home

Techniques Used:

Rhythm: Middle Eastern music often contains overlapping rhythms. When played in a group or all together each instrument goes at a different beat and the dancers (which are used in almost all musical events) are expected to combine all the rhythms into one as they dance.

Improvisation: Middle Eastern musicians frequently perform taqasim - the art of improvisation. Taqasim may be woven into existing compositions, like a guitar riff in an American song, or played as an art in themselves, as in the Arabic classical tradition. The musician begins with a well-known melody, a maqam, or a simple collection of notes, then embellishes it in a free-flowing manner.

Ornamentation: Often, Middle Eastern music involves ornamentation. In the same way a dancer’s delicate hand gestures ornament her dance, a musician’s style may embrace and color individual notes. Ornamentation includes the use of grace note, trills, runs, arpeggios, "bending" a note, and other techniques. To draw a parallel, imagine singing a simple child’s melody like "Three Blind Mice." Then imagine how a jazz musician might play with the song, stretching out certain notes or adding syncopation. You still recognize the basic melody, but the musician has put his or her stamp on it. Both improvisation and ornamentation allow musicians to express their individual style within traditional forms.

Call and Response: Middle Eastern music frequently employs a call-and-response form in which a lead instrument plays a phrase and another instrument responds, creating a musical conversation. The lead and responding instrument can change throughout the composition.

Instruments Used:

Strings: The most popular of the string instruments is the oud, a pear-shaped lute that traditionally had four strings, although the current one's have up to six courses consisting of one to two strings each. A commonly known variation of the oud if the Saz, a Turkish long-necked lute. Most commonly referred to as the baglama, the saz has seven strings divided into courses of two, two and three. It can be tuned in many ways and it comes in many different sizes as well. Another well-known string instrument is the quanoun. It has about twenty-six triple string courses, plucked with a piece of horn. This instrument had the freedom to alter the pitch of individual courses from a quarter to a whole step by adjusting metal levers.

[|**Oud Solo**] Oud

[|**Loga Ramin Torkian “Saz Solo”**] [|**Abdullah Chhadeh Solo qanun Rast**] Saz Quanoun

Percussion: The complex rhythm that this type of music requires is played on and instrument called the riq, a type of tambourine with finger cymbals which add a higher rhythmic line to the rhythm laid down by the sticks, clappers, and other drums. The riq traditionally has a wooden frame, jingles, and a thin translucent, head made of fish or goatskin. Another type of popular drum is the doumbek. The doumbek is a drum made of ceramic clay, with a goatskin head glued to the body. With a thin drumhead it produces a distinctively crisp sound, and a chalice cavity that helps to obtain a bass resonance. Another popular type of zills, or finger cymbals. Zills are round and slightly bell shaped. They are made of brass and come in a variety of shapes and sizes, each in a different tone.

Riq [|**Riq Solo David Kuckhermann**] [|**Pearl Darbuka – Doumbek Solo**] Doumbek Zills

Winds: One of the main wind instruments of the Middle East is the Moroccan oboe, which has a double-reed mouthpiece that echoes sound down it's long narrow body. Also called a rhaita it has a sharp piercing sound and the entire range is only one octave. Another popular wind instrument which is very similar to the rhaita is the zurna which is also a double reed and has reed pipes made of bamboo. Much like the flute we have here, the kaval is a three-part flute that is blown in one end. The kaval is fully open at both ends and has eight playing holes, seven of which are used as notes and the last one as a thumb hole. Traditionally they are made of water buffalo horns.