Various kinds of
Arab music
Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
are popular in Libya such as
Andalusi music, locally known as
Ma'luf
''Ma'luf'' ( ar, مألوف, acquainted, familiar ''Ma'lūf'') is a genre of art music in the Andalusian classical music tradition of Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia. It is of Iberian origin and was introduced to the Maghreb
The Maghreb (; a ...
,
Chabi
Empress Chabi (, ; , c. 1216
–1281) was a Khongirad empress consort of the Yuan dynasty of Mongol, married to Kublai Khan (Emperor Shizu).
Life
She was born around 1216 to Alchi Noyan's son Anchen Noyan . Nephew of Börte from Khongirad tribe an ...
and
Arab classical music
Arabic music or Arab music ( ar, الموسيقى العربية, al-mūsīqā al-ʿArabīyyah) is the music of the Arab world with all its diverse music styles and genres. Arabic countries have many rich and varied styles of music and also man ...
.
The
Tuareg
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Alg ...
in the south have
their own distinctive folk music. There is little or no
pop music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describ ...
industry. Among the Tuareg, women are the musicians. They play a one-stringed
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
called an
anzad
The imzad (alternately amzad) is a single-string bowed instrument used by the Tuareg people in Africa.
Its body is made out of a calabash or wood which is covered by animal skin. The strings are made from horse hair and are connected near the n ...
, as well as a variety of
drums.
Two of the most famous musicians of Libya are
Ahmed Fakroun
Ahmed Fakroun ( ar, أحمد فكرون; born 1953) is a singer and songwriter from Benghazi, Libya. He is a pioneer of modern Arabic World Music.
John Storm Roberts, of Original Music, AllMusic, wrote that among raï singers, the pop-oriented ...
and
Mohamed Hassan.
Among Libyan Arabs, instruments include the
zokra (a
bagpipe
Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, N ...
),
flute (made of
bamboo
Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, ...
),
tambourine
The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called " zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thou ...
,
oud
, image=File:oud2.jpg
, image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921
, background=
, classification=
*String instruments
* Necked bowl lutes
, hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum
...
(a fretless
lute
A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
More specifically, the term "lute" can re ...
) and
darbuka
The goblet drum (also chalice drum, tarabuka, tarabaki, darbuka, darabuka, derbake, debuka, doumbek, dumbec, dumbeg, dumbelek, toumperleki, tumbak, or zerbaghali; arz, دربوكة / Romanized: ) is a single-head membranophone with a goblet-s ...
, a goblet drum held sideways and played with the fingers. Intricate
clapping
A clap is the percussive sound made by striking together two flat surfaces, as in the body parts of humans or animals. Humans clap with the palms of their hands, often quickly and repeatedly to express appreciation or approval (see applause), b ...
is also common in Libyan folk music.
Traveling Bedouin poet-singers have spread many popular songs across Libya. Among their styles is huda, the camel driver's song, the rhythm of which is said to mimic the feet of a walking
camel
A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...
.
During the 2011 revolution, the Berber singer
Dania Ben Sassi
Dania Ben Sassi, Tamazight: Danya At Sasi, Arabic: دانيا بن ساسي (born 1998) is a Libyan Amazigh singer whose music went viral during the First Libyan Civil War, due to the fact her music praises Amazigh resistance and are sung in Tama ...
went viral with her songs praising the sacrifices of the Libyan people, sung in Amazight.
References
External links
*
Audio clips: Traditional music of Libya.Musée d'ethnographie de Genève
The ' ("Geneva Ethnography Museum") is one of the most important ethnographic museums in Switzerland.
History
The MEG, or Geneva Museum of Ethnography, was founded on 25 September 1901, on the initiative of Professor Eugène Pittard (1867-1962), ...
. Accessed November 25, 2010.
Libyan music organization sound samples available for download.
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