmens and Assyrians, the most prevalent melismatic form is the epic song, usually performed without instrumental accompaniment. It begins with a high-pitched cry that gradually descends; when the singer runs out of breath, the group sustains the tonic as a murmured drone, enabling the soloist to pause before continuing. Common themes are love, separation, war, history and diverse social events.

Among urban Turkmens the most popular unmetred song types are the quriat and ghazal, performed in maqām style. Kurdish lauk and hairan songs are based on unmetred poetic prose. Intense vibrato and regular changes of register are stylistic characteristics of the hawra songs.

Among Bedouin and rural Arabs, poetic structure determines the song type. Bedouin in particular sing for the pleasure of the words, not for the musical sound. The ‘Bedouin ode’ (qasīd badawī) is similar to the classical qasīda. As in other well-known forms, the hadī and hijaynī camel songs, short phrases are repeated several times, their compass rarely exceeding a 4th or 5th.

Semi-settled Bedouin sing the ‘atābā, the swehlī and the nayel (also known as ‘rabāb songs’). The ‘atābā is attributed to the Jibur tribe of the Tigris region and also found around the Euphrates, a strophic quatrain based on classical prosody with aaab rhyme scheme. Short sung phrases alternate with longer melismatic passages within the limited tonal range of tetrachords. In the Tigris region the ‘atābā is followed by the swehlī (based on two unrhymed hemistichs) or the nayel (rhyming two-lined verses). The latter is said to have been invented by a woman, and is especially sung by boatmen and horticulturalists. Bedouin songs are concerned with love, separation, incitement to battle and Bedouin life, e.g. sheep-shearing, well-digging or the harvest (among the semi-settled tribes).

In the Mesopotamian plain there are two main melismatic song types: the ubuthiyya and mawwāl. The ubuthiyya (‘that which gives pain’) is called ‘the lady of all singing’. It is popular among urban, rural and Gypsy populations of the middle and southern Euphrates around Nasiriyah, and also in the Tigris region of Amarah (under the variant term, athiyya). It is a quatrain, composed in colloquial Arabic, based on classical prosody with a rhyme scheme aaab. The first three hemistiches are monorhyme ending with a homonym, while the last line, identifying the ubuthiyya, should end ‘-eyya’ or ‘-iyya’.

Melodically the ubuthiyya is based on different Iraqi naghms of maqāms also known in urban music. Iraqi specialists identify more than 30 styles of ubuthiyya, whose names relate to geographical locations, ethnic groups, tribes etc. The vocal lines are extended melismas of quite a limited melodic range (within a tetrachord or a 5th). Each strophe is followed by a collective murmured drone on the tonic, called wanna (moaning). Sometimes rhythms are produced with a string of beads on a tray or table or, recently, the single-headed drum. The ubuthiyya is also popular in Baghdad, within the mawlīd ritual and maqām evening (see §II, 3 and 1 above). It has its own urban composers, singers and styles.

The mawwāl, a speciality of Amarah, is one of the most popular genres of sung poetry throughout the country. The term also designates any free improvisational style of singing (including poetic forms other than the true mawwāl). Sources state that this genre originated in Baghdad during the Abbasid period. The mawwāl poetry known in Iraq is mawwāl baghdādī, also called zheirī (after one of its poets) or mawwāl musaba‘ (‘seven-line’ mawwāl) because it consists of seven lines (in aaabbba rhyme scheme). Mawwāl poetry uses colloquial Arabic with particular metres often derived from classical prosody. It is sung within about 20 Iraqi classical maqāms.

Mawwāl is difficult to sing: the unity of its seven unseparated lines must fit into long melismatic improvised melodies. It may be performed with a collectively sustained murmured tonic (without instruments) or with a single instrument or (for urban mawwāls) an ensemble. Nowadays many contemporary urban pop singers perform parts of the mawwāl with interspersed fast rhythmic passages.

(ii) Metrical.

Each melismatic song is usually followed by a syllabic song, generically termed pesta. These refrain songs are either performed by a chorus or antiphonally, with a singer and chorus. Pestas are composed in colloquial regional uninflected Arabic and are not usually based on classical metres. Pestas can take different forms such as the tawshīh and murrabba‘ in urban centres. Strophes are usually interchangeable and independent in meaning.

In rural areas, women compose and perform pestas, but it is not an exclusively female genre. The best known is a two-line verse called darmī or ghazal banāt (girls' love songs). This allows for a great variety of musical interpretation within a light rhythmically measured song style. These songs are usually concerned with love, separation, life's hardships, exploitation and oppression, and other subjects relating to women's experience. Many urban pestas also use this poetry.

