Traditional music and dance
If the reputation of the Moroccan North - land of Arab-Andalusian traditions - is well established, the South of the country is far from being ashamed. Here, as in the rest of the country, theaïta resounds, a specifically Moroccan rural song that took shape in the plains of Chaouia, Abda and Doukkala before traveling throughout the country. As its name indicates, theaïta was first a "cry" or "a call" that was filled with poetic improvisations over the generations. Appearing at the end of the 19th century, theaïta seems to have crossed the centuries intact and is still articulated around strident cries based on the repetitive sound of the tambourines. Although distinct, this art form is sometimes associated with or encompassed by the music known as châabi .
In southern Morocco, and particularly in the Anti-Atlas, we are in Berber land. Unique and enchanting, the music of this nomadic (or semi-nomadic) people occupies a prominent place in the Moroccan musical landscape and cultural heritage. Remarkable by its repetitive songs and its intense rhythms, inviting as much to trance as to dance, Berber music is a treasure for the eye and the ear. Its most common expression is undoubtedly the dakka, a sacred music for celebrating happy events, with its bubbling polyrhythm and bewitching songs, very popular at weddings. Native to the Souss region, it gradually migrated to Marrakech where it found its full bloom and its most famous form the dakka marriakchia.
Another emblem of the Berber culture: theahidou. Designating as much the music as the dance accompanying it, this great group celebration invites men and women to sway, elbow to elbow, back and forth, in fluid and undulating rounds, accompanied by choral and repetitive songs based on the rhythms of the bendir, a large tambourine with a wooden frame and stretched goat skin. The star of the field is the group Izenzaren. Better known to French-speaking listeners, the French-Moroccan artist Hindi Zahra sometimes slips it into her creations.
The other great traditional choreography of the Berbers is theahouache . As grueling as it is graceful, this female dance is performed tightly together, fiercely encircling the musicians and undulating her pelvis to a rhythm that builds to a crescendo under the impetus of the bendir.
In the High Atlas, the taskiwin is also danced, a martial practice whose name comes from the richly decorated horn carried by the dancers: the tiskt. Encouraging social cohesion and harmony, taskiwin is danced in rows or circles, shaking the shoulders to the rhythm of tambourines and flutes.
All the richness and beauty of Berber culture are revealed at the Timitar Festival in Agadir, an event intended as a meeting place for world music and Amazigh.
Traveling to southern Morocco is a good opportunity to embrace in depth the beauty of the music of the Gnaouas. These descendants of black African slaves have preciously preserved their melodic heritage and still practice, generation after generation, these hypnotic and heady melodic patterns calling for trance. An aesthetic that one would think was imagined to marry the spectacular lunar landscapes of southern Morocco.
Gnaoui music regularly crosses Moroccan borders to infuse itself with genres from all over the world - jazz, blues, reggae or electro. Constantly renewed, this traditional aesthetic is paradoxically one of the most dynamic and modern of the country. Its interpreters have the status of great masters, called " mâalems ". Mahmoud Guinia (1951-2015) was considered the king of the genre all his life, and many musicians admired him (including Pharoah Sanders with whom he collaborated). Less known but no less fabulous, mâalem Abdelkader Amlil is a virtuoso of the guembri (long lute with two or three strings) who has performed several times in France while Abdellah Boulkhair El Gourd has imposed himself as one of the most famous representatives of the Gnaouie culture. Today, the music of the Gnaouas is in the capable hands of the young guard represented by Mehdi Nassouli, a gifted musician and specialist of the guembri as well as Asmaa Hamzaoui, also a virtuoso of the instrument and shaking up the male prerogative long in the field.
In France, the Orchestre National de Barbès has been one of its most fervent ambassadors and has mixed it with jazz, funk or reggae under the impulse of its founder, Aziz Sahmaoui, also at the origin of the well-named University of Gnawa with which he explores the trance rhythms of the Maghreb.
For a first overview of the genre, the compilation Gnawa Music Of Marrakesh, released in 2022 on the Berlin label Zehra, is an ideal entry point to the genre.
Originally based in Essaouira, the most important event of this culture is the Gnawa Music Festival. Usually held in June, it is a good opportunity to see the best Gnaoua artists, its stars as well as its young talents through numerous concerts (some of them free).
Otherwise, at the entrance of Merzouga, there is Dar Gnaoua "the house of the Gnaoua", where some photos and instruments are exposed and where you can attend a real performance.
