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Traditional Arab Music Ensembles in Tunis: Modernizing Al-Turath in the Shadow of Egypt

Author(s): Ruth Davis


Source: Asian Music, Vol. 28, No. 2 (Spring - Summer, 1997), pp. 73-108
Published by: University of Texas Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/834475 .
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Volume XXVIII, number2

ASIAN MUSIC

Spring/Summer 1997

TRADITIONAL ARAB MUSIC ENSEMBLES IN TUNIS:


MODERNIZING AL-TURATH IN THE SHADOW OF EGYPTI
by
Ruth Davis
In March 1932, the baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger, patron and
pioneering scholar of the Tunisian urbanmusical tradition,al-ma'luf, sent
his ensemble of four instrumentalists and two solo singers to Cairo to
represent Tunisia in the First InternationalCongress of Arab Music. The
musicians were Muhammad Ghanim2on the rabab (two-stringed, boatshaped fiddle), Khumais Tarnanon the 'ad 'arbi (fretless short-necked
Maghrebian lute with four courses of strings), Khumais al-'Ati on the
naqqdrat (pair of small kettle-drums) and 'Ali ibn 'Arafa on the tar
(tambourine);MuhammadIbn Hassan sang male alto alternatingwith the
deeper-voiced Muhammad al Muqrani (Moussali 1988:145). The
instrumentalistsdoubled as chorus, alternatingwith the solo voices.3
This was no regularma'laf ensemble; rather,it representeda unique
and idiosyncratic attemptby d'Erlangerto reconstruct an archaic type of
performance practice, which he believed had prevailed before the
introduction of European instruments, as well as extraneous Arab
instrumentsborrowed from Egyptian ensembles (Moussali 1988:146-47).
Normally d'Erlanger's rabab would have been joined or replaced by a
violin, the naqqaratby a darbukka(vase-shapeddrum),and the 'uid'arbiby
its softer-toned Egyptian counterpartwith six courses of strings, the 'ad
sharqi; a qdnan (trapezoidalpluckedzither)was often included, and despite
their inability to produce the variable intervals of the Arab maqdmdt4
(melodic modes; singular, maqdm) so too were European instrumentsof
fixed pitch such as the piano, harmoniumand frettedmandolin (d'Erlanger
1949:341; El-Mahdi 1981:49).5
D'Erlanger's musicians used to rehearsein a special house built on
the grounds of his magnificentMoorish palace, in Sidi Bou Said, an idyllic
clifftop village overlooking the bay of Tunis. From around 1911, when he
took up residence in Tunisia, until his death a few months after the Cairo
Congress, d'Erlanger had devoted himself to the study, revival, and
conservationof the ma'luf which he consideredto be in a state of decadence
and neglect (1917:95; 1949:340-41). D'Erlanger blamed corruptive
Europeaninfluences for contributingto this condition, and he criticized in
particularthe Tunisian aristocracyfor inviting Europeanmusic teachers to
their courts. At the same time, d'Erlanger maintained that as an oral
tradition,lacking an independent,currently-applicabletheoreticalbasis, the
ma'ltif was inherently vulnerable. Believing the repertory to be on
thethresholdof extinction,d'Erlangerdevoted the rest of his life's efforts to
remedyingthese limitations.6

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74 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

Plate 1. Khumais Tarnan (d. 1964) with 'aid 'arbi: Tunisian


delegate to the 1932 Cairo Congress; founding member and
original chorus master of the Rashidiyya. (Photo courtesy
Salah El-Mahdi.)

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis

75

Regardless of their individual make-up, ma'luf ensembles of


d'Erlanger's time, including his own, were characterized by similar
principlesof transmissionand performancepractice,and by similartypes of
performance contexts. The musicians learned the repertory by oral
transmissionfrom their shaykh (leader) who normally played either 'ad or
tdr; the shaykhwas also responsiblefor selecting the pieces and for leading
the transitionsfrom one piece to the next. The instrumentalistsdoubled the
vocal line and played introductions, interludes and purely instrumental
genres; they also doubled as unison chorus, alternatingwith the solo voices.
Each instrumentalistand solo vocalist interpretedthe familiarmelodies in an
individual way, embellishing them spontaneously, producing a simple
heterophonic texture around the unison choral core. Such ensembles
typically performedin private domestic gatherings,particularlyamong the
aristocracy and wealthy bourgeoisie, in communal celebrations such as
weddings, circumcisions and religious festivals, and in caf6s. The
atmospherewas informal: performanceswere often accompaniedby eating,
drinking,and -- especially in caf6s -- by the smoking of taqruri(marijuana),
and the audiencesang along with the ensemble.
Ma'laf literally means "familiar", or "custom". The musical
repertoryto which it refers is also known as turath(literally,heritage)7and,
in common with the related musical repertoriesof Morocco, Algeria and
Libya, mtusiqd andalusiyya (Andalusian music). According to popular
belief, to which d'Erlangerhimself subscribed, this music was originally
imported to North Africa by so-called Andalusian refugees, Muslims and
Jews fleeing the Christian reconquest of Spain from the twelfth to the
fifteenth centuries.8 The origins of a distinctive Arab-Andalusianmusical
traditiondate back to the 9th century,when Ziryab,an outstandingmusician
at the court of Baghdad, was ousted by his jealous teacher and rival Ishaq
al-Mawsili. Turning westward, Ziryab eventually found refuge at at the
court of 'Abd al-Rahman II in Cordoba, where he established a music
school and developed his own principlesof composition and performance.
United by their common historicalidentity and theoreticalheritage, as well
as certain formal characteristics and norms of performance practice, the
various national and regional traditions of musiqa andalusiyya are
distinguishedas a whole from those of the Arab east, or Mashreq.9
In Tunisia, the ma'lhifflourished among urbancommunities of the
northernand coastal regions; until recent decades, it was virtuallyunknown
elsewhere (Abdul-Wahab 1918:117). Essentially it is a precomposed
repertory of songs, interspersed by instrumental pieces, organized by
maqam in a total of thirteen immense song cycles called nabat (singular,
naba). Within each noba the pieces are furtherclassified accordingto their
rhythmic-metricgenres, or iqa'at (singular,iqd'). Since it would take many
hours to perform an entire niba, in practice a selection of pieces are

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76 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


organized in a standard sequence of vocal, instrumental, and rhythmicmetric genres and tempos. The song texts mostly belong to the literary
poetic forms of muwashshahah(in classical Arabic) and zajal (in dialect);
typically they describethe beautyof women and nature,and the intoxicating
effects of wine. The melodic structureis highly repetitive, mirroringthe
strophic structureof the verses: the same melody is repeatedfor each line,
possibly reinforcedby instrumentalresponses, and changing only with the
occasional change of rhyme.10
On visits to Tunis between 1982 and 1996, I attendedrehearsalsand
public performances of the Rashidiyya,11 the principal state-sponsored
ensemble for the ma'lif. The performers were divided into an all-male
instrumentalsection playing from notation and a separate mixed choir of
about ten male and ten female vocalists, singing from memory; the entire
ensemble was led by a conductor with a baton, following notation. The
instrumentalsection comprised a nucleus of about ten violins, two or three
cellos and a double bass, one or two qanuns, an 'ud 'arbi, an 'id sharqi,
one or two nays (s. nday, end-blown reed flute) a darbukka, tar and
naqqarat. Only the solo percussion instruments improvised around the
basic rhythmic-metriccore (1qa'); otherwise, all matters of interpretation
were controlledby the conductor. Public performanceswere typically held
in the gracious main concert hall of the National Conservatoryof Music, a
late-nineteenthcentury colonial style building which formerly housed the
French conservatoire (see below). The conductor, instrumentalists and
male singers wore black suits and ties, while the female singers wore
colorful Tunisian costumes. Framedby microphones and loud-speakers,
the ensemble performedon a raised platformbefore an audience seated in
rows of chairs; they listened in silence, clapping only after each piece.
Printedprogrammeswere distributed,listing the musicians and the pieces
performedin exact sequence.
The performance conventions I witnessed were neither new nor
unique to the Rashidiyya: their basic principles dated back to the years
immediately following the founding of the ensemble in November 1934,
just two years after d'Erlanger's death and two and a half years after his
own musicians had returnedfrom Cairo. Like d'Erlangerbefore them, the
expressed aim of the founders was to conserve and promote traditional
Tunisian musicl2 whose survival they believed to be threatened. However,
while d'Erlangerconcentratedhis attackon Europeaninfluences (1917:95;
1949:340-41) the Tunisiansblamed the pervasive and increasing influence
of popularEgyptianmusic, importedby visiting artistssince the turnof the
century, and popularizedfurtherby the commercial record market. In his
history of the Rashidiyya, published by the Institute, Salah El-Mahdi
describes how Tunisian musicians were abandoning their traditions and
imitating the Egyptians, not only in their music but also in their dress and
dialect (1981:25).