Metric dance-songs known as shūbī regroup some ten styles that have certain common characteristics: binary rhythm, concentration on amorous themes and formal poetic structure designed to be sung. The main styles are: shimālī, mollāya, maymār, za’lān, il mani, mejana, waweliyya and abū m’anna. They are based on a four-line strophe with aaab rhyme scheme, each verse preceded by a rhyming two-line refrain containing the name of each song style as the last word of the first line. The solo singer performs short melodic sentences, and the dancers respond. Musical accompaniment is provided by the double clarinet, and rhythmic sounds from hand-clapping, finger-snapping and the dancers' feet on the ground. Shūbī styles are performed by settled populations of tribal origin.

The hosa is a chant inciting courage, honour and chivalry during tribal wars, national, political and other solemn occasions and even marriage festivities. It is performed responsorially by a male leader (mihwal) and a group who dance tapping their feet rhythmically on the ground. In the west, the Bedouin hosa is sung with the rabāb and based on short-line quatrains. The rural hosa has different poetic metres.

In the Basra region, most songs of the black population are pentatonic and use vernacular Arabic with some African words. They are performed by a male soloist integrated into the mixed responsorial group. The shadda style of Zubayr reflects both classical Arabian sawt singing and the polyrhythmic Gulf style with communal hand-clapping that supports the vocal line.

Iraq, §III: Folk and vernacular traditions

4. Instruments.

The great variety of instruments in Iraq is distributed according to different ways of life (nomadic or settled), and cultural and geographical conditions. In specific cases, ethnic origin and religion are operational factors.

The north has the greatest variety of aerophones: the nay (reed or metal end-blown flute, also common in other regions), the shabbāba (wooden flute) played by the Yezidis and the masūl (duct flute) played by shepherds and young people. The Turkmens of Kirkuk use the bālābān or qarnāta, a particular type of straight cylindrical shawm with a broad double reed. It serves the same purpose as the zurna (conical double-reed aerophone), which is common throughout the country and is always accompanied by the tabl (double-headed cylindrical drum; fig.7). The most characteristic instrument of this region is the tunbūr or sāz (long-necked lute), which is used only among the Turkmens and the Kurds. It accompanies songs performed at social gatherings, indoor and outdoor, and at the esoteric secret ceremonies of heterodox Islamic sects such as the Shabak and the Sarlia. The Yezidi allow the use of the long-necked lute in sacred places such as the valley of Lalech (north-east of Mosul), where the presence of the secular tabl wa zurna duo is not allowed.

Among the nomadic Bedouin, the chief instrument is the rabāb, a one-string fiddle with a rectangular body. The rabāb with concave sides is used by semi-settled tribes. Gypsies use the latter or, more often, a metal oildrum called galan. The rabāb is played in the tribe's main tent (mudhif) and anywhere Bedouin go. The coffee pestle and mortar is also used for its rhythmic quality: every Arab sheikh depends on an expert who pounds the beans to a rhythm that identifies the chief and the tribe and serves to summon members of the tribe to discuss matters of the day.

In rural Mesopotamia, three instruments are common. The mitbaj, a double clarinet with six finger-holes on each pipe, is used by shepherds and to lead the communal dances at important festivities. The tabl, drnga or khishba (single-headed drum made of wood or clay) and duff (frame drum with discs), usually played by women, are the main rhythm instruments. Among amateur singers, the use of instruments is regarded as shameful, but when rhythm is needed the singers keep time with their string of beads or beat an ordinary tray or any other object.

In Basra there is a wide variety of membranophones: tabl, kuenda (kettledrums of different shapes and sizes) among the blacks, msondo (big single-headed drums in the shape of a truncated cone) and pīpa (drum on a pedestal; fig.8). The latter, sometimes accompanied by the six-string tambūra (lyre) or lapinka (conch), are used in black ensembles (‘did), which perform for entertainment and for the rituals of spirit possession. The kasar (small double-headed drum beaten with a stick) is played by black women in their own possession ceremonies to signal the end of the trance. Influenced by the music of the Gulf, the inhabitants of Zubayr play the mrwasī, a small double-headed drum about 13 cm in diameter, which accompanies the vocal type fann al-sawt (‘art of the voice’) and the tabl al-‘ardh, a double-headed frame drum used for the ‘ardh dance of Bedouin origin.

Iraq