Belly dance training, individual lessons, dance staging, performances, participation in festivals, show program. String musical oriental instruments Types of Arabic musical instruments

Many may ask, why should dancers study musical instruments? Yes, and what instruments - Arabic! In fact, there is an answer, and it is quite simple. It is unlikely that anyone will be able to dance without music, but in order to get a dance to music, you must be able to feel and understand it. After all, it is precisely by feeling it, like Arabic musical instruments, that you can express all your emotions in the process of dancing.

Oriental music is peculiar and really exciting. If there is knowledge about what instruments it is produced with, it will be possible to understand how to beat it in the process of dancing.

Types of Arabic musical instruments

In Egypt and other countries of the East, the most common instrument is the Tabla. This is a drum that in many ways resembles a doomback.

Tabla, which is used specifically in Egypt, is often made of ceramic and covered with hand-painted. As for the size of the tool, they can be different. The length of the tabla can vary in size from 30 to 40 cm, and in diameter from 20 to 35 cm. Different skins are also used, if the drum is expensive, then fish skin is used, if the drum is cheap, then goat skin is used.

It is necessary to emphasize that only natural tabla is made of ceramics. As for fakes, such as darbuka, it is often made of metal and has a plastic membrane for better sound.

The instrument is played with two types of strokes. The first blow is doom, it is the heaviest and is applied in the center of the instrument. The second hit is tech, it's softer and comes at the rim.

All songs in which belly dance is performed are played using the tabla, since it has the ability to set the rhythm. It should be noted that some experienced dancers often perform a solo called "tablo-solo", which is performed only to the drum. In addition to the fact that in this performance, Arabic musical instruments set the rhythm, they can also correctly fill the melody with accents, depending on the movements of the dancer.

Frame drums, DEF and RIK are also popular in Egypt.

1. DEF is a frame drum that is used to sound bass when creating a melody.
2. RIK is a small drum that is somewhat similar to a tambourine. By the way, in oriental music it is used quite often, both in classical sound and in modern styles. It is also often used as an accessory for belly dancing. It is often a drum with a diameter of 17 cm and a rim depth of 5 cm. This rim contains cymbals, 5 pieces, which create an interesting additional sound. Because of these plates, the instrument can be quite heavy.

DOHOL is another instrument often used in Egypt. This is a drum, like all the predecessors described above. It is a hollow body meter in diameter and 30 cm in height. The cylinder is covered on both sides with leather, which is stretched almost to the limit. The instrument is played in two ways. Or with the help of hands, or with the help of two sticks. One such stick looks like a cane, the other looks like a rod.

SAGATS are small little cymbals that make sounds when they are put on the fingers. The instrument is often used when the dancer shows his solo dance and independently accompanies himself in order to surprise the audience. Only two pairs of sagata are used, which are made of brass. Put them on the middle and thumb. For sagata dancers have minimum size, for musicians, they are created a little large.

In general, sagats are probably one of the instruments that was created quite a long time ago and has a whole history. In general, I would like to note that in almost every country there are analogues of the instrument.

But still, the sagats appeared much earlier, the dancers accompanied themselves with them during the reign of the Ghazi. Concerning modern world, then the instrument is only used in classic playbacks.

Despite the fact that a truly large number of musical instruments have already been named, the East is so diverse that it is almost impossible to mention everything. After all, in addition to such unusual instruments that belong only to this part of the world, musical instruments often use the instruments familiar to us:

• guitar,
• saxophone and even violin.

If we delve even more deeply into the existence and history of Arabic music, it should be noted that there is also an oriental wind instrument, but it is used quite rarely.

TAR is stringed instrument who is held in high esteem. It has 6 strings and is made of wood, while the more qualitatively the wood is dried, the better the sound is.

Video: tabla music

ORIENTAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

"ARABS SAY THAT WHEN A WOMAN DANCES A BELY DANCE, PERCUSSION INSTRUMENTS LEAD HER HIPS, WIND INSTRUMENTS - HEART, AND STRINGS - HEAD"

Get to know the musical traditional instruments used in the Middle East and if possible, listen to them.

DUMBEK

(also known as tabla or darbuka). In dance, the musical rhythm is of the greatest importance and the doomback helps to maintain it. Initially, doombacks were ceramic and covered with fish or goat skin, but today most of them are metal with a plastic surface.

Dulcimer

(“sagats” in Arabic or “tsilli” in Turkish). Usually, the cymbals are used by the dancers themselves, putting them on their fingers, but sometimes they are also played by musicians in a group. They use larger cymbals that fit male hands and would be too bulky for dancing, but they sound really beautiful.

TAMBOURINE

- This percussion instrument is used to maintain the main rhythm and as an accessory. On brass plates along the circumference of the tambourine, as well as on its circumference, they strike with fingers.

UDD

- an egg-shaped stringed instrument with a large "belly", the forerunner of the modern guitar, resembles a lute played in medieval Europe.

4, 5 thousand years ago, in the excavations of the Ashur culture, they found an instrument that coincides with the type of modern lute. Moreover, they found notes called “nineva”. The Germans opened these notes and for the first time the stories were sounded by a German orchestra. Apparently the Arabs took the lute or udd with them when they discovered Spain. It is no coincidence that the Bible says that David's psalms are played on the lute (udde). Udd (Arabic lute) - an instrument that is the main instrument Arab world. In the excavations of Yemen, the udd has 4 strings, and in the excavations of Syria - 5 strings and for many centuries remained 5 strings. In the 20th century, an Arab composer, Syrian by origin, Farid al Atrash (countryman of Kamal Ballan) added a 6 bass string "to". Farid al Atrash is known as the king of the udd, who skillfully extracts the philosophy of music, the gunpowder of passion, the depth of the lyrics from the silent strings of the Arabic lute. After Farid, there were many experimental musicians, but Farid remained a planet with a posthumous glory for all time. Farid al Atrash - composer famous work"Arabic tango".

Arabic lute lessons (udd)

from a virtuoso of his craft, a unique Arab composer and performer

Kamal Ballana.

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EVE

- this harp-like stringed instrument is laid horizontally and played with metal tips worn on the fingers. It is quite difficult to play it. In order to take full advantage of the whole gamut of sounds of the eve, the dancer under slow music can perform a series of shaking.

ACCORDION

The first European accordions, modeled after one of the oldest Chinese musical instruments, appeared in Australia around 1830. Within a few years, this instrument began to be used in Egyptian music, and was slightly modified to allow the fourth notes of the Arabic musical scale to be played. Today, the accordion is an indispensable instrument in a group performing oriental music, and the taksims performed on it, have amazing hypnotic power. In one type of impromptu song called "rising beledi", the accordion enters slowly and gradually progresses to a series of accents, picking up the tempo, and at the end, when the drums join it, it reaches a fast maximum.

REBAB

Rebab- stringed bowed instrument Arabic origin. The term "rebab" in Arabic means the combination of short sounds into one long one.

It has a wooden flat or convex, trapezoidal or heart-shaped body with small notches on the sides. The shells are made of wood or coconut, the soundboards are made of leather (from the intestines of a buffalo or bladder of other animals). The neck is long, round, pointed; at the top it has 1-2 long transverse pegs, at the bottom it passes through the body and protrudes in the form of a faceted metal leg. Strings (1-2) originally from horsehair, later - metal (copper or brass).

Sounds are extracted with the help of a bow-shaped bow. It was also used as a plucked instrument. folk singers ( shairas) accompanied themselves on the rebab when performing folk songs and elegiac poems.

The description of the instrument is contained in Al-Farabi's Great Treatise on Music (1st half of the 10th century).

LIRA

Lyra - a stringed plucked musical instrument in the form of a collar with two curved posts protruding from the resonator body and connected closer to the upper end by a crossbar, to which five or more core strings are stretched from the body.

