British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Ruth Davis
Reviewed work(s):
The Maqam Music Tradition of Iraq by Y. Kojaman
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 11, No. 1, Red Ritual: Ritual Music and
Communism (2002), pp. 163-170
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
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BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002 163
university
courses of music is often condi-
tional on the achievement of a
high grade
in
an ABRSM instrumental examination. This
in turn almost
always depends
on
long-term
parental
moral and financial
support
in
buy-
ing
instruments and
paying
for instrumental
lessons
(whether private
or
school-based)
and
supporting
and
encouraging practice.
This therefore
depends
on
having
sufficient
financial resources and the
disposition
to
see this as a
good thing
to
spend money
on.
This
inevitably
leads to a
filtering-out
process
that excludes
people
from
family
backgrounds
that are unable or not cultur-
ally disposed
to
give
the
necessary support
to musical children. Let us
hope
that the
development
of
popular
music
courses,
more flexible
entry requirements
and dif-
ferent methods of
assessing potential
and
ability
will do
something
to address the
accessibility
of
university
music
study.
Some of the interviewees were
rejected
when
they
tried to enter
university.
I would
have loved to know more about the social
and cultural
backgrounds
of the musicians
Green interviewed.
There is much that is
rich,
challenging
and
thought-provoking
in this book. It is
challenging
to
many
established ideas and
practices.
It is also
optimistic
and humane.
It will be
interesting
to see the reactions
to the book and its
proposals.
I
seriously
expect
it to be rubbished or
ignored
in some
quarters
as it is
simply
too
challenging
to
existing paradigms.
But
Green,
in her care-
ful
empirical work,
has
grounded
her
study
well and her ideas and
findings
need to be
considered
seriously.
Reference
Everitt,
Anthony (1997) Joining
in: an investi-
gation
into
participatory
music. London:
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
VIC GAMMON
School
of Music, University of
Leeds
v.a.f gammon
@ leeds.ac. uk
Y.
KOJAMAN, The
maqam
music tradi-
tion
of Iraq.
London:
Y. Kojaman
(books@kojaman.ac.uk)
2001.
258pp.,
illustrations, musical
exx.,
tables, compact
discs. ISBN 0-
9539752-1-5.
When
Rodolphe D'Erlanger
wrote his
monumental
study
of the melodic
modes,
rhythms
and forms of
modem
Arab
music,
he classified his data
according
to two
main "branches" or traditions: the
"hispano-
arabe",
represented by Morocco,
Algeria
and
Tunisia,
and the
"orientale",
repre-
sented
by Egypt, Syria and,
implicitly,
the
rest of the Arab world
(D'Erlanger
1949:
334ff; 1959:141ff).
D'Erlanger's
work was
originally pre-
sented to the first international
congress
of
Arab
music,
held in Cairo in 1932. At this
landmark
event,
an
unprecedented gather-
ing
of ensembles from
Morocco, Tunisia,
Algeria, Syria, Lebanon,
Egypt
and
Iraq
performed
to
leading
musicians and schol-
ars from
Europe, Turkey
and various Arab
countries. As Christian Poche has
observed,
"musicians
coming
from far afield ... who
were
thought
to
practise
the same
art,
far from
revealing
themselves as
homoge-
neous,
literally
astounded observers with
their
degree
of
diversity" (Poche 1987:100).
The
Iraqi
urban
tradition, al-maqdm al-iraqi,
was
represented by
the celebrated
singer
from
Baghdad,
Muhammad
al-Qubbanchi,
accompanied by
the traditional ensemble
known as
al-chalgi al-baghdadi.
Their
performances
revealed a
unique
melodic
repertory,
distinct in its formal
procedures,
performance practice
and
terminology
from
the
neighbouring
"oriental" traditions of
Egypt
and
Syria.
Since
1932,
numerous historical and
theoretical studies on the
Iraqi maqdm
have
appeared
in
Arabic,
and several notated ver-
sions of the
repertory
have been
published.
Yet,
with the
exception
of the
important
contributions of Scheherazade Qassim
Hassan, the
European-language
literature
164 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002
has remained scant. This is in
sharp
contrast
with the
neighbouring
- and in
many
respects closely
related urban art music tra-
dition -
Iranian dastgah,
which has been the
focus of several
large-scale
studies.
