Final Destination: Mecca

Excerpts from “Layali Kurd,” “Sawt Shami” and “Taqsim Maqam Hijaz Kar Kurd,” compiled and recorded by Habib Hassan Touma for his book The Music of the Arabs (Cambridge: Amadeus Press, 1996).

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Arab music makes use of the “Maqam Phenomenon.” According to Habib Hassan Touma “characteristic of maqam performances are the long pauses that split up melodic lines into several melodic passages.” This technique certainly sounds like Miles Davis’s approach to improvisation–the long pauses that made Davis so famous. But that’s getting ahead of the story.

Many of the ideas of Arab music (the patterns of notes, the syncopated rhythms) predate Islam. This earlier music focused on vocals by singer-servant women called “qaynah.” These women put traditional Arab poetry to music. And although Arab musical ideas were probably influenced by contact with Persia, Byzantine, Egypt and Ethiopia, few records remain. The first two selections here are reminiscent of that early, pre-Islamic tradition , with their haunting melodic lines and sense of time. The third selection –“Taqsim Maqam Hijaz Kar Kurd”–is from the Hijaz style, also called the Early Arabian Classical school (it was developed during the Abbasid Era, 750-1258 CE). Hijaz era musicians added more instruments during performances. The Hijaz school was followed by the Andalusi style of Arab music, which began in the early 800s and spread to Cordoba, Seville, Toledo, Valencia and Granada, where it clearly influenced Flamenco and southern Spanish traditional music (as seen above). The similarities in melodic patterns, rhythm and cords are unmistakable.

The wistful, melancholy sense in both Arab and traditional Spanish clearly lends itself to the kind of “cool” Jazz of Miles Davis. In each case, be it Arab, Spanish or Jazz music, borrowing across cultural lines has had rich results. Such borrowing serves as a reminder of our common connections–of our common humanity. It can be clearly seen in a journey from Miles to Mecca and the various stages and “destinations” in between.

Conclusion

The PBS documentary Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth, with Bill Moyers is subtitled “the Powerful Journey into Mankind’s Universal Search for Meaning and Connection.” It underscores something that seems to have been lost in the postmodern debate on college campuses over the last few decades: humans have been choosing to tell stories with a purpose for millennia. Recognizing the various ways that these stories have been used to manipulate and support a political agenda is only half the story—albeit a very important part of the process of mitigating the dangers inherent in concepts such as the idea of the “Other.” As the historian T.H. Von Laue recommended, however, we need to pick from the past that which is useful in the present, especially where the stakes are so high. And while the Us/Them outlook (or what Jerry Z. Muller has recently called “ethnonationalism”) is likely to endure, this does not mean that an alternate narrative should not be attempted.  An inclusive story needs to begin somewhere. Academics have a role to play. But they need to write about topics with a broader appeal. The insight of the postmodern debate can be put to good use (particularly the idea of the malleability of narratives or the construct), but not if the public does not know about them. Music is highly accessible and the connections to be made highlight a profound point: we are more similar than different; opening our minds to other cultures is a powerful and rewarding experience. Doing so may actually lead to our collective survival in the decades ahead. A brief listen to Sketches of Spain makes these common connections clear. It is a reminder of the rewards of learning from and borrowing from other cultures.

See sidebar for more resources and connections to other music.