Back in 2009 and 2010, this blog posted several posts about Arab bagpipes — both the popularity in many countries of Scottish bagpipes and the indigenous bagpipes of several parts of North Africa and the Middle East, complete with music videos.
Now the website Tunis-Live has a piece on bagpipes and the Mezoued genre of traditional music: "Tunisian bagpipes: 'Mezoued' Still Resonates in Tunisia."
Their chosen video shows a Mezoued style singer but does not emphasize the bagpipe:
So for a better look at the pipe itself I'll add this:
Showing posts with label Arab bagpipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arab bagpipes. Show all posts
Monday, May 7, 2012
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
More Bagpipes
Since Middle Eastern bagpipes have come up a number of times, someone called my attention to this BBC sound-and-slideshow presentation of Palestinian pipers.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
A Musical Bank Shot: Why the Internet is So Darned Cool
A lot of folks of my generation claim to be bewildered by the Internet, but I love it, having spent a career in earlier forms of publishing and communication and knowing improvement when I see it, and one reason has recently been driven home by a comment that makes me think I've just watched Minnesota Fats or some other great pool player do a bank shot that runs half the table. (Non-native-English speakers: something really cool happened.)
I know a lot of my readers don't regularly read the comments to the posts: this isn't the sort of blog where huge, intense debates go on in the comment threads, and a post that generates 10 comments is pretty good. But sometimes my commenters provide essential information that I didn't have.
And sometimes, the sheer networking of the Internet becomes apparent. Case in point: My Blizzard of '09 post over the weekend, with all the examples of Arab bagpipes (another post for which YouTube can claim a lot of the credit, another cool thing about Web 2.0), included a YouTube video of Moroccan bagpipes in a Moroccan group, a video which I noted was captioned in a language I did not know (but suggested might be Hungarian). In a comment to that post, one I. Warner said:
Bank shot. Try that with a dead-tree newspaper.
I know a lot of my readers don't regularly read the comments to the posts: this isn't the sort of blog where huge, intense debates go on in the comment threads, and a post that generates 10 comments is pretty good. But sometimes my commenters provide essential information that I didn't have.
And sometimes, the sheer networking of the Internet becomes apparent. Case in point: My Blizzard of '09 post over the weekend, with all the examples of Arab bagpipes (another post for which YouTube can claim a lot of the credit, another cool thing about Web 2.0), included a YouTube video of Moroccan bagpipes in a Moroccan group, a video which I noted was captioned in a language I did not know (but suggested might be Hungarian). In a comment to that post, one I. Warner said:
The Kobza Vajk Group does indeed have Hungarian subtitles - Szentendre is an adorable little town up the Duna (Danube) from Budapest. Being a piper in the US (with a friend in Saudi who reads your blog), I enjoyed all the videos.Now let's look at the play-by-play here, or what a Muslim hadith scholar would call the isnad, or chain of authorities. I post a jeu d'esprit sort of thing about Arab bagpipes. One video is of a Moroccan bagpiper. I note the captions look maybe Hungarian. An American bagpiper who is familiar with the group knows the "adorable little town" in Hungary where they are based (though if his name is "Warner" he doesn't sound Hungarian). How did an American bagpiper find my blog? Via "a friend in Saudi who reads your blog."
Bank shot. Try that with a dead-tree newspaper.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
For the Still Snowed-In: More Arab Bagpipes and Bagpipe Scholarship
Still stuck in the snowed-in East. My Friday post on Bagpipes in Bethlehem provoked fairly scholarly comments from LJMarczak and The Moor Next Door, so, what the heck, here's more:
The Qatar Army Pipe Band at an Arabian horse show:
Dubai Pipe Band playing in the UAE at Zayed University:
An Egyptian bagpipe band (I think the first group are doing the Grand March from Aida, but my ear isn't that great and I've never heard Verdi on Bagpipes; then they're at the Pyramids briefly):
On second viewing I think they may be in front of the Sphinx, though it doesn't show except for the paws. If so, perhaps this is part of the Sound and Light Show.
This one claims on YouTube to be "The Best Palestinian Bagpipe Player." I doubt that, and the pipers who've commented on the video disagree. Lone pipers only work if they're standing in mist covered mountains piping a lonely air. It's not an indoor instrument. Massed pipes are better, but heck, the Palestinians seem to really love the pipes:
Wikipedia's "bagpipes" article notes the pipes are known in the Middle East but doesn't go into it in any detail. The comments on the earlier post are, right now, my best source of data for origins: pipes in one form or another seem to be known in the Arab world, North Africa, Turkey and the Caucasus, many predating any British or Celtic influence in the region. Some regional bagpipes are not on the Scottish model. (Neither are Irish pipes, as I understand it.)
You can catch a Moroccan version of the bagpipe in this video, though the captions are in some language (educated guess: Hungarian? See Comment Below) I don't know (wait till the oud player's winding down at 1:01 or 1:02):
Now that's a Middle Eastern sound.