In this
context,
Kojaman's
work is
groundbreaking
in its
scope
and
signifi-
cance. Conceived over the course of more
than
twenty years,
it
provides
the first
substantial, comprehensive
account of the
Iraqi maqdm
in its various
sociological
and
musical
aspects,
and in relation to other
Iraqi
urban musical
traditions,
from the late
nineteenth
century
to the
present.
With its
gallery
of historic
photos,
two insert com-
pact
discs of
recordings dating
from 1929 to
1999,
and notations that are either
original
or
reproduced
from
Iraqi publications,
this
book
appears
as an
invaluable, long-awaited
resource in a relative
scholarly
vacuum.
Kojaman's
account is based on his first-
hand
experience
as both music lover and
amateur
musician,
first as a child and
young
man in
Baghdad
in the 1930s and
1940s,
then
among
fellow
Iraqi
Jewish
immigrants
in
Israel,
and
finally
in London.
His
personal
account is
buttressed,
exten-
ded and
updated by
contributions
(includ-
ing writings produced specially
for this
book)
from an
impressive
network of
informants,
including
musicians, scholars,
connoisseurs,
collectors and heads of insti-
tutions. The author is meticulous in his
attributions to other
sources,
acknowledg-
ing,
where
necessary,
the limitations of
his own and others'
knowledge
and
expe-
rience and
clarifying
differences between
them. The result is a
sober,
balanced
account,
rich both in information and
argument,
and as
refreshingly
free from
romantic
nostalgia
as it is from
trendy
interdisciplinary "theory".
The book
comprises
twelve
chapters.
Chapters
1-5 are devoted
primarily
to the
social functions and contexts of
al-maqdm
al-'iraqi
in relation to other
Iraqi
urban
musical traditions, particularly
"modern"
music (see below). Chapters
6-10 focus
on the musical attributes of
al-maqdm
al-
'iraqi, culminating
in
Chapter
10 with a
description
of a
maqdm segah according
to
the
singer
Hamid Al-Saadi.
Chapter
11
is
devoted to the
pasta
- a
light strophic song
with choral refrain which
conventionally
follows
performances
of the
maqam;
the
author focuses on the traditional Jewish
wedding song "'Afaki", traditionally sung
as a
pasta,
which,
despite
its use of the
Judaeo-Arabic
dialect,
became
popular
among
Muslim
singers. Chapter 12,
on the
instruments of the
chalgi,
functions more or
less as an
appendix;
it
comprises "virtually,
a translation of selected
excerpts"
of writ-
ings produced
for the author
by specialist
instrumentalists and
instrument-makers,
with additional details attributed to
Scheherazade Hassan. Two insert
compact
discs
present
six
performances
of
maqam
segah (1929-85);
an
unaccompanied per-
formance of
maqdm orpha
taken from a
Muslim
religious
celebration,
or
mawlid;
four
performances
of
"'Afaki" (1930s-
1999)
and a demonstration of
eight rhyth-
mic
patterns
used in
al-maqdm al-'iraqi.
Kojaman begins by defining
his basic
terms of reference.
Maqdm,
as used in Arab
countries other than
Iraq,
means in its most
limited
sense, "scale";
in the
musicological
literature
maqdm
is
generally
translated as
"mode". In
Iraq, exceptionally, maqdm
denotes a
specific repertory
of
precomposed
songs, collectively
known as
al-maqdmat
al
'iraqiyya;
like the Iranian
dastgah,
these
pieces
are associated with a
particular type
of
organization
and
performance practice.
Although Kojaman's study
is confined to
the
Iraqi
tradition,
comparisons may
also be
made with other non-Arab
maqdm reper-
tories,
such as the
Azerbaidjani mugam
or
mugam-dastgah
or the Uzbek
shashmakom,
terms likewise used to denote
specific
repertories
of
precomposed genres per-
formed in a
particular sequence.
The term
nagham,
used
synonymously
with
maqdm
in some other Arab countries, is used exclu-
sively
in
Iraq
to denote scale.
