Enjoy with us the Melodious Nubian Music

The same way as the Nubian language is the root language of the Nubian Nile Valley - amd possibly the first structured language in the World, from which other languages sprang and evolved, Nubian music as well can be considered the root - or the essence - of musical development.

They listened to the sounds of the flow of the Nile river, the tunes of the wind whistling through the palm fronds, the weeds and the foilage, or whooping past the rocks of the mountains. They got pleased and excited by the singing of the many types of birds chirping around them. They also enjoyed the rhythms emitted by the waves hitting the rocks, the galopping of wild animals, the sound of the bird's wings flapping in the wind. They were among the first humans - the "Homo Erectus", also called "Homo habilis", living since very ancient times - at least since 700'000 years, but possibly since up to 2 million years - in the fertile and hospitable Nile valley, in the lands that today are called Nubia, stretching from Aswan (Southern Egypt) in the North to close to Omdurman (North Sudan) in the South. They were the ones who developed the first human settlements as early as 100'000 years ago, developed the first human civilization. These early inhabitants of Nubia also made the first astronomical observations, and developed the first mechanical devices. We can easily imagine that they also imitated the sounds of nature, not only to hunt or to communicate, but also to express their joy and their sadness, and further developed them to songs and music, tens of thousands of years ago. Since earliest times they also clapped their hands or beat a stick onto wood or stone, creating various rhythms and the first drums, to communicate over larger distances, and also to accompany their songs. At least 7000 years ago they used the "rock gong", of which many were discovered in Upper Nubia. Listening to the sounds the wind emitted from a broken weed pipe, it was easy for them to invent the whistle and the flute. And while the wind vibrated the strings they made for hunting and fishing, they soon used them to create the first string instruments. Of course, there aren't any painted or written records or artifacts they left us; that all happened in prehistory.

In later times, since about 70'000 B.C. - as the inhabitants of the Nubian Nile Valley had created sharper and more efficient tools known as "Nubian Complex" - they certainly developed more sophisticated musical instruments, using a variety of additional materials such as bones, ivory, animal skins, wood and others - further varying the rhythms and the sounds. Beside using the sounds in hunting and for communication, music also became a form of entertainment and communal expression, and we can assume that since very old times the first Nubians sat together in the evenings singing and accompanying it with music and percussion, like the famous Nubian artistic gatherings are persisting up to this day, only adding some modern music instruments.

Nubian music is based on the pentatone scale, representing the five essential tones and notes, that underly African, Chinese and Indian music and many of the music types played in the World. For the last few hundred years, the Nubian melodies have been and are still composed in the creative pentatonic scale - what Nubian music is famous for, especially for songs in the Fadikki (Nobiin) Nubian language. Influenced by Oriental music and Arabic maqams, some precursors of the contemporary Nubian songs - who sang Nubian melodies with Arabic lyrics, and some musicians like Hamza Ala' Eldin, Ali Koban and Ahmed Mounib, the internationally renowned singer Mohammed Mounir, the Black Theama music group as well as the Jaafari Arabic speaking community and Kenzi (Matokki) Nubian singers sometimes use the "western" heptatone scale in their songs. As per the words of the famous musician Hamdy Dakrony, even if you want to learn Sudanese music, Oriental popular music, or the music of the Arabian Gulf, you should first learn Nubian music, and the rest will be very easy.

Nubians take their love for music with them wherever they go; during the long boat, train or bus rides through arid landscapes the common songs provide a pleasant entertainment. As most voyages were done by ship, the captain of the vessel - whether it is a Nile felucca, a motor boat or a passenger ship - used since old times to entertain his passengers playing music and singing well-known songs, and their lyrics were than enriched by new rhymes in the places where they were ankering their vessels. Throughout history, Nubians used to sing when they visited another village, announcing to their hosts that they came with peaceful and good intentions.