Middle Eastern Musical Entities: Using your music as a box of tools for dancing

Sausan Moulthen We all walk into this dance with a blank slate, mesmerized with its beauty of movement, and curious of its exotic and penetrating music.  We know its challenges, and we work toward a goal for its rich rewards with a passion that only we can know.  But for all that we hope to finally achieve in our quest for learning that which is completely new and foreign to most of us, we go for it willingly and relentlessly.  We are drawn to it like Monarchs to their migration.  We attend every necessary workshop we can afford, watch every dancer we have time to watch on the Internet and in person, research its history and culture, and so much more.  For some of us, it is a hunger that cannot be satiated, a thirst that cannot be quenched, and a drive that cannot be stopped.  To a few like myself, it becomes an intimate lifetime journey of breath and existence.  And, while we master the shimmies and the undulations movement concept of this dance, and ultimately execute them fluidly with our bodies as taught to us by local and international teachers, the music and how to dance to it can and may remain somewhat of a mystery, as we hear, listen, and interpret this very different and exotic Middle Eastern sound through our well-seasoned veteran Western ear and experience When I first began my dance studies in 1974 with Sacramento-based Middle Eastern native-born belly dance teacher, Jodette, the music all sounded the same to me.  I couldn’t tell one song from another.  I knew nothing about the music I was dancing to nor who wrote or sang them.  I didn’t know anything about Maqams, how many there were, or the names of the many drum rhythms that would spring up unexpectedly in the music.  The Internet then was a forum used only for email discussions, and wouldn’t become official like that of today until 1983.  My musical learning capabilities were mainly via LPs and some cassettes, available only through record stores and sometimes bookstores.  In a word, my access to and comprehension of this musical knowledge was nil.  I didn’t even know that I didn’t know.  I was just happy dancing.  

 In 1996, I subscribed to Arab Radio and Television (ART) on Dish Network; and, for the next fifteen years, I sat glued to my television screen watching every Egyptian and sometimes Lebanese-based movie that aired on that network.  It was continuous — one right after another.  I watched around 500; sometimes twice.  With the majority of them having English subtitles, it was fun and easy.  It was also profoundly educational.  Not only did I get to know the actors, dancers, and musicians on film; but there, in my office, I discovered more than the dance.  There, in those black-and-white, sometimes colored films that had played for the first time so long ago on the Egyptian silver screen, I learned of the music.

  In my continuous pursuit to find some convention of normalcy in the Middle Eastern music I was dancing to, I began to recognize and filter out the instrumentation and the levels and pitches of notes played by those instruments.  I further heard recurring musical themes and motifs that stood out as commonplace, and it occurred to me that this exercise was both revolutionary, as well as extremely important insofar as transforming my “Western” ear to a “Middle Eastern” ear.  And so, I tested my theory.  To make my dance less repetitive, I used the levels and pitches according to the instruments and applied these to my dancing body, i.e., lower pitches for lower body movement, and higher pitches for upper body movement.  I also noticed that, along with the intricate instrumentation of a piece of music, I began to grasp the idea of similar musical entity groups that seemed to come up in numerous songs that were ironically discernible; and, after a while, surprisingly easy to categorize.  And, when I identified these musical entity groups, dancing and applying movement that I thought would connect me closer to my audience in a way it before hadn’t, became easier, clearer, and freer — and a lot more fun.  It was ground-breaking for me.  After years of mystification, I began to realizethat the music was telling me what to do and how to apply movement in a song.  It was the key to my dance expression, and remarkably I got it.

  Instrumentation and musical entity groups are key to this dance form.  While there is far more to consider than just this short guide, here are some “tools” dancers can use to make their dance less repetitive and to help eliminate that voice that sometimes gets in the way saying, “I feel like I’m always doing the same thing.” 

  INSTRUMENTATION - Listening and responding to the instrumentation of a piece of music can significantly enhance your performance.  The music may also change from one rendition to another accordingly as performed by different orchestras and other Middle Eastern musical groups, so knowing the music is imperative.  Here is a little instrumentation guide for movement.

      Violin (kamanga, kamanji) - A violin produces a smooth often times sultry sound when not plucked.  Depending on the pitch, undulations, or non-shimmy movements are best for this instrument.  High pitches are good for shoulder rolls or “snake arms,” medium pitches are good for abdominal undulations such as “camel walks,” and lower pitches are good for hip undulations such as “maya hips.”  Let the pitch of the music dictate your bodily undulations.  If plucked in some instances, short accents can be applied -- pitch to that part of the body.

