Two main musical styles are characteristic of the Gulf: pearl divers’ songs and traditional urban music.
Pearl divers’ songs are known locally as aghā nī al-ghaws ‘diving songs
’ or nahma ‘animal sound
’ or ‘voice of the whale
’. The first transcriptions were published in 1960, and the first commercial recordings were issued in 1968. The nahma includes several forms that differ little from country to country.
The repertoire can be divided into two categories. First, there are songs that...