Originating in prehistoric times in the Middle East, the lyre was one of the main instruments of the Jews, and later the Greeks and Romans. The instrument served to accompany singing, in which case it was played with a large plectrum.

With the decline of the Greco-Roman civilization, the distribution area of ​​the lyre moved to Northern Europe. The northern lyre, as a rule, differed in design from the ancient one: the posts, the crossbar and the resonator body were often carved from one piece of wood.

After 1000 AD e. not plucked, but bowed lyres became widespread, especially among the Welsh and Finns. Nowadays, only the Finns, as well as their Siberian relatives Khanty and Mansi, use the lira.

In ancient Greece, recitation was accompanied by playing the lyre. On the lyre classical antiquity usually played by plucking the strings with a plectrum, like playing a guitar or zither, rather than by plucking the strings, like playing a harp. The fingers of the free hand muted the strings that were unnecessary for a given chord.

Although the lyre was used by many outstanding musicians, which increased the number of strings on it to 9 (Theophrastus of Pieria) and even up to 12 (Melanippides), in the classical and Hellenistic era it was mainly a “home” instrument, since its sound was not loud. It taught beginners.

The lyre was also played by women, since it was not as heavy as the cithara and did not require a large physical strength. Moreover, unlike the wind instrument of the aulos, or aulus, playing the lyre was not considered an obscene occupation for a decent woman, since some Muses were also depicted with a lyre.

MISMAR

Mizmar (mizmar) is an Arabic wind instrument, a kind of zurna.
It has two reeds and two pipes of the same length. Mizmar belongs to the world folk music, and most often it can be heard in Eastern folklore, especially in Saidi.
A double reed and a special mouthpiece for resting the lips give the instrument its characteristic performance features and determine the overall character of the sound, which is sharper than that of the oboe. The lack of direct contact with the reed makes the sound of the instrument less flexible.

We have already talked about stringed and percussion oriental instruments and now we will focus on wind and keyboards:

ACCORDION - reed keyboard-pneumatic musical instrument. On the right keyboard is a full chromatic scale, and on the left bass or chord accompaniment.

In the 19th century, the accordion familiar to us joined the Arabic orchestra. Of course, it had to be finalized, adding the ability to play a quarter tone, familiar to Arabic music. Now an improvisational game in taksim is being performed on the accordion.

Ney is a wind instrument that is a relative of the flute.
It is made from reeds. There are 5 holes on the front side and one on the back, as well as a thin copper tube worn on the head of the instrument.
To play it, the copper head is clamped between the front upper and lower teeth. The air is blown up with the help of the tongue and lips, and the right and left hand The musician adjusted the pitch by opening and closing a hole on the instrument

MISMAR is an Arabic wind instrument from the zurna family. It has a double tongue and a special mouthpiece for lip support. They give a special character and define a sound that is sharper than that of the oboe. There is no direct contact with the reed, so the sound of the instrument is not very flexible.

Dutar. Du - two. Tar - string. An instrument with forged frets and two vein strings. Do you think the fewer strings the easier it is to play?

Well, then listen to one of the the best craftsmen playing the dutar - Abdurakhim Khaita, Uighur from Xinjiang, China.
There is also a Turkmen dutar. The strings and frets of the Turkmen dutar are metal, the body is hollowed out of a single piece of wood, the sound is very bright, sonorous. The Turkmen dutar has been one of my favorite instruments over the past three years, and the dutar shown in the photo was brought to me from Tashkent quite recently. Amazing tool!

Azerbaijani saz. The nine strings are divided into three groups, each of which is tuned in unison. A similar instrument in Turkey is called baglama.

Be sure to listen to how this instrument sounds in the hands of a master. If you have little time, then watch at least starting at 2:30.
From saz and baglama came the Greek instrument bouzouki and its Irish version.

Oud or al-ud, if you call this instrument in Arabic. It is from the Arabic name of this instrument that the name of the European lute originated. Al-ud - lute, lute - do you hear? The usual oud has no frets - the frets on this specimen from my collection appeared on my initiative.

Listen to how a master from Morocco plays the oud.

From the Chinese two-stringed erhu violin with a simple resonator body and a small leather membrane, the Central Asian gidjak originated, which in the Caucasus and Turkey was called kemancha.

Listen to how the kemancha sounds when Imamyar Khasanov plays it.

The rubab has five strings. The first four of them are doubled, each pair is tuned in unison, and the bass string is one. The long neck has frets in accordance with the chromatic scale for almost two octaves and a small resonator with a leather membrane. What do you think the downward curved horns coming from the neck towards the instrument mean? Does its shape remind you of a sheep's head? But okay form - what a sound! You should have heard the sound of this instrument! It vibrates and trembles even with its massive neck, it fills all the space around with its sound.

Listen to the sound of the Kashgar rubab. But my rubab sounds better, honestly.

The Iranian tar has a double hollowed-out body made from a single piece of wood and a membrane made from fine fish skin. Six paired strings: two steel strings, followed by a combination of steel and thin copper, and the next pair is tuned to an octave - a thick copper string is tuned an octave below the thin steel. The Iranian tar has forced frets made of veins.

Listen to how the Iranian tar sounds.
The Iranian tar is the ancestor of several instruments. One of them is an Indian setar (se - three, tar - string), and I will talk about the other two below.

Azerbaijani tar has not six, but eleven strings. Six of the same as the Iranian tar, an additional bass string and four unplayed strings that resonate when played, adding echoes to the sound and making the sound last longer. Tar and kemancha are perhaps the two main instruments of Azerbaijani music.

Listen for a few minutes, starting at 10:30 or at least starting at 13:50. You have never heard such a thing and could not imagine that such a performance is possible on this instrument. This is played by the brother of Imamyar Khasanov - Rufat.

There is a hypothesis that the tar is the ancestor of the modern European guitar.

Recently, when I talked about the electric cauldron, they reproached me - they say, I take out the soul from the cauldron. Probably, about the same thing was said to a person who, 90 years ago, guessed to put a pickup on an acoustic guitar. About thirty years later, the best examples of electric guitars were created, which remain the standard until today. A decade later, the Beatles appeared, Rolling Stones followed by Pink Floyd.
And all this progress has not hindered the manufacturers of acoustic guitars and classical guitar players.

But musical instruments did not always spread from east to west. For example, the accordion has become unusually popular instrument in Azerbaijan in the 19th century, when the first German settlers appeared there.

My accordion was made by the same master who made instruments for Aftandil Israfilov. Hear what this instrument sounds like.

The world of oriental musical instruments is large and diverse. I haven't even shown you a part of my collection, which is far from complete. But I must tell you about two more instruments.
A pipe with a bell at the top is called a zurna. And the instrument under it is called duduk or balaban.

Celebrations and weddings begin with the sounds of the zurna in the Caucasus, Turkey and Iran.

Here is what a similar instrument looks like in Uzbekistan.

In Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, zurna is called surnay. IN Central Asia and Iran, the lingering sounds of another instrument, the karnay, are necessarily added to the sounds of the surnah and tambourines. Karnay-surnay is a stable phrase denoting the beginning of the holiday.

Interestingly, an instrument related to karnay exists in the Carpathians, and its name is familiar to many - trembita.

And the second pipe, shown in my photo, is called balaban or duduk. In Turkey and Iran, this instrument is also called mey.

Listen to how Alikhan Samedov plays the balaban.