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 77


Plate 2. The Rashidiyya Institute in Tunis (interior detail).
(Author: 1996.)

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78 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


In its efforts to preserve the distinctive identity of the Tunisian
tradition, the Rashidiyya consciously turnedto contemporaryEgyptian as
well as Western orchestral models for inspiration. As a result, over the
following decades, successive leaders introduced and maintained radical
changes in the transmission and performance of the ma'luf, reflecting
musical ideologies and aesthetic values directly opposed to those of
previous ensembles. Salwa El-Shawan (El-Shawan 1984) has documented
a comparable process occurring in Cairo several decades later, with the
revival of the indigenous repertorydesignated al-turathduring the 1960s
and 70s. The process was initiated in the early 1960s by leading Egyptian
celebrities, including the female singer Umm Kulthum and the
singer/composerMuhammad'Abd al-Wahhab. Alarmedby the republican
government'slavish supportof Westernmusic since the revolutionof 1952,
seemingly at the expense of indigenous traditions, these musicians
persuaded the Ministry of Culture to create an "Arab orchestra which is
comparableto the existing foreign orchestra(i.e. the Cairo Symphony)."In
1967, Firqat al-Musiqa al-'Arabiyyah (the Arab Music Ensemble) was
founded in order to revive a repertorywhich, since the 1950s, had almost
completely disappeared. Rather than emulate the earlier ensembles,
however, the new ensemble introduced radical changes in transmission,
performancepractice and context, clearly derived from Western orchestral
models. These changes were based on a well-defined musical ideology
aimed at reinterpretingthe traditionalrepertoryaccording to contemporary
aesthetic ideals. The result, to use the expression aptly coined by Ali Jihad
Racy, was a 'modernizedheritage' (Racy 1982:402).
Since the beginning of the twentieth century,Egypt has been at the
forefront of innovative developments in Arabic music. Scholars such as
Virginia Danielson (1988:142; 1996:300) and Ali JihadRacy (1981:6) have
pointed to the vital, catalytic role played by the Egyptian mass media,
particularly disc, theatre, film and broadcasting, in the creation and
promotion of new musical styles and their dissemination throughout the
Arab world. As Racy has observed, mainstreamEgyptian music has come
to be regarded even among non-Arabs as the dominant style of 'Arab
music,' effectively constitutinga linguafranca, or pan-Arabicmusical style
(1982:391)
In Egypt, musical developments have been underpinned by
academic initiatives aimed specifically at reviving, systematizing and
modernizing Arabic music on the basis of Western models. In 1913, the
Oriental Music Club was founded in Cairo, providing a center for formal
music training and a forum for intellectual and scholarly exchange.
According to its director,Mustafa Rida, the Club consistently pursued the
goal of "reviving and systematizing Arab music so that it will rise upon an
artisticfoundation,as did Westernmusic earlier"(Kitcb 1933:23, quoted in
Racy 1991:70). In December 1929, the government-sponsored Oriental

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis

79

Music Institutewas founded in Cairo with similar goals. Inauguratingthe


new Institute, King Fu'ad expressed his desire to hold an Arab music
conference to which Western scholarswould be invited "in orderto discuss
all that was requiredto make the music civilized, and to teach it and rebuild
it on acknowledged scientific principles" (Kitab 1933:19, quoted in Racy
1991:69). Hardly more than two years later, the Oriental Music Institute
hosted the First InternationalCongress of Arab Music, sponsored by King
Fu'ad and organized primarily by the Egyptian government, in which
musicians and scholars from more than seventy European and Middle
Easterncountriesparticipated.In his penetratinganalysis of the conference
proceedings, Ali Jihad Racy observes that the Egyptians were
fundamentallymotivatedby theirbelief in the supremacyof Westernmusic,
and the notion that in orderto advance, Egyptian music needed to emulate
and borrow from that of Europe(Racy 1991:82-83).
In the decades immediatelyfollowing the Cairo Congress, Egyptian
musicians forged theirinnovative musical ideas primarilyin the framework
of new compositions. Not until the late 1960s, with the creationof the Arab
Music Ensemble, were modernizing ideals systematically applied to the
reinterpretationof older repertory. Even then, Racy describes the turath
revival movement as peripheral in the context of contemporary Cairene
musical culture (Racy 1982:401-402). In Tunisia, in contrast,in the heady
last decades of the nationalist movement leading up to Independence in
1956, the modernized ma'luf symbolized the Tunisian national identity,13
and its songs were upheld as the foundation and ideal model for the new
songs promoted by the mass media.14 After Tunisian independence in
1956, the ma'lhifwas officially designatedthe nationalmusical heritage,and
the Rashidiyya's achievementsand personnelbecame the cornerstoneof the
government's music educational policies, as state-funded music schools,
clubs and ensembles modelled on the Rashidiyya were established
throughoutthe country.
My purpose in this article is to trace the principal stages in the
development of the distinctive performanceconventions of the Rashidiyya
and its offshoots, from the foundingof the ensemble in 1934 to the present.
I also consider the broaderimplicationsof the Rashidiyya's innovationsfor
the ma'luf throughout Tunisia, and their relationships with parallel
developments in Egyptian ensembles. Finally, a comparison of the aims
and achievementsof the Rashidiyyawith those pioneeredby the ArabMusic
Ensemble in Cairo more than thirty years later, reflects fundamental,
historical differences between the urban music cultures of Tunisia and
Egypt, and more specifically, in the concept and significance of al-turathin
each case.

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80 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

Plate 3. Muhammad Triki: Leader of the Rashidiyya ensemble,


1935-1949. (Photo courtesy Salah El-Mahdi.)

