[arġūl, argul, arghoul, yavghul].
Double clarinet with a cylindrical bore, composed of melody pipe and drone pipe each with single beating reeds; the drone is much longer than the melody pipe. The arghūl belongs to the family of idioglot clarinets, which includes the zummāra, çifte (Turkey), launeddas (Sardinia) etc.; its similarity to the double aulos of ancient Greece suggests a pre-Christian origin. Etymologically the term arghūl is a metaplasm of urġun, the Arabic word frequently used to describe the organ. Villoteau (p.967) mentioned three different sizes of arghūl: the ‘arghoul el-kebyr’ (big), ‘arghoul el-soghayr’ (medium) and ‘arghoul el-asghar’ (small). Elsner listed a variety of names applied to various types of arghūl (without reference to relative size) including ‘el-argūl el-kebīr, el-argūl el-soġair, arġūl ġāb (ġāb means pipe, reed-pipe), ġāb, sibs ġāb, sibs, and mizmār muzdawağ (mizmār is a general term for wind instrument, muzdawağ means double, in pairs)’.
The big arghūl is made in nine parts, each having a name, which may vary from region to region. It consists of a pair of mouthpieces which include the up-cut reeds; two short sections called luqma (‘mouthful’) as these first four parts of the instrument are all played from inside the player’s mouth; the melody pipe; and the principal drone pipe and its three extensions. Elsner gave a detailed description of the proportions for the big arghūl, which are traditionally measured in basic body units (fist, finger breadth etc.). In the instrument he described, the entire melody pipe was 76·6 cm long and the entire drone pipe was 239·7 cm long. The arghūl is made from bamboo or some other suitable material and the two parts are bound together with string and tar or wax. The detachable sections of the drone are usually linked by lengths of cord to prevent them being lost.
The melody pipe is usually bored with five or six finger-holes, producing a diatonic scale. Either simple or cross fingering can be used when playing the instrument, and by partially covering (‘shading’) the stops, a wide range of pitches can be produced. The drone can be changed by varying the number of lengthening pieces; usually only three drone notes are used – that is, only the last two lengthening pieces are removed. Circular breathing is used.
The contemporary arghūl is essentially an Egyptian folk instrument and is used by a variety of people including Nile boatmen, shepherds and professional folk musicians. It is used to accompany folksongs, ballads and popular mawwāl songs, and can be heard at weddings, dances and other social gatherings.
M. Villoteau: ‘D’une espèce de flûte champêtre appelée en arabe arghoul’, Description de l’Egypte: état moderne, ed. E.F. Jomard, I/i (Paris, 1809), 962ff
E.W. Lane: Modern Egyptians (London, 1860), 244, 367
J. Elsner: ‘Remarks on the Big Arġūl’, YIFMC, i (1969), 234–9
J. Jenkins and P. Rovsing Olsen: Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London, 1976), 58 only
F. Bliss: ‘Musik und Liedgut der Oasen Bahriya und Siwa in der westlichen Wüste Ägyptens’, Jb für musikalische Volks- und Völkerkunde, xiii (1988), 89–109
WILLIAM J. CONNER, MILFIE HOWELL