Music of Morocco

Much of traditional Moroccan music stems from the indigenous North African musical style called Gnawa. This music combines Islamic lyrics with distinct, ancient North African rhythms. A large part of Gnawa music also includes dancing. The Qraqeb is one of the most common instruments heard in Gnawa music and is the rhythmic ‘clacking’ sound heard in many songs.  The sintir (or the gimbri) is also a common instrument used. It is a three or four-stringed, lute instrument with a hallow, oval-shaped body.

Gimbri

Qraqeb

Here is a selection of gnawa music from Hamid el Kasri. You hear the gimbri throughout and the use of the qraqeb comes in at the end, as well as traditional gnawa dancing.

A more popularized type of music, and one that is less rooted in North Africa but instead present all over the MENA region, is chaabi music. The term chaabi (or shaabi) is the Arabic word for ‘popluar’ or ‘among the people.’ So this is the type of music that you’ll often hear on the radio. It combines elements of music from other parts of the MENA region, and the lyrics usually pertain to everyday thoughts or musings that people can easily relate to. In other words, it generally has less of a religious connotation that the gnawa music tends to have (though religion may still be present in many of the songs). Here is a video displaying chaabi music. You’ll see artist Zina Daoudia play a violin upright, which is quite common for this type of music.

And of course we also have more ‘modern,’ international music coming from the area as well. A common theme you’ll see with this, what we would call, more ‘modern’ music is that it combines gnawa and chaabi sounds along with international influences like jazz and blues; it will also use instruments like electric guitar and keys. Here is a selection from Moroccan-born artist Oum.

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