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis 81


A New Type of Performance Practice
Questions of performancepractice were remote from the original
agenda of the Rashidiyya's founders, who included musicians, poets,
intellectuals, politicians, bureaucratsand other prominentmembers of the
Tunisian bourgeoisie. Essentially, their aim was twofold. In addition to
their desire to protect the ma'laf from the overwhelming influence of
Egyptian music, they intended to elevate its social status by providing a
respectable,public secularenvironmentfor its performance,comparableto a
Western music conservatory. Their immediate model was the French
conservatoire,founded in Tunis in 1896.
Before 1934, the only places in Tunis where public music making
was considered acceptable for all social classes were the lodges of certain
Sufi brotherhoods15where the ma'luf was performedalongside the sacred
repertories,withoutmelody instruments,in a restrictedtype of performance
practice called ma'lTf kham (lit. raw, unrefined ma'laf). This was
characterizedby a unison male chorus accompanied by percussion alone.
Outside the lodges, Islamic social taboo relegated public music making to
the ranksof professionalmusicians, typically Jews, barbers,or members of
the lower artisanclasses; amateurmusiciansof highersocial standinghad to
confine their music making to the privacy of their homes. By providing a
serious, academic environment for the ma'luf, the Rashidiyya also
represented a positive attempt to dissociate the repertory from the
environmentsassociated with lower-class professionals, such as caf6s with
their hashish smokers and wedding celebrations with their alcohol, where
Egyptian and 'inferior'Tunisiansongs also paraded.16
In orderto create an ensemble of the highest possible standards,the
founders sent out invitations to the leading shaykhs of the capital. The
initial response producedsix violins, two rababs,five 'ids, three qanons, a
tar, naqqarat,one female17and six male vocalists. Unprecedentedboth in
size and proportions,the new ensemble encountered difficulties from the
start.18 Many of the shaykhs were unaccustomed to performing together
and knew differentversions of the orally transmittedmelodies; at the same
time, their spontaneousembellishmentswere obscuredby the instrumental
doublings. Evidently, for the new ensemble to be viable the musicians
needed to conform to a standardversion of each melody; to this end, the
young Tunisian violinist Muhammad Triki, adept in European, Middle
Easternand Tunisiantraditions,19was invited to supervisethe transcription
of the entire repertoryof the ma'lof into Western staff notation, teach the
shaykhshow to read the transcriptionsand lead them in performance.
Within the first decade of his leadership, Triki had created the
standardformat for the ensemble and established the basic conventions of

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82 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


rehearsing and performing that have survived until today. In our
conversations,Triki acknowledgedthat he was influenced by the sonorities
of both the European symphony orchestra and contemporary Egyptian
ensembles, particularlythe effect of bowed strings in unison and parallel
octaves that characterized the Egyptian firqah. However, unlike many
Egyptian ensembles, Triki excluded instruments of fixed pitch on the
grounds that they would compromise the intonation of the maqamat.
Ideally, he maintained,the chorus and strings should sound in unison "like
an army of soldiers,"20 while the solo Arab instruments were free to
improviseembellishments;in effect, however, such individualcontributions
became virtuallyredundantsince they were swampedby the uniform sound
mass of the rest of the ensemble.
Rehearsal and performance followed different patterns for the
instrumentaland vocal sections. Since the nuances of the vocal line were
consideredtoo subtleto be taughtany otherway thanby directimitation,the
singers learned the repertoryfrom their chorus master, Shaykh Khumais
Tarnan, by the traditional methods of repetition and memorization; the
instrumentalists,in contrast, were coached by Triki, aided by parts handcopied from the originaltranscriptions.When both sections had mastereda
piece they would reunite to rehearse and perform under Triki, the chorus
from memory and the instrumentalistsstill following notation. Trikihimself
either led the ensemble from within, playing the violin, or more
characteristically,he directedit from the front with a baton, like a Western
orchestralconductor.
Thus almost from the outset, the Rashidiyya established new
patterns and criteria for leadership. Previously ensembles had only one
leader, the shaykh, usually the eldest and most respected member who was
elected on the basis of his superiorknowledge of the vocal repertory. The
Rashidiyya, in contrast, was divided into separatevocal and instrumental
sections, each with its own leader. The original chorus master, Shaykh
Khumais Tarnan, was one of the eldest and certainly the most respected
musician in the ensemble; formerly mentor to the late baron Rodolphe
d'Erlangerand 'uidplayerin his ensemble, he had the largestrepertoryof all
the shaykhs, and was the principal source of Triki's transcriptions;
accordingto traditionalcriteria,he would have been the unchallengedleader
of the ensemble. In practice, however, this role fell to Triki, the youngest
musician, who created the precedent for the director of the instrumental
section to lead the entire ensemble. The Rashidiyya ensemble thus
established the anomaly that the leader of a what was essentially a vocal
traditionwas an instrumentalistwho did not participatein the singing, nor
was he required to have any special knowledge of the vocal repertory;
nevertheless, he had authorityover the leader of the chorus to control the
interpretation of the ensemble. The source of this authority were the
musical transcriptionshe used in teachingand performance.

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ArabMusicEnsemblesin Tunis 83
Davis:Traditional
Plate 4. Salah El-Mahdi ('ad) with amateur ma'lif ensemble in
Tunis. (Author: 1996.)

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84 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


Salah El-Mahdihas describedthe initiallaboriousefforts involved in
teaching the elderly and sometimes recalcitrantshaykhs how to read the
transcriptions(1981:67-68).21 In the summer of 1944, El-Mahdi himself,
then a recent, young recruit on the nay established a music school in the
Institute, functioning independently of the ensemble. El-Mahdi's classes
developed into a three-yearcurriculumcomprising solmization, notation,
Arab music history and theory, and instrumentalperformance. By the late
1940s, the ensemble was restrictingmembershipof the instrumentalsection
to graduatesof the Rashidiyyaschool (El-Mahdi1981:68-70)
The Social Role of the Rashidiyya
The Rashidiyya was essentially conceived as a forum for amateur
music making,22designed to liberate its members from traditionalsocial
constraints on public musical performance. It was subsidized by the
government, and despite their amateur status, members of the ensemble
received a small fee, comparablewith the token rewardsgiven to members
of Sufi ensembles. In 1938, the national radio was founded with a policy
of broadcasting only Tunisian music; its artistic director was Mustafa
Bushasha, brother-in-lawof Mustafa Sfar, presidentof the Rashidiyya and
mayor of Tunis. At first, the Rashidiyya provided the backbone of music
programming;eventually, its contribution decreased to one live evening
broadcast each week, a pattern that was maintained until a full-time
professional radio ensemble was formed in 1958. Meanwhile, several of
the Rashidiyya's musicians, singers and composers forged independent
careers in the media: during the decades leading up to independence in
1956, the Rashidiyya provided the springboard for many of the most
popular media artists of the time, including the legendary female singer
Salayhah, regarded by Tunisians as their equivalent of Egypt's Umm
Kultham. As the official representativeof Tunisian music, the Rashidiyya
gave concerts to honor importantpublic events and personalities,including
landmarksin the struggles of the nationalist movement and distinguished
foreign visitors (El-Mahdi 1981:104-106).
The ensemble gave regular public concerts in the large inner
courtyard of its building in the medina. Apparently the Rashidiyya's
concerts achieved the serious atmospherethat the founders had envisaged:
their atmosphere was informal, but the audiences were attentive and
respectful: they sang along with the chorus, but unlike the caf6 and
wedding audiences, they refrainedfrom talking throughthe performances
and they waited until each piece had finished before applauding. When
Salah El-Mahdi succeeded Triki as leader in 1949, his Saturdayafternoon
concerts were comparedto club meetings, the same familiarfaces returning
each week: the ensemble passed round copies of the words and the
audience sang along.

