Performance Practices in the Arab Gulf

A variety of collective and solo sonic arts circulate in the Arab Gulf, and I am very interested in them theoretically, aesthetically and historically. I plan on focusing some musical theoretical work on several of these genres, specifically genres that utilize al-rabāba, the rawwāḥ from Musandam and amongst the Shīḥūḥ, and a variety of sword dances. I am currently working on a rhythmic analysis of some binary-ternary elements of several of these genres as well as a study of bowing technique and sung poetic units in the UAE. I’m a big fan of “Million’s Poet,” the great poetry/reality/competition TV show, but I realized I liked watching it more than anything else, so there’s that.

The photo of the rabāba player that links to this page was taken for the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage application for al-taghrūda, and was captioned: A prominent poet, Mohamed bin Saeed AI Rakaki, performing AI Taghrooda while playing al-rababa. The use of al-rababa was introduced to accompany AI-Taghrooda chanting in the 1960s, and its use is limited to the Western Region of Abu Dhabi. Photograph: Mr. Sethuratnam © ADACH, 2009