I’ve been playing music from the Middle East for some years now. I’ve picked up skill with various Middle Eastern percussion; I play and actively perform what amounts to hours worth of music from the region; I even sing in Turkish, Arabic, some Armenian. But right now I feel like I don’t know the first [...]
Also tagged Arabic MusicI believe it was Gunther Schuller that said something to the effect of “play exactly what I had written and nothing else” (if I am completely making this up, PLEASE let me know). But basically I agree to a large extent with what Schuller was saying with respects to the role of a performer. This [...]
Also tagged Ethnocentrism and the very Idea of Literary Theory, Fitzenhagen, Gunther Schuller, Harold In Italy, Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music, Paganini, