The project ideas started while doing my field study for my Master thesis, in which I met many aged women from the Druze of Mount Lebanon, and discovered that these elders are the only surviving “Druze” who still know and memorize the traditional songs that used to be a part of the Druze daily life, especially in weddings and funeral.

The project goal is to preserve these songs and tunes for the generation to come, especially for musicologists and composers for further studies.

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Nadb (نَدْب)

In the traditions and terminology of funerals in the Lebanese regions, “Nadb” means the songs sung by a male or female mourner, and a group of attendees respond responsively without the participation of the family of the deceased. Its texts are from colloquial poetry known as Zajal.
Nadb is often accompanied by raising one’s voice by crying, but this can occur without crying.
These registrations were collected from fieldwork in the mount of Lebanon, after interviewing many female elders from different villages in the Shouf area, such as Baadaran, Khraybeh, Mesherfeh, Kfarnabragh, Jahliyeh, Baakleen, and others… between January 2022 and September 2023.
As requested by the singers, we are not displaying their names here. we just used symbolic names for the purpose of archiving.

البنية الايقاعية	البنية السلميّة المقامية	الاسم	العدد
2/4	سيكاه	ندب (المشرفه 1)	01
6/4	بيّاتي	ندب (المشرفه 2)	02
6/4	بيّاتي	ندب (المشرفه 3)	03
4/4	بيّاتي	ندب (المشرفه 4)	04
6/4	بيّاتي	ندب (المشرفه 5)	05
6/4	بيّاتي	ندب (المشرفه 6)	06
4/4	سيكاه	ندب (المشرفه 7)	07
6/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 1)	08
6/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 2)	09
4/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 3)	10
6/4	سيكاه + راست	ندب (إم رأفت 4)	11
6/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 5)	12
6/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 6)	13
6/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 7)	14
6/4	سيكاه	ندب (إم رأفت 8)	15
13/8	بيّاتي	ندب (شاديه 1)	16
4/4	سيكاه	ندب (شاديه 2)	17
4/4	سيكاه	ندب (شاديه 3)	18
4/4	سيكاه	ندب (شاديه 4)	19
4/4	نهاوند + كردي	ندب (نظيرة 1)	20
8/4	حجاز	ندب (نظيرة 2)	21
6/4	كردي	ندب (نظيرة 3)	22
8/4	حجاز	ندب (نظيرة 4)	23
6/4	بياتي	ندب (نظيرة 5)	24
6/4	نهاوند + كردي	ندب (نظيرة 6)	25
10/8	سيكاه	ندب (فاديا 1)	26

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Tanwih (تَنْويح)

The Tanwih, also called “fraqiyat”, are sentimental songs that describe the dead and praise him, and they are sung individually by relatives of the dead and their companions to fill the void when the mourners are silent, to rest, or to prepare new songs.
These registrations were collected from fieldwork in the mount of Lebanon, after interviewing many female elders from different villages in the Shouf area, such as Baadaran, Khraybeh, Mesherfeh, Kfarnabragh, Jahliyeh, Baakleen, and others… between January 2022 and September 2023.
As requested by the singers, we are not displaying their names here. we just used symbolic names for the purpose of archiving.

البنية السلميّة المقاميّة	الإسم	العدد
حجاز	تنويح (نظيرة 1)	01
سيكاه	تنويح (نظيرة 2)	02
حجاز	تنويح (نظيرة 3)	03
حجاز	تنويح (نظيرة 4)	04
حجاز	تنويح (نظيرة 5)	05
سيكاه	تنويح (فاديا 1)	06
حجاز + بيّاتي	تنويح (فاديا 2)	07
سيكاه	تنويح (فاديا 3)	08
سيكاه	تنويح (فاديا 4)	09
سيكاه	تنويح (فاديا 5)	10
سيكاه	تنويح (فاديا 6)	11
سيكاه	تنويح (فاديا 7)	12
سيكاه + راست	تنويح (إم رأفت 1)	13
راست	تنويح (إم رأفت 2)	14
حجاز	تنويح (إم رأفت 3)	15
بيّاتي	تنويح (شاديه 1)	16
سيكاه	تنويح (شاديه 2)	17
سيكاه	تنويح (شاديه 3)	18
سيكاه	تنويح (شاديه 4)	19