MUSIC and DANCE in the MUSLIM WORLD (Africa, Asia & Middle East)

Curated/Created by Javed Mohammed All images are from public domain and copyright of respective owners

Traditional dance Traditional music

Contemporary music

What do you think about when you hear the word Muslim?

Music & Dance is probably not one of them

Some Muslims and Scholars consider Music & Dance to be forbidden in

Islam

We are not here to question that!

But almost in all parts of the world Music and Dance are a part of life and

culture

Muslim culture is extremely diverse

Arab African

Asian

Shared Beliefs

& values

People, Place, Plurality= Cultural Expression

All music and dance has ancient roots

Muslim roots of the blues reaches back through the South to the culture

of West Africa

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Muslim-roots-of-the-blues-The-music-of-famous-2701489.php#photo-2167362

Music and Dance is about Preserving

• Traditional Stories • Legends • Myths • Social Justice • Challenging the Status Quo • Beliefs

Music is a product of culture

• Music is manifested in a variety of ways in a given culture

• Classical vs. folk vs. popular • Integrated vs. independent • Oral vs. written tradition • Literal vs. extemporaneous

Music is a part of celebration

• Weddings last for days; always includes dance music and vocal music

• Hassabala troupe (bugles, trumpets, wooden drums) with dancers

• May include amongst women singing (raks sharki)

Space- The area of space occupied by the dancer’s body; includes direction, size, pathways, levels and shapes.

Time- The relationship of one movement or part of a movement to another. Includes pulse, speed (or tempo), duration, rhythm, and phrases.

Force- (energy) degree of muscular tension and use of energy while moving.

Purpose of Dance

• Ceremonial (religion, celebration, ritual)

• Recreational (folk, social dancing, aerobic dance)

• Artistic (ballet, modern, narrative, tap, lyrical).

AH-E-2.2.32

Why People Dance

• Dance tells a story • Dance is a way to express emotion • Dance differs by region and culture • Right of passage, communication, also

strengthen the bonds within the tribe • Dance is often used to communicate or

celebrate thoughts, and feelings through movement

Music and Islam in the Arabic World

• A minority of Muslims strongly discourage the practice of music of any type

• Music may be performed by “outsiders” • Music is important to rural groups and tribes • Success of singers and “stars” often outweigh

protests against them • Blending of styles, indigenous and foreign

encouraged

Dance

• Dances typically in Groups and in Circles or Lines

• Each ethnic group has its own uniqueness; rhythm/ dress / norms

• Most dances are performed in circle • Women perform dance in private gatherings • Colorful dresses are a part of dance themes

Major Cultural Influences

• Persian culture (Iran, speak Farsi, adheres to Shia interpretation of Islam; historic Persian Empire)

• Arabic culture (Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq Lebanon, Egypt, Kuwait; speak Arabic)

• Turkish culture (Turkey, present day Afghanistan; speak Turkic; historic Ottoman Empire)

Folk dances are the traditional social dances of ethnics groups, rural or urban from all over the world.

Social dances are participatory dances

done at weddings, parties, and other gatherings.

What is Folk dancing

Purpose of Folk Dancing • Dance conveys feelings, attitudes, concepts, and stories that emanate

from everyday life, morality, myth, and legend

• It also reflects aesthetic and social values and communicates systems of belief

• Dance plays and educational role providing a way of passing down cultural heritage from adults to children

• Some dances express social rank. Prestige is usually associated with restrained dance styles.

• In some tribes/cultures dance promotes healing and is used as preventative medicine

Learning out comes Dance

Performed during; – celebrations – ceremonies – entertainment – and teaching

Important part of culture It serves; Social Spiritual Artistic Emotional functions

Mevlana Dance(Sufi Whirling)

Chechen Dancers

South Asian Music

Qawwali Music

• Draws on musical traditions of India, Persian and Arabic music

• Songs in Urdu, Persian • Addresses themes of the Prophet, God

and love songs

Ghazal is a form of sung poetry associated with Persian-Arabic Muslim culture taken up by Urdu speakers in

North India and Pakistan

Pakistan’s cultural dances; Composed of different ethnic groups

dances

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pakistan#Society_and_culture

Urdu/Hindi Film Songs in Bollywood Films

Mohammed Rafi an Indian playback singer and one of the most popular singers of the Hindi film industry ( Wiki)

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan A Pakistani musician of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis and considered one of the greatest voices

ever recorded (Wiki)

A. R. Rahman Two times Academy Award winner AR Rahman is an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, musician and philanthropist. A.R. Rahman's works are noted for integrating Eastern classical music with

electronic music, world music and traditional orchestral arrangements. (Wiki)

The predominant

musical ensemble in Indonesia is

gamelan

Gamelan music serves

ritual, spiritual,

government, dramatic, and social functions

AFRICAN MUSIC

THE MUSIC & DANCE OF SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Key instruments include

lamellaphones (the mbira), strings (the

kora), xylophones,

trumpets, flutes, musical bows,

and drums

WEST AFRICAN DANCE

• Grounded (low level) – respecting Earth, occasional leaps • Learned from community • Posture – bent knees, many body parts move in isolation to

different rhythms at the same time. Often flat, bare feet • Mostly Ceremonial purpose. But could be Artistic for

dancing before the Chief or King or could be Recreational. • Themes of nature, animals, spirits, initiation, life cycle

events, work • Movements sharp, energetic, strong, big, free flow.

Although often low, can be high.

WEST AFRICAN DANCE

• Call and Response: dancer responds to drum sounds, sometimes drum responds to dancer, voices respond to each other. Dancers play the drum sounds with their bodies.

• Music – drums, rattles, gourds, percussion voice. Often fast, use of pulse, pattern, breath

• Often in a circle or line following a circular path with musicians in the center

• Sometimes tell stories through a dance • Often women only or men only – different movements for

each gender • All dancers equal, but with a chance to solo supported by

the community

Youssou N'Dour A Senegalese singer, percussionist, songwriter, composer.

In 2004, Rolling Stone described him as, "perhaps the most famous singer alive" in Senegal and much of Africa. (Wiki)

By Kotoviski photograph by Henryk Kotowski - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7967274

Khaïra Arby The reigning queen of song in Timbuktu, Mali

MUSIC OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Tal/Tala The rhythmic/metric organization of Hindustani music.

Tala is the cyclic patterning of beats and rhythms that organize musical time. Length of patterns are organized into groupings described as binary (8 or 16), ternary (6 or 12), quintuple (10), etc., with up to 28 beats.

Khaled Hadj Ibrahim Khaled, is an Algerian raï singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist .

He has become the most internationally famous Algerian singer in the Arab world and across many continents (Wiki)

Umm Kulthum An internationally famous Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress (Wiki)

Googoosh Iranian singer and actress of Azeri origin known for her contributions to Persian Pop music, the most iconic

female pop-singer from those regions

Flamenco and the surprising

Muslim Connection

(originated in Andalusia)

For women :

- the shawl

- the fan

This is a song, music

and dance style

Contemporary Muslim Music Artists

Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) British singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, humanitarian, and education philanthropist.

His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and Islamic music.[ (Wiki)

Mos Def (Yusuf Bey)

Sami Yusuf

Maher Zain

Thank you

A K2 Vista LLC Production, 2016