    Oud - An Oud is plucked.  Plucked instruments are good for shimmies, although not always.  If the Oud is plucked on a high note, shoulder shimmies can be applied.  If it is plucked on a lower note, hip shimmies can be applied.

    Qanoun - A Qanoun (meaning Law, and where we get the word, Canon) is plucked, and like the Oud, plucked instruments are good for shimmies.  The same applies with regard to movement to the Qanoun as with the Oud.  

    Vase drum (Dumbec, Tabla, Durbeki) - Since a drum is a single percussion instrument, even when accompanied by a large tambourine (Riq), large flat drum (Duf), finger cymbals (Zills/Sagat), and/or other percussion instruments, the best way to dance to this instrumentation is in one place, like the drum solo or a Bridge (see Bridges). 

  A vase drum contains three primary strike zone areas; i.e., the “dum” (center), the “tak” (rim), and the “kah” — area between the “dum” and the “tak.”  The “dum” is a low-pitch note and is best suited for hip thrusts or other lower-body accents.  If it is a roll, then a hip shimmy is best.   A “tak” is a high-pitch note and is best suited for shoulder or other upper-body accents.  If it is a roll, then a shoulder shimmy is best.  The “kah” becomes high-pitch compared to the “dum” and a low-pitch compared to the “ tak.”  Low-pitch strikes are low-to-mid-section movements, and high-pitch strikes are mid-to-high-section movements.  

Flute (ney) - A flute is a wind instrument that produces a delicate high-pitched ethereal sound best suited to dancing with arms and upper body and perhaps with a traveling to-fro step  (see To-fro Step).  Upper body undulations like a “camel walk” and/or shoulder undulations like “snake arms” are also good.

  Keyboard - A Korg keyboard is usually used in Middle Eastern music, and can produce music and sound that can imitate any instrument.  Make note of that instrument, and the pitch of the melody, and apply movement as suggested.  If a standard keyboard is used, note the staccato and long notes as well as the pitches.  Staccato notes are good for shimmies and accents and long notes are good for non-shimmy movements and/or undulations.

  Now, let’s look at musical entity groups.

  MUSICAL ENTITY GROUPS - Middle Eastern music contains several identifiable musical entity groups.  While I devote an entire three months of instruction to this specific subject in my Tertiary Course - Entities of Music & Fluid Movement Expression; Listening, Sequencing, & Phrasing, a few of these musical entity groups are quickly recognizable; others require a keener and a more well-trained ear.  Listed are three of the most recognizable of these musical entity groups.  

  Note:  the labels applied here are strictly from the Sausan Academy of Egyptian Dance movement and musical vocabulary (SAED).

    Bridges - A Bridge connects one song, tune, or melody, to another song, tune, or melody.  It may also appear in the beginning or middle of a drum solo.  The most identifiable musical entity group, this group can be split into three sub-categories — Regular Bridges, Irregular Bridges, and Shimmy Bridges.  Of course, these Bridges can also be split in half and are therefore called Half Bridges respectively.  Bridges are played by a solo drummer and may be accompanied by one or more musicians playing Duf, Riq, Sagat, and/or other percussion instruments — and sometimes, though seldom, musical instruments.  

    Regular Bridge:  A sequence of four measures with a 4/4 time signature and an identifiable drum riff like Baladi, Maksoum, or Saiidi.  This drum riff is repeated four times — one riff per each measure with each subsequent measure expressing a little more intense percussive flavor, culminating in a sound and feel of completeness in its fourth measure.  

  Since a Bridge is primarily percussive, with little to no added musical instruments for the most part, the best movement for a Regular Bridge is a Hip Undulation (SAED); i.e., sit-kick, with the last measure expressively ending in something decisive like a jump, shimmy, and a shoulder accent (in that order), should there be a “tak” at the end of the 4-measure sequence, to complete that sequence.  If there is no “tak,” then no shoulder accent is needed.  Here (also see link below) is an example of a Regular Bridge and suggested performance.