We will return to the balaban, but for now I want to talk about what I saw in Beijing.
As far as you understand, I collect musical instruments. And as soon as I had a free moment during my trip to Beijing, I immediately went to the musical instrument store. What I bought myself in this store, I will tell you another time. And now that I did not buy and what I regret terribly.
In the window there was a pipe with a bell, the design exactly resembling a zurna.
- How does is called? I asked through an interpreter.
- Sona, - they answered me.
- How similar to "sorna - surnay - zurna" - I thought aloud. And the translator confirmed my guess:
- The Chinese do not pronounce the letter r in the middle of a word.

You can read more about the Chinese variety of zurna
But, you know, zurna and balaban go hand in hand. Their design has a lot in common - maybe that's why. And what do you think? Next to the sona instrument was another instrument - the guan or guanji. Here's what it looked like:

Here's what it looks like. Guys, comrades, gentlemen, but this is the duduk!
And when did he get there? In the eighth century. Therefore, it can be assumed that it came from China - the timing and geography coincide.
So far, it is only documented that this tool spread to the east from Xinjiang. Well, how do they play this instrument in modern Xinjiang?

Watch and listen from the 18th second! Just listen to what a luxurious sound the Uighur balaman has - yes, here it is called exactly the same as in the Azerbaijani language (there is such a pronunciation of the name).

And let's eat Additional information in independent sources, for example, in the Iranian encyclopedia:
BALABAN
CH. ALBRIGHT
a cylindrical-bore, double-reed wind instrument about 35 cm long with seven finger holes and one thumb hole, played in eastern Azerbaijan in Iran and in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Or does Iranika sympathize with the Azerbaijanis? Well, the TSB also says that the word duduk is of Turkic origin.
Azerbaijanis and Uzbeks bribed the compilers?
Well, well, you definitely won’t suspect the Bulgarians of sympathy for the Turks!
on a very serious Bulgarian site for the word duduk:
duduk, dudyuk; duduk, dudyuk (from the Turkish düdük), squeaker, svorche, glasnik, additional - Naroden darven is a musical instrument of the aerophonite type, half-closing pipes.
Again they point to the Turkish origin of the word and call it their folk instrument.
This tool is widespread, as it turned out, mainly among the Turkic peoples, or among the peoples who had contact with the Turks. And every nation reasonably considers it to be its national, national instrument. But only one takes credit for its creation.

After all, only the lazy did not hear that "duduk is an ancient armenian instrument". At the same time, they hint that the duduk was created three thousand years ago - that is, in an unprovable past. But the facts and elementary logic show that this is not so.

Go back to the beginning of this article and take another look at musical instruments. Almost all of these instruments are played in Armenia too. But it is quite clear that all these tools appeared in much more numerous nations with a clear and understandable history, among which the Armenians lived. Imagine a small people living in dispersion among other peoples with their own states and empires. Will such a people create a complete set of musical instruments for an entire orchestra?
Frankly, I also thought: “Okay, those were big and complex instruments, let’s leave them aside. But at least the Armenians could come up with a pipe?” And it turns out that no, they didn't. If they came up with it, then this pipe would have a purely Armenian name, and not the poetic and metaphorical tsiranopokh (the soul of an apricot tree), but something simpler, more popular, with one root, or completely onomatopoeic. So far, all sources point to the Turkic etymology of the name of this musical instrument, and the geography and dates of distribution show that the duduk began its distribution from Central Asia.
Well, let's make one more assumption and say that the duduk came to Xinjiang from ancient Armenia. But how? Who brought him there? What peoples migrated from the Caucasus to Central Asia at the turn of the first millennium? There are no such nations! But the Turks were constantly moving from Central Asia to the west. They could well spread this tool in the Caucasus, and on the territory of modern Turkey and even in Bulgaria, as the documents indicate.

