Egypt

Traditions

• The journey follows a route rather than a genre: Giza, the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, the Siwa oasis, the Nile, Luxor, Nubia and Abu Simbel, the desert road of Kharga, the Suez Canal and Sinai.
• It closes on a Thursday night in Cairo — the start of the Egyptian weekend, and the traditional night of music — in homage to the golden age of Egyptian song.
• Nubian music from the far south carries its own scales and its own language, distinct from the Arabic traditions of the north.
• The simsimiyya, a lyre of the Suez and Sinai coast, belongs to the Red Sea ports rather than to the Nile valley.

Instruments

• Oud — the fretless short-necked lute at the centre of Arabic music
• Qanun — plucked zither with levers for microtonal tuning
• Nay — end-blown reed flute
• Rababa — bowed spike fiddle of the countryside
• Mizmar — double-reed horn of celebration and procession
• Simsimiyya — lyre of the Suez and Sinai coast
• Frame drums — riq and tar, carrying the rhythmic cycles
• Cello — the recurring IGUNO voice beneath them all

Music from here

▶The World in MusicEgypt20261:10:59