Yemen, Republic of (Arab. Jumhūriyyat al-Yaman).

Country in the Middle East. Located in southern Arabia, it has an area of 555,000 km². Yemen was previously divided into two states but was unified in 1990. Its music is rooted in an ancient culture (see Arab music, §I, 2(i)) and has features in common with neighbouring traditions (see Saudi arabia, Oman and Arabian Gulf). Sedentary farmers, Bedouin nomads (see Bedouin music), fishermen and townspeople make up a complex society, with a huge variety of musical styles and contexts for performance. The population of 18·2 million (2000 estimate) is predominantly Muslim (both Sunni and Shi‘a). For details of Yemeni Jewish music in Israel, see Jewish music, §V, 3(i)(a).

I. Popular and village music

II. Urban music

JEAN LAMBERT

Yemen

I. Popular and village music

The highlands and Hadramawt are the main regions and the best known for popular music (fig.1). The zār ceremony and Sufi music occur in various regions.

1. Main regional musical traditions.

(i) Highland villages.

This region is the historical heart of Yemen. Music is important in all aspects of life. Work-songs include the mahjal, accompanying the harvests and other collective work. Its lyrics are chanted on three notes to a simple rhythm. The hādī is an unmetred love song, performed by women when thinning out sorghum leaves; it is often pentatonic, with a large ambitus. Other songs accompany solitary tasks: the plougher’s maghrad, camel-driver’s jammālī and well-digger’s masnā. Some music has magical functions: prayers are chanted during drought, and there are specific songs to call rain (tasgiya).

The zāmil extols the honour and warlike virtues of tribesmen (gabā’il). It is composed and performed at local political events and weddings, and during war time. Its form is responsorial, with a march rhythm and mostly tetratonic melodies. The bara‘ dance represents tribal solidarity in a suite of three or four sections. The Prophet’s descendants (sāda) do not dance, whereas the tribesmen dance but do not play instruments. Low-caste musicians (mzayyinūn) provide the music, beating two kettledrums (tāsa and marfa‘) with sticks. As many as 50 male dancers form a semicircle, making stylized movements with their daggers.

The mzayyinūn musicians conduct wedding ceremonies, playing in bands of three. They play mizmār (double clarinet) with a circular breathing technique, tabl (cylindrical drum) and a sahn mīmiye (gong) (fig.2). The percussionists sing in unison with the mizmār. Two or three men dance the lu‘ba (‘game’), waving their daggers (fig.3). Women also perform this dance under another name and without daggers or mizmār accompaniment.

The northern regions around Sa‘da (al-Shām) share the same musical culture, with some influences from the desert. On the eastern slopes, Bedouins employ few instruments other than drums. Their collective ‘sung dances’ (e.g. razfa) are closer to styles found elsewhere in Arabia. East of Sana‘a (San‘ā’), the capital city, weddings are enlivened with poetic contests (bāla).

(ii) Hadhramaut.

This large green valley crossing the desert presents a musical microcosm. As in the highlands, music and dance distinguish the various social groups of Hadhramaut (Hadramawt). There are lullabies and women’s and children's songs. Other music is linked to traditional activities, such as building and farming, with songs for ploughing, harvesting, pollinating palm trees and drawing water at wells (sināwa). The annual agricultural cycle is sung in poems by the legendary figure Sa‘d al-Suwaynī, and there are several types of camel-driver call (ġadwara).

When returning from the ibex hunt, tribesmen perform the Banī Maghrā songs. Two, four or six hunters dance, parading the ibex head in a ceremonial procession (zaff) and enacting the symbolic union between the ibex and the community. In side valleys, tribesmen (masākīn) perform the dahifa. Two people dance in a circle, accompanied by mizmār (double clarinet) or qasaba (end-blown flute).

During religious feasts and processions, low-caste du‘afā’ people perform the razīh dance. Holding sticks, sickles and palm leaves, they simulate a type of sexual pantomime. Some of them, the baqqāra (‘ploughmen’), make exaggerated head movements, waving their shoulder-length hair in a style typical of women in the Arabian Gulf.