I foresee one more argument of the defenders of the version of the Armenian origin of the duduk. Like, a real duduk is made only from an apricot tree, which in Latin is called Prúnus armeniáca. But, firstly, apricots in Central Asia are no less common than in the Caucasus. The Latin name does not indicate that this tree has spread throughout the world from the area bearing geographical name Armenia. Just from there it penetrated into Europe and was described by botanists about three hundred years ago. On the contrary, there is a version that the apricot spread from the Tien Shan, part of which is in China, and part in Central Asia. Secondly, the experience of very talented peoples shows that this instrument can even be made from bamboo. And my favorite balaban is made from mulberry and sounds much better than apricot ones, which I also have and are made just in Armenia.

Listen to how I learned to play this instrument in a couple of years. Participated in the recording National artist Turkmen Gasan Mammadov (violin) and People's Artist of Ukraine, my countryman from Fergana, Enver Izmailov (guitar).

With all this, I want to pay tribute to the great Armenian duduk performer Jivan Gasparyan. It was this man who made the duduk an instrument known throughout the world, thanks to his work a wonderful school of playing the duduk arose in Armenia.
But talkin' Armenian duduk" is valid only about specific instruments if they are made in Armenia, or about the type of music that arose thanks to J. Gasparyan. Indicate Armenian origin duduk can only those people who allow themselves unsubstantiated assertions.

Please note that I myself do not indicate either the exact place or the exact time of the appearance of the duduk. Probably, it is already impossible to establish and the prototype of the duduk is older than any of the living peoples. But I am building my hypothesis about the spread of the duduk, based on facts and elementary logic. If someone wishes to object to me, then I want to ask in advance: please, when building hypotheses, in the same way, rely on provable and verified facts from independent sources, do not shy away from logic and try to find another intelligible explanation for the facts listed.

K. K. Rosenshield

The creators of the great ancient cultures- the peoples of China, India, Egypt and others Eastern countries- were the creators of wonderful music, colorful, original, rich, which is millennia older than European.

Classical Chinese dances with instrumental accompaniment.

Many beautiful musical works was built in ancient times by the Chinese people. IN famous book"Shijing" collected labor, household, ritual, lyric songs II-I millennium BC. e. folk song V ancient China was such a powerful social force that kings and emperors established special "musical chambers" for studying songs: after all, one could guess the mood of the people from them. Many songs directed against the arbitrariness of the rich and the oppression of officials have been banned for centuries. Song about folk hero Nie Zhenye, who killed the cruel king, was so hated by the rulers of China that even the instrumental performance of her melody was in danger for the performer. The music of Chinese songs is monophonic in structure. It is dominated by a five-step non-semitone system. But melodies of a different, more varied and complex structure are not uncommon. Folk songs are usually composed for high voices, light in sound. Their melody, clear, patterned, graceful in pattern, moves strictly rhythmically. The tunes of lyrical songs are especially melodic, they are full of great, restrained feeling.
The Chinese people have the lead in creating rhyming verse and song, in developing theoretical foundations musical art (IX-IV centuries BC).
The first musical theater in the history of mankind was born in China in the feudal era from folk dances and holiday games. Along with operas religious themes and there were many scenes from court life that are close in spirit and music to folk art. No wonder there was a custom in ancient China: people innocently sentenced to death sang heroic songs from their favorite folk "operas" on their way to the place of execution.

Huqin is a Chinese bowed string instrument, a kind of violin.

In our exist major theaters Beijing, Shanghai and Shaoxing "opera". Orchestral music plays an important role in their original productions. Everything is united by it: the melodious speech of the actors, their movements and facial expressions, the grouping of actors on the stage, their dances and virtuoso acrobatics. The characters pour out their feelings in the course of the plot in melodic arias. It is interesting that similar experiences, feelings, situations, characters in different plays are usually expressed by variants of the same melodies. The main instruments in the orchestra are percussion (gongs, drums, wonderful sets of bells); they give the music a unique national flavor and vivid emotionality.

The pipa is a Chinese plucked lute-type musical instrument.