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 85


In its efforts to maintainthe highest possible performancestandards
and to raise the social status of the ma'laf, the Rashidiyya discouraged its
members from performingit in venues of the type traditionallyassociated
with professional musicians. Through the 1920s and 1930s, d'Erlanger's
musicians, led by 'fd player Shaykh KhumaisTarnan,gave ma'luf concerts
on Saturday mornings at the Cafr Mbarrat in the medina. Their
performancesattracteda large, regularfollowing; one formermemberof the
audience described them as a 'veritable school for the ma'lhf.' With the
creation of the Rashidiyya, d'Erlanger's musicians were absorbed into its
ranksand the caf6 concertsceased. It is difficult to gauge the overall effects
of the Rashidiyya's prohibitionon traditionalma'laf activities since other
factors, particularly the increasing competition from newer repertories
popularized by the mass media, must inevitably have contributedto their
decline. By Tunisian Independence in 1956, the ma'laf had virtually
disappeared from the caf6s in the city, and the repertory was rarely
performedin wedding celebrations;meanwhile, the shaykhs of the ma'laf
who once had turnedtheir homes into privatemusic schools and clubs, had
long been made redundant by the Rashidiyya ensemble and school.
However, in the coastal villages outside Tunis such as Sidi Bou Said and La
Marsa,membersof the local Sufi ensembles continuedto sing the ma'laf in
caf6s and wedding celebrations, while musicians from Tunis without
allegiance to the Rashidiyyatook theirinstrumentsout to the suburbsto play
with the local groups.
Regional Ma'hif Ensembles After Tunisian Independence
Until Tunisian independence in 1956, the Rashidiyya remained
unique of its kind, and its influence did not extend significantly beyond
Tunis. After independence, with the creation in 1961 of the Ministry of
CulturalAffairs, the Rashidiyya's innovations were extended nationwide.
The mission of the new Ministry, fixed by presidential decree, was to
"promote and harmonize cultural activities through the elaboration and
execution of a programof development and diffusion of culturethroughout
the nation" (Kacem 1973:30). Salah El-Mahdi, leader of the Rashidiyya,
was appointed director of Music and Popular Arts, with the primary
responsibility of "conservingand promotingthe national heritage"(op.cit:
36).23
Through the 1960s and 1970s, the government formed music
schools and amateurma'lof ensembles modelled on the Rashidiyya,directed
by graduatesof the Rashidiyya school and the new National Conservatory
of Music,24 in newly established educational and recreational centers
throughout the country. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Ministry of
CulturalAffairs publishedthe Rashidiyya'stranscriptionsin a series of nine

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86 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


volumes entitledal-Turdthal-Masiqial-Tunisi/PatrimoineMusical Tunisien
(The Tunisian Musical Heritage) which were distributed to the new
ensembles. Meanwhile, the syllabus and teaching methods of the
Rashidiyya school were adaptedfor use by the National Conservatoryand
other state-sponsoredmusic educationalinstitutions. Thus the ma'lif was
introduced to areas where it was previously unknown, and new teaching
methods, performance norms and institutional contexts were imposed on
communitieswhere it had traditionallybeen cultivated.
Despite its limited geographical representation,the ma'lhf was in
other respects relatively well-qualified to fulfill the role of national musical
heritage. As an urbanrepertoryit was at least common to several different
communities, unlike the rural traditions which are regionally more
diversified (Abdul-Wahab 1918:116). Within its urban and regional
confines it was a genuinely populartradition,crossing class and religious
boundaries. As an Arab musical and literarytradition,with a basis in Arab
music theory, the ma'lff enjoyed a certain intellectual status; at the same
time, it reflected the government's general policy to Arabize Tunisian
culture. It had a legend which passed in both popular and scholarly
imaginations as a history, and it carried the prestige associated, among
urbancommunitiesat least, with Andalusianculturegenerally. Finally, and
uniquely among Tunisia's diverse range of indigenous musical traditions,
the ma'luf came equipped with a complete repertoryin notation, modern
performing and teaching models, and an army of qualified teachers,
musicians, administratorsand advisorsprovidedby the Rashidiyya.
In its efforts both to encourage and monitorthe new ensembles, the
governmentestablishedan annualcycle of competitionsand festivals; these
culminate in the annual International Festival of the Ma'lif held each
summer in Testour, a small orchard town in the Mejerda river valley,
founded by Andalusianrefugees. Throughoutthe week of the Festival, the
gardenof the main hotel of Testouris transformedinto a competitiveconcert
arenaas prize-winningregional ensembles performtheir chosen pieces on a
brightly lit, colorfully decorateddais, to an audience of local townspeople
and adjudicators from the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the National
Conservatory and the Rashidiyya. The Tunisian performances are
interspersed with presentationsby ensembles from other countries in the
Maghreband Spain, culminatingin a concertby the Rashidiyya.

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 87

Plate 5. 'Abd al-Hamid Ben 'Aljiya in his office at the R.I.


(Author: 1996.)

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88 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

The Radio Ma'lif Ensemble


Further refinements in performance practice were introduced in
1958, when the government provided funds for a full-time, professional
radio ensemble. While the original members were supplied by the
Rashidiyya and graduates of its school, the radio ensemble itself was
modelled on its contemporary Egyptian counterparts: it combined the
instrumentaland vocal elements of the Rashidiyya with assorted Western
instrumentssuch as flutes, clarinets, accordions and electric harmoniums,
and its repertoryfocused on popular Egyptian media songs and Tunisian
songs in similar styles (El-Mahdi 1981:57-58). The Egyptian violinist
Professor Atiyah Shararahwas brought in as leader, and Egyptian qanun
player Professor Fahmi 'Awad was hired to train the chorus. Within this
framework,special arrangementswere made for the ma'lif. 'Abd al-Hanrid
Ben 'Aljiya, formernay player in the Rashidiyya,was appointedleader of a
reducedensemble drawnfrom the elite of the Rashidiyya'spast and present
membership,comprisinga chorus of ten male and ten female singers led by
Khumais Tarnan,and an instrumentalsection of ten violins, two cellos, a
double bass, qantin, 'ud 'arbi,nay, darbukka,tar and naqqarat.
Ben 'Aljiya aimed to distinguish his elite, professional ensemble
from the amateurRashidiyya by introducingnew 'professional' standards
of performance,25 which he acknowledged were inspired by Western
orchestralmodels. He preparedseparatepartsfor each type of instrument,
and insisted on absolute adherence to the written score, subject only to
expressive nuances which he himself introducedin rehearsals. In general,
the cellos and basses articulatedthe 1qa', reinforcing the percussion in a
reduced version of the melody, while the remaininginstrumentsplayed the
complete melody with characteristicembellishments. Ben 'Aljiya's scores
contrast effects of timbre and register between various instruments and
voices, and between pizzicato and arco strings; they synchronize bowings
and they include details of tempo, dynamics and phrasing. Unlike ElMahdi, who liked to lead from within the ensemble, playing 'ad or nay,
Ben 'Aljiya consistentlyconductedfrom the frontwith a baton, maintaining
that this was a necessary move in order to establish the leader of the
instrumentalsection as leaderof the entireensemble.
Despite Ben 'Aljiya's high ideals and efforts, the ma'lif has
maintained a relatively low profile on the radio and, since its inception in
1965, television. The same applies to the commercial record and cassette
markets,which tend to replicatethe popularrepertoryof the radio. During
the first decade or so, the Radio concentratedits efforts on recordingstudio
performances of both Ben 'Aljiya's ensemble and the Rashidiyya; to this
day, these original archival recordings provide the sources of most of the
Radio's limited slots for the ma'lof. Similarly studio video recordings of

