In recent years several substantive high quality recordings of traditional music have become commercially available. The following sampling of these CDs will give the listener a strong introduction to the rich and multifaceted traditional music of the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. A Musical Anthology of the Arabian Peninsula, recorded by Simon Jargy and Poul R vsing Olsen. This impressive four-volume collection is the result of field recordings made in the Arabian Peninsula and Gulf primarily in the early 1970s. Each volume focuses on the music of the major traditional folk cultures of the region.
Rare photographs illustrate the musicians in context.
Inc. Box 164 Lenox Hill Station, New York, NY 10021-0164. The raw sound of Bedouin singing, taped in the field from Palmyra to Tarif, UAE, is unadulterated here. It features three nahm ' , pearl diving song cycles, which include the characteristic low pitched drones, syncopated rhythms and tasf q , as well as improvisational solos by Bahrain s best pearl-diving lead singers. Sowt features eleven recordings of the traditional ensembles playing the traditional urban song cycle of the region. This recording, which won the French International Grand Prize of the Academie Chares Cros, presents 19 women s and children s songs recorded between 1969 and 1990.