Damascus-Sana
Folk singing is an important part of the oral record that documents the social life of each of the societies, conveying to us its customs and traditions, such as the Damascene folk song, which dealt with many customs and traditions of Damascus.
Music researcher Ahmed Popes shows that the folkloric songs expressed many aspects of Damascene social life and the traditions in it that were linked to each other but varied according to purposes and occasions and were distinguished by the simplicity of melody and words, which made it easy for people to memorize them, especially women who used to perform them in the evening, picnics and events.
Pops states that all the Damascene songs came in the simple form of the taqawqa and on a single musical maqam, as they consist of a doctrine that is repeated between a number of coppells, and most of the time singing is accompanied by playing the lute and beating the darbaka.
The songs of the occasions are manifested in engagement and marriage and their special traditions that are accompanied according to their stages by a group of songs. When a girl is engaged, the women sing to her “coming from her father’s house,” which Pops indicates that she has an Iraqi version that differs in its beginning from its Damascene counterpart, which is quick and joyful while the Iraqi melody is slow on it. Melancholy streak.
Among the traditions of Damascene courtship, as Pops explains, whenever a young man visits his fiancée's house, he must bring with him a gift for her, and this is what the song “Salihiya pbuh” expresses. As for the wedding, he also has his own songs, including “The name of God is the name of God, Zina.”
From the Damascenes' love of picnics, special songs appeared that inspired their trips in all stages. During the preparation of food and preparing for lunch, they used to chant the song "Good Fried Halpetnjan" and in the evening the hikers devote themselves to their entertainment, and the singing must have a share of their sessions, and it may be in the form of a game such as the song "Watmakhtar Ya Boo Jubba" .
As for the songs of the women's sessions, it was the habit of the Damascenes to recite weekly Samar sessions at one of them’s house, usually at afternoon time, in which singing would be a major subject accompanied by the oud and the darbaka. Some songs were presented in the form of connections, starting with the song “Yalla but my love, we stay up in Riad Al-Yasmine” and then the songs follow Including “On Daqakat Al-Bunni”, “Between Al-Jananayn” and “Yakdama Dusty”.
One of the funniest Damascene folk songs, as Pops says, is "Tae A Al Alfi", which is in the form of a debate between Al-Bayda and Al-Samara, pointing out that there are other songs that have no connection to a specific occasion and can be presented on all occasions and songs created by the popular memory for a specific purpose and then turned into other purposes, including a song "O Bo eyes almond."
But the Damascene heritage also opened up to all the cities of the Levant, taking from it and giving it as in the songs “Bilqilak Shak Al-Diamond”, “Oh Asmar,” and “Your pomegranate, oh my beloved,” where she sang almost the same words in Syria, Palestine and Lebanon.
Rasha Mahfoud
