Sound Portrait of Rabat’s Old City

A scene from Rabat in 2008. (Photo: Sarah Kate Kramer)

Our friend Sarah Dohrmann sent us this recording of Rabat’s old medina in May 2011.

It Will Happen

The call to prayer in Morocco seems inevitable, like the sun rising.

In this clip one of us is with a group of people in the old city of Fes watching the clock and waiting for the call for the sunset prayer.  Someone says, ” I think it’ll happen,” and then one by one each mosque in the area begins the call to prayer, each one  coming in a little behind the other so that it seems as if they are singing in a round.

Storks at the Chellah

The elegant profiles of storks dominate Moroccan skies. Like us, they seem to like the old medinas! In Fes they swoop over rooftops, in Marrakesh their nests perch like hats on the old fortification walls, and in Rabat, they’ve officially taken over the Chellah, a site with remants of both Roman and Islamic civilizations. In spring, they emit mating calls, which are noisy but cool. Here’s the sound:

Rote learning: a chant

Memorization of the Qur’an is an important and traditional way of learning the holy text, practicing Islam, and an act that is greatly celebrated upon completion. For better or worse, in Morocco, the technique of memorization has been extended into secular education, and students in the majority of Moroccan classrooms study a variety of subjects using the a rote memorization technique. Below you can hear elementary students singing as they learn.

Bus Station in Ouazzarzate

The sounds of a bus station: chaos, people traveling, musicians performing, large vehicles moving.

The second hand market at Bab Boujeloud

Whistling in the Mountains

The Rif mountains are sparsely populated, but the inhabitants cover great distances in order to graze sheep and work the land. This is a recording of people whistling to each other in greeting across a valley.