I chose Quds al Atika or قدس أل عتيقة by Fairuz as an example of middle eastern music. This song is sung in Arabic, but when it is translated, is talking about war. Fairuz, a female middle eastern singer, is describing her experience of the constant struggles of living near the disputed holy land during war time. She remembers what Jerusalem, an important religious city, looked like before it was occupied by the Israeli army, and then she sings about what it would’ve been like to see the old “قدس” or Israel decimated in the heat of the moment.

The song features a single female soloist. It features a wide range of instruments, 2 chordophones, an idiophone  and an aerophone. The first chordophone sounds like an electric version of a church organ, the other sounding like a violin. The idiophone is just a simple cymbal-like instrumeny. The aerophone resembles a harmonica. The tempo remains the same, put the pitches change and become softer and sad like towards the end.

The link to the video: https://youtu.be/zeotb4UrmAo