Chinese musical instruments are ancient and original. The four-stringed "pipa" lute was probably given its name in imitation of its quiet, easily crumbling sounds.
Favorite by poets and philosophers, the table "qixianqin" (or "qin") makes very gentle sounds: it usually has seven silk strings. According to legend, the great philosopher Confucius (551-479 BC) masterfully played this instrument. The Chinese also have their own original folk violin - a two-string "huqin" (in the south of China - "erhu"), which is played not like our violinists, but by passing the hair of the bow between the strings. Chinese people loves his wind instruments- a bamboo flute "xiao" with six holes, a multi-barreled flute "paixiao" and the famous "sheng", which has existed for millennia. It is a bowl-shaped instrument with seventeen pipes and bronze reeds that vibrate when air is blown into the mouthpiece. Such a device makes it possible to perform polyphonic and chordal music on the "sheng". Soft gentle colors of the sound of Chinese instruments expressively recreate both lyrical experiences and elegant musical landscapes.


Qixianqin is a plucked musical instrument, a kind of zither.

In the 20th century, Chinese composers Xi Xing-hai, Liu Tzu, Nie Er became famous. Nie Era's "Volunteer March" is now China's national anthem.
Classical music Korea, her instrumental genres, choral and solo singing formed in the distant past. Poetic works were also recited to the music - short three-line "sijo". The songs of the Korean people are close to the Chinese in five steps. Their peculiar features are the abundance of guttural sounds, the tremulous sound of the singers' voices (vibrato), fast and smooth slips of sounds (glissando). Korean fishing songs are amazingly beautiful. In their melodies, movement and splashing of waves are heard. Among their musical instruments, Koreans are particularly fond of the plucked gayageum, flutes, and various percussion instruments that accompany wonderful Korean dances.


Gayageum is a Korean multi-stringed plucked musical instrument.

The rise of the Japanese national music refers to the VI-VII centuries. An important role in its formation was played by the penetration from the mainland along with Buddhism of cult music. Since the sixteenth century European music appears in Japan, but the influence of Western art on Japanese musical life becomes especially strong in the second half of the 19th century. Traditional Japanese musical instruments include shamisen and koto stringed instruments. When playing music on the Japanese fue flute, the holes in the instrument are closed not with the fingertips, but with the phalanges.

Japanese musical instruments: three-stringed plucked "sha misen" and flute.

Creator of the richest musical culture V South-East Asia the people of Indonesia. Very melodic Indonesian vocal music. Its wide melodies of five and seven steps, decorated with a rich pattern, leave vivid impression. The famous folk "gamelan" orchestras consist mainly of percussion: metallophones, xylophones, gongs, drums, rattles and others, which give the music a particularly colorful sound, intense emotionality, and a variety of rhythmic patterns. In views folk theater gamelans accompany the solo and choral singing and mass dances, which are distinguished by their extraordinary beauty.
The music of India reflected the history of the people, their way of life, character, customs, nature. IN musical folklore songs of peasants, artisans, fishermen sound. The centuries-old domination of religion influenced all aspects of Indian life and gave rise to various forms of religious music (sacred hymns, ritual songs, etc.).


Gamelan is a traditional Indonesian orchestra and a type of instrumental music making.

More than once the Indian people had to defend native land from invading invaders, fight against foreign oppression. So heroic songs and tales arose among various Indian peoples. Narrators wandering all over India sang excerpts from the legends of the Mahabharata and Ramayana.
Even in ancient times in India, many melodies of various types developed - each with a certain mode, rhythm, intonation, and pattern. They were called "raga" (awakened feeling). Each raga evokes in the listeners one or another mood or idea of ​​the phenomena of the environment. Indians distinguish images of birds, flowers, stars in their sounds. The performance of the raga is timed to certain seasons, days, hours. There are ragas that are sung only during the rains, there are ragas for singing at dawn, at noon, in the evening.
Indian lyrical songs are captivatingly beautiful with their varied rhythms and luxurious melodic embellishments.
Music is closely related to classical dances of all local styles, where legends about heroes are embodied, their mood and feelings are revealed. The dancer interprets the melody with "speaking" movements, and the music completes the image of the dance.

