Rabāb [rubāb, rubob, rebab, rabob, robāb, ribāb, rbab, rabāba etc.].

A term for various chordophones, particularly lutes (mainly with skin soundtable), both bowed and plucked, and lyres, found mainly in North Africa, the Middle East, Iran, Central Asia, South Asia and South-east Asia, but also in many other regions influenced by Islam: from China to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia to Spain (and thence to Latin America). For a discussion of the term as applied to lyres, see Rabāba. The term may be related to the European Rebec.

ALASTAIR DICK (1, 4(ii), 5(ii)); CHRISTIAN POCHÉ (2(i), 3); JACK PERCIVAL BAKER DOBBS, MARGARET J. KARTOMI (2(ii)); JEAN DURING (4(i)); JOHN BAILY (4(iii), 5(i))

Rabāb

1. Terminology and distribution.

The etymology and origin of the term ‘rabāb’ to denote chordophones is not known with certainty. It is first reported in the early medieval Arabic texts (9th–10th centuries) of Al-Jāhiz, Ibn Khurdadhbih and Al-Fārābī. Al-Jāhiz merely names it; Ibn Khurdadhbih claims it is similar to the lūrā (lyra) of the Byzantines; and Al-Fārābī, in what appears to be the first reference to bowed chordophones (as noted by H.G. Farmer), states that it is played ‘by strings drawn on other strings’.

Farmer (1931, pp.103ff) distinguished, on medieval textual grounds, between rabāb, denoting bowed instruments (‘viols’ or fiddles), and rubāb (possibly of Persian origin), denoting plucked chordophones (‘lutes’), while admitting that the first short vowel is not, as is usual in Arabic script, written in the earlier texts. This distinction between bowed and plucked instruments is thus not entirely clear in the early literature; neither can it be maintained with reference to the later distribution of the instrument (and its various forms) from Morocco to Java. Rabāb is the commonest orthography, though the short neutral first vowel may be written variously in different languages (e.g. Malay–Indonesian rebab). Since the Middle Ages there has been a difference of usage between West and East. In Western Islam (North Africa and the Arab countries), the name rabāb denotes primarily spike fiddles (but also the short-necked fiddle of classical Andalusian Moroccan music) and this type was also distributed through the Arab maritime spice routes in South-East Asia. In Iran, Central Asia and South Asia, the term denotes mainly plucked lutes, either barbed and long-necked, or double-chested (see also Kamānche and Ghidjak.

Rabāb

2. Spike fiddles.

(i) Arab and Turkish.

Spike fiddles seem to have had the name rabāb since medieval times. Some, like the quadrangular rabāba, appear to have evolved from frame drums. The body consists of a wooden frame with both the belly and the back of sheepskin. The first evidence of the quadrangular body is not to be attributed to Arab writers but to accounts by European travellers from the late 16th century onwards. The only reference in an Iranian text to a quadrangular fiddle is by Ibn Ghaibī (d 1435), but the instrument is called yakta, not rabāb. The 16th-century Egyptian lawyer Ibn Hajar al-Haythamī mentioned both the rabāb and rabāba without giving any other explanation than ‘string instrument’.

The distinction made by Villoteau in the 19th century (and after him by Lane) between the single-string, quadrangular rabāb al-shā‘ir (‘poet’s fiddle’) and the two-string rabāb al-mughannī (‘singer’s fiddle’), tuned in 5ths, no longer exists in Egypt. The quadrangular shape has since disappeared from there (except in Sinai) and its epic repertory has been transferred to the hemispherical two-string spike fiddle, now called simply rabāba.

The quadrangular single-string rabāba (also rabāb, rabābah) or rabāba al-shā‘ir is still used from Saudi Arabia in the south to Syria in the north, and from Iraq in the east to the Mediterranean coast in the west. It is considered the main instrument of the nomads (Arab and non-Arab) and rural populations. It accompanies a singer and the compass does not exceed a 5th. The instrument is known in two shapes: a rectangular form (for illustration see Lute, fig.2b) of the Bedouin in Iraq and Jordan, and a type with concavely curving sides, nowadays more widespread. In Syria, the use of petrol cans as soundboxes has been introduced by the Nawar (Gypsy) people. A trapezoidal form documented in the 19th century does not exist. A second type of spike fiddle has a hemispherical body of carved wood, gourd or coconut covered with a skin belly; it has a wide distribution, from North Africa to South-East and East Asia (see §(ii) below). In some of these types, such as the Sous or Soussi rabāb (ribāb) of the Berbers of southern Morocco, the string runs not above the neck but at an angle by its left side from a lateral peg near its top (see fig.2); it is stopped by being touched by the fingers.

Another type of rabāb with a hemispherical gourd resonator covered by skin is the Libyan rabāba which, like several related instruments of the African Sahel (such as the Tuareg imzad, the Niger goge or the Mali n’jarka), is a single-string fiddle with a high bridge and a curved neck which does not pierce the soundbox itself but passes under the skin over the rim of the gourd (the instrument might thus not be strictly regarded as a spike fiddle). In Mauritania the rbab is a single-string fiddle with a straight neck and a half-calabash resonator through which the handle projects.

In Turkey, the rebâb is a spike fiddle of hemispherical or three-quarters spherical shape, akin to the Persian kamānche. The instrument is now largely obsolete, superseded by the kemençe; in surviving instruments the original pegboxes have often been replaced by sections adapted from Western guitars. The instrument was formerly played with the soundbox turned face inwards, and the bow diagonally applied, grazing the soundbox (a characteristically Persian technique). There were three strings or courses. A similar instrument with a coconut resonator (the jūza) is found in Iraq. Also related is the two-string Egyptian rabāba. All these models have tuning-pegs arranged laterally along the neck. Spike fiddles of the rabāb type are generally played on the knees with the bow held from underneath.

(ii) South-east Asia.

The rebab has a prominent role in both the folk and classical traditions of Indonesia and Malaysia. The instrument, a spike fiddle, may have two or three strings. It is distinguished, however, not so much by the number of strings, but by the construction, shape and function, which vary from region to region.

In Sumatra and Malaysia the two-string rebab, generally used to accompany epic singing and in ensembles, is closely related to its Middle Eastern counterpart. The three-string rebab, which has a longer shaft and is less squat and more common than the two-string version, is similar to the comparatively sophisticated so sām sāi of Thailand, the tror che (see Tror) of Cambodia and the two-string rebab used in gamelan music in Java and Bali.

In Central Java the rebab is about 100 cm tall. It has a heart-shaped or triangular body usually made from a single piece of wood or half a coconut shell. The back of the body is often pierced with a rosette of small holes; the front is covered with parchment of buffalo intestine or bladder. The bridge, made of teak and placed fairly high up on the parchment soundbox, is narrow at the top, broadening towards its base. A small folded piece of banana leaf is usually placed immediately underneath the bridge, between the two sections of the single brass-wire string which is trained around a peg underneath the box resonator and attached to two tuning pegs near the top of the neck. The presence of the leaf is thought to reduce the sharpness of the tone; this is often enhanced by placing a folded handkerchief between the string and the soundtable.

The neck of the rebab is made of ivory, ivory and buffalo horn, or wood. There is no fingerboard. The instrument is bowed just above the body with a loose horsehair bow held under the thumb and first finger and supported by the middle finger; the other fingers are used to keep the hair taut. The body is often clothed in an embroidered velvet jacket and when not played is placed on an ornate wooden stand. The larger court orchestras have a pair of rebab, one for each tuning system.

In Central Java the rebab is often used in gamelan ensembles. In soft-style pieces the rebab player leads the ensemble, often beginning with a short solo introduction. The instrument’s primary role is melodic. It anticipates the main notes of the melody, if not as freely as the voice or the suling (flute). It remains silent in loud pieces.

In West Java, the rebab is made from jackfruit or similar wood and is slightly taller (about 115 cm) than in Central Java. The instruments are similar in construction and bowing technique but there is a marked difference in Sundanese and Javanese musical styles.

