The Instrument: The Qanun

      If you walked around the streets of Chicago and asked anyone what they thought or knew about the Middle East, you would probably hear the following answers: violence, terrorism, and political instability. Now, you cannot blame the ordinary citizen for associating the Middle East with these ideas, as the Middle East is arguably the most tumultuous region in the world as of recent years. Alongside a very one-sided media coverage of the events unfolding in the Middle East, it is only natural for people to associate the region with violence and unrest.

     I have a feeling that people would perceive the Middle East very differently if they knew about the true intricacies of Islamic culture. Islam and the Middle East does not derive its importance from perpetual political unrest. In fact, Islamic society is considered to be one of the most important civilizations to have ever graced planet Earth, making incredible headway in the arts and sciences during a relatively chaotic and bellicose period in human history. This era of cultural revelations was known as the Islamic Golden Age, and it was defined as such due to the emphasis of amassing knowledge by various Islamic leaders. During this golden age, the numerous caliphates of the Islamic Empire sent scholars throughout the known world in order to collect all books and to translate them into Arabic. As a result of this efforts, intellectuals of the Islamic realm made leaps and bounds in mathematics, physics, medicine, architecture, and other schools of thought. Islam was undoubtedly the cultural center of the world during this time period, and with any cultural center, there was a bounty of music.

     Now, I consider myself to be relatively unknowledgeable in the realm of Islamic music simply because I had not been exposed to much of it before. However, after some research, it was clear to me that Islamic music was defined by a variety of unique instruments and theories that could not be found anywhere else in the world. There are many instruments that play an important role in traditional Islamic music, and I would not be doing Islam justice if I neglected to talk about all of these instruments, but for the sake of brevity I must focus on one specific one. This instrument is the qanun, a peculiar string instrument of the Middle East.

Drawing of the qanun in action

     The qanun belongs to the family of zither instruments, with a trapezoidal soundboard with parallel strings running at different lengths in order to produce different notes. This instrument is played with both hands, as all fingers are used to pluck at the numerous strings that line the soundboard. The best way to truly understand an instrument is the hear it in action, so here is a short video of a qanun solo.

     As you can see, the qanun produces a flurry of notes and tones as a result of a rapid plucking action by the musician. Undeniably, the qanun has a very unique and foreign sound. However, this intriguing sound is not only the result of the instrument itself. Remember that the instrument is only the tool. The musicality and theory that goes into playing every instrument distinguishes the almost infinite number of styles that the listener can recognize.

     The tune that the musician in the video is playing sounds very, well, Islamic, is because the musician is implementing the maqamat mode in his playing. To a person that is unfamiliar with music and modes, that probably made no sense whatsoever. However, modes are not a hard concept to grasp. Essentially, modes are alterations to basic scales that we all know and love, such as the basic major scale of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do. These alterations take of the form of flat and sharp notes in specific parts of the scale depending on the mode. Each mode has unique melodic aspects due to these changes, and numerous historical cultures have implemented a specific mode in their traditional music. For example, everyone can imagine the tune of the traditional "Asian-sounding" song. All of these songs use the pentatonic or asian-pentatonic mode, and the prevalence of this mode in the traditional music of certain Asian cultures has created this association between the specific sounds of the mode and the culture. The maqamat mode is no different; it is most often found in the traditional Islamic musical context.

      The qanun played in the maqamat mode is just one aspect of the immense realm of Islamic music. Even after much research, I have only barely scratched the surface of the musicality of the Middle East. I hope that this depth of Islamic culture is recognized by more people, and I hope that people think about the beautiful sounds of the qanun when they think about the complex region that is the Middle East.