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Assyrian folk/pop music, also known asAssyrian folk-pop, is the musical style of theAssyrian people derived from traditional music that includes a broad range of stylistic varieties, which would also encompass fusions of Western genres such aspop,electronic,Latin,jazz and/orclassical music, with a melodic basis of Assyrian folk.
Assyrian folk music claims to be the descendant of the music of their ancientUpper Mesopotamian ancestors that has survived in the liturgical music of theSyriac Churches. Assyrian songs are generally sung inIraqi Koine, astandard variety ofAssyrian Neo-Aramaic. However, older songs mostly had anUrmian dialect and tribal-folk music tend to containTyari dialects. Themes tend to focus onlonging, melancholy, strife and love issues. Assyrian songs are usually lengthy, tending to be around 5 minutes long on average.
Assyrian folk can also be found in traditionalMiddle Easternmakams, and it has similarities to other folk music inWestern Asia, such asKurdish,Turkish,Persian, andArmenian music. Unlike most Western music, Assyrian music includesquarter tones halfway between notes, often through the use of instruments or the human voice. Modern Assyrian pop music is mostly written in theminor key, and would typically use thePhrygian scale, as well as theharmonic minor scale. TheAeolian mode (i.e. thenatural minor scale) is somewhat rare, although it has been used more in the past. Some songs byEvin Agassi at the turn of the millennium had profusely used theAndalusian cadence due to influence ofLatin pop at the time.
Assyrian dance music (particularly khigga) has a rhythm or beat that is similar to aswing/shuffle, a gallopingjazz andblues rhythm. Whereas, the faster-paced gubareh beat can be compared to the Irishjig. The sheikhani beat uses arhythm that is analogous todembow, a dance rhythm inreggaeton music.Solos are common in Assyrian music and they are usually protracted. Instrumentation is mostly arranged with akeyboard andelectronic drums, namely in weddings or parties. Although many forms of Assyrian records do useacoustic andorchestral instruments such asstrings,pianos,saxophones andviolins.[1]
Assyrian folk music is omnipresent in the village scene. A "musician" is not necessarily a professional, whoever can sing in any manner is considered a "singer". Most of the time, music is learned by ear and passed down as an oral tradition. Village music may be categorized, basically, into four groups: local secular music not related to specific occasions; functional music; religious music and hymns; and music adopted from other areas.[2]
Here are a few types of tribal Assyrian Music that has survived to this day, especially in the Assyrian villages and towns of northernIraq, southeasternTurkey, northwesternIran and northeasternSyria:
It was in theAssyrian homeland north ofMosul that people started to write the vernacular, more than two hundred years before the earliest British missionaries, although the earliest records of theSyriac language date from 5th century BCAchaemenid Assyria. The earliest dated text is a poem written in 1591. This makes early Neo-Aramaic literature a contemporary of Jewish Neo-Aramaic literature from roughly the same region, dating back to the late 16th century.
The Neo-Aramaic literature which existed before the arrival of British and American missionaries consisted mainly of poetry. This poetry can be divided into three categories: stanzaic hymns, dispute poems, and drinking songs. Of these three categories, only the hymns, which in Neo-Aramaic are termedduriky[what language is this?]; and which can be seen as the equivalent of theClassical Syriacmadrase, can usually be traced back to individual authors.[3]
World War I, and the resultingAssyrian genocide, drove many Assyrians out from the mountainous region ofHakkari, southeastern Turkey to the regions of northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.World War II brought them in direct contact with thewest, especially theBritish Army in Iraq,Russians inUrmia and theFrench inSyria. The contact with the British caused the most influence on modern Assyrian music, especially the period after the independence of Iraq in 1932, which brought British oil companies into Iraq and they employed many by now English speaking Assyrians. At this time they came in contact with Western music and instruments. Assyrian youth started picking up and playing these new instruments after seeing and hearing the British playing. Assyrian youths started to find new bands and to play in parties, picnics and other functions for both Assyrians and others.
Gabriel Asaad was the pioneer of Assyrian music and composed the first Assyrian song in theTuroyo language,Othuroye Ho Mtoth Elfan l-Metba‘ (1926, ܐܬܘܪܝܶܐ ܗܐ ܡܛܬ ܐܠܦܢ ܠܡܛܒܥ "Assyrians, Our ship is on the way to sink"). InBaghdad, Iraq the earliest known record is byHanna Patros in 1931 – perhaps two Gramophones (78rpm) with 2 songs on each (church hymns and folk songs). Called “"Karuzuta d-khasha". Hanna Petros (1896–1958), later became the music director at the conservatory in Baghdad. There were church hymns and folklore songs with a musical company on the records. Albert Rouel Tamras releases his first records in Baghdad in 1966 on Bashirphone label owned byJameil Bashir anAssyrian Iraqi oud and violin soloist. Singing in the background with Albert are Biba andSargon Gabriel, two singers who would later become notable figures in modern Assyrian music in the United States. Contemporaneously,Evin Agassi was also making music inIran during the 1950s and 1960s.
From the 1970s and onward, Assyrian music started to incorporate elements from Westernpopular music, such asBritish andAmerican music. Jermain Tamraz, originally from Iran, was the first Assyrian artist to arrive to Australia to record Assyrian music.[4] Genres such assoft rock,pop ballads anddance pop became popular from 1980s and onward, although they all still had elements of Assyrian folk. In the 1990s and 2000s, Assyrian artists routinely fused in the traditional sounds of zurna and dawola conjured byelectronic keyboards, as synthesized music got popular at that time. TheLatin genre became popular in the late 1990s with instruments such as theFlamenco guitar being featured abundantly in Assyrian songs.Rock music never became popular in the Assyrian music scene, although a few Assyrian songs have featuredelectric guitars. Despite rock's unpopularity, there exists an Assyrian-Armenian metal band calledMelechesh, which has extensive Assyrian-Mesopotamian influences both lyrically and instrumentally.[5]
It is customary for modern Assyrian artists to generally sing inIraqi Koine, or "Standard Assyrian" (which is based on the prestigiousUrmian dialect but has influences of theHakkari dialects), for them to be intelligible and have widespread recognition. Songs in mountainous dialects, such asTyari, are usually of thefolk-dance music genre and would attract certain audiences.[6] Due toArab influence, some Assyrian singers may incorporatemawwal in their music.
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