Another interesting blurb from A.J. Racy’s Making music in the Arab world: the culture and artistry of ṭarab Notably, the aesthetic of individuality is consistent with timbral specialization within the traditional ensemble. The takht specifically is a collection of khāmāt ṣawtiyyah, “sound timbres,” that are individually distinguished as well as imbued with ecstatic connotations. Incorporating [...]
I’m still in the middle of A.J. Racy’s Making music in the Arab world: the culture and artistry of ṭarab and it is rich and dense with information. I’m particularly enjoying the section on public performance, but especially this passage: In turn, the singer needs to develop a general sense of who his listeners are [...]
This blog post title was just one of many comments I heard about a private performance I was part of for a Lebanese engagement party last week. One of many such interesting comments from that evening. In a period of time many many musicians are talking about declining work and number of venues for performance [...]
I’m still processing some of my experience from yesterday at the Panegyri Greek Festival in Cincinnati. I had the pleasure of sitting in on dumbek with both George Haralamos’ and Lazaros Nourtsis’ bands. Not only was it just wonderful to play all this great Greek music and for wonderful folk dancers–it was also wonderful to [...]
So as Ahel El Nagam is developing a recital length program I’m left with a decision about whether or not I want to focus on developing riq lines for the music rather than defaulting to the Egyptian tabla. Certainly for the classical Egyptian tunes it would be a far more appropriate choice but the issue [...]
As I’m sorting through some heady ethnomusicological material, I came across in a note, some remarks by Jaap Kunst: Jaap Kunst, after recommending ethnomusicologists transcribing exotic meodies to use bar-lines ‘for the sake of legibility…where the rhythm seems to call for’ them, observes ‘No doubt one will frequently feel, when tackling the same phonogram some [...]
Going back to my roots, in a manner of speaking. So many university trained music students detest introductory music history courses. And especially not well liked are the sections regarding early music–no, not Baroque or Renaissance or even Medieval music. I’m talking about the music of the Ancient Greeks. I remember how much fun some [...]
I found this humorous youtube video by cellist and composer, Zoe Keating, at David Cutler’s The Savvy Musician Blog. Enjoy! for those of you on facebook, which doesn’t import embedded items, here is the direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM6zdYbwP_Q
I came across this short article just now: http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/learn-how-to-sing-in-another-musical-genre-1574105.html Some good general tips for musicians wanting to learn a different style, but I cannot emphasize this particular point the most: Listen – If you want to learn new style in music, it is important that you listen to professional singers that have mastery in the [...]
I was recently asked a few interview questions for a paper being written by a student, Colin Ramsey, on creating a contemporary cello career. I’ve been given permission to post the interview as I gave it to my blog. I thought some of you folks might be interested in it. Tonight I will be finishing [...]