Recording Studios: Arabic music or Arab music includes several genres and styles of music ranging from Arabic classical to Arabic pop music and from secular to sacred music.
Arabic music whilst independent and very alive, has a long history of interaction with many other regional musical styles and genres. It is an amalgam of the music of the Arabs in the Arabian Peninsula and the music of all the peoples that make up the Arab world today. It also influenced and has been influenced by ancient Egyptian, ancient Greek, Persian, Kurdish, Assyrian, Turkish, Indian, North African music (i.e. Berber), African music (i.e. Swahili), and European music (i.e. Flamenco).
As was the case in other artistic and scientific fields, Arabs translated and developed Greek texts and works of music and mastered the musical theory of the Greeks (i.e. Systema ametabolon, enharmonium, chromatikon, diatonon). Such inter-influences can often be traced in language; for example, the word Shî’ir (poetry in Arabic) bears much similarity to its equivalents in other Semitic languages (such as Shûr in Aramaic and Shîr in Hebrew), and Shîro in Babylonian. Afar music is similar to the music of Ethiopia with elements of Arab music. The Somali oral traditions include an array of poetry and proverbs, much of it devoted to the lives of Sufi saints. Afar oral literature is more musical, and comes in many varieties, including songs for weddings, war, praise and boasting.
Recording Studios: Arab Music Pre-Islamic period
The development of Arabic music has deep roots in Arabic poetry dating back to the pre-Islamic period known as Jahiliyyah. Though there is a lack of scientific study to definitively confirm the existence of Arabic music at those times, most historians agree that there existed distinct forms of music in the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and the 7th century AD. Arab poets of that time – called “Jahili poets” which translates to “The poets of the period of ignorance” – used to recite poems with a high musical rhythm and tone.
