Playing to a different tune

The Yemen Music House provides Yemenis with an outlet for musical expression

If you talk to the average student at a Yemeni university, you’ll find that they study a predictable variety of subjects: English, engineering, medicine, business administration or accounting. This list is understandable; most students attend university hoping to learn skills that will lead to gainful employment, which is understandably a priority given the economic difficulties of life in Yemen. But in the midst of such practicality, it’s clear that something gets lost. The study and value of the arts is on the decline in Yemen, and has been for some time. In the words of the American poet Amy Lowell, “Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.” The Yemen Music House, one of very few places in Yemen to provide musical instruction, seeks to provide Yemenis with that outlet for artistic expression.

Unfortunately, music is seen as an impractical use of time by many in Yemen. The profession carries a stigma as well, as musicians are often looked down upon in Yemeni society, according to the founder of the Music House, Fuad Ali al-Shargabi. But he fondly recalls his childhood in Taiz, when that wasn’t the case. “Music use to be a regular subject, like math or science,” he said. Fuad studied music in primary and secondary school. At the time, the study of music was encouraged in the school system and in homes. However, this began to change in the nineties. “The rise of fundamentalists in the nineties changed many things in Yemen,” he said. The mujahideen returning from war against the Soviet Union comprised a new, influential sector of Yemeni society. Due to this influence, “Investment in art and music declined.” The government eventually removed music from standard school curricula. Today, it is rare to find young people involved in musical education of any kind.

But efforts to tamp down artistic expression can’t succeed, in Fuad’s view, because music is a fundamental part of Yemeni life. “All Yemenis sing and love music. They sing when they are working on their farms. Mothers sing to their babies. Men sing while riding camels.”

Now, Bait al-Musiqa is, in Fuad’s words, “going against the flow…The main goal isn’t teaching, that is just 20 percent. And it’s not the quantity of the students either. It’s the quality. It’s about giving music lovers a channel through which they can express themselves.”

Before founding the Music House three years ago, Fuad’s love of music took him on an unusual course. After studying in the Law Department of Sana’a University, he traveled to Syria for four years, studying music composition at the Supreme Music Institute in Damascus. Upon his return, he worked as a composer and distributor of children’s music for Yemeni television. He also composed songs promoting a variety of progressive causes, including environmental preservation, family planning, literacy, and qat awareness, among others.

In 2004 he had the idea to open an establishment for teaching music, and for documenting the folk music of Yemen. By 2007, the appropriate paperwork had been completed and the Music House was born. In the three years since its inception, the House has taught over 430 students. Roughly 90 percent have been Yemeni, and most are women. Students have ranged in age from six to sixty. While the majority are teenagers, there have also been doctors and professors.

There are four teachers at the moment: two teach piano, one teaches oud, and another teaches guitar. Kunal, the guitar instructor, is a Yemeni-born Indian. The seven students in his class which I visited were aged eight to twenty. They had been studying guitar anywhere from one day to one year. Kunal led the group in practicing chords. The language of instruction was English. I asked him about his students’ motivation. “Often younger students are pushed by their parents, who want to give them something to do besides hang out on the streets.” Fuad echoed that sentiment. “We want to give idle youth something to do, because idleness can take youth down the wrong track, to qat or drugs.”

“I’ve also had older students who play behind the backs of their parents,” Kunal continued. Saher, 16, insisted on playing guitar, over the objections of her parents, who thought it would be a waste of time. She wanted to play because it was “fun and unique.”

Beyond Teaching
The work of the music house goes far beyond teaching. One of their stated aims is to collect and document folk music. Different regions of Yemen, and different sectors of society, have their own unique musical heritage which Fuad hopes to preserve. This includes music of the Bedouin, of farmers, fishermen, shepherds, of weddings, etc. The House has a state-of-the-art studio for recording this music, and they also go out  to villages to record there. Thousands of songs have been successfully recorded. They are in the process of organizing these songs geographically and by musician, which will then be turned into a pair of anthologies, the first of their kind. The House has published books for musical instruction in Arabic, also the first of their kind. Fuad hopes that these will be distributed in schools. And with the assistance of UNICEF, they have published and distributed books of nursery rhymes.

Fuad is a pioneer in Yemen’s art scene. While sitting in his studio, we listened to a song recorded at the Music House. The lyrics, sung by a Yemeni boy, were, “Music is the one language understood by all mankind.” I asked Fuad if he thought that music would regain its prominence in Yemeni society. “We’re trying our best. If there was no hope, we wouldn’t work.”