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 89


the Radio ma'lof ensemble provide the main sources of the infrequent
television programmes. These token offerings are occasionally
supplemented by live transmissions of, for example, concerts of the
Rashidiyyaensemble and highlightsfrom the TestourFestival.
The Rashidiyya After Tunisian Independence
While remaining the official national ensemble for the ma'luf, the
Rashidiyya at first continued in its amateurstatus underEl-Mahdi and his
various successors, uninfluenced by the changes Ben 'Aljiya had
introduced. Eventually, in 1972, the government provided the funds to
professionalizethe Rashidiyya. 'Abd Al-Hamid Ben 'Aljiya was appointed
leader,the amateurmusicianswere replacedby his salariedcolleagues from
the R.T.T. (Radiodiffusion Tilevision Tunisienne), and the scores and
performancestandardshe had introducedto the Radio were importedto the
Rashidiyya. The Rashidiyya's professional status and new performance
style were accompaniedby a new visual image: black suits and ties replaced
the jaba'ib (s. jubba: long, wide-sleeved coat) traditionallyworn by the
men, although the women retainedtheir colorful Tunisian costumes. The
Rashidiyya's concertswere transferredfrom the courtyardof the Instituteto
the Municipal Theatre, where the Rashidiyya performed on the same
platformas the symphony orchestraof Tunis and visiting opera companies.
It no longer distributedthe words of the songs, and the audience no longer
sang along with the ensemble.
The professionalized Rashidiyya was short-lived. Despite the
ensemble's historicalcommitmentto traditionalTunisianmusic, Ben 'Aljiya
played down the role of the ma'lof in his programmes,replacing it with a
similar repertory of popular Egyptian and Egyptian-style songs to those
performedby the radio ensemble. The Ministry of CulturalAffairs found
the professional ensemble a strain on its budget, and its achievements on
behalf of the ma'lof unsatisfactory. In December 1978, it appointeda new
leader, MuhammadSa'ada to replace Ben 'Aljiya; most of the professional
musicians returned with Ben 'Aljiya to the R.T.T., and the Rashidiyya
reverted back to its original amateurstatus, with a small subsidy from the
Ministry.
It was Sa'ada's ensemble whose activities I documentedduring my
original fieldwork in the early 1980s. Beginning in the late 1970s, if not
earlier, this period was typically portrayed by musicians, journalists,
cultural bureaucratsand the music public generally as a time of crisis for
Tunisian music, ironically echoing the situationin the 1930s that led to the
founding of the Rashidiyya. The Tunisian public, particularlyits youth,
appearedto be neglecting Tunisian music for the predominantlyEgyptian

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90 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


and other foreign Arabic music dominatingthe mass media, while the new
Tunisian songs churned out on the radio were dismissed as trite, pale
imitations of their eastern counterparts. Critics complained that Tunisian
musicians and audiences alike had lost touch with their musical roots. The
Rashidiyyain particular,was blamed for turningthe ma'luf into a museumpiece, alienating potential audiences with its formal, disciplined
presentationsof the same well-worn repertory.
Sa'ada was consciously addressing some of these criticisms by
renewing the ensemble's repertory, rediscovering pieces that had been
neglected since El-Mahdi's time and commissioning new pieces in
traditional styles. On the whole though, he retained the performance
standards and style of presentation that Ben 'Aljiya had introduced. He
continued to use Ben 'Aljiya's scores, while those he prepared himself
adopted similar orchestral conventions. The men retained their formal
Western dress, and the women, their colorful, quasi-traditionalcostumes.
Sa'ada reintroducedthe custom, abandonedby Ben 'Aljiya, of distributing
the song texts to the audiences, but the people were not supposed to sing
along. Singers were criticized when they swayed spontaneously to the
music during performances. Sa'ada even considered introducing an
announcementbefore each concert,advisingthe audiencewhen to applaud.
Sa'ada resigned from his position in 1985 and returnedin 1991-92.
He was replacedby a succession of others: on my last visit (October 1996)
the ensemble was led by Ben 'Aljiya once again. During these various
changes of leadership,the 'professional'standardsand style of presentation
originallyestablishedby Ben 'Aljiya have been retained,and the Rashidiyya
continues to set the standardfor mainstreamma'laf performances,serving
as both model and inspirationfor countless state-sponsoredensembles. At
the same time, its methods and goals also provide a focus of criticism and
active resistance, inspiring various alternative approaches that aim to
rediscover performance principles and/or contexts of the past. Tahar
Gharsa, veteran 'ad 'arbi player and currently chorus master in Ben
'Aljiya's Rashidiyya, also gives nightly ma'ltf concerts in the restaurantof
Abou Nawas, one of Tunis's top hotels, leading an ensemble of five
instrumental soloists; since the 1960s, Gharsa has deliberately flaunted
orthodox stigma and performed the ma'laf alongside other traditional
Tunisian songs, in caf6s and wedding celebrations.
In 1986, the year afterhe resignedfrom the Rashidiyya,Muhammad
Sa'ada formed the ensemble Al-Fann, a flexible medium comprising up to
eight solo instrumentalists with Sa'ada leading on the nay. Al-Fann
performs the ma'luf alongside Egyptian songs and Turkish instrumental
pieces in formalconcert venues. Probablythe most high profile example of
a return to the soloistic medium are the recitals and recordings of

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis 91


internationallyacclaimedmedia starLotfi Bushnak,whose eclectic Egyptian
and Tunisian repertoryincludes songs from the ma'laf sung solo, backed
by an ensemble of solo instrumentalists. Finally, the all-women ma'lUf
ensemble Al-Azifat, founded in 1992 by Amina Srarfi, daughter of
composer KaddourSrarfi,has effectively shatteredthe all-male instrumental
barrierrigorously maintainedby the Rashidiyya. Al-Azifatcomprises some
fourteen Conservatorytrainedfemale instrumentalistsdoubling as chorus,
performingfrom notation on a mixture of Arab and Europeaninstruments
with Amina Srarfidirectingfrom the piano. Dubbed by some Tunisians as
a mere curiosity, designed to present a liberal image of Tunisia to foreign
audiences, Al-Azifat performs the ma'lof and other traditional Tunisian
compositions to packedhouses throughoutTunisia and abroad.

The Rashidiyya and the Arab Music Ensemble Compared


There are certain obvious parallels between the transformationof
traditional performance practice that occurred with the founding of the
Rashidiyya in Tunis, and that which occurred independently over thirty
years laterwith the foundingof the ArabMusic Ensemblein Cairo. Around
the turn of the twentieth century, the Egyptian repertory, al-turath,was
performedby a small, all-male ensemble called a takht (Persian; literally,
'platform')26 in which a solo vocalist (mutrib, literally enchanter) was
typically accompanied by five instrumentalistsplaying qanan, 'ad, nay,
kamanjaand riqq (tambourine)and two or more supportingvocalists. As in
the ma'lif ensembles of the time, the solo vocalist and instrumentalists
added their own embellishments to the basic melody (lahn) and rhythmicmetricpattern(iqa').27
After World War I, the takht gradually expanded to create a new
type of ensemble called firqa. Typically, more violins, one or more cellos
and double bass were added to the core takhtinstruments;in some cases,
other takht instrumentswere doubled and instrumentssuch as accordion,
flute, and tablah (goblet-shaped drum) were included.28 Despite these
additions, the characteristic performance practice of the takht was not
radically changed: the solo vocalist remained the central focus while the
extra instruments doubled the vocal line, leaving the small core of takht
instruments free to improvise embellishments. Both takht and firqa
performedin the privatehomes of wealthy patrons,and the takhtperformed
in caf6s until afterWorldWar I, when theatersand concert halls became the
typical venues for both types of ensemble. Until World War I, it was
customary for male ensembles to performto male audiences, while female
ensembles performed to female audiences (Racy 1977:24-25);
subsequently, with the rise of the firqa, female singers began to perform
with male instrumentaliststo mixed audiences (op. cit: 48-49). Regardless

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92 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


of venue, performances,whetherby takhtor firqa, were characterizedby a
close interactionbetween the audience,who spurredthe musicians on with
their spontaneous interjections (istihsdn), and the performers, who
respondedin turnwith theirimprovisations.

Plate 6: Tahar Gharsa ('tid) and ensemble performing in the


Abou Nawas hotel restaurant, Tunis. (Author: 1996.)

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusicEnsemblesin Tunis 93

Plate 7: The Rashidiyyn ensemble in rehearsal under 'Abd


al-Hamid Ben 'Aljiya at the Institute, Tunis. (Author: 1996.)

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94 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

Plate 8. Detail of the Rashidiyya in rehearsal. Left to right:


ndz, qandtn, 'ad 'arbi, with chorus behind. (Author: 1996.)

