Music of Oman

The Music of Oman has been strongly affected by the country's coastal location with a diverse mix of outside influences and its own traditional Eastern, Southern Arabian, and overall Khaleeji Gulf musical tradition.

There are songs for special occasions, songs for seafarers, fishermen, Bedouins and mountain farmers. Authentic Arabic music in Oman can be characterised by ‘tetrachords’ with classic Arabic intervals, including three-quarter tones taken from the Arabic musical scales — the ‘maqamat’. Traditional songs originating from the desert are often in praise of the camel, which has been described in the Holy Quran. Al Taghrud, sung while riding camels, and Al Taariq, a Bedouin song with two singers taking turns to sing verses, are two of the best examples of traditional desert songs.^[1]

Traditional music marks all the stages in the life of an Omani, including birth, circumcision, marriage and death. All Omanis, including men and women, and the young and the old, participate in music and celebrations.^[1]

Omani sailors’ interaction with many countries like Egypt, Iran, and elsewhere, has also played a significant role in shaping the musical landscape of Oman. More recently, although not as dominant, a Portuguese occupation has left its own marks with the intoduction of more European melodies. Liwa and Fann at-Tanbura are types of music and dance performed mainly in communities of descendants of Bantu peoples from the African Great Lakes region.^[2]

Notable Omani musicians include Salim Rashid Suri, the "Singing Sailor", a 20th-century singer and oud player from Sur who combined strains of the ṣawt of the northern Persian Gulf and other musical traditions of the Indian Ocean as a pioneer of the genre called Ṣawt al-Khaleej ("Voice of the Gulf").^[3]