Yemenese Music : Virtual Browse Travel
Yemen is said to be facing one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, due to military violence, civil war, acute environmental crisis and the world's worst cholera epidemic.
Yet, is it still possible to find beauty and innocence in such a grim country?
Yemen was a land of beautiful music, and here, we will go through some of it, which also may have had influence in several other parts and cultures of the world. Indeed, the Raga Yaman of Indian classical music is said to have its influence from Yemen, though this cannot be verified easily now.
While I work on establishing the link, here is some music with a very good match with notes of Raga Bhairavi in the first part, and also other ragas and folk tunes of India in the later parts. (eg. one may find glimpses of the Bengali Bhatiyali at min. 25:00 or so...).
38:30 and onwards of above, the influence seems to spread via the Oud into certain Spanish styles, such as the Spanish-Arabic music of Al-Andalus.
And via Spain, the influence may have traveled to neighboring Portugal, and from there all the way to
Goa, parts of this song...
resemble traditional Scottish music!
while other parts, resemble traditional Goan-Konkani music...
Here is a hebrew poem by the 17th century's Yemenite Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, which has later been put to music and was sung by the Yemenese origin Israeli singer - Ofra Haza, among others.
A highly popular version of the song which was an international hit:
Why leave out the Madonna version of Im Nin'Alu, here it is.
Yet, is it still possible to find beauty and innocence in such a grim country?
Yemen was a land of beautiful music, and here, we will go through some of it, which also may have had influence in several other parts and cultures of the world. Indeed, the Raga Yaman of Indian classical music is said to have its influence from Yemen, though this cannot be verified easily now.
While I work on establishing the link, here is some music with a very good match with notes of Raga Bhairavi in the first part, and also other ragas and folk tunes of India in the later parts. (eg. one may find glimpses of the Bengali Bhatiyali at min. 25:00 or so...).
38:30 and onwards of above, the influence seems to spread via the Oud into certain Spanish styles, such as the Spanish-Arabic music of Al-Andalus.
And via Spain, the influence may have traveled to neighboring Portugal, and from there all the way to
Goa, parts of this song...
resemble traditional Scottish music!
while other parts, resemble traditional Goan-Konkani music...
The style of the Cymbals used in the above Ofra Haza song are very similar to the percussion of the Copper Thali used in the music of Uttarakhand Himalayas...
Here is a hebrew poem by the 17th century's Yemenite Rabbi Shalom Shabazi, which has later been put to music and was sung by the Yemenese origin Israeli singer - Ofra Haza, among others.
A highly popular version of the song which was an international hit:
Why leave out the Madonna version of Im Nin'Alu, here it is.
IM NIN'ALU - If they are locked,
DAL THAEY NA DI VIM - The doors of the generous ones. DAL THAEY MA ROM - The doors of the sky, LO NIN'ALU - won't be locked.EL HI MA RE MAM AL KARUVIM - God is alive and sublime to the angels,KULAM BA RUHO YA'ALU - In his spirit they'll rise above.EL HI - god is alive...
The point of all this is that there are points where music from distinct places of the world finds common ground. Indeed, there are common points where all people of the world find common ground. The more we try to explore these common areas, the better it would be for all of us. Hopefully, the music inside of us will thus live on...
posted by Archit Goel @ 2:04 PM
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