Lost sounds

The steady pace of camels walking the dunes, chants glorifying the kings; Morocco is full of rich and vibrant tunes and unique instruments. The music forms the culture’s deep roots, and lay bare the great variation in the people of Morocco. “You will never find people eating without music, or people making music without food,” Achraf Kabbouri, President of jazz 3/4 association and researcher on anthropology of music said. But have, over time, the core melodies and instruments that helped build it been forgotten?

Throughout countless centuries, Morocco has been controlled by many different nations. Since the geographical location of this country is so valuable, Spain and Turkey fought for it for the majority of the 16th century. After Turkey won this ongoing rivalry, piracy became a big part of the income, along the Barbary coast, including Morocco. Eventually, after colonizing Algeria in the early 1800’s, the French moved towards Morocco. In the early 1900’s, France and Spain decided to split the territory amongst themselves. Through all this, Morocco was left with influences from Spanish and French, Middle Eastern, Berber and sub-saharan slaves’ traditions.

Amazigh (self-name of Berber) come from the west of Africa, to this date still making up a significant portion of Morocco’s population. They represent the oldest musical tradition in Morocco. Music plays a big part in their culture, as it is a way of storytelling, and passing on traditions. It mostly consists of drums, flutes, clarinets and rababs (one-stringed fiddles). A lot of the rhythm and flow of their music are based on the pace of a horse walking. You can really feel this in the use of rubabs and drums. Carmen Amaya, also known as the horse, really adopts this in her dance performances. Further south in the country, the beat is more inspired by the pace of camels walking, slower and more controlled. All this really left a mark on Moroccan music.

Gnawa, which refers to the descendants of slaves from Western Africa, also developed their own music when they migrated to Morocco during the beginning of the 11th century; integrating their own traditions passed on from their ancestors, into Moroccan culture. The magazine Frommers states in a recent publication that you can see this in the diversity of Moroccan music now. They brought drumming, qraqeb (metallic castanets), the three-strings bass lute (guembri), as well as the mosaic gowns and caps worn by musicians, mostly decorated with cowry shells. The black African culture immensely helped bring character to the music of Morocco. Similar to Amazigh traditions, music was used for purposes other than listening to the soothing tunes of three stringed skin-covered bass plucked lute like the hajhouj, (also known as the sintir or Guembri). It was a form of spiritual and ritualistic bonds, meant to make peace with the spiritual realm or even heal participants in the ritual.

Malhun, meaning ‘the melodic poem’, is a genre of music that was brought to the south of Morocco during the 15th century, with origins in Andalusian music. So much raw emotion and passion is put into tales told in the music. In contrast to a lot of other genres like Sufi, Malhun is not always used to inspire religious devotion and instruction. With chants about the kings, love stories and sex, the melodies are used as a tool of expression. This is one of the reasons it appeals to different classes of Morocco, from the working class to the royal family. There always seems to be a hidden message behind the words told. “If they were to sing about a lost ring, there would be more to it,” Aschraf Kabbouri explained, “the loss of virginity for example”. It was originally a vocal-based style of music, accompanied by a drum, mostly a deff. Gradually, more drum instruments were used, such as the darbouka, the taarija, the tbel and the bendir. String instruments including the gimbri and the oud also became part of the genre.

To “call, cry or lament” is the literal translation of Aita, a musical style that originates from Egypt and was brought to the countryside of Morocco during the 12th century. Kabbouri continues to say that poems written for Aita could take up to two-hundred years to finish. It is known for not necessarily having a consistent theme, since different people work on it over time. It is composed of different storylines and expressions, but makes one song as a whole.

If there were no people to play the melodies we have grown to love, Moroccan music would not be where it is now. Zohra A Fassiya is considered the queen of melhun music, being a Jewish Moroccan artist in the 1940’s and 50’s. She was the first female recording artist in Morocco. Jacob Alkobi, also known as ‘the voice of the mocking bird’ and ‘the Moroccan nightingale’, is a Moroccan folk artist that has now also gain fame in other countries, such as The U.S. and Israel. He is normally accompanied by an oud, violin, kanoun or darbouka (drum instrument).

These are just a few movements that have impacted the evolution of Moroccan music as a whole, since there are centuries to be covered of different styles. Many instruments, such as the kanoun and gimbri, have become lost sounds over the years; people are losing track of modern music roots. When visiting Morocco, pay attention to the soothing sounds of the gimbri and the heavy sounds of the bendir. As I mentioned before - the music forms the culture’s deep roots, and lay bare the great diversity in the people of Morocco.