Arabic

Today's Arabic classical music is the development of what was once just called "music" in the Ottoman Empire. Until fairly recently, the traditions from Egypt and the Levant, Turkey, and even Iran were considered one contiguous tradition with regional variants. But about a hundred years ago, there was a formal theoretical separation, and the already-divergent traditions have since grown even more distinct. Characteristic forms such as muwashshah — in both the Aleppo wasla and the Andalusian nubah variants — are indigenous and unique; meanwhile classical orchestras also perform almost the entire Ottoman classical repertoire, but with a distinct intonation, orchestration, and style.