musifying

The series aims to acquaint the new comer to Arabic music with the Arabic repertoire is it is reflected in the records available for purchase. This distinction is important because Arabic music being an oral tradition, a vast amount of repertoire is not recorded, or is not readily available for purchase. A lot is available, however, to purchase over the web. I have made a conscious decision not to recommend stores on my blog so that it remains non-commercial and for a few other reasons as well. Read the rest…

This question comes up fairly regularly: Are Arabic violins tuned differently?

The answer is yes. Here are answers to the most common string section questions. Read the rest…

Until now, in the first 5 parts in this series we discussed what is called “Urban / Classical twentieth century Egyptian music”. This was one of the central currents in Arabic music and has had an effect on the music in most of the Arab world through out the twentieth century. Today we conclude the Egyptian list. In the coming posts we move east and west from Egypt. Read the rest…

Farid El-Atrash (also spelled Atrache)

For the oud player, Farid is someone who needs to be learned thoroughly. Listening to his recordings, watching videos of his playing, and, no less importantly, knowing his life. Read the rest…

Continuing with Egyptian music..

Abdul Halim Hafez

In addition to the recordings that will be listed below, it is worth checking out “Halim”, the feature film about the great singer’s life. I believe it is now available on DVD with English subtitles. Don’t know about other languages. The film is fairly well made and true to the facts, as far as I know them. Read the rest…

More Egyptian artists:

Abdel Wahab

The great composer and singer, arguably the greatest in the twentieth century, has composed and performed a lot. The necessary listening list should reflect a variety of his works. Some were already mentioned: the songs he composed for Umm Kulthoum, of which five were recommended. His vocal works written for other singers (for example Abdel-Halim Hafez) will be listed under the sections for those artists. Read the rest…

In this long series of posts we will try to accomplish two goals:

1- Build a library of essential recordings that every oud player intending to know the Arabic repertoire and have an ear for the style.

2- Build a repertoire list of art pieces that every oud player needs to know. These pieces will reflect the variety of styles in the Arab world as well as reflect the basic set of oud techniques.

Please note that a large amount of subjectivity is involved in attempting to do such a thing. I welcome your comments, suggestions, and additions to the list.

Several web stores sell CDs and / or sell downloadable music. Choose your favorite stores or do a web search to find a store. Read the rest…

It is not unusual for musicians from different idioms to get together and play. The result, sometimes, is something fresh, human, beautiful, and creative. Most of the time, however, the result is boring, cold, superficial, and disjointed.

In my view, a series of decisions, mostly not musical, taken by each person early on, in the first seconds of the meeting or even before it, determine the outcome. The question is, how do we make fusion that works? Read the rest…

This post discusses compositions that have sections that are partially improvised, as well as the improvisation that takes place while playing a composed melody line (aka ornamentation, interpretation, styling, etc..). Both instrumental and vocal forms will be discussed. Read the rest…

Now that we are clear on the politics of the term “improvisation” (see part 1), we can talk about where and how improvisation is used in Arabic music.

Improvisation is present in three types of musical activities. The first is forms that are entirely improvised. The second is partially improvised forms and rhythmic improvisations inserted within a composed piece. Finally, there are the ornaments that a player introduces while playing a composed musical line. Read the rest…