3A. Moha ben Driss and Ensemble. (El Hajeb, Middle Atlas, Beni Mitr Tribe) Amimmi
Recorded in Aïn
Diab, Morocco on August 1, 1959 by Paul Bowles
"The
antiphonal nature of this piece is difficult to hear, since
the
men
and women
sing the same notes in the same register.
The Ain ed Diab
recordings
were made
during
two excessively hot sultry days, and the tent in which they took place,
although open to
the
sea on
one side,
was low-ceiling and made of a heavy, soft material, so that the air inside was
stifling. Both spectators and performers
were crowded tightly together among divans and piles of cushions, and there
was
very little
room
for
the strenuous dancing which took place.
Blocking the entrance was an unmoving mob trying to peer into the tent . Perhaps because of
all t his, my
general impression of the sessions was that everything would have been better if
only there
had
been a little air
to
breathe. The music itself seem to
have a
peculiarly
muffled and lifeless sonority, an impression I cannot guarantee, of course, to
be entirely objective."
Note:
It was, of course, the current."
Bowles, Paul F. "Ain ed Diab." in Folk, Popular, and Art Music of Morocco.
The Paul Bowles Moroccan Music Collection. Washington,
DC: American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, 1959-1962.
The Paul Bowles Moroccan Music Collection (AFC 1960/001), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Courtesy of the Paul Bowles Estate and Irene Hermann / Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies
