Reviving traditional music in Jordan—Interview with Dr. Ali Shurman

By Linda Shawa (Star Staff Writer)

Source: The Star (August 1, 2002)

Jordan's traditional music and arts have survived while basic forms of traditional arts and expressiveness disappeared over the past five decades, Dr. Ali Shurman believes. Traditional music and human voice in Jordan is the outcome of traditional, tribal, and social attitudes that emerged among Jordanian bedouins and families throughout past decades, Shurman said. The firm, traditional, vocal aspect of the national culture that is still practiced among the younger generations.

Most of the traditional music, themes, and rhythm in Jordan are rooted in the bedouin-like environment that used the bedouin traditional and verse used to sing in community and social gatherings.

Many in the world mistakenly believe the origin of contemporary Arabic music is bedouin or Syrian, Shurman notes; people who know their origin are Arabic and derived from various ethnicities that lived in the region.

Music plays a very crucial role, regarding traditional music as a civilized way to express one's culture, a way of human singing and preserving it from degradation.

"It should be clear music today is mostly performed through highly-trained musical instruments, in which traditional music can't cope with it," Shurman told The Star. He believes Jordanian music is developing rapidly, although such a development is wrongly preserved.

"Many of the traditional songs in Jordan have emerged in their rhythm and verse in view of the frequent demographic changes that took place in Jordan over the past 50 years," he said. "Besides, many of the bedouin tribes dissolved their lands and homes and moved to the cities, where their traditional music was influenced by the new modern rhythm and verses."

Shurman pointed out there are three types of music currently in Jordan that developed new traditional music, merging with neighboring culture and other kinds of music. "These types are the bedouin, rural, and the urban. All have emerged from bedouin culture that was prevalent in each aspect of the past decades."

Traditional music in Jordan used to be the main source of self-expression and communication. Today the music is becoming a symbol of Jordanian national identity. "When you hear the bedouin and rural kinds of music, you will realize these are more authentic and prominent than the rural one," Shurman explained.

Shurman recently received his doctorate in music from the Osaka Music Academy in Japan. His thesis focused on "Working Songs in Traditional Music of Jordan."

The 38-year-old former bank employee said that traditional music in Jordan should be preserved by the concerned parties in the Kingdom. He called for the establishment of a partnership between the public and private sectors to improve the quality and standard of Jordan's traditional music, usually, regionally and internationally.

The thesis he presented in Osaka, Japan was a chance to present traditional Jordanian music to the world. The thesis focused mostly on the Bedouin and rural sectors of traditional music in Jordan. It also localized the fundamental changes that happened to music over the past 50 years.

A music educator at the National Music Conservatory, Shurman's career in musical performance began in 1983. Shurman strongly believes traditional music can be promoted globally, as many of the world cultures today find their ways to fame through traditional performances.

"We need now to document and chronicle traditional Jordanian music," he stressed. This, he added, must be done through musical centers that can be run by the Ministry of Culture and charities.

Shurman outlined the main objectives of these centers as categorizing the history of traditional music in Jordan through vocal and visual data base, helping in developing the traditional music in academic, desert, and standard level, and promoting Jordan's traditional music globally.

"Promoting music requires much dedication and commitment. There is also the financial factor, which is necessary to make musical research and development a successful process," Shurman said, he will discuss the idea of musical centers through contact with the Ministry of Culture and other official organs and organizations in Jordan.