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002 165
Since the end of the nineteenth
century
the
Iraqi maqdm
has coexisted with another
kind of urban art music common to all other
Arab
countries,
whose main centre of devel-
opment through
most of the twentieth cen-
tury
was
Egypt. Kojaman
calls this second
tradition "modern music". The two tradi-
tions are characterized
by
different instru-
ments: in modem
music,
instruments such as
the 'ud
(Arab lute), qanun (plucked zither)
and violin
replace
the exclusive
stringed
instruments of the
chalgi,
the
joza (spike-
fiddle)
and santur
(dulcimer).
The tensions
and
interplay
in terms of
popularity
and
status between the local
maqdm al-'iraqi,
performed
with the
chalgi,
and the
pan-Arab
modem musical mainstream is a
pervasive,
unifying
theme of the
book, symbolized by
the cover
photo portraying
the
Egyptian
diva,
Umm
Kulthum,
flanked
by
a
chalgi
during
her visit to
Baghdad
in 1933.
In the first
chapter Kojaman
focuses on
the decades
up
to the
1930s,
when the
maqdm
was still the elite
tradition,
patron-
ized
by
aristocrats and other
relatively
edu-
cated and
wealthy
audiences. Jews
occupied
a
special position
in the
maqdm
culture,
partly
because the
proportion
of
wealthy
and educated
among
them was
relatively
high,
and
partly
because
they
were con-
centrated in a
particular area,
so that even
poorer
families could listen to the
maqdm
in
their
neighbours'
houses.
Moreover,
while
maqdm singers
were both Muslims and Jews
(the
former were often
Qur'an chanters,
the
latter, synagogue cantors),
the art of con-
structing
and
performing
the traditional
chalgi
instruments was a
hereditary pro-
fession,
concentrated
exclusively among
certain Jewish families.
Astonishingly,
throughout
the entire
period
to the
early
1950s,
when the Jews
emigrated
en masse
to
Israel,
there were
only
two
chalgi
ensem-
bles
serving
the entire
city
of
Baghdad.
Kojaman explores
the subtle distinctions
of social and financial status between
singers
and instrumentalists, players
of
different
types
of instruments,
maqdm
and
modem
musicians,
and within Jewish and
Muslim communities.
Thus,
for
example,
while
maqdm singers
were more
respected
than instrumentalists and
charged higher
fees,
the
instrumentalists,
who were fewer
in number and therefore more in
demand,
were better off
financially.
Vivid, harrowing
portraits
of
formerly
celebrated
maqdm
singers, poverty-stricken
in old
age,
are
reserved for the footnotes: one was reduced
to
selling soap; another, turned blind,
sold
matches in the
streets;
and
yet
another was
unable to
provide
for his own burial.
During
this
early period,
the
maqdm
was
performed by
male
singers
and instrumen-
talists to male audiences in domestic cele-
brations and in certain coffee
shops
that
specialized
in the tradition.
Kojaman
describes
how,
with the advent
of
nightclubs
around the late 1920s and the
rise of mass
media,
the
modern
tradition
began gradually
to
supercede
the
maqdm
in
popularity
and status. He recalls the
impact
of the
Egyptian
record
industry
and broad-
casting
in
Iraq
in the 1920s and
1930s;
the
arrival of musical films from
America,
India
and,
above
all,
Egypt;
the influx of
foreign
singers
and
composers
of modem music to
Baghdad (including
two Jewish brothers
from Kuwait
-
Salah and Daoud al-Kuwaiti
-
who
virtually monopolized Iraqi compo-
sition
through
the
1930s);
and the estab-
lishment in 1936 of the
Iraqi broadcasting
station with a resident modem music
ensemble. From the late
1930s, nightclub
bands
featuring
female
singers
and dancers
replaced maqdm
concerts as the most
expensive
and
prestigious
form of domestic
entertainment.
The modem tradition had
repercussions
on the
maqdm.
When the first
recordings
of
the
Iraqi maqdm
were made in Berlin
by
Baidaphone
in
1929,
the
singer,
Muham-
mad
al-Qubbanchi,
was
accompanied,
for
the first time in the
history
of the
maqdm,
by
a
"modem"
ensemble instead of a
chalgi.