The dān is a poetic improvised contest performed at night by the Prophet’s descendants and townspeople (hadar). Two or three poets face one another, taking turns to compose quatrains based on combinations of the refrain syllables ‘dān, dān’. A scribe repeats the words and writes them down, while a singer puts them to music. The most famous dān poet was Sa‘īd Marzūq (d 1981), a mason from Say’un. The dān rayyid takes place indoors; its variant shabwānī is performed in the open air, after a long sequence of dances accompanied by the ‘idda drum band comprising several kettledrums (tāsa), cylindrical drums (tabl) and the double-headed drums (mirwās) also found in the Gulf. On the coast, the dān is accompanied by an oblique flute (madrūf). For a discussion of dān (or dāna dāna) improvisation as a strophic form using refrains, see Arab music, §II, 3(ii).

At their private ceremonies, the Prophet’s descendants and townspeople perform an aristocratic dance. It is called zerbādī or Bā-Sālih, also sharh rayyid (‘calm’) because of its slow rhythms, or zafan (‘jumping, kneeling’). Two or four dancers perform in two main movements, madkhal (‘introduction’) and makhraj (‘conclusion’), the latter being faster in tempo. The dance’s generally slow tempo, delicate rubato and varied drum timbres reveal influences from Java. Accompanying instruments are oblique flute (madrūf), oblong double-headed drum (hājir) and cylindrical double-headed drum (mirwās). The poetry and melodies are mainly those of the dān.

Bedouins perform the miraykūz dance to the rhythm of hand-clapping and wooden castanets (marāqīs). Performed in this region, the habīsh is one of the few remaining mixed dances in Yemen. The central figure is a woman whose face is veiled by a black kerchief. Her silver jewellery shakes in rhythm as she dances, guided by a man who revolves around her, making quick small steps.

In Hadhramaut towns and especially on the coast, ‘idda drum bands lead street processions for weddings or political events. Men from the different districts confront one another in theatrical stick dances, which sometimes end in real fighting. In the valley, the ‘idda drum band is called zāhirī.

(iii) The coastal plains.

The Red sea and Indian ocean coasts share certain musical genres linked with fishing, the zār spirit possession cult (see §2(i) below) and Sufism (see §2(ii) below).

As in the Arabian Gulf, the songs of Yemeni fishermen and sailors use hand-clapping (tasfīq) and music of the five-string lyre (simsimiyya). Sailors have many work-songs (ahāzīj) performed in a responsorial manner to a simple binary rhythm. They recount their sea adventures in recreational songs, e.g. the unmetred muwājahāt (akin to the mawwāl vocal form). On the Indian ocean, one song to Sōbān, a sea god, sounds like a prayer; it is performed with dance-like movements of the upper body. accompanying instruments are the small five-string lyre (simsimiyya), conical drum (hājir), double-headed drum (mirwās), treble drum (kāsir) and the modern signalling whistle. The various dances, rakla, darbūka, bambīla, liwā and marjūza, are distinguished by their particular combinations of polyrhythm (three beats against two), with syncopations and hockets. The scales are diatonic, close to the Arab modes ‘Ajam, Nihāwand, Hijāz and Kurd. Pentatonic scales are also used.

(iv) Tihama.

The music of this Red Sea coastal region is little known. Fishermen’s songs are described immediately above. Countrymen's songs are not known.

The main feature of Tihama is a band of drums (tabbālīn or tunqūra) played by the akhdām (low status people of African origin). In Tuhayta they lead processions to the local saint’s shrine, and at religious festivals they play and dance in front of shops until given alms. The band uses a cylindrical drum (tabl), kettledrums of various sizes (tāsa, marfa‘ and mishkal) played with sticks and a kettledrum beaten with the hands (sahfa).

Tihama tribesmen, the Zarānig, perform vigorous dances during pilgrimages to local shrines. Jumping, dancing and holding two or more daggers, they make a show of stabbing themselves (khudmī, hanjala), while the saint protects them from injury. They have a more dignified collective dance (hafka), accompanied by the end-blown flute (qasaba) played with circular breathing. Farmers use a tall drum of African origin (jabh: ‘hive’) carved from a tree trunk and played with the hands to accompany a harvest dance (kindū).

At wedding ceremonies in Hodeida (Al-Hudayda) and Zabid, a soloist and chorus of several men perform religious chanting (inshād) in a style developed by the Sufi poet and composer Ahmad Jābir Rizq (d 1905).

The rabāb, a traditional single-string quadrangular spike lute (fiddle), was being made in Ta‘iz (Ta‘izz) in the 13th century, but today it has almost disappeared from Tihama, the only area in Yemen where it is still played at all.