In Bali, the body of the rebab is made of carved wood or occasionally half a coconut shell. The soundbox is covered with parchment of buffalo intestine or bladder. A bridge supports two wire strings, tightened by tuning-pegs. It is played with a loose, rosined horsehair bow held between the thumb and first finger. The other fingers keep the hair taut, so that there is little distinguishable difference between the pushed and drawn bow. The former practice of including the rebab in large Balinese gamelan ensembles has almost died out, but it still has a place in the gamelan gambuh, where it plays in unison with a group of suling.

The rebab tiga tali of West Malaysia has three strings (tiga: ‘three’; tali: ‘strings’; for illustration see Lute, fig.2d). It is similar in construction to the Javanese rebab. The heart-shaped soundbox may be made of almost any wood (jackfruit or keranji wood are common). The soundtable is usually made from the stomach of a cow or a buffalo’s bladder. The size of the soundbox is typically about 25 cm long, 17 cm at the widest part and 5 cm deep. The player holds the back of the instrument towards him. On the upper left-hand side of the soundbox there is a nodule made from the sticky substance secreted by a bee, with a tiny silver cap (Kelantan Malays refer to this as a mute). On the back of the soundbox strands of wool and strings of beads hang as decoration; originally human hair was used. Through the soundbox passes a slender wooden shaft, usually of leban wood and 108 cm long, the longer section above the soundbox (about 71 cm) forming the instrument’s neck. This is usually decorated with bands of metal and painted patterns and ornamented with an elaborately carved head which often resembles a Khmer or Thai crown. Below the soundbox the shaft becomes a wooden peg or foot (11·5 cm long) to support the instrument on the ground (like the spike of the cello). From a tailpiece on the foot three strings pass over a bridge of sena wood, high on the soundboard and then through a rectangular opening about three-quarters of the way up, to be attached to the tuning-pegs. The strings, usually of metal (originally twisted cotton), are normally tuned in 4ths or a combination of 4ths and 5ths, but there is no fixed pitch. There is no fingerboard; the pitch can be modified by the position of the player’s fingers on the strings and by the pressure exerted. The strings are bowed by a fragile but elaborately carved arched bow, nearly 80 cm long, strung with a variety of materials – strands of rattan, coconut fibres, threads from pineapple leaves, fishing line, even plastic string. The thumb and index finger control the bow and the third and fourth fingers hold the strands taut. The player sits on the floor with his legs crossed and holds the instrument upright. It may be used to accompany a singer and is a member of the instrumental ensembles for a variety of dance and theatre performances and the healing ceremony main puteri.

The rebab dua tali (dua: ‘two’: tali: ‘strings’) of West Malaysia is less highly decorated. Its soundbox, made of wood, is roughly rectangular, with rounded shoulders and base, and is slightly longer and broader than that of the rebab tiga tali. The shaft, up to 90 cm long, passes through the soundbox and ends in a foot. The two strings are attached to a tailpiece on the foot, pass over the bridge high on the soundbox and up the shaft to near the head, where they are attached to lateral pegs. There is no fingerboard. The bow is similar in shape to that of the rebab tiga tali, but heavier and less decorated. The instrument is chiefly used in the ensemble for the wayang kulit Melayu (shadow puppet play) but is now rare.

The rabab (rebab) is also found in Minangkabau, West Sumatra. The rabab darat of the upland region is about 90 cm tall and sometimes rests on a small silver peg. It has a hemispherical soundbox made of coconut or wood about 20 cm in diameter and 10 cm deep, covered with translucent cow- or buffalo-heart skin; there is a hole at the back. The body is attached to a carved and decorated wooden neck, about 70 cm long, which is bent backwards in a curve; jackfruit wood is often used. The wooden or rattan frame of the bow is about 75 cm long, with about 50 cm of horsehair stretched across the curved top end and a wooden protrusion near the other end. The player tautens the hair with his hand. There are two strings, made of thick cotton strands or metal, which are stretched from a metal tongue at the front base of the instrument, through holes at the neck, to wooden pegs at the top. A wooden bridge is placed at the top of the soundbox. The fiddle is played in an upright position, either solo or to accompany singing, especially of kaba (long epic poems).