For a traditional Tunisian pipe known as the mezoued which looks nothing like a Scots pipe, and sounds different too, try this:
And just to round things out in the Maghreb, the Algerian raï singer known as Cheb Mami: the bagpipes kick in about two minutes in (2:19 or so) and the photo looks a lot like the Tunisian mezoued. Catchy tune, too. I don't know much about raï, but this song's definitely listenable.
And while the Arab contribution to piping is obviously important, a reader has reminded me quite clearly that there is a highly famous Scots pipe tune on a Middle Eastern theme: "The Barren Rocks of Aden." Here's the tune:
And, while many online sources say there are no known lyrics, somebody linked to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders has a gent with a convincing Scots burr singing lyrics:
So there. I may play it while I try to find my car under the giant snowball it has become.
The Qatar Army Pipe Band at an Arabian horse show:
Dubai Pipe Band playing in the UAE at Zayed University:
An Egyptian bagpipe band (I think the first group are doing the Grand March from Aida, but my ear isn't that great and I've never heard Verdi on Bagpipes; then they're at the Pyramids briefly):
On second viewing I think they may be in front of the Sphinx, though it doesn't show except for the paws. If so, perhaps this is part of the Sound and Light Show.
This one claims on YouTube to be "The Best Palestinian Bagpipe Player." I doubt that, and the pipers who've commented on the video disagree. Lone pipers only work if they're standing in mist covered mountains piping a lonely air. It's not an indoor instrument. Massed pipes are better, but heck, the Palestinians seem to really love the pipes:
Wikipedia's "bagpipes" article notes the pipes are known in the Middle East but doesn't go into it in any detail. The comments on the earlier post are, right now, my best source of data for origins: pipes in one form or another seem to be known in the Arab world, North Africa, Turkey and the Caucasus, many predating any British or Celtic influence in the region. Some regional bagpipes are not on the Scottish model. (Neither are Irish pipes, as I understand it.)
You can catch a Moroccan version of the bagpipe in this video, though the captions are in some language (educated guess: Hungarian? See Comment Below) I don't know (wait till the oud player's winding down at 1:01 or 1:02):
Now that's a Middle Eastern sound.
For a traditional Tunisian pipe known as the mezoued which looks nothing like a Scots pipe, and sounds different too, try this:
And just to round things out in the Maghreb, the Algerian raï singer known as Cheb Mami: the bagpipes kick in about two minutes in (2:19 or so) and the photo looks a lot like the Tunisian mezoued. Catchy tune, too. I don't know much about raï, but this song's definitely listenable.
And while the Arab contribution to piping is obviously important, a reader has reminded me quite clearly that there is a highly famous Scots pipe tune on a Middle Eastern theme: "The Barren Rocks of Aden." Here's the tune:
And, while many online sources say there are no known lyrics, somebody linked to the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders has a gent with a convincing Scots burr singing lyrics:
So there. I may play it while I try to find my car under the giant snowball it has become.
Friday, December 18, 2009
And Now for Something Completely Different: Bagpipes in Bethlehem
My second seasonal posting:
In case it hasn't occurred to you to search YouTube for "Arab Orthodox Scout Troop — Bagpipes Band" and "Christmas Day Bethlehem", for our current Christmas season, here they are:
The Palestinian love of bagpipes is something I must blog about someday, if I can ever figure it out. (Why are bagpipes so big at weddings? Does anyone know? Did some Scotsman or Irishman do this, or is it the tradition of military pipers from the British days? Sometimes it occurs in Egyptian weddings, too.) Don't get me wrong: my Celtic DNA loves pipers, but it always seems a little, shall we say, out of context when you see it in the Arab world? Anybody that knows, please post comments. [UPDATE: Read the comments. We're learning more. Sadly Wikipedia says they're widespread in Europe and the Middle East but doesn't talk much about the Middle East.]
If you think I'm making this up (Palestinians and Jordanians won't for a moment), how about this bunch of Jordanian pipers (actually pipes and drums) walking in circles in a Roman amphitheatre in Jerash, Jordan, playing Yankee Doodle? (In case you also forgot to Google "Jordanian bagpipes" and "Yankee Doodle" together.)
In case it hasn't occurred to you to search YouTube for "Arab Orthodox Scout Troop — Bagpipes Band" and "Christmas Day Bethlehem", for our current Christmas season, here they are:
The Palestinian love of bagpipes is something I must blog about someday, if I can ever figure it out. (Why are bagpipes so big at weddings? Does anyone know? Did some Scotsman or Irishman do this, or is it the tradition of military pipers from the British days? Sometimes it occurs in Egyptian weddings, too.) Don't get me wrong: my Celtic DNA loves pipers, but it always seems a little, shall we say, out of context when you see it in the Arab world? Anybody that knows, please post comments. [UPDATE: Read the comments. We're learning more. Sadly Wikipedia says they're widespread in Europe and the Middle East but doesn't talk much about the Middle East.]
If you think I'm making this up (Palestinians and Jordanians won't for a moment), how about this bunch of Jordanian pipers (actually pipes and drums) walking in circles in a Roman amphitheatre in Jerash, Jordan, playing Yankee Doodle? (In case you also forgot to Google "Jordanian bagpipes" and "Yankee Doodle" together.)
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