OMAN: MUSIC AND DANCE

Traditionally, music from Oman borrowed traditions from many of its broader neighbors, including Egypt, Tanzania, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Portugal. Omani sailors would pick up various musical traditions and bring it back to Oman where it would mix with their own local traditions. 

 

Typically traditional music would center around life changes, like marriage, birth, death, and even circumcision (I bet those are really weird songs). Much of their music is steeped in the musical traditions of the broader scope of Arabic music, which are built on tetrachords. Unlike Western music, Arabic music also includes different intervals like three-quarter tones (an interval between a half step and a whole step). I was reading up on quarter tones, and even though I was a music major, I still find the notation for quarter tones strange (it’s either a backwards flat sign or half of a sharp sign cut vertically). 

Omani music typically uses many of the same instruments found in the Arabic music of other countries along with Western instruments as well. Some instruments that can be found are the manjur, a type of instrument that is looks like an apron of sorts and worn around the waist, decorated with cut-up goat hooves. As the performer shakes their hips, it rattles. It’s typically used in the zar dance (a dance to get rid of demons) and the fann at-Tambura (a dance for healing). A tambura is a bowl lyre, or type of long-necked lute. To accompany many of these performances, the mirwas drum is used. The mirwas drum is a type of small double-headed drum.

Along with the dances mentioned above, the liwa dance and its music stems from East African traditions. It has its ties with Zanzibar and other places along the Swahili Coast. Basically, several males will form a circle with one member in the circle playing some kind of reed instrument. The people who form the circle will dance and clap along. The singing that’s done is also sung in Swahili. (Makes sense.) 

Salim Rashid Suri is one of the distinguished oud players and singers who combines sawt musical traditions from the northern regions of the Persian Gulf with other musical traditions of the Indian Ocean. He calls it Sawt al-Khaleej, or Voice of the Gulf. He was known as the Singing Sailor, but his family wasn’t happy about him wanting to sing. His brother even threatened to shoot him if he didn’t stop. (I’ve done that but for different reasons.) But it was good that he persisted regardless, even though he had jobs and a family to take care of. 

I ran across a band that goes by the name T-band. They’re apparently a pretty good cover band from Muscat who won the Battle of the Bands in Oman a year or so back. They’ve got some talent, but I think the next step for them is to develop their own writing and their own sound. 

There are a few underground metal bands that are moderately known. A couple of these bands are Belos and Arabia. (Belos now performs in the UK.) I’ve listened to a few songs by Belos, and they fall into that category of metal music that uses more string music into it. They do incorporate some of the death screaming, but otherwise, it’s not bad. I actually kind of like it. This is about the extent of what I could find. There aren’t many musicians or bands that popped up in a basic search.

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CROATIA: MUSIC AND DANCE

The earliest form of music stemming from the Medieval period were mostly Gregorian chants.  These chants are tied to the church as a means of liturgical traditions and are sung in Latin, the main language of the church at that time.  Madrigals – secular vocal music – came after this and were actually started in nearby Italy. 

Throughout the centuries, Croatia generally kept up with the musical trends throughout Europe. Organ music grew in popularity during the Baroque period, as well as the use of public balls and events where live music was performed.  Croatia excelled in classical music and upon entering the 20^th century, also produced some fine jazz musicians as well.

Several Croatian folk traditions follow some of the major musical styles found in the Balkans. Ganga is a style of vocal singing in which a leader sings a line, and the others join afterwards in a quasi wail.  It’s generally more of a small-town thing these days. Another form of vocal singing is an a cappella form called klapa. It’s built mostly around harmony and melody, not so much on rhythm. Originating from the Dalmatian area, klapa groups are pretty much male-only since it’s comprised of two tenors, a baritone, and a bass, and each part can be doubled if need be. Even though traditionally, it’s sung a cappella, a guitar or mandolin accompaniment isn’t out of the question. It’s actually far more popular, even still sung in taverns and bars at times. And actually nowadays, there are female groups and mixed klapa groups as well.  What a great culture that still sings in multi-part harmony.  It reminds me a lot of when I was a music major in college when we would have parties and get drunk and randomly break into multipart harmony.  See, I definitely know where I'm retiring now. This video is a little long, but a great example of klapa music and offers a lot more detail on the ins and outs of klapa. 