The rabab pasisieh (rabab Pariaman), a three-string bowed fiddle, is found in the coastal (pasisieh) areas of West Sumatra, including Pariaman (see fig.3). It is similar in shape, construction and use to the rabab darat, with a soundbox made from half a coconut shell, covered with skin from the heart or stomach of a buffalo or cow. Its neck is about 50 cm long and its total height about 70 cm; the bow length is 60 cm.

Rabāb

3. Short-necked fiddles.

The predominant rabāb or rebab of North Africa is a boat-shaped two-string fiddle without frets. The instrument is called the Maghribi rabāb by easterners and the Moorish rebab by westerners. The dialect forms rebab, rebeb, rbeb and rbab bear witness to oral transmission; the classical term rabāb is not mentioned in current North African writings. The instrument was probably brought from Andalusia and found a home in urban centres that welcomed people from Spain: Tanger, Tetouan, Fez and Chechaouen in Morocco, Tlemcen and Constantine in Algeria and Testour in Tunisia. The instrument must have spread from these places to other cities. The rebab is shown with the ‘ūd in French engravings of the late 19th century; it was played in cafés in Algiers. It is also mentioned with the ‘ūd in an early reference, by the 17th-century writer, ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Fāsī, who describes it as having two strings tuned in 5ths (H.G. Farmer: ‘An Old Moorish Tutor’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1932, p.366). The possibility of the derivation of the rebab from the ‘ūd cannot be discounted: we find the same pegbox, more or less at a right angle, the same green membrane covering the soundbox and the same style of rosette.

The rebab is made of two joined sections, the body and the pegbox. The body is made up of two parts of equal length, the soundbox (8 cm in depth, made of walnut or cedar and covered with skin) and its extension, which is pierced with soundholes. The body length varies from 48 to 53 cm (in Algeria and Tunisia up to 60 cm), its width from 9 to 12 cm. The pegbox is almost 12 cm long and has two large pegs. The instrument may be pear-shaped (Algeria, Tunisia) or boat-shaped (Morocco). The body has two concave curves which the Moroccans describe as like the back of a hare. The second section (sadr: ‘chest’) is covered with a thin copper plate (Algeria, Tunisia) forming a finely worked grille made up of a series of increasingly small rosettes (two in Morocco, three in Algeria and Tunisia). The rim is raised above the copper plate and calls for meticulous care in construction. In Morocco and Algeria, this rim is set with obliquely placed mother-of-pearl and ivory inlay work, suggesting plaited hair; in Tunisia, the rim is less elaborate. The neck terminates in a nut, made of bone. Two gut strings, very tightly strung, join at the base of the tailpiece and pass over an oblique bridge made of a half-cylinder of reed. The two strings, where they leave the nut, are some centimetres away from the rosettes, so there is no question of their being pressed down to the fingerboard as in playing the violin; here there is no fingerboard. The bow is made of metal strung with horsehair and is about 38 cm long (in Tunisia much larger). The instrument is tuned in 5ths, usually with the lower string to G and the higher to d; but the relationship may be inverted, and there are various methods of tuning according to the dimensions of the instrument (for example to d and a). Sachs (Reallexikon der Musikinstrumente, 1913) mentions types of rebab up to 75 cm long, which would give them a completely different register.

The uniqueness of the rebab lies in the method of activating its strings. The bow touches the lower one only occasionally. In Morocco, the player grasps the neck with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand level with the nut. In Algeria and Tunisia, where the instrument is larger, the thumb rests on its back and the forefinger pulls laterally at the highest string, rather in the manner of the Indian sitār (a technique not found elsewhere in the Arab world). Because of the size of the soundbox, which broadens out from the nut (less narrow in Morocco than Algeria), the performer usually plays in the first position; shifts are rare. The rebab is held across the player’s body, with the pegbox against the left shoulder and the tailpiece on the right knee. In Tunisia, it is held almost vertically, firmly wedged between the player’s legs. It is used to accompany the voice and has a strange timbre, rich in upper partials, producing a kind of nostalgic humming sound. There is no strictly instrumental repertory, since the rebab is always used to enhance the performer’s voice; the singing is never solo, the rebab being part of the so-called Andalusian ensemble (‘ūd, rebab, kamanjā, tār and darbukka) and considered its pivot.