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 95

Plate 9. Detail of the Rashidiyya in rehearsal. Left to right:


naqarrat, tar, darbukka, double-bass. (Author: 1996.)

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96 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


In contrast to the Rashidiyya, whose founding members were not
specifically concerned with performancepracticeper se, the musical goals
of the Arab Music Ensemble were agreed at the outset by an officially
appointed 'artistic committee' comprising twenty musicians and music
scholars (Wizdrat al- thaqdfah 1968:16, cited in El-Shawan 1984:278).
These goals included "the revival of the authentic turath ... and its
presentation in its purest form, using a scientific style which does not
involve any repetition or boredom..." In presenting al-turath, the new
ensemble aimed at "preservingits melodic andrhythmicessence and ridding
the musical performancefrom the factorsof distortionand improvisation by
presentinga uniformrenditionof each compositionwhich is respectedby all
performers"(Wizardtal- thaqafdh1974:1,cited in El-Shawan 1984:278).
The ensemble designed to achieve these aims was remarkably
similar, both in make-up and performanceconventions, to the Rashidiyya
today.29 The Arab Music Ensemble originally comprised ten violins, two
qanons, two 'ads, two nays, one riqq and a separatechorus of ten male and
ten female vocalists; a year later, two cellos and a double bass were added.
The solo vocalist, the 'quintessential feature of traditional Arab music
performance practice' was eliminated; according to El-Shawan, this was
partly in order to distinguish the new ensemble from the popular media
songs, and partlybecause, it was maintained"thereare no good voices any
more capable of performing al-turath in the old way"30 (El-Shawan
1984:278). Five years later the prohibition was relaxed, and in some
genres, vocal solos, duos and trios were sung by membersof the chorus.
Like the Rashidiyya, both instrumentalists and conductor used
Western notation; melodic improvisation was eliminated, and musical
compositionswere "replicatedin an identicalmannerin every performance."
Only the solo riqq was allowed to improvise around the basic iqa',
apparentlyin order to relieve the monotony of the unembellished melody
(op. cit: 181). As in Tunisia, the vocalists continued to rely on oral
transmission,a practice which the Egyptianconductors,like their Tunisian
counterparts, attributed to the "difficulty, if not impossibility, of
representingthe vocalist'spartin Westernnotation"(op.cit: 279). The Arab
Music Ensemble performedin concerthalls and theaterswhere "therules of
conduct observedin concerthall performancesof Western 'art' music"were
emulated (op.cit. 281): the audiences' traditional verbal interjections
(istihsan) duringperformanceswere banned,and theirresponse was limited
to applause following individual compositions. The new ensemble's
performances attractedlarge audiences, particularly among the younger
generation of Cairo's educated elite. Within the decade following the
founding of the Arab Music Ensemble in 1967, four new ensembles had
been modelled afterit (op.cit: 179).

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis 97


Despite the obvious parallelsbetween the ArabMusic Ensemble and
the Rashidiyya,there are significantdifferencesin the roles and functions of
the two ensembles and theirrespectiverepertories.The ma'laf is conceived
as a fixed canon with a long, continuous tradition stretching back to the
medieval courts of Islamic Spain. For Tunisians,the ma'lof, their turath,is
symbolic of a remote and vanished past, a rich and glorious era when their
Arab-Andalusian ancestors were rulers rather than subjects of foreign,
colonial rule. Egypt, in contrast, has no comparable twentieth century
tradition that is self-contained and continuous, "whose historical and
theoretical roots go back several centuries and whose domains were
primarilythe courts of the rulersand the aristocracy"(Racy 1982:7). On the
contrary, Racy observes that that in Cairo, "most musical genres seem to
have lived ephemeral lives" and that even "the major 19th century genres
were of relatively recent origins." After World War I, the 19th century
genres themselves either became graduallyoutmoded or, like the qasidah,
were radicallytransformed(Racy 1981:7-10).
In Egypt, therefore, al-turath is a relative concept, denoting a
comparativelyrecent and open-endedrepertory. The term itself, according
to El-Shawan, only became significantas a distinctmusical category during
the second decade of the twentieth century, when it began to be used in
opposition to al-jadid (literally, the new). Compositions designated alturathbelonged to the 'traditional'or 'old' repertory,defined according to
specific stylistic criteria,while those designatedal-jadidwere 'deliberately
and consciously open to non-traditional [i.e. Western] influences' (ElShawan 1980:51). Subsequently,temporalcriteriahave tended to override
stylistic qualities in the Egyptian definition of al-turath,and the temporal
boundaries have themselves shifted to accommodate newer repertory.
Thus, whereas in the 1930s and 1940s, al-turath designated repertory
composed before 1910, by the late 1960s and early 1970s, it included
compositions dating from as late as the 1940s (El-Shawan 1980:48),
including songs by composers such as Sayyid Darwish (d. 1923) and
Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab(d. 1991) which in their their own time were
labelled al-jadid.31
In Egypt, moreover, al-turathis associated with individual, known
composers, some of whom, e.g. Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahhab (originally
the main protagonist of al-jadid) were among the founders of the Arab
Music Ensemble. The ma'laf, in contrast, is conceived as an anonymous
repertory,identifiedin its variouslocal and regional manifestationswith the
particularcommunitiesthat cultivatedit.32 So high was the premiumplaced
on anonymity - a prerequisitefor a song to be identified with its legendary
Andalusian past, that, up until the early decades of the twentieth century,
musicians who wanted their compositions to be accepted into the

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98 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997


mainstreamrepertorywould have to pretendthatthey had learnedthem from
a dying shaykh.33
The Arab Music Ensemble was founded in orderto revive a broken
tradition: during the previous twenty years, according to El-Shawan, the
repertory designated al-turath had virtually disappeared from the live
musical scene. During her research in Cairo in 1977-78, El-Shawan
discovered thatthe majorityof the supportersof both the new ensemble and
others modelled after it, constitutedmembersof the 'young educatedelite,'
many of whom had no previous experience of any other type of
performance practice for this repertory (El-Shawan 1984:286). The
Rashidiyya ensemble, in contrast, was originally established in order to
conserve and promote an ongoing tradition and to provide for it an
alternative, less socially restrictive social context; initially at least, it
supplemented, rather than replaced the traditional types of performance
practice. Despite the prestige and official backing enjoyed by the new type
of ensemble and the dramatic decline in both the social conditions and
aesthetic values that supported the older ones, these never entirely
disappeared. Solo instrumentalma'laf ensembles performingin the caf6s
and wedding partiesof Sidi Bou Said and in othertraditionalcenters for the
ma'laif, coexist alongside the Rashidiyya and its offshoots, providing a
potential challenge to their musical authorityand a benchmarkby which
their innovations may be assessed. Finally, while in Egypt, the changes in
transmission and performance of al-turath were ideologically predetermined, and introducedin one fell swoop at the outset, reflecting the
consensus of a governmentappointed'artisticcommittee,' those represented
by the Rashidiyyawere introducedin phases, reflecting insteadthe personal
preferences and developing ideologies of successive leaders of the
ensemble.
Conclusion
Tunisians today acknowledge the influence of both European and
Egyptianmodels in the creationof new types of performancepracticefor the
ma'luf. Nevertheless, they insist that the Rashidiyya's innovations were
essentially indigenous initiatives, representinglocally inspiredresponses to
local conditions. In his history of the Rashidiyya, Salah El-Mahdi
recognizes the timely role played by the Cairo Congress as a catalyst in the
creation of the Tunisian institutionjust two and a half years later. On their
return from Cairo, d'Erlanger's musicians reported the Congress's
recommendationthat institutionsbe established throughoutthe Arab world
in order to preserve and promote the individual Arab musical traditions.
However, El-Mahdi maintainsthat this recommendationserved merely as
'fuel for the fire' to the Tunisians, who "hadbeen thinking for a long time
aboutthe creationof an organizationfor thatgoal" (1981:28). Significantly,