   Irregular Bridge:  A sequence of four measures with a 4/4 or other time signature and an identifiable drum riff much like a Regular Bridge, but its composition is slightly different.  An example of this riff is the “Wahda” drum riff.  Also primarily percussive, the “dums” in this riff are danced with a Lower-2 Accent (SAED); i.e., hip accents, and the “kahs” and “taks" are danced with shoulder shimmies and/or accents.

   Shimmy Bridge:  A sequence of four measures with a 2/4 time signature; and a composition of the “Malfouf” drum beat.  It generally occurs after the leader or intro music and before the dancer’s entrance, and it is not usually danced as part of the entrance.  It also may occur after the last part of the main body of the music and before the final ending or finale.  An in-place hip shimmy with accents lends best to Shimmy Bridge with a shoulder accent given to the ending “tak.”  

  Note:  The “dum” (a strike at the center of the vase drum called a Dumbec, Tabla, or Durbeki) is usually expressed through the lower body, and the “tak” (a strike at the rim of the drum) is usually expressed through the upper body.  The “kah” (the strikes between the center and rim) is expressed in the upper and lower body in relation to the “dum” and the “tak.”  Of course, this is extremely simplified, as there are far more complicated drum riffs, and I devote an entire course — Drum Solo 101 — to this subject.  Additionally, Bridges may also be played with musical instruments; however, this article addresses only the percussion-type Bridges.

  Call & Response - Recognizable by a difference in musical instrumentation, the Call & Response (C&R) musical entity group offers an opportunity to dance-prance or turn to one side, and express a different movement at the end of that travel movement; i.e., the “Call” being the 3-beat travel step and the “Response” being the different or subsequent movement in the last beat.  These can be identified in a couple of ways —  in sequences of four times followed by another entity group, or in sequences of four times twice with a stationary or turning movement in the fourth and eighth measure.  

   Call & Response/4:  For example, in the performance music of Sayed Balaha & Egypt Stars album called Hamada, we can dissect the music, Shirin (also see link below) for the C&R musical entity group.  (This music is also known to many dancers in the 1980s as Fifi Abdo’s Entrance of the Queen.)  At around the 7:49 timestamp, we hear this particular musical entity group as a sequence of four measures where each measure contains three beats of one musical instrument or the “Call” with the fourth beat of a different musical instrument or the “Response” for a total of 16 beats — twice in one direction and twice in the other direction, alternating.  This Call-&-Response four-measure or “C&R/4” (SAED) sequence is followed by a couple of measures or eight beats of interim music, followed by a Regular Bridge (see Bridges).  This same sequence is repeated at around 8:25 timestamp.  The two interim measures of music between the “C&R/4” (SAED) and the Bridge can be identified as an “eight-counts-to-center” or “8–>C” (SAED) where the dancer can take this time to claim center stage, dance the Bridge (see Bridges), and then continue with the rest of the music.  Here (also see link below) is an example of that musical entity group.

    Call & Response/4x2:  Jalilah’s Raks Sharki 3, Journey of the Gypsy, by Piranha Music, (also see link below) is another example.  At around the 2:29 timestamp, the music plays an elongated note for three beats or the “Call,” ending with a higher note on the fourth beat for the “Response,” followed by two more measures of somewhat the same score.  The fourth measure is not the same but plays four beats in a subdued tone.  Then, at about the 2:40 timestamp, the sequence repeats in the same manner for another four measures with the last measure in a subdued tone.  This Call & Response musical entity group is “four times twice” or “C&R/4x2” (SAED).  In the first measure of the first set of the four measures, the dancer can dance or turn to the right using the “Call” three beats, and do something else like a shoulder shimmy on the fourth or “Response” beat.  In the second measure the dancer can go left and repeat, and then to right again in the third measure, and then prance-walk back to center stage in the fourth measure.  The entire sequence repeats once more, only this time heading to the left first, then to the right, then to the left, and then back to centerstage for the subsequent Regular Bridge (see Bridges).

  This C&R musical entity group repeats several times throughout the Journey of the Gypsy music.  C&R musical entity groups in sequences of four, eight, and other measure counts come up in many other different songs.

  To-fro Step & To-fro-back-fro Step- Listening to the notes and the way they are played in relation to each other will clue you in as to how to identify a musical entity group just like it did with the C&R musical entity group.  

