JORDANIE

The music of the Jordanian people is predominantly vocal, and neither Turkish nor European instrumental music have exerted any significant influence until relatively recently. These songs can be syllabic, as are the wedding songs of the women of Foheis, or long as the bedouin poet-singers' songs of those of the fishermen. These vocal forms are numerous: huda, hjeyni, dahiya, dabkeh, shuruqi, ‘ataba, mawwal… The rebâb is the privileged instrument of the sha‘er, the poet-singer. This one-string bowed lute is made of a rectangular sound box covered with skin. It is used to play preludes and interludes and accompanies the singing. The simsimiya belongs to the family of lyres found from the Arabian Gulf region to the East African coast, it accompanies mainly mawwal.