The ataaba (, meaning "plaint" or "
dirge
A dirge () is a somber song or lament expressing mourning or grief, such as may be appropriate for performance at a funeral. Often taking the form of a brief hymn, dirges are typically shorter and less meditative than elegy, elegies. Dirges are of ...
", also
transliterated
Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
'ataba) is a traditional
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
musical form sung at weddings, festivals, and other occasions.
[ Popular in ]the Middle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, it was originally a Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...
genre, improvised by a solo poet-singer accompanying themselves on the rababa
''Rebab'' (, ''rabāba'', variously spelled ''rebap'', ''rubob'', ''rebeb'', ''rababa'', ''rabeba'', ''robab'', ''rubab'', ''rebob'', etc) is the name of several related string instruments that independently spread via Islamic trading rout ...
.Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
tradition, ataabas are generally performed by a vocal soloist, without instrumental accompaniment, who improvises the melody using folk poetry for the verse.[Kaschl, 2003, p. 249.]
Sung unmetered in stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
s comprising four lines, the last word of the first three lines are homonyms
In linguistics, homonyms are words which are either; ''homographs''—words that mean different things, but have the same spelling (regardless of pronunciation), or ''homophones''—words that mean different things, but have the same pronunciatio ...
, each with a different meaning, creating a pun
A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...
. In urban settings, the ataaba is often paired with a metric choral refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeated in poetry or in music">poetry.html" ;"title="Line (poetry)">line or lines that are repeat ...
called a '' mījanā''.[
The ataaba is also used to express grief or reproach.][Armitage et al., 2002, p. 324.] The most common theme of an ataaba is love, though eulogies
A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a term of en ...
are also common. Less common themes include moral instruction, and descriptions of nature.[Cohen and Katz, 2006, p. 262.]
Structure
About half of all ataabas do not use fixed meter, while the other half use a standard ''rajaz'' or ''wāfir'' meter.[ Generally composed of four verses of poetry, the first three end with the same sound.][Farsoun, 2004, p. 117.] The end of a verse or quatrain
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four Line (poetry), lines.
Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India ...
in an ataaba is marked by adding a word ending in "-ba" to the end of the fourth hemistich
A hemistich (; via Latin from Greek , from "half" and "verse") is a half-line of verse, followed and preceded by a caesura, that makes up a single overall prosodic or verse unit. In Latin and Greek poetry, the hemistich is generally confined ...
.[Pavla etal., 2008, p. 11.] The fourth and final verse usually ends with a word ending in the sound ''aab'' or ''awa''.[
While there are four lines of verse in an ataaba, these are usually sung as two musical phrases. These phrases are often a melodic curve beginning on the fourth or fifth, descending to the ]cadence
In Classical music, Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a Phrase (music), phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution (music), resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don ...
and ending on the supertonic
In music, the supertonic is the second degree () of a diatonic scale, one whole step above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the supertonic note is sung as ''re''.
The triad built on the supertonic note is called the supertonic ...
or tonic.[ All ataabas are performed by a soloist, who often begins by singing a long ]melismatic
Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in ...
phrase on the syllable ''ōf''.[ While this opening sequence is not necessarily a part of the ataaba, the closing melismatic phrase sung to words such as ''yā bā'' ("O father"), ''yā mā'' ("O mother"), or ''yā eyn'' ("O eyes"), etc., is an integral part of the song's structure and is unique to this musical form.][
]
Performances
The ataaba is one of many Palestinian folk music traditions that continues to be performed at weddings and festivals in Palestine, as well as by Palestinians in the West Bank
The West Bank is located on the western bank of the Jordan River and is the larger of the two Palestinian territories (the other being the Gaza Strip) that make up the State of Palestine. A landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and Gaza Strip
The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...
.[Marshall Cavendish, 2007, p. 996.][Shiloah, 1997, p. 42.] The ataaba and other forms of improvised poetry such as the ''mawwal'' and ''mijana'' have been used by Palestinians since the 1960s, "to express outrage and grief at the razing and appropriation of Palestinian villages by Israelis."[
]
See also
* Anasheed
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Refend
Arabic music
Music of Palestine
Lebanese art