RIQ: Jordan musical instrument

The riq is a kind of tambourine that is used as a traditional musical instrument in Arabic music. It is a significant musical instrument in both folk music and classical music in all the Arabic-speaking countries. The musical instrument traditionally has a wooden frame, jingles, as well as a thin, translucent head that is manufactured of fish or goat skin. The musical instrument is between 20cm and 25 cm in diameter. The musical instrument descended from the daf, and like the tar, the musical instrument attained its name in the 19th century so that it could be distinguished.

The musical instrument is performed in takht ensembles or shalghi ensembles, where it has a predominantly clear cut function, going yonder the simple rhythmic requests of the daf, tar, or mazhar. In Sudan, where the instrument seems to have been introduced lately, the riq is also linked to worship, as in Upper Egypt.

The frame of the musical instrument can be protected on both the inner and outer sides with the use of an inlay such as mother-of-pearl, ivory or ornamental wood, such as apricot or lemon. The musical instrument has 10 pairs of small cymbals that are about 6 cm in diameter astride in five pairs of slits. The skin of a fish or the skin of a young goat is fastened on and tautened over the frame of the musical instrument that is about 6 cm deep.

Conventionally, frame drums have been used to accompany the voices of singers, who manipulate the musical instruments themselves; but the player of this musical instrument, riq, like that of the doira of Uzbekistan, performs on the musical instrument without singing. While the daff and the mazhar are relatively held still, at chest or face height, with the player of the musical instrument seated, the riq, because of the use of dissimilar tone-colors, may be pugnaciously shaken above the head, then approximately lowered to the knee of the player, and performed vertically and also horizontally. The player of the musical instrument surrogates between striking the membrane of the instrument and shaking the jingles of the musical instrument, and his requisite for freedom of movement demands that he stand up while playing the instrument. Scholars of the musical instrument are expected to master the technical glitches imposed by the tone quality of the membrane and the jingles, both distinctly and in permutation; apart from emerging a virtuoso method they also need to learn the countless rhythmic cycles and the modus operandi of adjusting them through creative development.