The impact of traditional music
The musical instruments and traditions of the Middle East have had a significant influence on Western music.
Examples of such instruments include:
- the oud, which originated in Persia, is thought to be the foundation for the guitar
- the violin is based on the rebab - an instrument that originated in the Middle East and North Africa in the 8th century
- the zurna contributed to the development of the Western trumpet and horn
The above instruments reached Europe by the 12th century and were adopted into both religious and secular music.
More recently, modern technology has enabled these world music traditions to become more commercially available through the Internet. Middle Eastern folk musicTraditional music from a particular country. still has a strong influence on Israeli pop musicMusic which has general appeal and is often linked to styles of the 1950s. Driven by a strong rhythmic element.. Musical features such as stepwise melodies, dumber rhythms played on conga drums and a tonicThe first degree of a scale and the central key of music. In Roman numerals this is I. to dominantThe fifth tone or degree of any of the major or minor scales. bassline are evident in Israel’s entry to Eurovision in 1978. They combined these traditional folk features with a big band accompaniment and brass stab chords.
Israel won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 and the instrumental melody has many similar features to folk dance music.