Kojaman provides
an
unexpected explana-
tion for this decision:
apparently
it was the
166
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002
appearance
of the old musicians in their
traditional
dress,
rather than the sound of
their
instruments,
that was considered unsuit-
able. In 1932 the
Iraqi government agreed
to send a
chalgi
to
represent Iraq
in the 1932
Cairo
congress. However,
the musicians
were
obliged
to dress in
Western-style
suits
and
shoes,
and the renowned 'ud
player
Ezra Aharon was ordered
by
the
prime
min-
ister to travel with
them,
apparently
in order
"to
organise
their dress
properly" (36-7).
In
the
event,
Aharon
represented Iraqi
music in
his own
right
with solo 'ud
performances,
included in the
Congress recordings.
After
the establishment of
Iraqi
radio in 1936
maqdm singers gave
broadcasts
accompa-
nied
by
the modern radio ensemble.
Kojaman carefully analyses
the effects
on
Iraqi
musical life of the Jewish
emigra-
tion to Israel in
1950-51, when,
in one fell
swoop,
the
maqdm
tradition was
depleted
of all its
specialist instrumentalists,
many
of
its best
singers
and a
large
number of its
patrons
and connoisseurs. At the same
time,
modern music lost
nearly
all its instrumen-
talists and
many
of its best
composers.
Kojaman vigorously dispels
the
myth,
apparently
still held
by many Iraqis,
that the
Jewish exodus caused the
disappearance
of
the
maqdm
tradition. On the
contrary,
he
observes some
positive
outcomes for the
maqdm
and
modem
music alike.
Apparently
two Muslim
musicians,
Shaoobi Ibrahim and Hashem
Al-Rejab,
had
acquired enough knowledge
of the
chalgi
instruments from their Jewish
counterparts
for the
maqdm
tradition to
continue,
using
the instruments that the Jews left behind.
Eventually,
the Institute of Musical
Studies,
founded in 1970
primarily
to teach
maqam,
created "a
new,
fine
generation
of
maqam
musicians,
both in
singing
and in
playing"
(50-1). Kojaman
concedes, however,
that
audiences and
performance opportunities
for the
maqdm
are still
lacking,
and the
musicians continue to suffer financial inse-
curity.
He concludes that a
governmental
initiative is needed to
remedy
the situation.
As for the modern
tradition,
the vacuum
created
by
the Jewish
emigration was,
Kojaman observes,
soon filled
by
musicians
from other Arab
countries; meanwhile,
the
recently
established music education insti-
tutes succeeded in
producing
a new
gener-
ation of
"very
fine"
musicians,
"comparable
to the best musicians of the
neighbouring
countries"
(48).
Kojaman
likewise demolishes the
pop-
ular notion
that,
with the
emigration
of the
Jews,
the centre of
Iraqi
music and
maqdm
moved to Israel. On the
contrary,
he
paints
a bleak
picture
of the
hardships,
both mate-
rial and
social,
experienced by
the
Iraqi
immigrant
musicians there.
Apart
from the
privileged
few
employed by
the Israeli
gov-
ernment for the Arab music radio
ensemble,
both
maqdm
and
modern musicians met
with indifference and lack of demand from
the
society
at
large. Kojaman
concludes:
"There is no real future for
Iraqi
music in
Israel.
Every person
who dies leaves his
place
vacant ... In order to create
Iraqi
music it is
necessary
to have
people
who
think as
Iraqis,
feel as
Iraqis, sing
as
Iraqis
in order to become
Iraqi
musicians. The
only place
to find such
people
is
Iraq
and no
other
place
in the world"
(55).
As if as an
afterthought, Kojaman
refers
to a
continuing
tradition of
"religious maqdm
singing"
in
Iraqi-style synagogues
in Israel.
Apparently,
this
"religious maqdm", per-
formed with Hebrew
words,
has
spawned
a new
generation
of
young
cantors. Unfor-
tunately,
however,
the
relationship
of this
tradition to its secular Arab
counterpart
is
left
unexplained
and
unexplored.
Chapter
3 deals with the introduction of
formal
teaching methods,
including
the use
of Western notation in Arab
music,
and the
establishment of
specialist
music schools
for both Western and Arab music from the
1930s. Under the
leadership
of the Turkish-
educated Prince
Muhyi-d-Deen Haydar
- a
virtuoso cellist and 'ud
player
- the Institute
of Fine Arts, established in 1936 to teach
mostly European music, produced
a dis-
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002 167
tinctive school of
Iraqi
solo 'ud
virtuosi,
including
such
internationally recognized
artists as Salman Shukur and Jamil and
Munir Beshir. It was not until 1970 that the
maqdm began
to be
taught
in the modern
educational
framework; apparently
this was
because the traditional
chalgi
musicians and
singers,
most of whom were illiterate in
Arabic,
were
unqualified
in the modern
teaching methods, particularly
in the use of
notation.
