The ''mijwiz'' ( ar, , DIN: ''miǧwiz'') is a traditional Middle East

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

popular in

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. Its name in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

means "dual," because of its consisting of two, short, bamboo pipes with reed tips put together, making the mijwiz a double-pipe,

single-reed A single-reed instrument is a woodwind instrument that uses only one reed to produce sound. The very earliest single-reed instruments were documented in ancient Egypt, as well as the Middle East, Greece, and the Roman Empire. The earliest types o ...

woodwind instrument Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and Reed ...

Background

The mijwiz consists of two pipes of equal length; each pipe has around five or six small holes for fingering. It requires a special playing technique known as "

circular breathing Circular breathing is a technique used by players of some wind instruments to produce a continuous tone without interruption. It is accomplished by breathing through the nose while simultaneously pushing air through the mouth using air stored ...

," which is tricky but produces a continuous tone, without pausing to take a breath. The mijwiz is played in the Levant as an accompaniment to either

belly dancing Belly dance (Egyptian Arabic: رقص بلدي, translated: Dance of the Country/Folk Dance, romanized: Raks/Raas Baladi) is a dance that originates in Egypt. It features movements of the hips and torso. It has evolved to take many different f ...

dabke ''Dabke'' ( ar, دبكة also spelled ''dabka'', ''dubki'', ''dabkeh'', plural ''dabkaat'') is a Levantine Arab folk dance. Dabke combines circle dance and line dancing and is widely performed at weddings and other joyous occasions. The line f ...

, the folkloric

line dance A line dance is a choreographed dance in which a group of people dance along to a repeating sequence of steps while arranged in one or more lines or rows. These lines usually face all in the same direction, or less commonly face each other.Knight, ...

of the Levant. The mijwiz is most popular today in the Levant (Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Many popular folk songs either include the mijwiz on recordings, or include the instrument's name in the song's lyrics. One example is the famous Lebanese

song "Jeeb el Mijwiz ya Abboud" ( ar, ) by the singer

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

. The mijwiz is also related to the

Arghul The ''arghul'' ( ar, أرغول or يرغول), also spelled ''argul'', ''arghoul'', ''arghool'', ''argol'', or ''yarghul'', is a musical instrument in the reed family. It has been used since ancient Egyptian times and is still used as a trad ...

(or yarghoul) which consists of one short pipe with five to six holes and a longer pipe joined to it just like the mijwiz and produces a very similar sound to it. The mijwiz like the argoul is the ancestor of the Scottish

bagpipe Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, Nor ...

s, however in this case for the mijwiz, the cheeks of the player with their circular breathing act as the bags that contain the air like a human bag pipe.

References

Single-reed instruments Arabic musical instruments {{SingleReed-instrument-stub

Background

See also

References