Rhythm in Arabic music
Rhythms in Arabic music are rich and very diverse, as they cover a huge region and peoples from Northern Africa to Western Asia. Rhymes are mainly analysed by means of rhythmic units called Template:Tlit and Template:Tlit.
Wazn and Iqa'
A rhythmic pattern or cycle in Arabic music is called a "wazn" (Template:Langx; plural {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} / Template:Tlit), literally a "measure".<ref>Touma 1996, 49.</ref>
A wazn is only used in musical genres with a fixed rhythmic-temporal organization including recurring measures, motifs, and meter or pulse.<ref>Touma 1996, 47.</ref> It consists of two or more regularly recurring time segments, each time segment consisting of at least two beats (Template:Tlit, plural of Template:Tlit). There are approximately one hundred different cycles used in the repertoire of Arabic music, many of them shared with other regional music, also found in some South European styles like Spanish music. They are recorded and remembered through onomatopoetic syllables and the written symbols O and I.<ref>Touma 1996, 48.</ref> Wazn may be as large as 176 units of time.<ref>Touma 1996, 48.</ref>
Iqa' (Template:Langx / Template:Tlit; plural {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} / Template:Tlit) are rhythmic modes or patterns in Arabic music.<ref>Waugh, Memory, Music, and Religion: Morocco's Mystical Chanters, 201.</ref>Template:Full citation needed There are reputed to be over 100 Template:Tlit,<ref>Randel, Apel, The New Harvard Dictionary of Music</ref>Template:Full citation needed but many of them have fallen out of fashion and are rarely if ever used in performance. The greatest variety of iqa'at (ranging from two to 48 beats) are used in the muwashshah.
See also
References
Cited sources
- Habib Hassan Touma (1996). The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. Template:ISBN.
External links
- Arabic Rhythms page Template:Webarchive from Maqam World