Popular music
For many musicologists (and musicians), the melhoun is the oldest - and possibly the source - of Moroccan popular music. Dating back to the twelfth century, this originally purely vocal poetry - whose learning is moreover totally in keeping with the oral tradition - has been enriched with time by the oûd or the guembri before welcoming percussions. Very refined in its elaboration, it remains accessible and popular and is addressed to all the population without distinction. Its dimension exceeds even the simple artistic expression, as Said El Meftahi, one of the greatest contemporary authors-composers of the melhoun, told the site ResMusica in 2004: " Our art of the Melhoun is not only poetry expressing feelings, it is the memory which built thehistory of Morocco,it is him who educated its children, who called the Moroccans to beattached to all that is beautiful. It is also the onlyartform- I say the only one - that has played to perfection the role oflink between the past and the present of our people, whether in terms ofspace or different cultures; it remains capable of building the Morocco oftoday, thanks to the true wisdoms transmitted by its poems. "
A living memory of Morocco and a pillar of heritage whose realistic sung poems would have given birth to the châabi, the Moroccan popular music par excellence. Algerian by birth, she crossed all North Africa to grow in a different way in each country. In Morocco, châabi combines Arabo-Andalusian influences, lively rhythms of Gnaoui and Berber origin, and light texts that have made it an essential party and dance music (which is why it is often enjoyed at weddings). There is a tendency in Morocco to divide the genre into two families: châabi-malhoun, which is formally close to its Algerian cousin, and modern chaâbi, which is more "pop" and has included Moroccan variety since the 1980s.
It is impossible to fully understand châabi without listening to its great interpreters. First, Houcine Slaoui, the father of Moroccan châabi music, then Abdelaziz Stati, the star or Najat Aatabou, the "Lioness of the Atlas".
Untiring, the châabi evolves, transforms, modernizes, each generation appropriating it to offer a new reading. It lives with its time and today, it is enriched with electronic rhythms, pop or autotune, as can be heard in the songs of Zina Daoudia, the current queen of this modern Moroccan chaâbi.
Learned music
Classical music in Morocco is above all Arabo-Andalusian music. It is the great learned music of the country - although its history anchors it essentially in the Moroccan North (Fez, Tangier, Tetouan). The reason for this is simple, since it is in the North that Arabo-Andalusian music appeared in the 12th century when Muslims driven out of Granada came to settle in Tetouan. Passing on their art to their hosts, they gave birth here and thus to this very codified music, modal, whose rhythms and modes are rigorously established within the noubas, these suites of instrumental and vocal pieces.
A good entry point to discover this music is the album soberly entitled Arabo-Andalusian Music of Marocco by the great specialist Amina Alaoui. Another outstanding performer of Arabo-Andalusian music, Bahaâ Ronda, is a member of the Shabab al-Andalus orchestra (arguably the best, along with the Arabo-Andalusian orchestra of Fez) and was a student of the revered Ahmed Piro.
Morocco is also the birthplace of some great oûd soloists, always a pleasure to see in concert, including Driss El Maloumi (a native of Agadir) who has collaborated extensively with Jordi Savall, Azzouz El Houri, who has been very present on the Belgian airwaves, and Saïd Chraïbi, who has accompanied some of the greatest voices of the Arab world and married the Arab-Andalusian heritage with Near Eastern, Turkish-Balkan, Flamenco, and even Indian sounds.
Less common, Western classical music is not completely absent from Morocco. The most prestigious organ is by far the Philharmonic Orchestra of Morocco (OPM). Founded by Farid Bensaïd in 1996 (who officiates as concertmaster) with the aim of providing Morocco with a quality symphonic ensemble, after three decades of activity the ensemble can congratulate itself on its hard work, the OPM has established itself as a major player in the Moroccan musical landscape.
In the contemporary field, Morocco has a great name, Ahmed Essyad, pioneer of the mixture of serial music and Berber tradition, who is remembered here for his opera Heloise and Abelard at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2001. He is also the author of Mririda, an opera inspired by the Berber poetess from the Moroccan High Atlas, rich in his knowledge of Amazigh music from Morocco.
Current music
Is there any place on earth where a hip-hop scene has not developed? The question remains open and while waiting to find an answer, let's take a look at the abundant Moroccan scene. In the beginning, there was H-Kayne, a pioneer group of the 1990s, which has become such a reference in the Moroccan cultural field that it is one of the few (if not the only) hip-hop collectives to be awarded the National Award Medal. Icons that alongside respected names like Casa Crew and Bigg initiated the first wave of Moroccan hip-hop.
Since then, the genre has not stopped counting new stars: Shayfeen, Toto, Madd, 7Liwa, LBenj or Nessyou... All of them have imposed a unique style, free from the usual patterns, and have amassed millions of views on YouTube. They are real phenomena that the media all over the world are looking for. The genre is also popular because it is a privileged vehicle for youth's questions, openly addressing drugs, alcohol, sex...
A scene in full bloom to be seen at Teatro, one of the trendiest addresses in Marrakech.
