Country in North Africa. Algeria is the second-largest country in the African continent, with an area of 2,381,741 km2 and a population of 31·6 million (2000). Its wide musical diversity reflects its geographic proximity to Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia and Western Sahara, as well as its physical and historical links with Europe. Sunni Islam is the state religion, and a regional form of Arabic is used, although French and Berber are also widely spoken. Most of the country's inhabitants live in the large cities of the Tell, the country's coastal plain, although significant populations occupy inland mountainous and desert regions. The country consists mainly of semi-arid plateaux and the Sahara, where isolated towns and oases serve the needs of transhumant tribes and the petrochemical industry. The 20th century's increased migration to northern cities, combined with recent technological developments, led to a closer overlapping, and in some circumstances mixing, of diverse musical and cultural practices.
Algeria's position on the southern shore of the Mediterranean has meant that the original Berber societies have long been affected by external cultures, each contributing to the country's musical traditions. Urban art music derives from both eastern and western Arab traditions (although these often developed into distinctive styles); lengthy periods of Ottoman domination and French colonization have also shaped the cultural environment in which music is produced and used.
The urban and rural communities of the Tell have been the most affected by waves of external influences, from the Romans and Vandals to the present, while the musical traditions maintained by the isolated populations of mountainous regions and the south can be very distinctive, often reflecting long associations with the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa.
TONY LANGLOIS
Despite the increasing proximity of musical styles brought about by internal migration and technology, there exist musics that are emblematic of urban civilization, and these can be subdivided into art and popular traditions. The quintessential Algerian art music traditions are known collectively as andalouse, while hawzī and sha‘abī can be considered vernacular hybrids of andalouse with rural roots.
The gradual fall of Islamic Spain to the Christian Reconquista in the 15th century led to waves of refugees from the courts of Al-andalus to North Africa. The Muslim nobility and their Jewish retinue settled along the coast from Morocco to Libya, bringing with them the court musics of the city states of Córdoba, Granada, Valencia and Seville. These repertories were probably quite distinct by this date, although they are often all mythically ascribed to a single composer, Ziryāb, a 9th-century exile from Baghdad.
There were, in theory, originally 24 nūbāt suites (sing. nūba) comprising instrumental and sung pieces – each in a separate tab‘ mode corresponding to a particular hour of the day – and humour. However, there is no evidence that the complete body of work ever existed. The verse structures of andalouse songs are based mostly on the zajal and mūwashshah forms of court poetry, which became popular throughout the Arab world in the 11th and 12th centuries, suggesting that composition of the repertory was more or less continuous until the fall of Andalucia. Only 12 of the original 24 nūbāt kāmila (also known as the grand nūbāt) have survived intact in Algeria, while another four, the nūbāt nāqisa, exist in fragmentary form. A third part of the repertory, the inqilibāt, is of more recent provenance, using vernacular poetry but composed in a traditional style. These pieces in particular reflect regional preferences and influences. A single nūba contains five sections of introductory pieces, overtures, song series, solos and finales, arranged in a traditional sequence of rhythmic patterns.
As Spain was progressively conquered, émigrés from each city in turn moved en masse to particular towns in the Maghrib, which is the main reason suggested for the contemporary existence of three different schools of andalouse in Algeria. Each share common texts, tubū‘ (modes), structure and instrumentation, but in performance style and repertory they are fairly distinct.
Ma’lūf. Ma’lūf or ‘traditional’ is the name given to the andalouse music from the eastern Algerian school, centred on Constantine and Annaba. This tradition spans the border into Tunisia, where it is regarded as a music of national importance (see Davis, 1993). Ma’lūf is also performed in Libya with a style and repertory heavily influenced by Bedouin and Egyptian musics.
San‘a. The geographically central tradition of andalouse, based in the Algiers region, is the youngest school of the three, since the city was not of major importance until the Ottoman period. The tradition was founded by aristocratic families from the city of Tlemcen, in western Algeria, but it has since been greatly influenced by both ma’lūf and Turkish art musics and by popular urban genres. Its name, meaning ‘embellished’, refers to the genre's musical sophistication.