(v) Middle Yemen.

This region (Ibb, Hugariyya, Dali‘ and Yafi‘) is less influenced by tribal values than the highlands and Hadhramaut. The southern mountains are irrigated by the monsoon rains and well cultivated. There are many work-songs, but fewer instruments than in other areas.

Hugariyya is the centre of the Sufi brotherhood of Ibn ‘Alwān (d 1267) and of panegyric singing for the Prophet Muhammad (madīh nabawī). All over Yemen itinerant minstrels (maddāh) play the circular frame drum (tār) to accompany the madīh, singing in a giusto syllabic style. Sometimes they perform at weddings, as do the akhdām from Tihama. In Ta‘iz rural songs have been modernized by musicians such as Ayyūb Tārish.

Yahyā ‘Umar, the 18th-century poet from Yafi‘, emigrated to India. His poetry is sung in popular urban music throughout the Arabian peninsula. In Yafi‘, a genre of improvised poetry called marjūza is also performed.

(vi) Mahra and Socotra.

In these isolated regions, traditional vocal styles have been preserved (as well as archaic Semitic languages). They are akin to those of Hadhramaut and Dhofar (Zufār) in Oman but retain many specific features. In Socotra the most characteristic instrument is a pierced shell (wad‘a) producing a single note used for calling. There are many types of calls to animals. Work-songs include a women’s song for heating the stone to cook a meal.

In Mahra men perform a magical therapeutic ceremony, the rābūt (see also Oman, fig.4). A soloist and chorus gather around the sick person, chanting incantations in a simple tune consisting of two or three notes. They use ritual and vocal ‘spitting’ to expel the illness. As the long ritual progresses, the vocal pitch rises and tempo and volume increase until the incantations are literally shouted.

2. Musical contexts.

(i) The ‘zār’ ceremony.

The Zār spirit possession cult is found in three main areas: the Red Sea coastal region (Tihama), the southern region (Aden and Lahej) and the south-east coast (Mukalla). Its purpose is to cure sickness through establishing a personal relationship between the person possessed and a specific spirit (jinn. The ritual and music are differentiated according to their origins in zār cults in Africa (see Sudan, §1). The leading instrument is the large lyre (tanbūra), which has symbolic value as a living being and receptacle of the spirits. It is accompanied by drums and the goat-hoof belt rattle (manjūr). The music of the zār is mainly the līwā, a genre of African origin widespread in the Gulf.

(ii) Sufi music.

The practice of Sufism in Yemen is poorly documented. It was successively forbidden by Shi‘a Zaydists in Sana‘a and communist officials in Aden, but it remains widespread over the coastal plains dominated by the Shāfi‘ī branch of Sunni Islam. Some Sufi brotherhoods originate outside Yemen (e.g. Qādiriyya and Mirghāniyya), while others are associated with local saints such as al-Saqqāf in Tarim. In Hadhramaut the most famous Sufi songs are the tahwīda genre, performed during the pilgrimage of the prophet Hūd. The voice is often accompanied by the frame drum (tār) and flute (shabbāba). The madīh nabawī (Prophet’s panegyric) is described in §1(v) above.

Yemen

II. Urban music

Yemen has a very ancient tradition of urban music, with recent modern developments. Its music and poetry have been spreading throughout the Arabian peninsula and Gulf for some time, especially recently, through star singers such as Abū Bakr Bal-Faqīh.

1. Sana‘a.

The capital city is the centre of Zaydism, a moderate Shi‘a sect that has influenced both religious and secular music.

(i) Religious chanting.

Sana‘a is famous for its chants (tasbīh) sung from the minarets before the morning call to prayer. The style is only slightly melodic, with long drawn-out notes and glissandi. Qur’anic chanting is not musically greatly developed.

Professional hymn-singers (nashshād) enliven social occasions (fig.4) and life-cycle ceremonies with hymns (mashrab). During eclipses of the moon, mashrabs are sung for the remission of sins. At weddings the hymn-singers also perform non-religious poems in an unmetred religious vocal style but use melodies that are akin to profane music.

(ii) The song of Sana‘a (al-ghinā’ al-san‘ānī).

This is the most ancient song tradition in Yemen and the Arabian peninsula. The singer accompanies himself on a short-necked lute. Nowadays the ‘ūd has almost replaced the ancient local instrument, qanbūs (for illustration see Qanbūs. A gong (sahn mīmiye) is also played, held horizontally with the two thumbs.