In
Chapter
4 the author
gives
a detailed
description
of the
sequence
of musical and
other events of a
typical "chalgi night",
from the
hiring
of the musicians to the con-
sumption
of
laban,
or sour milk
(believed
to
cure
intoxication)
in the
early
hours of the
following morning.
The account is based on
his
personal experience
of several such
domestic
celebrations,
hosted
by
his own
and other Jewish families in
Baghdad
between 1935 and 1945. Other
types
of
domestic musical
entertainment, performed
as alternatives or in addition to the
chalgi,
are described in
Chapter
5. These included
bands of Jewish women called
daqqaqat
and their Muslim
equivalents, mullayya,
who
sang
and
played percussion, primarily
to entertain women.
Opening
the section on the musical
attributes of the
Iraqi maqdm, Kojaman
makes certain
revealing
observations on its
distinctive characteristics in relation to
modern music. Fundamental to these is the
essential conservatism of the
maqdm
tradi-
tion,
which affects all
aspects
of its inter-
pretation.
Thus he notes that the
maqdm
is
"a
compulsory unity
of elements"
(121),
both musical and
textual;
if
any
one of these
elements is
changed,
the
maqdm
loses its
identity. Kojaman
finds in the
quality
of
"compulsory unity"
an
explanation
for
musicians'
resistance,
even in the face of
nationalist
ideology,
to substitute Arabic
words for the conventional Turkish and Per-
sian
expressions
used in certain
maqdms.
Kojaman
states that the
Iraqi maqdm
is
"a
precomposed
vocal
repertoire,
which
was
composed according
to strict
rules,
and
with the intention that it does not
vary
in
each
performance" (ibid.).
He
subsequently
qualifies
this
statement, noting
that
although
"improvisation
is not considered to be
part
of the
maqdm
tradition", maqdm singers
may
nevertheless demonstrate
individuality
with
respect
to
tempo,
vocal
style
and
"embellishments"
(125-6).
The author
might
have added to this list of variables the
performer's
selection of
particular qita'
-
short, precomposed pieces
whose
nagham
need not
correspond
to the main
nagham
of
the
maqdm
in which
they
occur. While each
maqdm
is associated with a
particular
set of
qita',
these are not exclusive to
any
one
maqdm,
and the
singer
"has the
option
of
singing
some of
them, leaving
the others
according
to his taste and the time avail-
able"
(143).
Kojaman
outlines the traditional classi-
fication of 30 of the ca 58
currently
known
maqdms
into five
megacycles,
or
fusul
(s.fasl). Apparently,
the
origins
of
thefusul
system
date from the latter
part
of the nine-
teenth
century
-
roughly
the same
period
as the classification of the Iranian
dastgah
system.
In a
typical chalgi night,
the com-
plete cycle
of five
fusul,
with four intervals
between
them,
lasts
approximately
ten
hours. On this basis
Kojaman proposes
the
ingenious hypothesis
that "the
development
of
thefusul system may
itself be connected
with another social
development
in
Iraqi
or
Baghdadi society
... the habit of
celebrating
a
wedding
for a whole
night, necessitating
the
preparation
of a
long
musical
pro-
gramme" (137). Stressing
that he has no
historical evidence for the coincidence of
these
developments,
he nevertheless
observes that
"fiveifusul
with four
intervals,
which allow both the
performers
and the
audience to
rest, eat,
drink and
dance,
are
actually
the needs of a whole
night
celebra-
tion"
(ibid.) Correspondingly,
with the
decline of
chalgi nights
in the 1940s and
their
disappearance altogether
after 1951,
family
celebrations became shorter and the
168 BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002
fusul system
became obsolete.
Thereafter,
musicians
sang
the individual
maqdms
in
whatever
sequence they pleased.