Tarab al-gharnātī. This westernmost tradition is named after the city of Granada; it is based in Tlemcen but also played in other cities in the region. This style is the closest to the medieval original and boasts an unbroken oral tradition in the city since its introduction. In the 20th century, sheikhs (gharnātī master musicians) founded conservatories in Morocco, most notably in Oujda, on the Algerian border, and also in Rabat, where the tradition exists as distinct from al‘ala, the best-known Moroccan form of andalouse.
Andalouse repertories were originally transmitted orally from sheikhs, whose orchestras and conservatories vied with one another for prestige and the best performers. Many of the most renowned sheikhs belonged to the minority Jewish population until independence from France in 1962, after which time the music was adopted as part of a national cultural heritage and academies were sponsored by the state. During the colonial period, ma’lūf in particular was associated with hashish smoking and other immoral activities that took place in fanādiq, hotels where profane musics were played. The young nationalist movement in the 1950s founded a system of associations that created a better moral climate in which the traditions could be learnt. Today, participation in and patronage of andalouse musics tends to come from the better-educated social classes in urban centres. Although andalouse does not enjoy the same wide popularity as other local or even international genres, it has had considerable influence on other forms of Algerian music, which are considered less élitist.
The size and instrumentation of the andalouse ensemble has varied considerably over time and between traditions. Currently, groups of up to 30 musicians are common, sometimes more for broadcast performances on radio or television. In the past, ensembles have been much smaller than this, and on more intimate occasions they frequently are. The ‘ūd sharqī (lute; see fig.1) and rebab (two-string fiddle) are the most esteemed instruments in the ensemble, although the low, gruff sound of the latter is often replaced with the cello. Other string instruments include the kamanja (violin) and viola (both played vertically on the knee), mandūl (a large, fretted mandolin used originally for teaching purposes only), the Spanish guitar, qitra (another form of lute), now only used in Tlemcen, and occasionally the piano and banjo. The nay (transverse flute) is often used in performance, and rhythmical accompaniment is provided by darbukka (goblet drum) and tār (tambourine) in all traditions, and sometimes with duff (small frame drum) and naqarāt (small kettledrums) in ma’lūf.
Algerian hawzī (‘outside the walls’, not to be confused with Moroccan ‘hausī’, a popular music derived from tribal traditions) is a development from the Tlemcen gharnātī tradition. This genre combines musical features from andalouse with poetry written in colloquial Arabic. Folksongs, rhythms and melodies from the region have also been incorporated into the genre. Hawzī songs, often lighter in mood than those of the gharnātī repertory, exist as individual songs and tunes, rather than as parts of sophisticated suites. As hawzī music has existed for several centuries, it is usually considered to be an art genre, but it is played by specialized hawzī ensembles and andalouse orchestras. The most renowned contemporary exponent of Algerian hawzī is Nuri Koufi.
Like hawzī, sha‘bī music (‘people's music’) also bears some structural similarities to andalouse, but shows more influence of Berber and Ottoman styles. Pieces consist of lengthy narrative songs sung by a single performer interspersed with vociferous choral sections involving the ensemble. As the music most associated with the working classes of the city of Algiers, sha‘bī was promoted by the first, socialist, post-colonial regimes, despite (or even because of) the social criticism contained in its lyrics.
The instruments in the sha‘bī ensemble vary but always include the mandūl, darbukka, violins, and often the banjo. As both mandūl (fig.2) and banjo are fretted instruments, quarter-tones are not employed in this genre, distinguishing it from more élite musics. Modern groups use the Spanish guitar, bass guitar and synthesizer in addition to this arrangement.
Important features of Algerian sha‘bī (not to be confused with Egyptian and Moroccan musics with the same name) are its relaxed performance style and use of colloquial language. A major star of the 1960s, the legendary Muhammad Al Anka, sang in the Kabyle Berber language as well as a local form of Arabic, acknowledging not only his own origins, but also the origins of a significant proportion of immigrants to Algiers. Kamel Messaoudi is perhaps the best known among contemporary musicians who have combined traditional and international musical features into sha‘bī.
