Simsimiyya

Simsimiyya, also semsemiya, is a gurdy, which is played in the popular Arabic music from the Sinai Peninsula in the north along the coast of the Red Sea to Yemen. The plucked string instrument with five or more strings accompanied the traditional songs of storytellers of the Bedouins, it is also used together with other melodic instruments in the lively dance music of the port cities, particularly in Port Said.

Origin and Distribution

Lyres have they have spread westward to the Mediterranean originated with the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, from where. The most famous lyre in Palestine is mentioned in the Old Testament kinnor. From the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC box lyres were depicted on wall paintings in ancient Egyptian rock-cut tombs. Arrived later than in the first centuries AD lyres of Egypt on the Nile up to Nubia, where to this day the two identical lyres Kisir and Tambura are among the most popular musical instruments. By the 4th century, the lyre had come to the Aksumite kingdom. The tradition of lyre used in Ethiopia for entertainment krar and religious occasions reserved beganna is attributed to this period. The southernmost distribution area of the African Lyre is western Kenya and Uganda. A six- centimeter-high seated bronze figure with lyre from 1 / 2 Century AD in Yemen is among the few finds from Sabaean time, showing that the pre-Islamic Arabia lyre in the Red Sea was known.

Since the Islamic period lyres played only a minor role in classical Arabic music. Until the 10th century the lyre mi ʿ is zaf is in Egypt. Even in the 11th century, the time of the Fatimid dynasty, there was in Egypt lyres, and later can be their original Arabic name al - kinnara (derived from kinnor ) no longer different from the same sound instruments and drums. Arab lyres have regional get in folk music, the tambura is used to the Persian Gulf and southern Iraq by descendants of former black slaves in ceremonies. Compared to Tambura is the simsimiyya more elegant, more expensive to produce. Maybe the name is therefore derived from simsim (Arabic " sesame " ), meaning " fine, well-formed " means in the Egyptian vernacular.

Design

The designation applies to simsimiyya lyres without a well-defined structure, which will be played in the said region and in the corresponding musical styles. According to the shape of the resonance body, they can be assigned to the shell or box lyres. The shell lyres consist of a flat rounded wooden body, whose ceiling in contrast to all other Arab and African lyres does not consist of an animal skin, but from a wooden board. With trapezoidal box lyres bottom and side panels and the ceiling are glued together from planks. Simsimiyya with a body made of a metal canister, as usual in Saudi Arabia, are covered with skin. While the Tambura has a triangular, wide overhanging frame made ​​of round wooden rods and is played sitting down, is the framework of simsimiyya bit smaller and trapezoidal. The simsimiyya can therefore also be held in a vertical position with the left hand on the lower yoke arm and played standing up. The five commonly, especially in southern Yemen six wire strings are tuned by modern metal swirls to the crossbar. They extend over a bridge -like web which is in the lower third on the ceiling to the bottom of the body.

The strings are plucked with a plectrum, either individually in the right hand or in a sitting position following the conventional method since ancient times all together struck (with the guitar strumming called english ). Strings that are not to be heard, are covered with the fingers of the left hand from the other side. The tone swings and little is metallic clear or somewhat dull depending on the design. The mood of the five strings in Suez is # f1 - e1 - d1 # - # c1 - b.

Some Egyptian lyres are equipped since about 1980 in Port Said and Suez, with up to 16 strings, so to accompany the songs with a larger range of popular Arab singer Umm Kulthum as Abdel Halim Hafez or can. A 16 -string could be tuned so simsimiyya: three strings in the deep layer ( Qarar ), six strings in the middle range ( ʿ ADI), approximately corresponding to g1 # - # f1 - e1 - d1 # - # c1 - b. The remaining seven strings in the high register ( ǧawāb ), means " reply ", based on the Qarar strings an octave higher. Partial electric pickups to be connected.

Play

Comparable to the Nubian Kisir and the Ethiopian krar the simsimiyya is played in Egypt only in the danceable popular music and song accompaniment of storytellers and does not have the ritual significance of the tambura and other lyres. The stories of the Bedouin in the Sinai desert are sung by a singer who is accompanied by a simsimiyya and a choir singing the chorus. For the rhythm of clapping hands and dark sounding oil drums make.

In Yemen, the poetic singer ( mughannī ) accompanied her to the first half of the 20th century on the metal plate sahn nuhasi, the tin tanak, the pear-shaped plucked lute qanbus or - especially in the music scene of Aden - on the simsimiyya. With increasing proliferation of broadcasting the Arabic lute ʿ ūd began gradually to replace all other accompanying instruments.

The history of today's popular music of the Egyptian port city of Port Said and Ismailia began before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. In the 1859 newly established Port Said workers marched from Upper Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia and other parts of the Red Sea, to assist in construction of the canal. The different population groups developed their own, damma ( " association, affiliation " ) called a music style in which a singer any known song ( uġniyya ) points out, what other singers respond with partially improvised songs ( ǧawāb ) that fit into melody or text to need. Damma denotes not only the style but also the musicians and the performance practice. The simsimiyya was the typical accompaniment of these songs.

Especially developed for the entertainment of dockers and seafarers semi-professional buskers dance music style bambūṭiyya ( bamboute ), named after the Bumboot, a small supply ship. The bambūṭiyya may have been influenced by the Charleston, who came in the 1920s in Egypt in fashion. The dancer performs similar, far -reaching leg movements, swinging their hips and mimics with the poor various physical activities of a longshoreman after. Bambūṭiyya, a substantive category of damma songs, were also called the wandering merchants that ensured the food supply on small boats along the canal. The bands appearing in the coffee houses at the harbor called themselves suhbaǧiyya (from Sahiba, " someone accompany "). The musical style experienced the peak of his popularity in the second half of the 19th century.

Today, the musicians and singers of this song tradition called the Egyptian canal city firaq ( Sg firqa ). Your instruments that accompany dance songs are in addition to the simsimiyya the sounds ʿ ūd, the one-stringed fiddle rababa, occasionally the longitudinal flute nay, several drums ( generally TABL ), including tambourine ( duff ) or cup drumming ( darbuka ). As percussion instruments as tin pots and jerrycans are suitable.

Discography

• Bedouin Jerry Can Band: Coffee Time. IPS 30, 2007
• Ensemble Al- Tanburah ( led by Ibrahim Zakariya ): Simsimiyya de Port- Said. Institut du Monde Arab, Paris 1999
• El Tanbura: Friends of Bamboute: 20th Anniversary Edition. IPS 30, 2009