MUSIC & SONGS
As part of overall cultural heritage, music and song with their respective
practices and performances are essential to the symbolic construction of
history and social experience with reference to past and present.
Musical traditions – or "modern" styles that may yet become part of the
musical heritage – including folk, popular, classical and sacred music, are
also part of the expression of political and economic relations and mental
processes in daily life.
The Iraqi distinguished music can be heard in love songs, lullabies,
liturgical chant, epics, laments, protest songs and work songs among others.
It is closely linked to poetry, literature, language. Music, singing and
dance also serve as vehicles for meditation and trance, accompaniments to
healing practices or tools for communicating with ancestors.
The practice of music is ever accompanied as it were by a reinterpretation
of traditional musical values and science.
Music and song are not isolated practices: they are symbolic expressions of
shared cultural values, particularly in terms of aesthetics, beliefs and
creativity. They reshape culture and are shaped by it in turn. They
contribute to promoting the preservation of the traditional cultural
characteristics of a region or population, enabling every individual to
perceive and keep his cultural heritage alive.
To listen to Iraqi songs please visit
www.IraqiArt.com
