Originally posted by al-Halabi
Hi Musa,
The abandonment of frets took place unevenly in various parts of the region and over an extended period of time. It appears that Ottoman influence may
have had a lot to do with it. An unfretted oud became common in the Ottoman capital of Istanbul and in the sultan’s court by the sixteenth
century, perhaps because it was better suited to playing an Ottoman art music that was growing more elaborate in its modal structures and intonational
variations. In the course of the 16th century the Ottoman Empire came to rule the entire Middle East and North Africa with the exception of Iran and
Morocco. The unfretted instrument spread with Ottoman cultural influence in the region, which extended to the local musical traditions in the
provinces. In the area of Tunisia a local fretted oud was commonly in use before the coming of the Ottomans. It was well suited to the Andalusian nuba
music, which did not have the microtonal intervals current in the Middle East. But after it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire (in 1574),
Tunisia saw major changes in its musical scene. One was the arrival and spread of the unfretted Middle Eastern oud, which Tunisians call oud sharqi,
or Eastern oud, to distinguish it from their indigenous oud (called oud tunsi or oud arbi), which was different in construction, tuning, and playing
technique. In addition, the Tunisian modes began to incorporate microtonal intervals reflecting the influence of Middle Eastern maqams (something that
did not happen in Morocco, which was a kingdom independent of the Ottomans), and pieces in the Middle Eastern/Ottoman style became widely played. The
oud arbi used today in Tunisia (as well as in Algeria and Morocco) is generally unfretted, and the dropping of its frets may have been yet another
adaptation to the general spread of the Middle Eastern unfretted oud in the area.
The fretted variety of the Tunisian oud arbi is among the last and disappearing examples of fretted ouds. I have not seen one in person, but I have a
photograph of one that I will try to find. I have some older recordings (from over 40 years ago) of this fretted oud, by the master of the instrument
Khemais Tarnan, and by Salih al-Mahdi, who was also an accomplished performer on the Middle Eastern oud. Their solo pieces are in Tunisian modes with
microtones. The oud arbi’s sound box is smaller and longer than that of the Middle Eastern oud, and it has three large sound holes close
together in the center of the soundboard. The instrument is a challenge to play because its peculiar tuning requires playing routinely up the neck in
difficult positions, including on the extension of the fingerboard (the Algerian oud arbi is tuned G e A d). Also, unlike the Middle Eastern oud it is
suited to playing mostly in the upper octaves. These limitations help to explain why it has lost ground to the more versatile Middle Eastern oud,
which most oud players in North Africa now play. The North African oud is still in use in a limited way, mostly in Andalusian ensembles, in which it
sometimes plays alongside a Middle Eastern oud that covers the lower registers. As for the fretted version of the Tunisian oud, it is disappearing
fast. Perhaps the Tunisian case is a useful example of the kinds of dynamics that affected the fortunes of the oud historically. Changes in the
musical system and repertoire as well as the exposure to a different type of oud that catches on as a technically superior instrument may help account
for why fretted ouds steadily gave way to the unfretted oud we play today, and why the North African oud has been so widely replaced by the Middle
Eastern oud.
The frets used on ouds were movable (typically gut tied around the neck), which allowed them to be adjusted when playing with other instruments,
changing modes, or transposing. Players of the European lute similarly made adjustments to their movable frets, especially as there was no agreement
on a standard intonation before equal temperament became dominant. Frets are useful for playing in tune and for learning the instrument, so removing
them in the Middle East represented a certain trade-off.
The oud qadim (ancient oud) of four courses was mentioned in Middle Eastern writings on musical instruments for a number of centuries, although a new
oud called oud kamil (complete oud) with five courses appeared as early as the ninth century. Al-Farabi (tenth century), al-Urmawi (thirteenth
century) and other medieval writers used the five-stringed instrument in their analyses. The “new and improved” oud came to be dominant,
and the earlier type used in the region before it came to be known as the “old oud.” One of the earliest writers on music, Ibn
al-Munajjim (ninth century), gives the fretting of the four-stringed oud qadim. He lists four frets in these positions: a whole tone, followed by a
half-tone, followed by another half-tone, followed by a whole tone. This sequence seems to correspond to the fretting of the historical reproduction
on David Parfitt’s web site. This fretting reflects the tone system of the early Islamic period, before the new microtonal pitches crept into
Arab music (primarily from Persian music).
My apologies for writing at such length. |