This type of raga, an Indian classical tune, is played only at midnight. In the hands of a woman is the national stringed instrument "vina". Two gourds at the ends of the body of the veena serve to enhance its sound.

India, like China, is one of the cradles of the national musical theater. His descriptions are found in the epic "Mahabharata". There was also an ancient mystery "jatra" with songs and accompaniment of an instrumental ensemble, folk puppet show with musical arrangement.
The ancient and new literature. The great poet Tagore wrote musical dramas and songs.


Mridangam is an Indian musical instrument (drum).

India has created its own musical instruments. Spindle-shaped "mridangam" drums, "tabla" drums, which are beaten with palms, are especially original. The Indian style of playing percussion instruments is so virtuoso-thin and expressive that they are often accompanied by solo singing. The stringed bow "sarangi" sounds beautifully, the coloring of the sound reminiscent of a human voice. But especially revered in India is a plucked seven-string "blame" with a gentle, melodious "silver" sound.
With the fall of colonialism, many folk and classical songs came to life, which indian people kept for centuries. More varied and richer music life countries, music printing began to develop, schools of music, dance, and drama were opened. In the 20th century, composers X. Chattopadhya, R. Shankar, S. Chowdhury gained fame, creating new songs, operas, and music for films.
One of the ancient and formerly rich cultures of Asia is Persian. In the Middle Ages, it reached a brilliant flowering. Persian lyric songs, embellished ornamental patterns were famous throughout the cultural world. Persian folk singers, storytellers, virtuosos on "kemancha" and "surna" gained fame far beyond the borders of their homeland. genius poets and the musicians Saadi, Hafiz and others sang their poetic works, accompanying themselves on the "chang".
There were many musicians at the Shah's court, but their lot was hard. The great poet Firdousi captured in the poem "Shahnameh" a truly terrible picture: the king tramples a girl to death with a camel, who, with gentle music, almost prevented him from hitting the game with an arrow while hunting. After the Mongol invasion, Persian music entered a period of centuries of decline.


Egyptian harp. (Image found in the tomb of Ramses IV.)

In the countries of the Arabian Peninsula and in northern Africa, before the Arab conquests, there were millennia-old cultures with a highly developed musical art. The oldest of all musical monuments of mankind known to us belongs to Babylon. This is music recorded in wedge-shaped signs. song of praise about the appearance of man on earth.
Syria is the birthplace of inspired lyric hymns, widely popular and ancient world. From there, the famous poet-musician John of Damascus was born.
Egypt was famous for agricultural and river "Nile" songs, folk performances with music in honor of the gods Osiris and Isis. Instrumental art flourished there. The Egyptian harp was arched, its palm fiber strings sounded unusually delicate.

The lute is an ancient plucked stringed musical instrument with frets on the neck and an oval body.

Arabic music was born in the Arabian Peninsula. Bedouin nomads created songs of drovers, songs of praise and lamentation, songs of revenge. In Arabia, the first famous Arab singers and virtuosos appeared, who had no equal in playing the "lute" - plucked instrument, subsequently bypassed the entire cultural world. Arab poetry and music went hand in hand, perfecting each other.
In the Middle Ages, the music of the Arabs absorbed various elements of the art of the peoples they conquered, many of their tunes, modes, and genres. Rubais, lyrical gazelles, short whales of rhyming couplets, long, pompous qasidas—all of them were set to music. Arabic melody is based on a special, unfamiliar musical art Europe 22-step system. Its distinctive features are a flexible, changeable rhythm, the intricate figures of which beat back percussion instruments, a wealth of improvisations, the guttural accent of the singer. In combination with magnificent melodic patterns, this creates the impression of bright colors, ardor of feelings.
Subsequently, the Turkish conquest, and even later colonial oppression (French, British, etc.) doomed Arabic music to half a thousand years of stagnation.