When the music stopped, there was a pregnant pause in the room. The guests, who had sat patiently chewing qat throughout, waited expectantly. To a Yemeni, such an instrumental piece, however interesting, was merely a prelude to sung poetry, without which the performance was simply incomplete. It may be too much to say that poetry gave rise to music in the Yemen, but many poetic genres are intimately linked with the musical forms, and they have contributed much to the structure of Yemeni music. Certainly the metres often dictate the rhythmic patterns of the songs, and it is the special rhythmic quality of Yemeni music, above all else, which sets it apart and makes it so difficult for non-Yemeni musicians to master.
Poetry aligned with specific melodies and rhythm makes up the 'corpus' of Yemeni vocal music.
The interpreter of the most formal of the sung poetry and, in a sense the guardian of the musical heritage, is the nashad . This antiphonic form, though highly structured, complex and undoubtedly very old, is by no means restrictive. It accommodates melodic variation and improvisation and allows, even encourages, group participation. The effect on the listener, I can attest, is mesmerising. Vocal music has therefore predominated, particularly in the northern highlands where musical instruments have been largely discouraged and, in some periods of the Yemen's history, even proscribed.