Chapters
8 and 9 deal with the various
musical and textual
components
of the
Iraqi
maqdm, including
their
naghams, rhythms,
poetic genres,
use of
special words,
and
qita'.
A succession of lists derived from var-
ious
Iraqi sources,
both
published
and
oral,
systematically identify (1)
the
special
words
and
phrases,
both
foreign
and
Arabic,
used
in the
introductory
and
concluding
sections
(tahrir
and
teslim)
with their
English
trans-
lations; (2)
the
correspondence
of
qita'
and
the various
maqdmat
in which
they occur;
(3)
the
nagham
and textual characteristics
of each
qit'a;
and
(4)
the
maqdms
with their
corresponding naghams, rhythms
and
types
of
texts,
and the
special
words used for each
tahrir and taslim.
In
Chapter
9
Kojaman
describes the
various vocal sections of the
maqdm
in their
characteristic
sequence.
These sections are
illustrated,
in
Chapter
10,
by
a
description
of
maqdm segah by
the
singer
Hamid
Al-Saadi in an interview with the author.
Al-Saadi's
recording
of
maqdm segah
is
presented
as the first item on the first
CD,
and a notated version of
maqdm segah
made
by
Baher
Al-Rejab,
santur
player
in Al-
Saadi's
chalgi,
follows
Kojaman's descrip-
tion.
Al-Rejab's
notation was not taken
specifically
from the
recording
on the
CD,
and the author cautions that there are "some
differences" between them.
Kojaman
introduces
maqdm segah
as
"a restricted
maqdm,
in the sense that it
must
always
contain the same
sequence
of
mayanas (sections
in
high register)
and
qita',
without
omitting any
of them"
(210).
In the
light
of this information and the
alleged
absence of
improvisation
in the
maqdm tradition,
not to mention the close
professional relationship
between
Al-Rejab
and
Al-Saadi,
the reader would
expect any
"differences" between the notation and the
recording
not to be substantial and to refer
only
to
aspects
of "embellishment".
The author first identifies the two
rhythm-
metric
cycles
used in the
maqam;
in the
absence of
bar-lines, however,
these are hard
to
distinguish
in the notation. He then
pro-
ceeds
systematically
to describe the succes-
sive vocal
sections,
identifying prominent
words and
phrases, changes
of
nagham,
and
the various
qita'
with their
naghams.
Unfor-
tunately, however,
with
only
rare
excep-
tions,
information on the tonal-melodic
subsistence of the
naghams
and
qita'
iden-
tified is not
provided;
the reader is
simply
presented
with a succession of
unexplained
terms and is left with a fruitless
struggle
to
identify
each
nagham
and
qit'a
as
they
occur in the
transcription
and
recording.
The
difficulty
is
compounded by
the fact
that the rubrics
provided by Al-Rejab
in his
notation
correspond only partly
to the terms
used in
Kojaman's description.
In the nota-
tion,
there are no references to the
sung text;
the
changes
of
nagham
are not
identified,
and the succession of
qita'
-
while labelled
in transliteration -
corresponds only partly
to that described
by Kojaman. Thus,
for
example, Kojaman's description
of the
tahrir reads: "There is then a small
piece
of
awshar and a return to huzam with the
words aman aman
haydad bidaday
... there
are small
changes
of
nagham
at the end of
the tahrir with the
introducing
of a
qit'a
called selah halab of the
nagham hijaz
on
G,
followed
by
a short movement of the
nagham mkhalaf
followed
by
a return to
huzam" (211).
The rubrics for the corre-
sponding passage
in the
notation, however,
indicate
only qit'a
awshar and
qit'a
selah.
Elsewhere there are
unexplained
incon-
sistencies between the rubrics of the nota-
tion and
Kojaman's description. Maqam
segah
is characterized
by
three
mayanas
identified in both text and notation as
segah
balaban, sufyan
and
mkhalafkarkuk.
Accord-
ing
to
Kojaman:
"After
sufyan
comes a
sayha
of
hakimi,
which is of the same
nagham
of
the
maqdm.
This
piece
is
optional
... Then
comes ... muthallatha ... in words
ay
baba
baba. Its
nagham
is
mkhalaf.
After the
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.1 1/i 2002 169
muthallatha a third
mayana
is started
...
called
mkhalaf
karkuk ...
sung
with the
words
ayay ayay
with the
optional
addition
of
oghem" (212-13).