The terms sharqī (eastern) and orientale refer to a wide range of musics produced in Algeria that were directly influenced by recent Levantine Arab traditions. The battle for independence from France in the late 1950s coincided with hugely popular radio broadcasts of Egyptian and Lebanese stars such as Farid al-Atrash and Umm Kulthūm, encouraging a pan-Arab political and cultural movement that affected local music greatly. Egyptian film and television music has also had more recent impact on Algerian music. In the western city of Oran in the 1950s, singer-composers Ahmed Wahby and Houari el Bilaoui combined rich Egyptian arrangements with local rhythms and languages to create a genre that in some ways encapsulated nationalist aspirations during and after the war of independence. The female singer Anissa Toraia performed in a similar style in Algiers. Later performers, such as Ahmed Saber, also drew on eastern musical sources, in a somewhat less patriotic vein.
Larger cities in the north of Algeria often have orientale orchestras that perform and compose music in the manner of Egyptian or Algerian stars, and the style remains one of the most popular in the country. Sharqī popular music, very much in the fashion of Egyptian film songs, is produced in Algiers, and the female singer Warda has become an international success in this genre.
This popular genre of music is also associated with the western city of Oran (Waharan) but is now widely heard throughout Algeria and beyond. Raï, which translates as ‘my opinion’, was the name given to the traditional wedding and festival music that in the 1930s was played in the urban bars and brothels of Oran. Songs were most usually sung by female medahattes (wedding entertainers), such as the infamous Cheikha Rimitti, to the accompaniment of gaspa (end-blown flute) and guellal (long goblet drums). Texts were often of a sexually suggestive nature, which kept raï out of view of the wider public until the 1970s.
The adoption of electronic instrumentation and the arrival of cassette-recording technology brought the new pop-raï to the attention not only of Oran and Algeria but also, via émigré maghribī communities, to that of the world music industry. Messaoud Bellemou was the first to combine local traditional musics with the instrumentation of Western popular music, and this approach was taken further by the record producers Rachid and Fethi Ahmed Baba, who built the country’s first 24-track recording studio in Tlemcen. In the 1980s several star singers who adopted the prefix ‘Cheb’ (male) or ‘Cheba’ (female), meaning ‘kid’ or ‘young’, became international celebrities in both Arabic-speaking and Western cultures. Among these, Cheba Zahouania, Cheba Fadela, Cheb Mami and Cheb Khaled became the best known.
Given its ‘low-life’ origins, raï has always been something of a controversial genre in Algeria, made all the more so when serious political turmoil erupted at the end of the 1980s between the secularist single-party state and its Islamic critics. The government saw in raï a potential liberal ally and allowed its broadcast, though in a much sanitized form. Many major stars of the genre were either pressured to leave the country through intimidation or enticed by better prospects in Europe. Those raï musicians who remained in Algeria continued to balance local with global musical elements, although some, notably singer Cheb Hasni and producer Rachid Baba, were killed by terrorists for doing so. Throughout its many changes, Algerian raï has expressed a close relationship with Oran itself, frequently making reference to the city and employing the local dialect and slang.
Although waves of migration from the colonial period to the present have brought rural styles into the shanty-towns, markets and residential quarters of northern cities, Algerians still differentiate musics of rural origins from established urban traditions. This is partially due to the fact that émigré communities use the music to mark their ethnic or regional identity, but also due to the kinds of social practices associated with these genres. As Al Faruqi (1985) illustrates, some orthodox interpretations of Islam are critical of music; its use is most acceptable when employed in quasi-religious or community events such as weddings, circumcisions and festivals. Some rural musics, played in honour of local marabout saints and their shrines, are used to induce a hadra (a trance state) among listeners, during which dance, convulsion and fainting rid them of djinn (evil spirits). Yet other forms of music are used by Sufi brotherhoods in dhikr ceremonies that lead participants to a state of spiritual union with Allah. Interestingly, these same states of consciousness are brought about in various religious cults by quite dissimilar musics. Although none of these practices is sanctioned by orthodox Islam, they are nevertheless common in both rural communities and urban émigré communities.
There are at least nine distinct, though related, Berber languages spoken in Algeria, and several tribes of Arabic-speaking Bedouin also exist; the variety of musical traditions that can be found in the country is great. Transhumant desert communities and economic migrants have also long overlapped national frontiers, thus sharing cultural features and populations with neighbouring countries. Despite this diversity, the further south one travels, the more the music resembles Sahelian rather than Arab traditions. The Tuareg Berbers in the far south of the country are distinguished by the prominence of female musicians in their society who use the imzad, a one-string round fiddle, and percussion instruments to accompany improvised sung poetry. Further north, the region from Tindouf to Béchar is known for a relaxed style of ‘ūd playing more reminiscent of the music of Mali than of the Arab world. The virtuoso lutist Alla is the best-known musician in this tindī style, and the most renowned singer is Mohammed Cherrif.
