Soundtrack to the past

Vernacular poetry and old Emirati songs have much to teach the present generation about age-old customs and a more authentic way of life, an Emirati writer and researcher says

The late Emirati singer Jaber Jasim is the central figure in a book written by Moayad Al Shaibani. Courtesy Moayad Al Shaibani

If you want to experience the “old heart” of the UAE and rediscover what life was like in the past, then a “musical” session on the influence of folk poetry on Emirati songs will take you back in time.

“Old Emirati songs were tied to the place and the time they were sung,” says Moayad Al Shaibani, a researcher and writer from Abu Dhabi, who has studied Emirati songs sung and composed over the past five decades.

“Unlike other Arab songs, the old Emirati songs were actually poems upon which music was added. There is a particular tone and rhythm you don’t find in other types of songs,” says Al Shaibani.

Making a debut at the book fair, is Al Shaibani’s comprehensive book entitled Jaber Jasim: A Journey into Word and Melody, Names and Texts and Artistic Paths: A Study of Emirati Songs in More than 50 years. Published by the National Library, it is 400 pages long. The book contains lines from some old songs to encourage people to learn more about this interesting musical tradition.

Al Shaibani was good friends with his subject, the singer Jaber Jasim, who died five years ago, from whom he learnt firsthand about the world of Emirati music and its songs.

“Unlike today’s Emirati music that has been westernised, older songs would take you back to the place, they would paint a picture and you would see, smell and imagine what exactly the song is about,” Al Shaibani says. “The songs had a purpose, born out of customs and social habits. They are part of our identity and help us to reconnect with our past.”

He cites the example of an Emirati poem written in 1895 about a pearl diver, who is standing on the side of the dhow, waiting for his family to come and bid him goodbye, which was turned into a song by Jasim in 1968.

“But they [the family] never came. He had to leave without saying goodbye. His pain and anguish hits a chord with whoever listens to it even though it was written over 70 years ago before music was composed to it,” he says. “Poems, especially folk poems, born out of a place and its people, are timeless and tied to culture and identity. Those don’t fade or become irrelevant.”

Local poems were immortalised when turned into songs, and according to Al Shaibani, local traditions, such as falconry, can be retraced via songs sung up to the 1980s.

“After that, lyrics were written for songs, not poems, removing the heritage and identity aspect, making them more generic, about love and courtship,” he says. “Before, art and music was for the country. Now it is for personal and commercial goals.”

“The new generation of Emiratis don’t know old Emirati songs and their origins. So I want to inspire them to sing them and love them like I do,” Al Shaibani says.

• Moayad Al Shaibani’s talk on the influence of folk poetry on Emirati songs is on Sunday at 6.30pm in the Majlis Al Mutanabbi. He will be joined by the Emirati composer Eid Al Faraj