The derdeba is jointly animated by a maâlem (master musician) at the head of his troop and by a moqadma or shuwafa (clairvoyant) who is in charge of the accessories and clothing necessary to the ritual.ĭuring the ceremony, the clairvoyant determines the accessories and clothing as it becomes ritually necessary. It calls the seven saints and mluk, represented by seven colors, as a prismatic decomposition of the original light/energy. The ceremony recreates the first sacrifice and the genesis of the universe by the evocation of the seven main manifestations of the divine demiurgic activity. Gnawas perform a complex liturgy, called lila or derdeba. Instead, the thumb drops repeatedly in a rhythmic pattern against the freely vibrating bass string, producing a throbbing drone, while the first two or three fingers of the same (right) hand pick out percussive patterns in a drum-like, almost telegraphic, manner. The "brushless" part means the fingers do not brush several strings at once to make chords. Gnawa hajhuj players use a technique which 19th century American minstrel banjo instruction manuals identify as "brushless drop-thumb frailing". The Gnawa also use large drums called tbel in their ritual music. Gnawa have venerable stringed-instrument traditions involving both bowed lutes like the gogo and plucked lutes like the hajhuj. The "big bass drums" mentioned by Schuyler are not typically featured in a more traditional setting. Gnawa is particularly characterized by interplay between triple and duple meters. The rhythms of the Gnawa, like their instruments, are distinctive. The hajhuj has strong historical and musical links to West African lutes like the Hausa halam, a direct ancestor of the banjo. The large, heavy iron castanets known as qraqab or krakeb and a three-string lute known as a hajhuj, guembri or gimbri, or sentir, are central to Gnawa music. Gnawa music is characterized by instrumentation. It is a language that emphasizes on the tonic and fifth, with quavering pitch-play, especially pitch-flattening, around the third, the fifth, and sometimes the seventh. The melodic language of the stringed instrument is closely related to their vocal music and to their speech patterns, as is the case in much African music. Because they are suited for adepts in a state of trance, they go on and on, and have the effect of provoking a trance from different angles. melk)), so what seems to be a 20-minute piece may be a whole series of pieces – a suite for Sidi Moussa, Sidi Hamou, Sidi Mimoun or others. However, what seems to the uninitiated to be one long song is actually a series of chants describing the various spirits (in Arabic mlouk (sing. In fact, a song may last several hours non-stop. In a Gnawa song, one phrase or a few lines are repeated over and over, so the song may last a long time. The Moroccan language often replaces "K" with "G", which is how the Kanawa, or Hausa people, were called Gnawa in Morocco. The word " Gnawa", plural of "Gnawi", is taken to be derived from the Hausa demonym "Kanawa" for the residents of Kano, the capital of the Hausa-Fulani Emirate, which was under Morocco influence (Opinion of Essaouira Gnawa Maalems, Maalem Sadiq, Abdallah Guinia, and many others). Moroccan and Hausa cultures are connected both religiously, as both are Malikite Muslims, with many Moroccan spiritual schools active in Hausaland, and artistically, with Gnawa music being the prime example of typical Hausa music within Morocco. The history of the Gnawi is closely related to the famous Moroccan royal " Black Guard", which became today the Royal Guard of Morocco. Gnawa music has spread to many other countries in Africa and Europe, such as France. Though many of the influences that formed this music can be traced to West African kingdoms, its traditional practice is concentrated in Morocco. The music is performed at lila, communal nights of celebration dedicated to prayer and healing guided by the Gnawa maalem, or master musician, and their group of musicians and dancers. Its well-preserved heritage combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dancing. ڭْناوة or كْناوة) is a body of Moroccan religious songs and rhythms. A gnawa street performer wearing traditional gnawi clothing in Rabat's Qasbat al-Widaya
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