While there is no single "Middle Eastern" music, there are certain bonds linking various traditions together throughout the region: the area's musical traditions are tremendously old (or at least derived in part from ancient sources), fantastically diverse and extremely sophisticated. Whether it is the hypnotic Sufi rituals of Turkey's whirling dervishes, the boisterous table songs of Georgia, medieval Persian poetry set to music or the Arab classical songs that have found deepest flower in Egypt, Middle Eastern music is some of the world's most compelling, rich and endlessly fascinating.
Certainly, there are a few threads of continuity that are weaved throughout this region's musical traditions, despite the varied streams of culture, history, language, geography, religion, politics and all the other elements that feed into the making of an individual musical style. (The region's history as one of the world's great geographical crossroads means that on the one hand a dazzling array of ethnic traditions have flourished historically, and on the other that encounters between different peoples have resulted in the creation of all kinds of intriguing hybrid musical styles.)
One commonality is a deep love of poetry, and the intrinsic connection between words and music that is found in music from Egyptian singer Umm Kalthoum's enormous (and tremendously influential) output to brand-new compositions written by Persian superstar classical musicians like Hossein Alizadeh. Another is that while modalities and scale systems unquestionably differ between various countries and musical styles, one will hear certain similarities between, for example, the maqamat theory of Arab classical music and the Turkish makam system-and indeed they are linked, both aesthetically and historically.
In the 20th and 21st century, the abundant transmission of music (whether classical, pop, folk or religious music) through easily available recordings and widely heard broadcasts has meant that certain styles have become very popular or prominent throughout the region and amongst ethnic diasporas abroad: two cases in point is music from Turkey's Anatolia region, which was for decades heavily promoted by the country's national radio and television system, and the wildly popular sounds of the Egyptian recording industry-both "pop" and classical music-which are beloved throughout the Arab-speaking world and well beyond. -Anastasia Tsioulcas
