Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah holds lecture on traditional music in Gulf

Dar Al-Athar Al-Islamiyyah (DAI) held a lecture Monday evening, part of its 19th Cultural Season, about traditional music in the Gulf region and its influence on culture. Lebanese researcher Paul Matar, who gave the lecture, said the traditional and popular music in the Arabian Gulf region was always spontaneous, and usually linked to special occasions either daily or seasonally. The music in the Arabian Gulf, he added, "are passed orally from generations to others, reflecting the spirit of the society. They are made of the people who are the audience too." Matar spent around 18 months in the Gulf region in late 1970s in order to learn the dialect of the people of the area. During that time he did interviews and took photos to document different kinds of music that people used to sing whether sea or desert. He said in his book, the Gulf of songs, that the region was an integrated junction of culture and economy, which combined Arabic, Indian and African traditions "to form a special blend."