    To-fro Step:  The To-fro (TF) step is where you place one foot (right foot) in front and then step back with the other foot (left foot), repeating this for at least four times using one side (right side) and four times using the other side (left side) for four measures, although sometimes it may be using other measure counts.  The music will let you know when to stop and do an accent or a shimmy and/or continue to another musical entity group like a Bridge or something else (see Bridges).

  Let’s take a look at the song, Ya Amarti from Jalilhah’s Raks Sharki 2, Amar 14 by Piranha Music (also see link below).  At around 1:42  timestamp and then again at around 2:55 timestamp, the melody changes to a musical ascending and descending pattern that goes well with a TF step. 

    To-fro-back-fro Step:  The To-fro-back-fro (TFBF) step is similar to what we know as the grapevine step.  It is where the dancer steps forward with one foot (right foot ascending), and then steps back with the other foot (left foot retreating), then steps back with the same foot she stepped forward with (right foot descending), and then steps forward again with the other foot (left foot advancing), repeating this for at least four or eight measures.  The music will let you know when to stop and do an accent or a shimmy or a turn and continue to another musical entity group like a Bridge or something else (see Bridges).  

  If we take a look at Rafic Hobeika’s Joumana (also see link below), we can find some TFBF musical entity groups.  One begins at about 1:27 timestamp.  There are four measures in this group and then it repeats.  The first three measures of this musical entity group contain ascending and retreating and then descending and advancing notes suitable for the TFBF step.  The last measure of the four measures is a little different.  I chose to turn in this fourth measure.  It then repeats where the dancer can repeat this sequence again starting on the left or opposite foot.  This musical entity group is called a “TFBF/4x2” (SAED) because it is repeated twice — once for starting to the right and the second time going to the left.

  Note:  The TF step and the TFBF step musical entity groups may sound the same, but the latter has a more discerning ascending, retreating, descending, and advancing note pattern and covers more of the scale than the TF step pattern.

  CONCLUSION - Listening to the musical instrumentation of a song is crucial, and vital for a convincing as well as a dynamic audience-engaging and connecting performance.  Consequential to that is the ability to discern, identify, and dance to the various and sundry musical entity groups, which I affectionately call “MEGs,” extracted from the song’s musical instrumentation.  Musical entity groups come up more often than we are aware of when we initially listen to Middle Eastern music as well as during the first few run-throughs.  But, when we become familiar with the music in its entirety, we can start to identify these “MEGs” easily.  

  Note:  The timestamps as indicated in this article are directly attributable to the link provided.  If a link is not provided, then the timestamp begins where the music begins without any air time or onset silence.  Subtract the onset silence from your timestamp if you are using your personal CD.

  REFLECTION:   The suggested dance movements to the foregoing three musical entity groups, as well as to the instrumentation, as listed, are simply suggestions or “tools” that a dancer can apply in a performance, to appear as if to know the music, if unsure of what to do.  These tools are not written in stone and can be disregarded if one chooses.  However, it is imperative that the dancer listen to the performance music at least three times — first to familiarize, second to identify specific musical entity groups, and third to reinforce the first and second.  Of course, more than three times is always better.  It is also imperative to familiarize oneself with what I label in my classes as “Must-know” music, many of which are listed on my website under the tab, “Must Know Music.”   —LINKS - Below are delineated links to the examples I provide in this article. Shirin:  https://www.youtube.com/watch v=85W2y8r9v0Q&list=OLAK5uy_mJzeFnTUPeC2wNew30ZndSjfHT1o4F-O4 Journey of the Gypsy:  (not currently on YouTube)  https://www.piranha.de/piranha_arts_ag/jalilahs_raks_sharki/jalilahs_raks_1 Ya Amarti:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SXtTITNulE Joumana:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhjmHkuQfNY Yanna Yanna:  (contains bridges in the beginning of the song)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gk5J1B_7Q_0 Oul Lel Rababat:  (contains bridges within the song; found on Shazam)  https://www.shazam.com/track/311330211/oul-lel-rababat?referrer=share Sausan Academy Soundcloud:  (for dance beats)  https://soundcloud.com/sausanacademy/ Sausan Academy Youtube:  (for musical entity groups - Call & Response)  https://youtu.be/SRMAQDFRfmI?si=isDjx-UR9mRs0yjCSausan Academy YouTube:  (for musical entity groups - Bridges)  https://youtu.be/2aOsfTEx-EA?si=xwPmwQRMoCrzCfLs

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