dubsahara

Rebab, Rabab, Rababa, Rababah, Rebâb

The Arabic RABABAH or Arab fiddle is the earliest known bowed instrument and the parent of the medieval European rebec. The instrument was first mentioned in the 10th century, became prominent in medieval and later in Arab art music. In medieval times the word rabab was used for any bowed instrument. In China the rebab is known as rawap and very popular among the uighur, the uzbek and the tajik.

The rabab has a membrane belly made of animal skin or wood and one, two or three strings. There is normally no fingerboard, the strings being stopped by the player’s fingers. Body shapes vary. Pear- and boat-shaped rababs were particularly common and influenced the rebec. Rectangular bodies are mainly played by Bedouin musicians. But Flat round and trapezoidal are also found. Throughout the Middle East and Africa, as well as Central Asia, northern India, and Southeast Asia, the word rabab or a derivative name refers to a spike fiddle, one that has a small round or cylindrical body and a narrow neck. It has a easily recognisable rich thick sound – a combination of high and low tones.

The rabab reached Europe by two routes. A pear-shaped variety was adopted in the Byzantine Empire in the 9th century as the lira. A boat-shaped variety, still played in northern Africa, was introduced by the Arabs to Spain in the 11th century.

The instrument is still plays a dominant role in the music of Morrocco where it has an important function in arabo-andalouse music and is used by street musicians as well. The lithograph shows an Arabo-andalousian rebâb. The main instruments used in arabo-andalouse music are the tar – a sort of small tambourine – sometimes a darbuqa – a funnel-shaped drum made of clay – and three types of string instruments – the rebab, the kemanjah (a violin) and the ‘oud (a lute). Arabo-andalouse music traces its origins to Abu Hassan Ali Ben Nafi, known as Ziriab. This famous singer and composer fled from Baghdad to Moorish spain in in the 9th century. His success at the court of Bagdad led to injurious rumours and intrigue spread by his teacher who became jealous. Ziriab was the founder of Morroccan classical music, essentially the Andalusian music of the 10th to 15th centuries. It is extremely complicated in musical structure and has unique rhythms.

The rebab is currently played from the Magreb to as far as Indonesia and Malaysia.

rababa – coconut shell instrument played similarly to a violin, but resting on the ground, and held vertically

The rebab is classified in organology as a representative of the “spike fiddle” family of instruments. The word kemânçe is derived from a Persian word meaning “small bow,” but is used mostly in the sense of “small bowed instrument.” The old Iranian kemânçe, like many other elements of Iranian music, entered Islamic music from the very beginning. Its cut spherical body was generally constructed of coconut shell, and its face was either of sheatfish (Silurus glanis) or ox pericardium, and it included both two- and three-stringed variants.

The only bowed instrument used in Turkish music up until the 18th century, was very popular in religious-mystic music as well as in secular music. In the Mevlevî lodges, where it was used under the name “rebab,” a sort of holiness was even attributed to the kemânçe. Upon the arrival and enthusiastic adoption of the viola d’amore from Europe in the second half of the 18th century, the kemânçe fell from favor in secular music and was abandoned, surviving only in the Mevlevî lodges. Its old name of kemân or kemânçe was even forgotten, and in time the name rebab used among the Mevlevîs came to be considered its only name in all periods and circles. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mevlevî musicians attempted to bring the rebab back into use, but without success.