A rainbow of cultures, dialects and music in al-Jazira region, north-eastern Syria
Qamishli – North-Press Agency
Reem Chamoun – Charbel Hanno
The north-eastern Syria region of al-Jazira is distinguished by its great cultural, social and artistic diversity, because of the multiplicity of ethnicities and components which co-exist there and are affected by each other. Music in the region has many colors, such as Kurdish, Syriac, Mardelli, Armenian, Arabic and others.
Marwan Shalami, the director of al-Ahlam Center for Music Orchestration told North-Press: "We are working on the art which existed in al-Jazira region, as it includes most of the musical colors in the surrounding areas, such as Iraq, Turkey and the Syrian interior, which in turn reflects a beautiful mosaic that expresses our region."
He added: "Recently, artists from outside Syria came to the region to perform in the Merdelli dialectic, one of the most famous dialects in al-Jazira region, as this work is not merely commercial, rather, it is influenced by the culture and musical colors of the region."
Aboud Fouad, a well-known artist for Mardelli and Syriac songs, talked about the cultural scene, which was considered to be affected by the state of instability, and that the crisis had a significant impact on the decline of the artistic and cultural scene.
Fouad indicated that al-Jazira region is characterized by harmony and wealth, and a cultural museum as he likes to call it, where everyone lives in one geographical spot, so all types of music are similar and close to each other.
Moreover, Fouad added that the Syriac music is very close to the Armenian, Kurdish and Mardelli music, and this is an inevitable result of being the people of one geographical spot, who have been influenced by different types of music they listen to, and co-exist with joys and sorrows, this created an elegant aesthetic situation for al-Jazira region in north-eastern Syrian.
According to Christ Michaelian, a musician at al-Ahlam Center for Music Orchestration, al-Jazira region is diverse in its components, and each of them has its own ancient culture, so it is natural that cultures and melodies are affected by each other, to create a diversity that we only find in this region.
He said: "Al-Ahlam Center has produced the song (Hail to Syria), in which several artists participated, singing in the languages of the region, sending a message to the world to learn about our culture and dialects.”