The Berbers of the Aurès and Ksour mountains and of the Mzab towns of the high plateaux are a minority religious group in Algeria well known for their rich musical traditions, but the Berbers of the coastal Kabyle (Kabylie) region have had the greatest impact on national culture. The Kabyle ranges have been an important site of Berber culture and identity despite hundreds of years of colonization and Arabization. Unlike other isolated Berber communities, that of the Kabyle was close enough to the major cities of Algiers, Constantine and Bejaïa to influence musical and cultural traditions significantly in these centres. Contemporary Kabyle singers such as Ait Menguellet and Adjroud Ahcene and the group Djurdjura promote awareness of the Amazight language and provide commentary on homogeneous conceptions of national identity (see Langlois, 1996). Some, such as the singer Lounès Matoub (1956–98), have been killed for supporting the Berber cause. Berber song and dance is most closely associated with weddings, circumcisions and religious festivals. Although Kabyle musicians have incorporated many modern instruments into their practices, the fretted mandūl is most associated with regional genres. The equal-tempered fretting of the mandūl, however, makes it incapable of playing the quarter-tones demanded by Middle Eastern Arab traditions.
The music, dances and sung poetry that were brought to the Maghrib by Bedouin tribes in the 11th century are an important feature of Algerian music, although many have hybridized with Berber traditions. In particular, Al‘awi male dancing troupes are located throughout the country’s north-west. These dances are accompanied by bendīr (frame drums), ghraita (oboe), gaspa (flute) or mizwid (bagpipe), shouted instructions and occasional rifle-shots. The steps of the dance mimic the footfalls of horses, an evocation of the traditional culture of these tribally organized pastoral societies which today mark their independent rural identities.
Populations of black Sahouari (Saharans) and G'naoui (Guineans, mostly descendants of sub-Sahelian slaves) inhabit towns between the Hoggar mountains to the far south of Algeria and the Niger and Malian borders. Their music, consisting largely of chants and polyrhythmic drumming, features bandīrs and various-sized goblet drums. Also commonly found are large double-headed tbel or tabl (drums), oboes and kakarbāt or shkāshik (metal castanets; fig.3). Song structures, modes and harmonies clearly owe a great deal to sub-Saharan traditions, although texts are mostly concerned with local saints and other religious themes. Through emigration, significant populations of Sahouari live in northern cities where this music is in great demand for marabout practices and wedding music. So popular is this kakabou music that it is now performed by many non-Sahouari musicians, and it has had noticeable influence on popular music.
H. Carnoy: ‘La musique des arabes’, Revue de l’islam, iv (1899), 49–51
B. Bartók: ‘Die Volksmusik der Araber von Biskra und Umbegung’, ZMw, ii (1919–20), 489–522
J. Rouanet: ‘La musique arabe dans la Maghreb’, EMDC, I/v (Paris, 1922), 2813–939
R. Erlanger: La musique arabe (Paris, 1949)
G.H. Farmer: ‘The Music of Islam’, NOHM, i (London, 1957), 421–78
S. El Mahdi: La musique arabe (Paris, 1972)
A. Tahar: La poésie populaire algérienne: ‘melhun’ rythme, mètres et formes (Algiers, 1975)
M. Guettat: La musique classique du Maghreb (Paris, 1980)
