Middle Eastern / Arabic Music profile picture

Middle Eastern / Arabic Music

middleeasterndance

About Me

EGYPT has long been celebrated for its public dancing-girls; the most famous of whom are of a distinct tribecallede "Ghawázee". A female of this tribe is called "Gházeeyeh" and a man, "Gházee"; but the plural ghawazee is generally understood as applying to the females. ghawazee or ghazeeyehs The misapplication of the appellation "Almehs"(1) to the common dancing-girls of this country has already been noticed. The Ghawazee perform unveiled, in the public streets, even to amuse the rabble. Their dancing has little elegance; its chief pecularity being a very rapid vibrating motion of the hips, from side to side. They commence with a degree of decorum; but soon, by more animated looks, by a more rapid collision of their castanets(2) of brass, and by increased energy in every motion; they exhibit a spectacle exactly agreeing with the descriptions which Martial and Juvenal have given of the performances of the female dances of Gades. The dress in which they generally thus exhibit in public is similar to that which is worn by women of the middlle classes in Egypt in private; that is, in the hareem; consisting of a yelek, or an anteree, and the shintiyán of handsome materials. They also wear various ornaments: their eyes are bordered with the kohl (or black collyrium); an the tips of their fingers, the palms of their hands, and their toes and other parts of their feet, are usually stained with the red dye of the hennà,accordingg to the general custom of the middle and higher classes of Egyptian women. In general they are accompanied by musicians (mostly of the same tribe), whose instruments are the kemengeh or the rabáb(3) with the tár; or the darabukkeh(4) with the zummárah(5) or the zemr; the tár is usually in the hands of an old woman'

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Member Since: 7/16/2007
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Sounds Like: Ancient egyptian dancesPharaonic music: Hatshepsut Preface: One thing is for sure: nothing remains of Pharaonic dances in Khemet (ancient Egypt). Many people from many places occupied Egypt and no accurate record of ancient Egyptian dance remains in the folklore. My own research on this matter goes in an entire different direction and I will expose it more in the future.Dances in pharaonic times - when Egypt was called Kemet - were on many occasions merely religious dances or semi-religious like celebrating the harvest. The relief in the tomb of Ti, Saqqara (5th Dynasty) shows male dancers doing the eye of Horus or wedjat, a religious dance. Apart from other explanations usually given to this symbol, the original meaning of of the wedjat or oudjat is that we are all the divine eyes of God. Horus was being represented as a falcon, indicating the superiority of sight as the falcon has one of the sharpest views. The symbol was later found back on the dollar. The dance was performed to transmit the idea that The Supreme being can see all your actions as He looks through your own as well through your fellow beings' eyes. Rhythms and ancient Egyptian musical instruments were totally different of what is used in nowadays oriental music. Oriental music is exactly what it says, 'music from the east' and it's origins were in may cases Ottoman where the uneven rhytms that were frequently used up to the 19th century in Egyptian music, such as 10/8 or 5/4 are also found in Turkish classical music. The turkish 'devri hindi' rhythm (in 7/8) even points out the origin in the name. Also the tone scales and melodic modes are Middle Eastern and Central Asian of origin.
Record Label: signed
Type of Label: Major