In
contrast,
Al-Rejab
gives
the
following sequence
of rubrics in
his notation: Second
mayana (qit'a sufyan)
- tahrir is
repeated
-
qit'a jassus
-
qit'a
awshar -
qit'a segah
halab -
qit'a mkhalaf
karkuk -
qit'a
hakimi -
qit'a
muthallatha.
In other
words,
whereas in
Kojaman's descrip-
tion
qit'a
hakimi and
qit'a
muthallatha
pre-
cede the third
mayana (mkhalaf karkuk),
in
Al-Rejab's
notation
they
follow
it;
and the
sequence
of
qita' preceding
the third
mayana
in the notation are not identified in the text.
Following Al-Rejab's
notation is a ver-
sion of
maqdm segah by
Rawhi
Khammash.
Apparently
this was notated
directly
from
the
recording
of
maqdm segah
made
by
Muhammad
al-Qubbanchi
in
1929,
repro-
duced on the insert CD. Further
recordings
of
maqdm segah by
Rashid
Al-Qundarchi
(Baghdad, early 1930s),
Salim Shebbath
(Israel, 1960s),
Yusif Umar
(Baghdad, 1970s)
and Heskel
Qassab (Israel, 1970s),
are also
included on the CD "for
comparison".
Kojaman
includes Al-Khammash's
notation "to make it
possible
for the reader
to follow the notation when
listening
to the
maqdm".
Be that as it
may (and
for
me,
the
supposed correspondence
between the
notation and
Al-Qubbanchi's recording
was
not
always apparent),
the usefulness of
Khammash's
notation,
both as a means of
illustrating Kojaman's description
and as
a basis for
comparison
between the two
notated
versions,
is limited
by
a
general
incompatibility
of terms. The duration of
Al-Qubbanchi's recording
is 6.51 in con-
trast to Al-Saadi's at
20.12;
thus Kham-
mash's notation is
considerably
shorter than
Al-Rejab's.
Unlike
Al-Rejab,
Al-Khammash
includes the
song
text in Arabic
script
above
the notation and he
indicates,
also in Arabic
script,
where the instrumental sections
(not
notated)
occur.
However,
Khammash makes
no reference in his notation to the different
vocal sections, naghams
or
qita', variously
identified
by
both
Kojaman
and
by
Al-
Rejab.
Khammash's notation could serve
more
usefully
as a
guide
to
al-Qubbanchi's
performance
if it included real-time
indications.
Chapter
11,
on the traditional Jewish
wedding song "Afaki",
is a self-contained
study
in its own
right,
with discussions on
the historical
development
of the
pasta,
betrothal traditions
among Iraqi
Jews,
the
role of the Jewish
community
in
Iraqi
soci-
ety,
Jewish-Muslim relations and the role of
music as an
expression
of these relations.
Indeed,
the author's decision to focus on
"Afaki"
rests
precisely
on its
symbolic
role
in
representing
music "as a field where
communal
prejudice
could be transcended"
(232).
The
text,
a
complaint by
the mother
of the
bridegroom
to the mother of the bride
for the latter's
alleged trickery,
is a com-
mentary
on the traditional
match-making
process. Despite
its Jewish
subject
matter
and its Judaeo-Arabic
dialect, "Afaki"
was
taken
up by
Muslims and it remains
popu-
lar in
Iraq today.
Of the four
recordings
of
"Afaki",
three
are
by
the Muslim
singers
Rashid
Al-Qun-
darchi
(Baghdad, 1930s),
Yusif Umar
(Bagh-
dad, 1970s)
and Hamid Al-Saadi
(London,
1999);
the
fourth, by
Yakub Al-Imari
(Israel,
early 1970s) represents
the
daqqaqat
ver-
sion. Ten
stanzas, including
the seven
sung
by Al-Qundarchi,
are
presented
in Arabic
script,
transliteration and
English
trans-
lation. Baher
Al-Rejab's published
version
of
"Afaki"
is
reproduced alongside
two
examples by
Sara
Manasseh,
taken from the
recordings by
Rashid
Al-Qundarchi
and
Yakob Al-Imari. Manasseh's
notations,
with
text
underlay
in
transliteration,
are beauti-
fully presented
and
correspond clearly
to
their
respective performances.
