Morocco: Trance and Gnawa music
You can hear the music
everywhere, especially at squares where artists, singers, musicians and all kinds of entertainers gather to play and collect money. The music is also performed in private parties, at religions meetings or rituals, in homes and cafees ect. Traditional music might also be combined with dance and storytelling.
I got to hear some nice examples of Gnawa music at the square in Meknes.
The style is an interesting mixture of religious arabic songs, african rythms, trance music and mysticism. Professional dancers are at lest as wild as the wildest heavy-metal singers/musicians that wave their heads up and down with the long hair...! And the trance feeling you get from listening and looking at it reminds a lot of the trance - and dance music we have at home.
The music were developed by slaves from other parts of Africa who were brought to Morocco at the 16th century.
I got to hear some nice examples of Gnawa music at the square in Meknes.
The style is an interesting mixture of religious arabic songs, african rythms, trance music and mysticism. Professional dancers are at lest as wild as the wildest heavy-metal singers/musicians that wave their heads up and down with the long hair...! And the trance feeling you get from listening and looking at it reminds a lot of the trance - and dance music we have at home.
The music were developed by slaves from other parts of Africa who were brought to Morocco at the 16th century.
Unfortunately I had to leave before the big and famous Gnawa festival held in Essaouira every year in June.
2 comments:
Hi Alja.
Moroccan music is of many types; it includes Arab, Berber, classical, and Popular elements. Musicians perform in concerts, in cafes, at private homes, at circumcision ceremonies, marriages, funerals, and religious processions and in accompaniment to dancing and storytelling.
When you hear this performance, it sounds a little bit voodoo, I liked it.
Hi Magda,
I had already read the posts in your blog, but this time I am adding a comment: just to say that moroccan music is so veried and rich, and Gnawa music is actually but a part of this multitude of styles. If you come next time, don't miss Ahwach, a group performance of folkloric dance and chants. In almost every berber village, you find a group, and there are many varieties of it. This is again just one of many musical varieties in Morocco.
so long!
Lahcen
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