CHAPTER 5
Bodies of Music, Instruments of Love
“As long as I am Cabdinaasir, I will play this oud.”
This chapter is about the making of musicians – particularly those able to sound love. Using my own lessons with renowned oud master Cabdinaasir Macallin Caydiid as a point of departure, it explores the socio-political and technical-aesthetic skills that one must learn to be a musician in a setting where music-making is a fraught undertaking.
On this page you will find some recordings of master Somali oud players, alongside images, recordings, and other resources that I gathered during my oud lessons
Page / 148-153
Sounding Love: A Brief History of Somali Oud-Playing
The father of Somali music
The story of Somali oud-playing begins with Cabdullaahi Qarshe, or the ‘father of Somali music’. Listen to programme about his life story, featuring Qarshe’s music, here.
Cumar Dhuule
Cumar Dhuule was one of the earliest Somali oud-masters. Here he performs a song currently still regularly performed at Hiddo Dhawr
Jiim Shiikh Muumin
Another Somali oud virtuoso, Jiim Shiikh Muumin, demonstrates his mastery in this performance of ‘Gacan Gacan’. He earned his nickname thanks to comparisons to Jimi Hendrix.
king of the oud
This video features a contemporary performance of one of the most famous songs by the ‘king of the oud,’ Xudeydi, ‘Uur Hooyo’ (Mother’s womb). In this recording London-based artist Aar Maanta performs, alongside Xudeydi, now in old age. Xudeydi died from COVID in 2020. An English language obituary is available here, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/apr/27/ahmed-ismail-hudeidi-obituary
Kooxda Halgan
When musicians were forced into exile after the 1988 bombing of Hargeysa, a group assembled into group known as ‘Kooxda Halgan’ (the band of the struggle) to advance the cause of the Somali National Movement (SNM). Cabdinaasir Macallin Caydiid and Sahra Halgan were among this groups members. In this recording of ‘Faqash way tegaysaa’ (the regime is being chased away), Cabdinaasir is playing the oud.
Page / 153-170
Notes and Sounds from my Oud Lessons with Cabdinaasir Macallin Caydiid
- Notes from one of my earliest oud lessons, in Cabdinaasir’s handwriting, showing the Somali names for different notes (from Italian) and how these map onto the oud (when the lowest string is tuned to a G; this string may also be tuned to an E). As a point of comparison, the middle diagram shows standard guitar tuning. The lower diagram shows the fingering for a C major (“do maggiore”) scale.
- In my earliest lessons we started by learning a series of major and minor pentatonic scales. These are generally practiced as ascending and descending arpeggios, as can be heard in the recordings
Among the songs Cabdinaasir taught me was this ‘heello,’ the immediate successor of the belwo, which still contains antiphonal/responsorial singing. Several other artists present in the room began singing along.
Another song Cabdinaasir taught me in our lessons, and which I later went on to perform at Hiddo Dhawr, with the young singer Cabdikariin Yare
One of the first songs Cabdinaasir taught me was Magool’s ‘Miday laabtu doonto’, which I regularly performed at Hiddo Dhawr. In this recording, Cabdinaasir demonstrates “xawaash” [spice], or ornamentation (figure 5.4 on p. 167 is based on this recording). It is unusual for two ouds to play together, but we often played like this during my lessons.
Cabdinaasir also taught me to play this song, which he composed in 1994 after the war, when he had decided to start making music again. In this video he performs with Abukor Buulo-Xubay, another musician who performs at Hiddo Dhawr.
Cabdinaasir Macallin Caydiid passed away in late December 2022. An obituary written for the BBC Somali Service is available here: https://www.bbc.com/somali/articles/czvnz7rndnzo
A Somali-language documentary about his life and music is available here: