Middle+East

Cultural History of the Middle East -The Middle East was home to some of the earliest civilizations in the world -The civilizations in the Middle East include Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen -The Middle East is the birthplace of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam -Religion plays a large role. For example, religion in the Middle East determines the end of a work week: Fridays for the Muslim holy day, Saturdays for the Jewish Sabbath, and Sundays for the Christian day of rest -The Middle East has served as a crossroads for traders, travelers, and empire builders for thousands of years. -Ethnic groups in this region of the world include Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Jews, Kurds, Berbers, Armenians, Nubians, Azeris, and Greeks -The languages spoken in the Middle East are Semitic, Indo-European, and Turkic -A basic family unit includes the extended family usually

Music and Its Role in the Culture -maqam (maqamat plural) There are Arabic, Persian and Turkish maqamat as well as some local maqamat like those in Iraq and North Africa. Rarely includes harmony of chords due to the unpleasant sound created when the notes are meshed. This is because of the odd and tiny interval variations that only make specific note combinations work. Maqamat are not to be thought of as an 8 note scale of individual notes, but a collection of two or more jins (groups of 3, 4 and 5 notes). Depending on the maqam they are played in, specific notes can vary due to subtle tonal changes. In addition, the notes may change due to how well they mesh with the surrounding melody-the note changes to go with the flow of the meoldy

roughly, in western terms, a scale. The specific scale tells the musician which intervals to use and which notes are emphasized. instead of using half steps, maqamat generally use quarter tones which sound dissonant.

-taqasim. form of improvisation frequently used in middle eastern music. normally only on one instrument at a time. the musician is free to go anywhere within in the maqam as well as to modulare into other maqamat -rhythm is very complex in middle eastern music. each part of the ensemble may be playing a different rhythm, all at the same time, yet it is orchestrated in such a way that the song still has a cohesive rhythm and does not sound like sheer chaos. -lots of ornamentation-trills, runs, arpeggio -frequent call and response -dance is important with the music and can bring all of the rhythms in the piece into one central rhythm. -music plays a role in middle eastern religion: songs of prayer and praise. these religions include christianity, judaism and islam. for example, the muezzin is the prayer caller in islam that calls the people to prayer 5 times a day through song.