The jawq

The instruments at the heart of an orchestra, and what joined it in the 20th century.

• الربابrabāb

  bowed

  The boat-shaped fiddle of the leader, carved from one block: two gut strings a fifth apart, a short arched bow. It states the bare melody, low, and launches the phrases.

• عود الرملʿūd ramal

  four-course lute · plucked

  The lute of the old nouba: four double courses named dhayl, ḥusayn, māya and ramal, a single rosette, a quill for plectrum. The oriental lute replaced it within two decades; a few makers build it again.

• الألطوkamānja kbīra

  viola · bowed

  A European viola played upright on the knee, like the rabāb. Adopted in the 19th century (some musicians say the 18th). It is the viola, not the violin, that the old masters name in the jawq.

• الطارṭār

  struck

  A small, deep frame drum with five slots of brass jingles. It states the mizan, holds the tempo and steers every quickening.

• الدربوكةdarbūka

  struck

  Small, and of copper or brass in al-Āla. It answers the ṭār and fills the beat. The dated photographs show it in the orchestra from the 1930s.

Joined in the 20th century

Fès, under Abdelkrim Raïs, kept to the old instruments; Rabat and Tétouan opened the orchestra. The argument is not closed: fixed-pitch instruments sit badly on the modes, and steel strings cover the rabāb and the voices.

• oriental luteالعود الشرقيafter 1918

  Also ʿūd maṣrī, the Egyptian lute: five double courses, three rosettes, a shorter neck. Seen beside the ʿūd ramal at Cairo in 1932, alone by the 1940s.

• violinالكمانearly 20th century

  Came after the viola and is held the same way. Today it ornaments the line, plays the solos and is often the leader’s instrument.

• qānūnالقانون1930s

  Borrowed from the East after the Cairo Congress, first seen in Fès in 1939. It has stayed an occasional guest.

• celloالتشيلو1940s–50s

  First in the radio orchestra of Rabat and in Tétouan. It adds a bass, which tends to cover the rabāb.

• pianoالبيانو1940s–50s

  Tétouan with Temsamani, Rabat with Loukili. It plays the melody as a single line.

• double bassالكونترباصafter 1950

  In the large orchestras of Rabat and Tétouan.

• clarinetالكلارينيتafter 1950

  Heard in Loukili’s orchestra in Rabat and in Tétouan. Rare.

• saxophoneالساكسفونafter 1956

  In a few large orchestras after independence. Rare.

• nāyالنايoccasional

  The radio orchestra of Rabat had one. Seldom heard in this music today.

The taʿrīja, the swīsen and the gunbrī are instruments of malḥūn and popular music, not of al-Āla.

After Yassir Bousselam, La musique andalouse marocaine al-Âla (thesis, Paris Nanterre, 2022), and Christian Poché’s notes for the Institut du Monde Arabe.