It is nearly dawn. The sound of hundreds of shore birds taking wing rises in the cool air over the river. Before me is Her temple, its lotus columns gathering depths of color under a wash of dawn light, and I approach as constant in this life as my eyes have ever seen the sun. My sistrum sings quietly in my fingers... shh, shh, shh... and joins a multitude of sound that has gathered to greet the sweet one, the Goddess, this morning. Tambour, sistrum, tabla, harp, flute and voice join in with the incense prayers.
I am a lover of music, and I know nothing of it, a complete fool.... I know nothing of theory, or notation, rhythm, melody or score.... I am merely passionate. I respond, I gather, mix and celebrate the emotions of music... a fool. The music of the Middle East and North Africa moves me terribly... haunting, lyrical, strong and stirring to the senses — it speaks of ancient, ancient feelings, of places traveled by humanity and storms and vast solitudes, and the temples and rites of many, many gods. The land as it is now exists is an uneasy amalgam of monotheistic faiths... yet underscored in the land are deep hints of the Old Gods. Its near neighbors India (and even old central Africa) celebrate polytheism vigorously and may hold clues to the musical past of the ancient Mediterranean.
There is, admittedly, a certain degree of romance here. It's not out of place in a land of djinn and veils, smoke and desert. I've picked a few of my favorite "crossover" albums, pieces that were chosen as potential sources for ritual music "scores," all very high in atmosphere and mix capability, all with solid traditional-music origins.
That said — my first pick, actually, is not Mid-Eastern but from the Indian subcontinent. (Hah!) But it kicks. Beautifully, strongly, sublimely. Shri Durga (produced by DJ Cheb i Sabbah; from Six Degrees, 1999) is based on Indian classical music — the ragas: "a particular arrangement of sounds in which notes and melodic movement appear like ornaments to enchant the mind." Or, hey — trance. DJ Cheb links each raga on the album to a "lila" or "divine pastime" — for instance, the "Jagad Yoni Mix: Womb of the World," or the "Nada Brahman Mix: Yoga of Sound." Shri Durga brings DJ science and the traditional music of Hindu and Moslem musicians of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal together. To listen to this album is to travel in and out of scenes of daily temple life as if in a very vivid dream — we are washed in sacred rivers and rainfall; we walk across the broad temple square into the edges of a ritual or festival; in the cool evening we sit at meditation before a flame or in a private moment with an elder and his grandchildren; sometimes we find ourselves in the private, steamy midst of Tantra. This is lush sound, layered deeply like mythology. DJ Cheb pulls together vocals, traditional instrumentals and deftly wrought ambient samplings of prayers, invocations and rituals... yet it never becomes too much. It's an album great for rich atmosphere, but a bit intense for calm meditation.
Ambient Egypt: Sounds from Ancient Sources (composed and recorded by Douglas Irvine; 1998). If you happened to attend the Seattle Art Museum's 1998 exhibit "Egypt, Gift of the Nile," you probably listened to some of Irvine's work on the audio accompaniment to the art and artifacts. Ambient Egypt focuses on rhythm and melodies derived from traditional sources and replicas of ancient musical instruments. The ancient Egyptians left no musical notations or theory — it was an oral or folk tradition that passed on the melodies by rote. "Perhaps we may never know the exact sounds of ancient Egyptian music, but today these sounds from ancient instruments have the potential to create new music as varied as the people who play them," relates Irvine when he refers to the various instruments and sound samples used on the album. The liner lists a pair of pre-Greco-Roman finger cymbals, Iron Age Syrian pottery rattles and sounds from King Tutankhamun's trumpets among some of the surviving instruments sampled. This is a lovely, meditative work. It is spare and refined as a desert temple of sound should be... drifting on the sound, one can feel oneself walking slowly through the night air toward the crest of a dune, or walking within a solemn, sweetly scented morning procession to awaken and greet the local gods. It is one of my very favorite meditation pieces, wonderful for ritual or a quiet, happy morning. Beautiful!
The Passion Soundtrack and Passion Sources (produced and recorded by Peter Gabriel, various artists; Virgin Records/RealWorld, 1989). Okay, yes, this is music for Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ — perhaps an odd choice by a pagan for a pagan music review...but wait! If you haven't yet heard it, you'll understand when you finally do. Peter Gabriel pulled a major coup and virtually began the world music crossover genre with this soundtrack (and the accompanying album of traditional source music and location recordings). Among the many artists on either album are Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and party, a Senegalese griot singer — Baaba Maal, Les Musiciences du Nil, Shankar and the Epidemics and Antranik Askarian. While The Passion is a richly and finely orchestrated whole, Passion Sources reveals the rawer, in-the-field recordings that are the score's backbone and reveal the brilliance of the project as a whole. It is terse, strange, moving, brooding and gorgeous music. Some of the tracks move up on you like impending storms — quiet and still in the early evening, and slowly building within the wind and over the stones with thunder, darkness and looming rain.
A Wish (composed by Hamza El Din; Sounds True, 1999): If human peace, and grace, sadness, love and joy had a representative in music to the universe, this could easily speak for it. If humanity could listen to that heart, a rebellion of the soul would occur. This is lyricism that speaks beauty in the face of the loss of homeland; that celebrates existence for its simple, sublime self; and sways gently in the arms of love and tradition. Hamza El Din is considered the father of modern Nubian music. He began his musical career studying at the Institute for Middle Eastern Music in Cairo, then went to Rome to study Western music and classical guitar. He has lived and taught, composed and recorded music in the United States since the early 1960s and travels widely throughout the world to perform. Also on this album are Joan Jeanrenaud, a cellist for the Kronos Quartet; Hani Nassar; Shizuru Ohtaka; Amy Cyr; and William A. Mathieu. The songs on A Wish travel from Nubian marriage rituals, scenes of rural life at the fall of day, the angst and love of a homeland lost and the hope for a land reborn for its people. From the song "A Wish," lyrics by the poet Mohi El Din Sherif:
If we could have a wish, O Nubia,
you would be a strong land
made by man and love,
green as you once were,
datepalm trees growing
where once we sat and chatted
A forest of new acacia branches fills my eyes,
and the mountains echo the water wheels' cries.
Moonlight shines down on soft sand
where a person sweet as honey will come and rest
in the country where we harvest love,
where once we sat and chatted.
May we all find such peace and delight in the music.
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