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Sawt ( /

ALA-LC ALA-LC (American Library AssociationLibrary of Congress) is a set of standards for romanization, the representation of text in other writing systems using the Latin script. Applications The system is used to represent bibliographic information by ...

: ''Ṣawt''; literally "voice"; also spelled sout or sowt) is a kind of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

found in

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

and

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

History

It is said that sawt was established in Kuwait by the poet, composer, singer and oud player Abdallah al-Faraj (1836-1901/1903). The Bahraini historian Mubārak al-'Ammārī believes that sawt was known in Kuwait before 1766, and in Bahrain since 1783. Saleh and Daoud Al-Kuwaity were widely considered among one of its earliest pioneers.

Description

''Sawt'' is a complex form of urban music, originally performed on the 'ud (plucked lute) and

mirwas The ''mirwās'' or ''marwas'' (), plural ''marāwīs'' () is a small double-sided, high-pitched hand drum originally from the Middle East. It is a popular instrument in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf, used in '' sawt'' and '' fijiri'' music ...

(a drum), with a

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

later supplementing the arrangement. Two men perform the dance, which is called "Zaffan". ''Al-Sout'' is performed only at night gatherings of men. It is called "Samra" (nightly chat). Sawt also contains a special type of clapping called sherbaka, which means "intertwined," and is usually performed by spectators only on Arabic and Levantine scales. The poetry used in sawt is usually classical Arabic poetry, or khamini poetry, which is similar to mushah, but with scales characteristic of ancient Yemeni poets and their local language. Most Arabic and Levantine sawts end with a fragment called Tawshih, which is the beginning of the end of the sawt and can be lyrical or musical only. Tawshih also contains improvised rhythms, and some end it with a specific melody to finish the sawt. Some sources indicate that the history of the art of sawt began before the advent of Abdullah al-Faraj, and that it is related to the sound singing that was prevalent in the Abbasid era, as Ahmed Ali notes in his book Music and Singing in Kuwait. As for Mubarak al-Omari, in his book "Muhammad bin Faris: The Most Famous Sawt Singer in the Persian Gulf", points out that sawt arrived in Bahrain from Kuwait in 1766.

References

External links

Fan al Sawt music by the Ghalali music and dance group, Muharraq, Bahrain, 2009
Music of Kuwait Music of Bahrain Popular music {{music-genre-stub

History

Description

References

Further reading

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External links