The instrument now survives only among the older generation. While the instrumental groups of which it is a part have been increasing their size to 20 to 30 players, the rebab remains a single instrument; it is thus drowned by its companion instruments. It is however recognized as pre-eminent as leader of the nawbāt repertory. Past champions of the instrument include the legendary Algerian Hājj al-‘Arbī Binsarī (1883–1965) and the Moroccans al-Faqīh Lemtrī (d 1946), ‘Umar Ja‘ydī (d 1952) and Moulāy Ahmad al-Wazzānī (1876–1965).

Rabāb

4. Long-necked, barbed lutes.

5. Double-chested lutes.

(i) Afghanistan.

The Afghan rubāb (or rabāb) is a short-necked waisted lute (see Afghanistan, fig.3). The body and neck are carved from a single block of mulberry wood, often highly decorated with mother-of-pearl and horn inlay. The lower chamber has a goatskin belly and the upper a wooden lid which projects to become the fingerboard of the short, hollow neck. The skin belly and lower end of the fingerboard are pierced by a number of small soundholes. The curved pegbox is joined to the neck. The modern Afghan rubāb has three main strings of gut or nylon (formerly three double courses), usually tuned in 4ths; in addition there are two, three or four drone strings and up to 15 sympathetic strings attached to pegs in the side of the upper chamber and tuned to the scale of the mode played. These metal drone and sympathetic strings are attached proximally to two bone posts inserted in the bottom of the instrument while the first and second main strings are tied to a leather string holder fastened to the two bone posts, which covers the metal strings and protects the wrist from them. The third main string is tied direct to one of the two bone posts. The neck has four frets positioned to give a chromatic scale; the compass can be extended to a 12th or more by using the unfretted part of the fingerboard. The strings are plucked with a small wooden plectrum.

The rubāb, regarded by the people of Afghanistan as their national instrument, is used in art, popular and regional music, both as a solo instrument and as part of the small ensemble that accompanies vocal music. It is played by male musicians, from great interpreters to dedicated amateurs. The art of rubāb playing resides in the right hand and employs a variety of stroke patterns, some using the sympathetic strings in techniques reminiscent of the jhala of sarod or sitar. To facilitate such techniques an innovation was made in the 1940s or 50s, when the shortest sympathetic string was raised by a protuberance on the bridge so that it could be struck in isolation.

The instrument is made in many sizes, the smaller ones being used for Pashtun regional music and the larger for art music. A small but distinctive repertory of instrumental pieces for the rubāb was probably composed by musicians at the Afghan court in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Afghan type of rubāb is found also in Tajikistan (rubob), south-east Iran (Sistan and Baluchistan) and in South Asia.

(ii) South Asia.

The Afghan type of instrument is found predominantly in the upper Indus area and in Kashmir (rebāb), where it is used in folk music, and in Pakistan (rabāb), where it is to some extent used in classical music. It was probably disseminated by the 18th-century Afghan rule in this area; however, in the north-western province of Gandhāra short lutes, barbed or double-chested, were depicted two millennia ago. Though it is usually described as short-necked, it should be noted that the fingerboard covers the upper resonator, so that its appearance at the front is similar to that of the long-necked rabāb. It was of secondary importance in Indian art music (except at Rampur, an Afghan court) and by the 19th century was already beginning to be called sarod or sarodā, even though it evolved into that instrument somewhat later. The rabāb of mid-19th-century North India (described for West India by Meadows Taylor (1864) as sarodā – both plucked and bowed – and for Bengal by Tagore (1875) as sarod) has the wooden fingerboard and gut strings (but not the gut frets) of the north-western instruments. The six-string tuning given by Tagore, with the first two pairs in double courses, is má/ma–sa/sa–pa–pa. These instruments, like the long-necked rabāb, are also played with a wooden javā, but with a downward and upward movement (notated dā-rā etc.) similar to that of the sarod.