A style known as tamburica – named after one of the main instruments, the tambura – is still fairly popular. The tambura is a string instrument similar to a mandolin, and tamburica not only uses tamburas but other various string instruments as well. Traditional ensembles are still performing together, but many of these have merged tamburica music with rock or folk-rock.

Modern music, with its influences from other areas of Europe and the Americas, is certainly represented by Croatian musicians. Rock, pop, hip-hop, and dance are widely popular in Croatia, and the music from Croatian musicians is listened to outside of Croatia as well. I found two albums that I couldn’t live without and had to buy them, and I had another album that I may buy later.

I discovered the hip-hop group Elemental and bought their album Vertigo. The vocal lines are divided between a female lead and a male lead, and while they do rap, the vocal line is also far more melodic. I’m really a fan of hip-hop that uses elements of jazz, blues, rock, and soul as the background track. While every single track on the album was listed as explicit (I Googled the lyrics and then ran them through Google translate – it was mostly an F bomb dropped every now and then coupled with a few other colorful words. The subject matter was sometimes some pretty deep stuff. No different than what I sometimes listen to anyway. But if it’s in Croatian, does it really matter? I have no idea anyway. Ignorance is bliss in this case.) I really like this album. The vocals are strong, and the music is catchy. So happy with this! Love them!

My husband and I (and subsequently the kids as well) are huge dance/trance/techno/house music fans, so when I came across the group Colonia, I HAD to buy it. I thought it was catchy, and the change-ups were good – not too fast, not too slow. There were a couple of songs that left me waiting in anticipation that it might go down the terrible road of dub-step, but it danced dangerously on the edge of that audible mistake and then brought it back to something that doesn’t trigger a musical seizure in my ear. In fact, it makes me want to turn it up and sit. (Yes, while I love dance music, I’m not a fan of physically dancing. Only on the inside, and if I were drunk enough, maybe. I do appreciate when others do it well.) Even though when I watching this, I think the lead singer has the same hairstyle as the lead female from Elemental. Maybe it's a pretty popular hairstyle in Croatia. Or something. I like how the dance moves look like they might've borrowed a little from traditional dancing. 

Since I’m already discussing dance, the most popular dance from Croatia is the kolo, or circle dance. Every region certainly has its own variations and other dances they perform, but the kolo is pretty much the key dance. Performed at weddings, ethnic fests, and other events, it might even be considered a national dance, I suppose. Variations include the complexity of the steps (although it’s generally difficult to dance), style of music (generally danced to quick music), and instrumentation (some are danced with an ensemble playing the music, some with a few instruments, and some older traditions are danced silently with just the sound of the dancer’s feet). Costumes vary from region to region as well as who is dancing. Other dances from neighboring countries like Bosnia, Serbia, Hungary, and Romania also have made their way into Croatia as well.  Many of these dances and variations were gypsy dances and a part of their culture. This video is on the silent circle dance, something of an anomaly to me, since in most cultures, dance is so closely tied to the music, it would make it hard to "feel" the beat. It shows the incredible difficulty for the dancers to be aligned rhythmically and the trust it takes to be in sync with each other.

The other album that I didn’t buy but may in the future is the surf rock band called Bambi Molesters. The name is almost as good as my favorite Canadian band The New Pornographers. However, weird as it is, I like their music. I found that I really like listening to them while I write. Even though it’s rock, much of it is instrumental, and the style makes it easy to get in the zone. I love their sound! I'll just listen to them on Spotify. Like right now. 

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