Instruments from the Middle East

The Middle East is located at the eastern rim of the Mediterranean, stretching from Turkey in the northeast to Egypt in the southeast. Moving clockwise on a map, the Middle Eastern countries with Mediterranean coastlines are Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Egypt. The region also stretches inland to the Caspian Sea in the northeast, beyond the Persian Gulf to the southeast, and as far as the Indian Ocean to the south. It takes in Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Yemen. In broad terms, the Middle East separates Europe from Asia and continental Africa. In cultural and linguistic terms, the region extends across the countries of north Africa, known as the Maghreb (meaning “west” in Arabic). These are Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.

The countries of the Middle East are mostly Arab and Arabic-speaking. Historically, they were nearly all part of the medieval Muslim Empire that controlled the western and southern Mediterranean between the seventh and fifteenth centuries—and they were nearly all part of the Ottoman Empire which succeeded it and only started to break up toward the end of the nineteenth century. Most of the Middle East is Muslim. But it would be wrong to believe that this region shares a cultural uniformity. Turks are not Arabs, and most Iranians are Persians, not Arabs. Although Iran is now strictly Muslim, the old country of Persia was at various times both Zoroastrian and, to an extent, Christian. Israel is neither Arab nor Islamic, it is Jewish, though it has a large Arab population. The countries of the Maghreb are a mix of indigenous Berbers, sub-Saharan Africans, and Arabs.

The music of the Middle East has evolved out of four historically linked musical cultures: Arab, Persian, Turkish, and Maghrebi. The common link between them is the Mediterranean. Historically the busiest sea in the world, the Mediterranean is the medium through which nations and peoples conquered each other, traded with each other, spoke to each other, and sang to each other. “Who would willingly roam across a salty waste so vast, so endless?” asked Homer in The Odyssey. The answer, evidently, is everyone who ever had a ship to sail in. It is impossible to discuss one Mediterranean culture without mentioning another, which influenced it through trade, war, or immigration. People travel, words travel, and music travels.

Dumbek

One of the greatest travelers is a drum. Throughout the Middle East, we find a drum called the dumbek. There are many variations in the word’s pronunciation—darbuka in the Maghreb, drbekki in Lebanon and Syria, tonbak or dumbek in Iran, and dumbelek in Turkey. But they all describe the same instrument: a goblet-shaped drum that is usually played under the arm. (It is worth noting that other eastern Mediterranean countries have very similar words for very similar drums: the Yugoslavian darbuk, the Albanian darbuke, the Greek toubeleki, and the Macedonian tarabuka are all goblet-shaped drums.)

The Middle Eastern dumbek can be made of clay, wood, or metal, and comes in a variety of sizes. It has a single head, which is made of stretched goatskin, sheepskin, or fish skin. Traditional dumbeks are not tuned, and the heads are either tied or glued to the body. In contrast, professional drums may have tunable heads made of plastic or mylar, screwed down on an aluminium or beaten metal body. Generally, the head of the Middle Eastern dumbek is less heavy than that of the African djembe, and it is played with a more nimble touch. The fingers are used, rather than the palms, and the strokes and techniques of playing are quite different. The dumbek is used in both classical and folk music throughout the Middle East.

Tradition says that the dumbek is so called because the word is a rough combination of the drum’s two basic sounds: “dum” and “tek.” The “dum” is made by striking the drum’s most resonant area with the dominant hand, producing a round ringing tone. The “tek” is the sound of the dominant hand hitting the rim. In musical notation these sounds are represented by “d” and “t.” If the stroke is accentuated, these letters appear upper case. The same applies to “ka” (“k”), the sound of the recessive hand striking the rim. “Grab” is produced when the dominant hand strikes the center of the drum head with the fingers and palm cupped to trap the sound, and remains on the drumhead. “Slap” is similar to grab, except that the hand is not cupped. “Trill” is the sound of three fingers of the same hand tapping the rim with alacrity. “Roll” is the quick interchanging of “teks” and “kas.”

One of the more common rhythms played on the dumbek is a complex pattern in 12/8, with emphases on the first, fifth, sixth, ninth and tenth beats and a grab on the twelfth. This is known as debke, and it originated in Lebanon as an accompaniment to a folk line dance. Ayyub, a 2/4 rhythm pattern, originated in Egypt as a religious rhythm to protect against evil. A little faster, it becomes the traditional accompaniment to belly dance. Baladi, saidi, and maqsoum are common 4/4 rhythms, and chiftitelli is a hypnotic Turkish dance rhythm in 8/8 time. In Turkish masmoudi, the two hands “argue” with one another in a virtuoso display of one-upmanship.

Taar

Another drum which has traveled throughout the region and beyond is the taar. The taar, also known as the def, is a large frame-drum, originally from Egypt and the Sudan. It is probably the most common percussion instrument of the region, and is historically the drum favored by the Bedouin. Not unlike the Irish bodhrán in appearance, the taar is about four inches deep and fourteen to twenty-four inches across. Traditionally, the single drumhead is sheepskin or goatskin. The drum is held in one hand like a tambourine, and struck with the other, although for some purposes it may be beaten with a stick. Traditionally, the player holds the taar in front of him, with the drumhead facing out. The drum has a deep, singing resonance, and is capable of an immense variety of tonal effects. Its range of moods is very broad: in Kurdistan, the taar accompanies both the solemn verses that are recited at funerals and the rhythms that accompany the wild festival dance known as the dilok.

The techniques of taar playing are similar to those of the dumbek. “Dum,” “tek” and “grab” (or “pa,” in the case of the taar) form the basic vocabulary—and that vocabulary stretches into virtuoso areas of curving, muting, and “singing,” which bring the taar closer to the human voice than virtually any other drum in the world.

Other Instruments from the Middle East

Throughout the Middle East, the dumbek and the taar are often played in ensembles with a variety of string and wind instruments. The buzuq, originally an Iraqi instrument of ancient origin, is popular throughout the region. It is a long-necked, fretted lute, very similar, as the name suggests, to the Greek bouzouki. The ginbri, of Moroccan origin, is a three-string bass with a long, cylindrical neck and a skin-covered sound box. The kaman, a vertical fiddle originally from Persia, is popular all over the Middle East—as is the western fiddle. The lotar, a Berber lute with a round body, has been adopted and adapted by every Middle Eastern country. The qanun is a flat zither with 26 strings which are plucked. The rabab, a spike fiddle with one string, traditionally accompanies poetry. Probably the most distinguished string instrument of all, and the most widespread, is the oud, a fretless lute with generally nine strings. Double-reeded shawms dominate the Arab woodwinds. These include, among many others, the Lebanese mijwiz, the Egyptian mizmar, the Iraqi mitbiq and the Palestinian yarghul. The nay and the salamiyyah are both flutes with very pure notes, originally associated with Sufism—a mystical, meditative form of Islam. A louder flute, the minjayrah, is enhanced by the player’s humming, and is used in dance music.

In the Islamic Middle East, the act of listening—sama—is sacred. The act of creating music is not in itself sacred, but the sounds of music imitate, and participate in, the harmony of the universe. But the region has a rich variety of cultural and tribal customs and practices. What may be deeply religious in one area may accompany a belly dance in another. The intensely dynamic musical heritage of the region is capable of accommodating the entire range.