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis 99


the discussions and recommendationsof the Cairo Congress concerningthe
performance practice of Arab music were limited to the use of particular
musical instruments,ratherthan to such broaderaspects of interpretationas
the Rashidiyya and later, the Arab Music Ensemble were to address.
Evidently, the Rashidiyya's decision to standardizeinterpretationthrough
the use of Western notation in both teaching and performance occurred
independently, nearly thirty years before such innovations were applied to
al-turathin Egypt.
In his wide-ranging survey of the Western impact on world music,
Bruno Nettl portrays the expansion of traditional ensembles as a global
phenomenon, drawing examples from a range of disparate traditions
(1985:57-61). Typically, the ensembles he cites have been inspired by
Western models, and serve as vehicles for the creation of new repertories
and compositional styles. Both the Rashidiyya and the Arab Music
Ensemble in contrast,have adoptedWesternperformancemodels and ideals
to supportthe revival, promotionand conservationof traditionalrepertories,
whose survival seemed threatened under modern social and cultural
conditions. In neither case are the innovations perceived by their
promoters, or by indigenous audiences generally, as essentially alien, or
contrary to tradition. To most Tunisians, the Rashidiyya epitomizes the
ma'laf; regardless of the criticisms directed at the ensemble, its melodic
interpretationsare commonly regarded as the ultimate in refinement and
perfection. A widely held belief I encounteredin traditionalma'luf centers
such as Zaghuan, Testour and Sidi Bou Said, is that the Rashidiyya had
restored the
to its original Andalusian forms which had been
ma'ltf
centuries
of oral transmission. Elaboratingthis view, the
corruptedthrough
of
the
naqarrat player
ma'laf ensemble of Sidi Bou Said, Hamadi
Bougamha,maintainedthatthe melodies had originallybeen composed on a
proper, scientific basis, which the Rashidiyya had reconstructed by
applyingthe theoryof the maqamatto its notationsof the repertory.
One young, regularEgyptian follower of the Arab Music Ensemble
maintained that for him, the ensemble's interpretations represent "the
continuity of tradition within a contemporary framework" (El-Shawan
1980:286). In a personal interview in 1983, 'Abd al-HarmidBen 'Aljiya,
Director of Music in the R.T.T. and currently leader of the Rashidiyya,
summed up the prevailing establishment philosophy in Tunisia in
correspondingterms: "ThetechniquesI used were Western,but the content
of the music remained purely Tunisian...The essence of the
its
ma'ltf,
Tunisian identity, is rooted in the past; however, it needs to be interpreted
according to the means of the present in order to communicate to
contemporaryaudiences."
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom

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100 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

Notes
This articleis a revised and extendedversion of a paperread at the second
meeting of the study group of the InternationalCouncil for Traditional
Music on 'The Anthropologyof Music and MediterraneanCultures,'hosted
by the Levi Foundationin Venice, June 1995. My researchfor this articleis
based on fieldwork in Tunisia spreadover several visits between 1982 and
1996. Unless otherwise specified, my data derives from participant
observation and interviews. I am grateful for a fellowship awardedby the
Social Science ResearchCouncil (US) and the National Endowmentfor the
Humanities to supporteighteen months field work in Tunisia in 1982 and
1983. Above all, I thank all my Tunisian colleagues who have so
generously sharedwith me theirknowledge, experience and insights.
1

2 In general, Arabic words are transliteratedaccording to the system of


Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern WrittenArabic, ed. J.M. Cowan,
Ithaca, New York, 1960. In cases where proper names have consistently
appearedin printin other forms, I adopt those forms instead (e.g., Ali Jihad
Racy, Salah El-Mahdi).
3 In Cairo, d'Erlanger's musicians performed alongside ensembles from
other Arab countries in public concerts and recordingsessions directedby
Robert Lachmann,assisted by Bela Bart6k. Performancesof the Tunisian
ensemble are included in a selection of the Cairo Congress recordings
(Congres du Caire 1932, Vols 1 & 2, APN 88/9 - 10, 1988) issued in
France by the Biblioteque Nationale in collaboration with l'Institut du
Monde Arabe.
4 My use of the term maq~am
ratherthanthe correspondingindigenous term
tab' (literally nature,character)mirrorscontemporaryTunisian usage. In
his comparative study of the Tunisian maqamat,Salah El-Mahdi uses the
term maqam to designate "the various musical scales (salalim; s. sullam)
underlyingthe repertoryof traditionalTunisian music, known as the ma'hi
f' (n.d.b: 17). He notes that in the past, terms such as 'naghma' in Egypt,
'sawt" in Saudi Arabia and 'tab" in the Maghreb were used in senses
correspondingto maqam,but that "withthe developmentof mass media and
improved communications,maqamhas become the most widely used term,
prevailingover all othersof similarmeaning"(loc cit).

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 101

5 For further elaboration of the distinctiveness of the individual Middle


Eastern traditions as revealed by the Cairo Congress, see Moussali 1988
and Vigneux (ed.) 1992.
6 As well as being one of the principal organizers of the Cairo
Congress,
d'Erlanger was responsible for the preparation of a comprehensive
classification of the maqamatandiqa'at (melodic and rhythmic genres) of
Arab music in current use. In 1931, Shaykh 'Ali al-Darw'ish, dervish
musician from Aleppo, was sent to Tunisia by the Egyptian governmentto
serve as d'Erlanger'sinformantfor the 'oriental'traditions(effectively those
of Egypt and the Levant) while the Tunisian Shaykhs KhumaisTarntn and
Ahmad al-Wafi providedthe datafor the 'occidental' (effectively Tunisian)
traditions(d'Erlanger1949:xiii-xv). In the event, D'Erlangerwas too ill to
attend the Congress, and his report was presented by Shaykh 'Ali
al-Darwish. It was published posthumously in Arabic in the Congress
Proceedings (Kitab 1933), and eventually appearedin Frenchtranslationas
Vols. V (on the maqamat)andVI (on the iqa'at) of d'Erlanger'ssix-volume
work La MusiqueArabe, publishedin 1949 and 1959 respectively.
7 After Tunisian independence in 1956, the official canon of the ma'laf,
published in nine volumes by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, was
designatedal-turathal-musiqial-tanisi/Ipatrimoinemusicaltunisien.
8 The Tunisianmusician and scholar Salah
El-Mahdi,while supportingthe

myth of the ma'laf's Andalusianorigins, maintainsthat it was subsequently


so transformedby indigenous musicians as to have become "almostpurely
Tunisian" (1981:9-10). Other Tunisian scholars, e.g. Hassan Husni
Abdul-Wahab (1918:115-117) and Mahmoud Guettat (1980:172-74),
propose a more radical view, maintaining that the development of
Andalusian music occurred simultaneously in Islamic Spain and the
Maghreb,and that the Andalusianrefugees merely reinforceda pre-existing
tradition.
9 For a comprehensive study of all four national traditions of musiqa

andalusiyyasee Guettat1980.

10 For a more detailed,


general introduction to the ma'laf, including its
musical characteristicsand its traditionaltypes of performancepractice and
venues, see Davis 1996(a):423-431. I describe the typical structureof a
noba, illustratedby an analysis of a performance,in Davis 1992.

