Tunisia Way

Tunisia Music has earned a popularity among a wide audience base. Music of Tunisia is well known in the world for a particular kind of music known as Malouf. This genre of Tunisian music bears similarities to the types of music prevalent in other North African countries.
Malouf has evolved through generations and the contemporary form of this music has its own distinctive traits. However, the origin of this music can be traced back to Portugal and Spain.

Malouf

Malouf is played by small orchestras, consisting of violins, drums, sitars and flutes. Modern malouf has some elements of Berber music in the rhythms ,but is seen as a successor to the cultural heights reached by Muslim Andalusia. Malouf has been called "an emblem of (Tunisian) national identity" . Nevertheless, malouf can not compete commercially with popular music, much of it Egyptian, and it has only survived because of the efforts of the Tunisian government and a number of private individuals. Malouf is still performed in public, especially at weddings and cicumcision ceremonies, though recordings are relatively rare. The term malouf translates as familiar or customary.
Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger is an important figure of modern Tunisian music. He collected the rules and history of malouf, which filled six volumes, and set up the Rachidia . an important conservatory which is still in use.

Structure 

Malouf is based on qasidah, a kind of classical Arabic poetry, and comes in many forms, including the post-classical muwashshah, which abandons many of qasidah's rules, shgul, a very traditional form, and zajal, a modern genre with a unique format.The most important structural element of malouf, however, is the nuba, a two-part suite in a single maqam (an Arab mode organized by quarter-tones), which lasts about an hour. A nuba is a musical form introduced to North Africa with the migration of Muslim inhabitants of Spain in the 13 and 14th Century. It is divided to many parts :Isstifta7 Msader which are instrumental pieces Then come Attouq and the SilslaBtaihia: A set of poem composed on the Main mode of the Nuba (There are several Modes in Tunisian Music Thaiil raml Sikah tounssia IspahanIsbaaïn) on a heavy syncoped rhythm called BtaiHi. Then come al barawil, Al khfeiif Al Akhtam which close the Nuba. The rhythms grow fast from a component to anther of the Nuba. Each component of a Nouba has its specific rhythm which are the same in all the 13 Nouba known today. which introduce to the poems.The sung pieces begin with the According to legend, a distinct nuba once existed for every day, holiday and other event, though only thirteen remain. Partway through a nuba, an improvisational section was played in the maqam of the following day to ready the audience for the next performance.