Gnawa

"Gnawa" or "Gnaoua" (in Arabic چنّاوة) is a group of musicians who might be descendants of former slaves originating from Sub-Saharan Africa or came freely to Morocco with Caravans during the Trans-Saharan trade trade, or both. Their name in Arabic could possibily indicate that they came from the old Ghana Empire, which has no connection with modern day Ghana. The same word also refers to a small part of these people who are musicians and ritual healers and thus bringing the rite of African animism with them. Gnawas are considered to be experts in the treatment of scorpion stings and psychic disorders. They heal the disease by the use of colors, the perfumes and fright.

Music

Gnawa music is a mixture of religious Arabic songs and African rhythms. It combines music and acrobatic dancing. The music is both prayer and a celebration of life. In a song, one phrase or a few lines are repeated over and over throughout a particular song though the song may last a long time. In fact, a song may last several hours non-stop.

Related Topics:
Arabic - Rhythm

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The melodic language of their stringed instrument is closely related to their vocal music and to their speech patterns, as is the case in much African music. 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. This is the language of the blues.

Related Topics:
African music - Blues

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Gnawas have venerable stringed-instrument traditions involving both bowed lutes like the gogo and plucked lutes like the guembri چمبري (also called hag'houge هجهوه) (a three-stringed bass instrument). The Gnawas also use large drums called tbel (in Arabic طبل ) and krakebs (large iron castanets; in Arabic قراقب) in their ritual music. The gnawa hag'houge has strong historical and musical links to West African lutes like the Hausa halam, a direct ancestor of the banjo.

Related Topics:
Lute - Arabic - Banjo

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Gnawa hag'houge players use a technique which 19th century American minstrel banjo instruction manuals identify as "brush less drop-thumb frailing". The "brush less" part means the fingers do not brush several strings at once to make chords. Instead, the thumb drops repeatedly in a hypnotically 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, often percussive patterns in a drum-like, almost telegraphic manner.

Related Topics:
19th century - American - Minstrel - Banjo - Strings - Chords

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