JAVS Spring 2007

THE VIOLA IN MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC -A FITTING SONORITY

includes an oud (a lute-like instru ment) a qamm (zither), a ney (Arabic flute) and hand percussion such as the riq (tamborine) or the darabukka (goblet drum). It is the violin, however, that has become the most prevalent bowed instrument in the Middle East. At the time the violin was introduced via trade through the Mediterranean in the nineteenth century, it was the most prominent bowed stringed instrument in the west, and the most portable. Middle Eastern culture embraced its fulJer, more vocal timbre and graduaJJy it replaced the rebab and kemanche in most styles. The violin was retuned to better suit and reAect the register of the preexisting bowed instruments, changing the open strings from E, A, D, G to 0, G, 0, G and other runings of fifths and fourths, thus making the tim bre darker and richer. During the early twentieth cenrury Arabic music went through a popular ren aissance through the introduction of radio and film, and the presence of leading composers such as Mohammad Abdul Wahab and singers such as Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum. These composers were gready influenced by western music and attitudes, forming large orches tras with many violins, cellos, and basses, bur few (if any) violas. In the Middle East today the violin is

MagJmbi Orchestra performing in Marrakech, 2004. Photo courtesy oftlu Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Order ofAmerica.

By Leanne Darling

The Middle East (including Turkey, the Gulf States, and North Africa) has the longest known tra dition of bowed string playing in the world. Bowed stick fiddles and bowed lyres such as the rebab, kmzanche, and jouh have existed in the Middle East thousands of years, dating back to the early civiliza tions of Iraq and Iran. All of these instruments have two to four strings, tuned in fifths or fourths. Although the timbre of these instruments is quieter and more nasal than a viola, the range is often very similar; for example, the rebab runes to the viola's G and D . A bowed instrument typically fills our a small ensemble, called a tahkt, which otherwise usually

When I first started investigating world music on the viola, I immedi ately was drawn to Middle Eastern music. I heard for the fim time a string sound that sat predominandy in the middle register, taking full advantage ofa dark, rich, lyrical tim bre. The scales I heard were mosdy in C, G, and 0, which fir very com fortably on the viola. Middle Eastern music is homophonic, with each instrument embellishing upon the melody, creating its own idiomatic voice. This leaves room for an instru ment like the viola to have a promi nent role. Little did I know that the Middle East has a long tradition of viola-like instruments!

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