B. Lortat-Jacob: ‘Community Music as an Obstacle to Professionalism: a Berber Example’, EthM, xxv (1981), 87–98
I. Al Faruqi: ‘Music and the Law in Islamic Societies’, AsM, xvii (1985), 3–28
P. Sweeney: ‘Algerian Rai: the French Connection’, Rhythms of the World, ed. F. Hanly and T. May (London, 1989), 48–57
J. Elsner: ‘The Forms of Classical Algerian Instrumental Music’, Studies in Ethnomusicology, no.1 (1991), 20–31
J. Elsner: ‘Formation of New Music Traditions in the Arab Countries of North Africa’, Studies in Ethnomusicology, no.1 (1991), 32–45
H. Moncef: ‘La nouba traditionelle algérienne’, SEEMValencia, (1991), 107–18
J. Gross, D. McMurray and T. Swedenburg: ‘Rai, Rap and Ramadan Nights: Franco-Maghribi Cultural Identities’, Middle East Report, xxii/5 (1992), 11–16
L. Boummediene: Lexique générale de la musique algérienne (Oran, 1993)
R. Davis: ‘Tunisia and the Cairo Congress of Arab Music 1932’, The Maghreb Review, xviii (1993), 135–44
M. Virolle-Souibes: ‘Le Rai de Cheikha Rimitti’, Mediterranéens, no.4 (1993), 103–15
C. Poche: Musiques du monde arabe: écoute et découverte (Paris, 1994)
C. Poche: La musique arabo-andalouse (Paris, 1995)
D. Reynolds: ‘Musics of Algeria: Selected Recordings’, Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, xxix (1995), 16–21
M. Virolle-Souibes: La chanson rat: de l’Algérie profonde à la scène internationale (Paris, 1995)
J. Goodman: ‘Dancing Towards “La Mixite”: Berber Associations and Cultural Change in Algeria’, Middle-East Report, xxvi/3 (1996), 16–19
T. Langlois: ‘Music and Contending Identities in the Maghreb’, Nationalism, Minorities and Diasporas, ed. K.E. Schulze, M. Stokes and C. Campbell (London, 1996), 203–16
T. Langlois: ‘The Local and Global in North African Popular Music’, Popular Music, xv (1996), 259–73
Algeria, Music of the Gouara (Saharan), coll. P. Augier, Odeon 3C 0641 8079 (1975)
Hada Raykoum, perf. C. Khaled, Triple Earth LP Terra 102 (1985)
’Adounith’: Modern Kabyle Music from Algeria, perf. A. Adjroudi, Globestyle ORB 031 (1988)
Le prince du rai, perf. C. Mami, Triple Earth LP Terra 105, Sonodisc CD MLPCD 1300 (1988)
Rai Rebels, perf. R. Baba, Earthworks EWV7 (1988)
Balafons et tambours d’Afrique, Playa Sound PS 65034 (1989)
La chanson populaire algérienne, ii, Le Chaabi, perf. El Hadj M’hamed El Anka, Club du Disque Arabe CD AAA 038 (1991) [incl. notes by M. El Habib Hachelaf]
Le Hawzi, i, Club du Disque Arabe CD AAA 041 (1991)
La musique judéo-arabe, i, Algérie-Maroc, Club du disque Arabe CD AAA 038 (1992)
Algerie: anthologie de la musique arabo-andalouse, iii, Gharnati de Tlemcen, ‘En hommage à Redouande Bensari’, perf. A. Mesli et l’ensemble Nassim el Andalouse, Ocora CD C 560004 (1993)
Improvisations Canaa d’Alger, perf. L. Belhadda, Al Sur CD ALCD 155 (1993)
Malouf constantinois, iii, perf. S. Tamar, Club du Disque Arabe CD AAA 077 (1993)
N’ssi N’ssi, perf. C. Khaled, Mango 519898 F12 (1993)
Musique classique algéŕienne, iii, Matin de Mariage Nouba du Mode Hsine, perf. M. Khaznadji, Espérance, CD 2697 (1994)
Trésors de la musique arabo-andalouse, perf. R. l’Oranaise and M. Skandrani, SonoDisk CD MLPCD 1302 (1994)
Concert public de Malouf à l’Université Populaire de Constantine (1954), i, perf. Cheikh R. Leyris, A1 Sur CD ALCD 133 (1995)
Algerian Berber Music (Kabyle), coll. Rita Belateche, Folkways FE 4341 (1996)
Malouf de Annaba: Nouba Cika, perf. H. Benani, Al Sur CD ALCD 159 (1996)
Sahra, perf. C. Khaled, Island CD 314537510 4/2 (1996)
Sha'abi, Disques Eucalyptus
Le Neo Chabi, perf. K. Messaoudi CMM
Rai Roots, perf. C. Rimitti, Buda Musique