Aspects of the Musical Traditions in the Arabian Peninsula: Distinctive Features, Institutional Preservation, Patrimonial Negotiations

 

ATMuse> Music in Arabia

 

from Chapter 2 by Scheherazade Hasson, pg. 13-31
In Music in Arabia,

Edited by Isso Boulos, Virginia Danielson and Anne K. Rasmussen

 

Four women and one man sit on a red rug in front of white and green drapes and play  hand drums.
Women’s Ensemble in Qatar, 1998. This may be the Ensemble Asma al-Hareth. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A woman in black robes with a drum sits on the floor and learns against a wall with a finger on one cheek as if she's listening to someone.
Drummer, taking a break in a performance by a women’s ensemble, Doha, Qatar, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Several men, some standing and some kneeling, smile and dance and wave their arms and play drums in a large room with sofas.
Pearl fishers’ ensemble (fjirī), Bahrain, 1996. Fjirī is a generic term used mostly in Qatar and Bahrain, for a large corpus of mariners’ songs sung for both work-related purposes and also entertainment. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Close side profile of a man playing a drum and singing while sitting on a rug.
Sa` ad bin Awwad (fjirī), Doha, Qatar, 1987. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Men in white robes kneel close together in a circle and put their hands down on a rug.
Firqat Sa`ad bin Awwad, fjirī performance, Doha, Qatar, 1987. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Several men in white robes kneel on an oriental rug and clap their hands.
Firqat Sa` ad bin Awwad, polyrythmic hand-clapping during a fjirī performance, Doha, Qatar, 1987.Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Men in white robes sit on the floor and play instruments while two other men stand in the center and play drums.
Firqat Sa`ad bin `Awwad (fjirī), Doha, Qatar, 1987. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Two men sit on the floor and play drum-like instruments, and one of them also sing.
Firqat Sa`ad bin `Awwad (fjirī), Doha, Qatar, 1987. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Seven drums of three types lie on an oriental rug.
Musical instruments used at the fjirī evenings, Doha, Qatar, 1987. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Some men and women sit on the floor and lean against a wall and a some men sit eleswhere in the room around a microphone placed on a rug.
Audience at a performance by Firqat Sa`ad bin Awwad (fjirī), Doha Qatar, 1987. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Men sing and clap and another plays a drum. A large sail is above them.
Pearl fishers on their ship (fjirī), 1970s. Unknown photographer. The photo is a copy of one from the now-defunct Center for Folk Heritage of the Arabian Gulf Countries in Doha, Qatar.

 

Several men in white robes sit on a rug facing each other and play instruments and clap their hands.
Pearl fishers’ ensemble (fjirī), Manama, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A nested set of golden brown hand drums sit on a striped rug.
Pearl fishers’ ensemble, Manama, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A man stands in front of a white wall on which hang a number of various hand drums.
Musical instruments used in various performances in the Arabian Gulf.  This collection belongs to a dār, a house for culture, in Manama, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Various hand drums, some written with arabic script, hang on a white wall.
Collection of Gulf musical instruments in a dār, a house for culture, in Manama, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A line of men in white robes and holding staffs stands near an athletic field and listens to another man giving directions.
An `ayyāla ensemble, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Men in white robes stand in a row near an athletic field and face other men who are playing instruments.
An `ayyāla ensemble, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Men in white robes stand in a row near an athletic field facing other men holding instruments.
An `ayyāla ensemble, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Five men in white robes stand near an urban street and play their drums.
An `ayyāla group, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A man sitting on pillows and an oriental rug plays an ‘ūd while other men watch.
Fann al-ṣawt, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A man sits on a oriental rug and plays an ‘ūd.
Fann al-ṣawt, with the ‘ūd player Ahmad al-Jumairi, Manama, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A woman in white robes looks at the camera and stands beside a large vertical drum on which are placed two horn-like instruments.
A srnaj played with drums in a hewa performance by Afro-Arab populations in southern Iraq and the Gulf region. Here, a woman has the spiritual function to direct the space. Manama, Bahrain, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Seven men in mostly grey robes and head coverings kneel along two edges of a red rug in an ornate grey room and watch an eighth man in a dark robe play an instrument.
Al-`Ayyāla Bedouin Ensemble performing at a concert at the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

A musician in a dark robe and white head covering sits with other men on a red rug. he holds a wooden instrument and smiles at the camera.
Al-`Ayyāla Bedouin Ensemble performing at a concert at the Institute du Monde Arabe in Paris, 1998. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.

 

Men in red-checked head coverings and black vests play trumpets, drums, and other instruments near a clay wall and a palm tree.
A group in Bahrain performing the Afro-Arab art of heewah, 1996. Courtesy of Scheherazade Hassan.