Egyptian Music Essay, Research Paper

There are no specific words to describe the beauty of Egyptian music. Although I have lived there all my life, I only took notice of the ingenuity around two years ago; when I started playing the guitar. Egypt is located in the heart of the Middle East. It has always been the doors from Africa to Asia and vice versa, therefore, a strategic point on the map. From this, Egypt has been under constant invasion throughout her millennia life, for both her strategic point and wealth. However, it also brought in different cultures into the existing one, and blended in perfectly. So, in time Egyptian culture became a mix of different backgrounds, and that affected its music greatly.

Being the latest occupants of Egypt, music from the vast Arabian Desert is probably the main style and influence in music today. If you listen to Egyptian music today, you will hear a distinctive beat that is almost in every song, sort of like the 16 beat of western music. Conversely, it does not mean that Egyptian music is based upon rhythm; it is actually the melody that is most important and professionally done. One can only describe the melody as an arabesque painting. In arabesque, there are many fine delicate curves that branch out and are interwoven through each other, but if you look closely, you will find a centre to the picture where all the curves seem to originate from.

To understand melody, one must know about scales and instruments used. Though traditional Western music uses only whole-step and half-step intervals, Arab melodies often incorporate quartertones to create such intervals as quartertones, three-quarter tones, five-quarter tones, and one-and-a-half tones. By combining a number of these intervals to form scale like segments, and further combining these formed segments, a type of melodic mode may be created on which Arab improvisations or compositions are based. To implement this on an instrument, especially a stringed one, it has to be fretless. As is with the case of the Ud. The Ud is the probably the most commonly used instrument in Arabic music. It is a fretless lute that has a very low tone that is close to that of the classical guitar. Another known instrument is the nay, which is equivalent to the flute. Both instrument are played in the Arabic scale thus giving it a human essence, since the scale are very close to the human voice. I can only describe the nay as being the blues saxophone of Egypt.

When people think of Egyptian music, their first image that comes to mind is the picture of a sultry belly dancer. Well, why not? With all the complexities and speed of the rhythm, the music just makes you want to shake as many parts of the body at once; creating belly dance. Some rhythmic patterns have up to forty-eight beats. Rhythm is put into operation through Tabla; an hourglass shaped clay vessel with a stretched skin on top. If anyone thought that playing the drums was hard, they were wrong. The drums are considered child s play to playing the Tabla.

In conclusion, Egyptian music is the most fascinating in all of the Middle East. It is certainly the most popular, since most Middle Easterners can pick up on the Egyptian dialect from immaculate amount of music. The best part of the music is if there is a professional musician, they always improvise in playing their songs. Just like the storyteller who always adds new twists and schemes he tells the same story. Jazz can be related to this, and Jazz is a personal favourite of mine. Using all the knowledge I have of Arabic scales, I try to make use of it in my guitar playing and style, in trying to create an oriental rock theme. The music of Egypt reflects Egypt itself. The rhythms show its fun loving and extremely hospitable people. While the bluesy melodies expose its long hard years of foreign occupancy and her hard working people. The whole music scene is exotic to reflect her exotic nature.