Al-ghinā’ al-san‘ānī emerged alongside the humaynī, a form of lyric poetry originating from Zabid and Ta‘iz and developed in the highlands by Muhammad Sharaf al-Dīn (d 1607). Influenced by Muslim Spain, humaynī employs the following verse forms: qasīda (ode), mubayyit (quatrain) and Muwashshah (three-part stanza). This poetry and music migrated from the luxurious Rasuli palaces to the simple dwellings of the Zaydi imāms. Puritanical rulers often forbade performance of this music, which is poorly documented prior to the period of great 20th-century exponents: Bā-Sharāhīl (d 1952), al-Mās (d c1951), Ahmad Fāyi‘ (d c1964) and sālih ‘Abdallah al-‘Antarī (d 1965).

San‘ānī melodies are related to the Middle Eastern maqām, but do not carry specific names. The main scale combines three-quarter and whole tones, rarely semitones. The melody has a basic structure (qā‘ida) and an improvised variation (kharsha) articulated by a short coda (lāzima) underlining the rhythm and mode. The lute provides rhythmic and melodic support and ornamentation. Right-hand techniques are: fard (‘one by one’), sils (‘chain’, ostinato) and zafāra (‘plaiting’). Most rhythmic cycles have names: das‘a (7 and 11 beats), wastā (binary), sāri‘ (like wastā but faster), wastā mutawwala and kawkabāniyya (slow 12-beat variants) and saj‘ (a fast march).

The qawma is a fixed succession of pieces linked to dance. It contains atleast three different pieces: das‘a, wastā and sāri‘. Other forms can be included at the beginning: these include the saj‘, an instrumental prelude called fartash (‘search’), and a fixed unmetred form, mutawwal (‘stretched’). No empty space must be left between the melodies; the transition between two movements (nagla) is characteristic to each musician. The performance entails a search for intimate union between poetry and music. The ‘monodic unison’ of voice and instruments resembles a symbolic dialogue in which both the musicians and listeners invest much emotion.

2. Hadhramaut.

The ‘awādī is an urban Hadhramaut style especially practised on the coast (Mukalla and Shihr). It draws on other genres: the dān (see §I, 1(ii) above), Sufi songs, and the Gulf sawt. Its most famous representative, Muhammad Jum‘a Khān (d 1963), recorded hundreds of songs.

The voice is accompanied by the ‘ūd (from which the word ‘awādī derives), violin, hājir and mirwās. Melodies are often in Sikāh mode or diatonic modes (Hijāz, Kurd, Nihāwand). Rhythms are mostly binary or polyrhythmic, with some use of seven-beat cycles. Influence from post-1930s Indian film tunes is evident.

3. Aden.

The lahjī style was created by composer and poet Prince Ahmad Fadl ‘Komandān’ (d 1942), modelled on popular tunes from the town of Lahej. His lyric and political songs are interpreted by Fadl al-Lahjī and Ahmad al-Zabīdī. In the 1980s lahjī spread throughout Yemen due to the popularity of its light polyrhythmic dance (sharh).

Aden music (‘al-ughniya al-‘adaniyya’) was born in the late 1940s, with the creation of Khalīl Muhammad Khalīl’s Aden Club, and it grew into a nationalist movement. Like lahjī, the accompanying instruments are ‘ūd and violin. Since independence (1967), urban style has drawn on traditional tunes as well as Arabic and Western music. The most important representative of modern urban music is Muhammad Murshid Nājī.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

and other resources

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recordings

Music of South Arabia, Folkways P421 B (1951)

Islamic Liturgy: Song and Dance at a Meeting of Dervishes, Folkways FR 8943 (1960)

North Yemen: Traditional Music, coll. J. Wenzel, EMI Odeon O64 18 352 (1975)

Zaidi and Shaf‘i: Islamic Religious Chanting from North Yemen, coll. C. Poche and J. Wenzel, Philips 6586 040 (1976) [incl. photographs]

The Afro-Arabian Crossroad: Music of the Tihama on the Red Sea, North Yemen, coll. A. Bakewell, Lyrichord LLST 7384 (1985) [incl. photographs]

Mohammed al-Hārithī: chant et luth de San‘ā, Media 7 CD 26 (1997)

Yemen: Songs from Hadramawt, Auvidis D 8273 (1998)