Algerian maker

Hi Manil,

thanks for the links ! I see that this luthier makes also oud arbi, I'd like to order one some day... (as my grandgrandgrandfather was
making them long time ago ).

Another interesting site is the homepage of Taoufiq Bestandji, a master of malouf from Constantine living in France.

In Algeria you have various style of Andalusian music.... In the east (Constantine) the malouf is close to its Tunisian version (although I think that the sharqi influence is less important), while in the west (Tlemcen, Oran) you find nubas in a style closer to Morocco... And Algiers has its own style as well..

regards,

Dan

Hi Danielo, DaveH

thanks for the comments and interest, in fact, Algeria has little coverage here, that's why i am here

I play andaloussi music, I've been into this music since my early years, many members in my family used to play. I started playing hardrock guitar and end up playing andaloussi on a Oud

I am from Tlemcen, but born and leaved in Algiers, in Montreal we have a band and we play Algiers style (Cenaa), in Tlemcen it's called Ghernati and in Costantine it's Maalouf with more sharqi connotation but it's roots is andaloussi.

To help you differentiate between three of them, in Tlemcen rithms (mizane) is like moroccan but instruments playing is different, tempo is much slower, the Tlemcen school is from the last Andalusian people that left Spain from Grenada, it's considered to be the most conservative of the three schools in Algeria, they play some parts of the Nouba that are lost in the other schools (specially the Mchalia). Typical instruments will be the Rbab and Kuitra.

In Algiers, since it's the capital of Algeria with a lot of people transiting there from many regions of the country and the globe, the mizane is more simple than Tlemcen, the way to play instruments is a bit different but it has the same tone. Cenaa means the way of doing things, Bahdja Rahal is from the Algiers school but she does a lot of research all over the three schools to get the Nouba the way it's supposed to be played. Algiers school refers to people coming from Sevilla.

Costantine is the school that I know less, it has a wonderful tone, I realy like the maalouf and the Sharki tone into it, we have a violonist in our band that came from the Maalouf school and I realy like the way he plays, they are refered to play that came from Cordoue in Spain. I know Taoufik Banstandji wonderfull violin player, he played with Enrico Massias also a few years ago, Enrico is from Costantine and he loves Maalouf, good to know that your grand father was a luthier that used to make Oud Arbi, was he in Costantine? We used to have a guy playing it in our band but due to life consideration he is not with us, he had such a wonderful touch.

Those are the three main schools, a lot of schools came after, like Bejaya, Ouajda in morocco, Mostaganem...etc.

Andaloussi is the classical music in Algeria, it's like Mozart or Beethoven , when you want to go more soft, you have Hawzi, Aroubi and Chaabi (specially in algiers), those kind of music have their musical roots in andaloussi (modes) but the lyrics are from the popular repository, impros and solos are allowed, not much in andaloussi, it's a more structured style as you heard in Bahja Rahal album.

In the Nouba you have five movements that you have to respect to call it Nouba:

1- Mcader: usually a slow tempo around 80-90 bpm, it's played differently in the three schools.
2- Btayhi : a little bit more faster around 90 bpm.
3- Derj: a bit fater 95 bpm.
4- Inciraf: Different tempo, it's not faster than the Derj but it's 2/8 or something like that, I am not good enough with these things, but the tempo is hard to get when not used to it.
5- Mekhless : the fastest part to close the Nouba.

Then you have some specific parts that you can add:

1- Mchalya: played in Tlemcen specially, it's the part where instruments are "looking" for each other, in this video : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3l5no_airs-andalous-repetition_mu... it's from the beginning until 2:20.

2- Touchiya: instrumental part, it's not a must play in a Nouba, but you have to do a Touchiya in a Nouba in the same video it starts from 2:20 until the end. (This band is in Paris and they play Tlemcen school type of andaloussi)

3- Inkilabate: it's dynamic song played on 4/4 or 4/2 tempo at the beggining or end of a Nouba.

4- Istikhbar: Musical and vocal, it's played to make sure soloist have some rest during the Nouba and let musicians express them self, it consist of 4 parts, some noubas have only 3 or less....will explain why after.

5- Kadria: it's played at the end of a nouba on the same tempo as the Inciraf, it's used to change modes between songs if necessary.

There was 24 Noubates in Andalusia back in the days, now only 12 survived, some are incomplete, the music was transmitted by ear only, a few texts were transcribed, some not, some istikhbarat are not complete so musicians fill them with other modes, a lot of people make research to find what was lost like Bahja Rahal. Each nouba is for a specific time during the day (24 hours). I will post later the modes and the noubates that we know about.

If you have specific questions let me know I will try to find answers.

Sorry, English is my third language if some parts are not clear i will try to correct them.

Bonjour Manil,

I was trying to give an answer to DaveH using my very modest knowledge, I did not know that you are a specialist of andalousian music ! I just discovered your webpage, great stuff

Thank you for all this information about Algerian music, this is very interesting.... I agree that there's very little about it on this forum !

My luthier's ancestor was indeed in Constantine but it was long time ago.. the grandfather of my grandmother...and actually Enrico Macias is a distant relative

Si tu as d'autres choses sur la musique algérienne je suis très intéressé !

Dan

I just realized that Dave wrote something before you Danielo, a big oups, my answer is for everybody anyways

Dave, which nouba of Bahja Rahal do you have?

Danielo, good to know, sad to see people with who we share a lot of history had to leave after 1962, Andaloussi music is much appreciated by the Sepharade community down here in Montreal. your answers to Dave were good, I am pleased that some people are aware of this music.

With the internet and the technology now, we can contribute all to this music and make people know it better.

A very important thing I did not mention, andaloussi came from Spain with Andalusian people leaving spain after the conquista, but the creator of this music is the well known Zyriab from Iraq, who was driven from iraq and went to Andalusia. This is the information I have, people that know Iraq history better than me can correct me

Have a good day,