With its wealth of
original
historical,
ethnographic
and musical
data, Kojaman's
work makes an
important
and much needed
contribution to
contemporary
Middle East-
ern
musical
scholarship.
As a
unique study
of the distinctive
Iraqi
tradition of Arab art
170
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL. 11/i 2002
music,
it also relates to broader issues in
Middle
Eastern
music such as the
struggle
between local and
pan-Arabic
musical
identity; Egyptianization;
musical dias-
poras;
Jewish and Muslim social relations
and the role of Jews in Arab musical
life;
the
impact
of the mass
media;
the
analysis
of
large-scale
musical
structures;
relation-
ships
between musical structures and other
aspects
of social
organization;
and the
changing
roles of
women,
both as
perform-
ers and audiences. The work as it
stands,
however,
is undermined
by
certain
aspects
of
presentation, particularly
in the sections
dealing
with musical
information,
in which
further
explanation
and clarification is often
needed. The work as a whole needs to be
more
tightly organized
and
pruned
of
repe-
tition. The section on "The basic features
of a
maqdm" (Chapter
9,
pp. 183-6),
for
instance,
is
largely
a
re-presentation
of
information about the various
components
of the
maqdm given
in
previous chapters.
A
discography
and full
bibliographic
refer-
ences
(presently given by
author and
page
number
only)
are also needed.
My personal
wish for
Kojaman's
book
would be for it to
undergo
some further
revision and
then,
ideally,
to be taken
up by
a committed
publisher
who would ensure
its maximum
promotion
and distribution.
Both the work and the musical culture it
represents
deserve
nothing
less.
References
D'Erlanger, Rodolphe (1949, 1959)
La
musique
arabe, v,
vi. Paris: Librairie
Orientaliste Paul Geuthner.
Poche,
Christian
(1988)
"The Cairo
Congress
on Arab Music. Its
history
and its
impact."
In
Congres
du Caire 1932
(Insert book).
Paris: Insititut du Monde
Arabe,
Biblio-
thbque
Nationale APN88/9-10.
RUTH DAVIS
Corpus
Christi
College, Cambridge
rfdl 1
@cam.ac.uk
CDs
A
viagem
dos
sons/The
journey
of sounds.
12
CDs, Tradisom 1998,
Lisbon.
Ed. Jose
Moyas.
US$225
(including
airfreight).
www.tradisom.com.
This ambitious
series,
co-ordinated
by
Jose
Moyas,
was
coproduced by
the National
Commission for
commemorating
the
Portuguese Discoveries,
the
Portuguese
Pavilion at the EXPO 98 World Exhibition
and Tradisom. The twelve CDs contain
previously
unreleased
recordings
from the
colonial route
along
which the
Portuguese
travelled and settled:
Goa, Damao, Diu
(India),
Sri
Lanka,
Malacca
(Malaysia),
Sumatra, Macau,
East
Timor,
Mozambique,
Sdo
Tome,
Cape
Verde and Brazil. Musical
genres
are
wide-ranging (traditional music,
dance and
song
and their
transformations,
ritual dramas and urban
musics),
as are the
contexts
(field
and studio
recordings)
and
kinds of musician
(amateur, professional).
The series focuses on the
ways
in which
sounds travelled
together
with the Portu-
guese
colonizers
during
the "Discoveries"
period.
It looks at the contexts and
people
who
adopted
those
musics,
and at how
they
produced
new forms of musical
expression
that have since
acquired
their own auto-
nomy
and
vitality.
The booklets
accompa-
nying
each CD
(often
more than 100
pages)
provide
a mixture of
musical, cultural,
historical and
linguistic
information in
Portuguese
and
English (and
sometimes
the
original language), song lyrics
in three
languages (the original, Portuguese
and
English),
and
bibliographies.
Colour
photo-
graphs
and sometimes musical
examples
and
maps
illustrate the texts.
VS01
Goa. Gavana. Text
by
Susana
Sardo,
University
of
Aveiro, Portugal;
sound
engineer
M. Fernandes.
Goa was colonized
by
the
Portuguese
from
1510 to 1961. In 1987 it became the 25th -
and
youngest
- state of the Indian Union.