The double-chested rabāb, with four to six main strings and often several sympathetic strings, is important in accompanying folksong and dance in the Pakistani North-West Frontier Province and in Baluchistan; in Kashmir, where it is heard with folkdances, it has four gut, three metal and 11 sympathetic strings.

Rabāb

BIBLIOGRAPHY

EI1 (H.G. Farmen)

H.G. Farmer G.A. Villoteau: Rabab Description de l'Egypte: état moderne, i, ed. E.F. Jomard (Paris, 1809), 846–1016; Pubd (Paris, 1812)

E.W. Lane: An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (London, 1836, 5/1860/R)

Abu'l Fazl: Ā'īn-i-akbarī (MS, c1590; Eng. trans., 1869–94, 2/1927–49/R)

N.A. Willard: A Treatise on the Music of Hindustan (1834); repr. in S.M. Tagore: Hindu Music from Various Authors (Calcutta, 1875/R)

M. Taylor: ‘Catalogue of Indian Musical Instruments’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, ix (1864), repr. in S.M. Tagore: Hindu Music from Various Authors (Calcutta, 1875/R)

S.M. Tagore: Yantra-koś (Calcutta, 1875/R) [in Bengali]

C.R. Day: The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan (London and New York, 1891/R)

H.G. Farmer: Studies in Oriental Musical Instruments (London, 1931/R)

J. Kunst: De toonkunst van Java (The Hague, 1934; Eng. trans., rev. 2/1949 as Music in Java, enlarged 3/1973 by E.L. Heins), 220–229

W. Bachmann: Die Anfänge des Streichinstrumentenspiels (Leipzig, 1964, 2/1966; Eng. trans., 1969)

C. McPhee: Music in Bali (New Haven and London, 1966/R), 117f

K.S. Kothari: Indian Folk Musical Instruments (New Delhi, 1968)

M. Hood: ‘The Effect of Medieval Technology on Musical Style in the Orient’, Selected Reports, i/3 (1970), 147–1070

S. Volken: ‘Rebāb’, Musikisi Mecmuasi (1970), no.254, p.11

M. Sheppard: Taman indera (1972), 47 London

L. Sakata: ‘Afghan Musical Instruments’, Afghanistan Journal, iii (1976), 144

J. Jenkins and P.R. Olsen: Music and Musical Instruments in the World of Islam (London, 1976)

M. Slobin: Music in the Culture of Northern Afghanistan (Tucson, A, 1976)

C. Falk: ‘About the Tarawangsa’, Studies in Indonesian Music, ed. M.J. Kartomi (Melbourne, 1978), 45–103

M.J. Kartomi: ‘Mingangkabau Musical Culture: the Contemporary Scene, and Recent Attempts at its Modernisation’, What is Modern Indonesian Culture?, ed. G. Davies (Athens, OH, 1979), 19

J. Baily: ‘A System of Modes used in the Urban Music of Afghanistan’ EthM, xxv (1981), 1–39

C. Quigley: ‘The Construction, Technique and Image of the Central Javanese rebab in Relation to its Role in the Gamelan’, Pacific Review of Ethnomusicology, iii (1986), 42–62

J. Baily: ‘Principles of Rhythmic Improvisation in the Performance of the Afghan rubab’, L'improvisation dans les musiques de tradition orale (Paris, 1987), 177–88

D. Posnett: ‘Reason and Feeling: an Appreciation of the Javanese rabab’ Indonesia Circle, no. 52 (1990), 25–35

J. Bailey: ‘Some Cognitive Aspects of Motor Planning in Musical Performance’, Psychologica Belgica, xxxi/2 (1991), 147–62

J. Bailey: ‘The naghma-ye kashal of Afghanistan’, BJEM, vi (1997), 117–63

Rabāb [rubāb, rubob, rebab, rabob, robāb, ribāb, rbab, rabāba etc.].

1. Terminology and distribution.

2. Spike fiddles.

(i) Arab and Turkish.

(ii) South-east Asia.

3. Short-necked fiddles.

4. Long-necked, barbed lutes.

(i) Iran.

(ii) South Asia.

(iii) Central Asia.

5. Double-chested lutes.

(i) Afghanistan.

(ii) South Asia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY