Customer Reviews

The Music of the Arabs

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Thanks God that the book doesn't mention Farid or Abdel Wahab, because Arabic music did exist before them, or before they changed it into Casino-like belly dancing arabesque musique rather than a decent creative music that didn't need their foreign and stupid influences such as Rumba and Tango, things that were cut and paste from the hollywood of the twenties, and that are so out of date now.

This book focuses on the Arabic music as a traditional inherited music, and does an excellent job at describing it.

Touma's Music of the Arabs does not cover the subject. Although he states early on that he doesn't plan to cover folkloric music, nevertheless his photos seem mainly to focus on that area. He spends a lot of time on Iraqi maqam, which is quite different from mainstream Arabic music and not well known to most Arabs. He barely mentions the greatest artists of modern urban (traditional) Arab music such as Umm Kulthum, Muhammad Abd al-Wahhab, Baligh Hamdi, Farid al-Atrash, Abdel Halim Hafez, and others; people wishing to get an overview of Arab music in the twentieth century will be somewhat misled by this book. Also, the CD that is meant to go with the book similarly focuses on non-mainstream traditional Arabic music. I suspect the man has a bone to pick and is purposely slanting his book away from what most Arabs would think of as typical Arab music. (I have written a extensive and detailed review of this work for "The Near Eastern Music Calendar." Furthermore, I am a musician who has played Arab music professionally for more than 20 years.)

As you can see, this is a complex and contentious topic. If you want to get your bearings, there is simply no better introduction to the subject in English, and that's not all good news. It would be silly to expect a small book like this to cover all aspects, let alone all personalities, be they "authentic" or not. This is certainly in the spirit of the great musicologists like D'Erlanger, who wanted to save Arabic music from itself, and in opposition to the inferiority complex that created the bizarre "arabic orchestra", in which legions of musicians play a single melodic line on as many western instruments as could be dragged onto the stage. It also sheds some light on why attempts to create pieces like symphonic "oud concertos" might sound silly and contrived.

At the same time, there is a touch of madness and bias to such polemics. Imagine a little book called "Music of the Europeans", and you get a taste of the problems. Touma also forgets that Western Art Music is in crisis. The old orderly image of "classical music" is failing because we are finding that there is no viable "contemporary classical music". Mozart and Beethoven were products of their economic/social context, and those norms no longer work. If you want to talk about the music we listen to, you have to include John Lennon, Andrew Lloyd Webber ... AND Farid El AlTrash.

Having relied on rote oral transmission from master to student, especially defenseless against distortions for having no system of notation of its own, Arabic music has been constantly evolving (or decaying) over the centuries, and changing under the influence of foreigners. At one point Touma makes the following tragic admission: "Most Arabs today, however, whatever their level of education might be, no longer know true Arabic music." The sad thing is that the author of this book is no exception. It's as good as it gets, yet it is full of errors that reveal more than a translation (from German) problem. The reference to "Early Persian Magicians" to denote Zoroastrians in the first chapter is symptomatic. Touma then incomprehensibly uses the term "Maqam", which is a mode, a scale or tone row, to denote a Taqsim, which is an is improvisation form that USES a Maqam. The material covered is wide, and nobody will spot all the errors, but it happens that I can also see that the very important Ajam Maqam is notated incorrectly. The criticism that some reviewers level, that it arbitrarily ignores some important figures in 20th century Arabic music, is also not without basis. Farid El Altrash was not just a crooner, he did more to restore interest in the classical Taqsim and the essential Oud (lute) than anyone "modern" before him. The fact that all the Arabic TV stations now regularly broadcast high quality Taqsim music is Farid's legacy. Ignoring him completely was NOTa wise editorial decision on Touma's part. You can be sure all the other material in this book is likewise a bit stilted and peppered with little mistakes.

Still, books such as this, that aim to return to historical foundations, are invaluable. The controversy (and the errors?) make the field all the more interesting. The exposition of the Maqam phenomenon, the specific Arabic mode/scale system with ties to the "modes" of ancient Greece, is cursory but tries to be complete. You should be acquainted with this stuff if you have any interest in music as a general human phenomenon. It's wonderful that the current interest in "world music" can support efforts such as this. The technical level of the analysis gets quite deep, and the layman may wish to skip some passages. The interested reader can start here, then listen to a wealth of examples on youtube under Oud and Taqsim, and the professional can further study a detailed presentation of the Maqam system on sites like maqamworldDOTcom.

Armed with the not inconsiderable body of knowledge in this volume as a start, you can be better prepared to join the fray and meaningfully argue whether Farid El Altrash was a tacky movie musical actor with a fast wrist, or a genius imbued with the tradition of centuries, and whether other Oud players like Nasseer Shamma are brave innovators, or if they should stop equivocating and just play the guitar. You can also ponder whether Munir Bashir, who left Iraq to practice a more authentic Arabic music, was right on track, or just spinning a self-serving tale.

The CD is of course arbitrary in its selections, but a very welcome bonus, especially for readers new to the subject, and for whom no amount of reading can substitute for hearing "what it sounds like". The long Bashir selection is a great illustration of the aforementioned Taqsim genre that is central to traditional Arabic Art Music. The book-CD package is a fine value, printed on thick paper that is rarely found in paperbacks, and if you have any interest in Arabic music, this is the one to start with. You will keep coming back to it for reference, and, as your knowledge deepens, to quibble and rage ;-)

Yearning to discuss technical specifications of the oud? Want to casually mention the influence of the maqam phenomenon at your next cocktail party?

Me either. That's why I bought this book instead of some dry pedantic musicological tome. (Besides, I hate cocktail parties.)

Arab music is fascinating to listen to, but it's great to be able to understand what's coming out of the speakers. Touma deftly handles major aspects of the music, and provides a layman's glossary and even a transliteration of the Arabic alphabet. Out of all the books I bought, this was the only one I could understand without a degree in musicology.

A fabulous and down-to-earth introduction to what is often a mysterious subject.

I am a Syrian musician and also have studied my whole life the music of my culture and what i got from this book is that the writer covered a spectrum that took you back hundreds of years which was great because i learned about the stories I never knew such as the pearl divers and old islamic roots of music. For a person who doesn't understand music theory some pages are advanced with the maqam list and notation but for an arabic musician there is great historical information. My only issue is I feel that if you are going to mention "THE MUSIC OF THE ARABS" and only give 1 sentence about Sayyed Darwish, Zakaria Ahmed , 0 Information about Sheikh Abul ILLA Mouhamed also Briefly mention Umm Kolsoum "Saidet El Fen el Arabi", and Riyad Sunbati Mouhamed Abdel Wahab Farid "The Master" thats a rich history that is left out that didn't just changed arabic music but also helped every arab in tough times with the therapy the music brings to your soul. The book Is great for historical information to a musician and I enjoyed it and got a great history lesson on ancient arabic music.

... from the point of view of a professional European-tradition musician who has listened to and appreciated Arab music in the broadest sense (that is, everyone from al Andaluz to Iran), I have no qualms about praising this book as extremely useful. I've noted the angry one-star reviews of it; the bitterness expressed in them may or may not be justified, but it doesn't in any way diminish the value of the book to an outsider like me. What I wanted, and got, wasn't a paean for specific performers or traditions but an explication of the basics of Arab music theory, its tonal system, its rhythm practices, its forms of notation and parameters of improvisation, and some outline of its most persistent genres. The historical accounts and the sociological notes about the role of the musician/composer in cultural identity were interesting to me, but I'm in no position to evaluate either their accuracy or their inclusiveness.

This is essentially a book for two sorts of readers: 1) people immersed in Arab culture to some degree or 2) people not at all immersed in Arab culture but basically literate in music and able to understand/compare music theories.

This is simply the best introduction to Arabian music written in English and one of the best introduction to this music ever written. Informative, accessible, and comprehensive. Highly recommended!!

While of course, music for accompanying "belly" dance is a part of arab music,neither it, nor the dreadful synthesizer based pop music of today with its heavy disco and hip hop influences, are the roots or sum of the music of the Arabs.

So you see my bias. Clearly this author makes some mistakes, has his biases, and it is ridiculous he leaves out Farido, but beyond that this is still an excellent book that should maybe be called the Roots of the Music of the Arabs.

If that interests you, then here you go!

Touma excels in some areas but falls well short of providing a good foundation for an introductory survey book. The book can be very informative but requires the reader to really invest themselves in the book. Touma, however, puts together a very good listening example section and the accompanying CD is very good.

The book is written in a pleasant way, technical details are usually embedded fluentyl in the text. Many sections make me feel that I would like more depth, but in a limted number of pages it manages to give a nice overview on the subject.
Did not explore too much the CD yet, but I think it would be more useful if there was also a recording of the maqamat and the rythmical pattern.
Definitely worth as a first introduction.