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102 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

11

The ensemble and the Institutein which it is based are named after the
famous Ottomanpatronand amateurof the ma'u1f,Muhammadal-Rashid
Bey (d. 1759). In this article, I follow the Tunisian custom of using the
single term 'Rashidiyya'to referboth to the ensemble and the Institute.
12 In examining the concept of tradition as
applied to secular song in
San'a', capital of the Yemen Arab Republic, Philip Schuyler observes that
'tradition'is considered on the best authorityas the appropriatetranslation
of turath when used in the sense of 'cultural heritage' (Schuyler
1990/91:52-53). Likewise, Salwa el-Shawan uses the term 'tradition'with
reference to the Egyptian musical repertoryknown as al-turath. For the
founders of the Rashidiyya and subsequent generations of Tunisians,
musique tunisienne traditionelle has broaderconnotations, including not
only the ma'10fcanon itself, designatedal-turathby the Ministryof Cultural
Affairs, but also more recent compositions whose style is recognizably
Tunisian;in this context, the ma'lof is consideredthe ideal representativeof
Tunisian style. Following Tunisianpractice, I also use the term 'tradition'
more generally to distinguish the older types of performance practice,
patrons and venues associated with the ma'luf, from their modern
counterpartsas introducedby the Rashidiyya.
13 The Rashidiyya was founded in a landmark
year for the Tunisian
nationalistmovement: in 1934, HabibBourguibafoundedthe Neo-Destour
Partywhose policies of active resistanceto the FrenchProtectoratewere to
lead Tunisia to Independencein 1956. Tunisiansconsider this coincidence
to be significant, providing a symbolic link between the goals of the
Rashidiyya and the broaderobjectives of Tunisian nationalism. This link
was reconfirmedafterTunisianindependencewith the appointmentof Salah
El-Mahdi, leader of the Rashidiyya, as head of the Dept. of Music and
PopularArts in the Ministryof CulturalAffairs.
14 I explore the
relationship between the Rashidiyya and the first
generationof popularmedia singers and composers in Davis 1996b:318-19.
15 Numerous sources (e.g.
D'Erlanger 1917:93; Abdul-Wahhab1918:116;
Guettat 1980:179-80; El-Mahdi 1981:26) attest to the vital role played by
certain Sufi brotherhoods,particularly the 'Isawlya and the 'Azuziya, as
genuinely classless centers for the instruction and performance of the
ma'10f. Both d'Erlanger's informants for the North African traditions in
Vols V and VI of La MusiqueArabe learnedthe ma'lf in the lodges of the
'Isawiya: Shaykh Ahmad al-Wafl belonged to the highest ranks of the
bourgeoisie, while Shaykh Khumais Tarnan was son of an artisan
(1949:382-83). I describe the ma'lof activities of the Sufi lodges and its

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Davis: TraditionalArab Music Ensemblesin Tunis 103

performance in other traditional venues in Davis 1989:48-50. For a


comprehensive account of music and Sufism in Tunisia, focusing on the
music and musical activities of the 'Isaw7ya,see Jones 1977.
16 Salah el-Mahdi has recounted how in Tunis in the 1930s, the newly
emerging record industryprovoked an upsurge of trite and obscene songs,
typically in corruptArabicor in the Franco-Arabedialect, by a new breed of
opportunist composers. The Rashidiyya's condemnation of these songs
echoed that of conservative Egyptian musicians who in the 1920s, were
condemning similarly corrupt traits in the texts of the taqtaqah, a vocal
genre in colloquial Arabic popularized by the Egyptian record industry
(Racy 1977:54).
17 This seems to be the first recordedexample of a women
performingthe
ma'luf with men in public. Subsequently,the Rashidiyya accepted women
both as solo singers and in the chorus, but not normallyas instrumentalists.
As L. JafranJones observes, in Tunisia as elsewhere in the Middle East,
"women are singers, while instrumentalmusic and music creation are the
domain of men" (Jones 1987:77).
18 I describe in detail the initial
problems of the ensemble and the radical
solutions it adoptedin Davis 1989:54-55 and 1992:89ff.
19 MuhammadTriki had studiedthe violin with a French
priest at his lycle
in Tunis, and he had conducted rehearsals of the French symphony
orchestra of Tunis. He had grown up hearing and singing the ma'luf at
public performances in the Sufi lodges, and he had studied the repertory
privately with individual shaykhs. He had also taken private lessons in
Egyptian song composition with the visiting Egyptiancelebrities Kamil alKhula'i and AhmadFariz.
20 The Rashidiyya's reliance on the chorus to
carrythe vocal line, without
solo vocalists, is precedentedin ma'lof kham,the characteristicperformance
practice of the Sufi brotherhoods (see above). In the Rashidiyya, solo
singers featureas extras,particularlyin the newer repertory.
21 I summarizeEl-Mahdi's Arabictext in Davis 1989:55.
22 Although the
Rashidiyyadefined itself as an amateurensemble, many of
its members earned their living making music elsewhere. This trend has
continued to the present. In contrastto the stigma attachedto professional
musicians performing in the traditionalenvironments, salaried musicians

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104 Asian Music: Spring/Summer1997

employed by the modem musical establishmentssuch as the R.T.T. (Radio


et Tilivision Tunisienne), the National Conservatory and the various
provincial music centers (see below, pp.12-13) enjoy considerablestatus as
government employees, and their activities are considered entirely
respectable. Since TunisianIndependence,the 'amateur'instrumentalistsof
the Rashidiyya have typically been advancedstudents,professorsand other
graduatesof the National Conservatory. The singers, in contrast,generally
have no formal musical training, and are selected on the basis of vocal
quality and intonationalone.
23 For a more detailed account of the
objectives of the Ministryof Cultural
Affairs and theirspecific applicationto musicalpolicy, see Davis 1997.
24 In 1958, the formerFrenchconservatoirewas transformedinto the
National Conservatoryof Music, Dance and PopularArts, whose syllabus
combinedWestern,Egyptianand Tunisianmusicaltraditions(El-Mahdi
1981:71-74).
25 The use of 'professional' as
opposed to 'amateur' to denote a higher
level of competence, skill and commitment seems to be a product of the
post-independenceera. Before independence,a professional musician was
simply one who entertainedothersin public, for a fee. After independence,
"professionalism" came to be associated with a background of formal
training and qualifications, and a career in the state-controlled musical
establishment.
26 My descriptionof the takhtand the transitionfrom takhtto
firqais based

primarilyon Racy 1977:46ff. and El-Shawan 1984:272-276.

27 The various types of vocal and instrumental embellishment


characterizingtakhtperformancesare describedby El-Shawan(1984:273).
28 El-Shawan suggests that the
changes may have been influenced by
developments in the musical theatre, whose ensembles were larger and
included Western instruments(1980:275). Danielson observes that in the
1930s, large film orchestrasinspired some ensembles to include "a variety
of percussion instruments,electric guitars and keyboards,saxophones, and
instruments for special effects such as the Hawaiian guitar" (Danielson
1988:151).
29 A detailed account of the Arab Music Ensemble is
given by El-Shawan
(1984:276 ff.).

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Davis: TraditionalArabMusic Ensemblesin Tunis 105

30 Muhammad Sa'ada, leader of the Rashidiyya from 1979-85, gave

identical reasons for excluding solo singers from his ensemble.

31 Conversely, the turathrevival movement in Egypt since the 1960s is


"often seen as a process of tajcrid"(literally,innovation)"which in this case
aims at reinterpretingolder works in accordancewith present-dayideals of
timbre,textureand orchestration"(Racy 1982:402).
32 The first Tunisiancomposer to identify his own works, beginning in the
twentiethcentury,was d'Erlanger'smentor,Ahmad al-Wftfi(1850-1921).
33 The shaykhs of the ma'lf , whose authority and status depended on
their superior knowledge of the repertory, were traditionally wary of
imparting to their pupils too great a proportionof it. As a result, a dying
shaykh represented the last chance to retrieve hitherto unknown songs
which otherwise, would be lost forever. The extent of the potential loss is
illustrated by an old Tunisian proverb "The death of one shaykh of art
approachesin its effect the burningof a libraryof manuscripts."

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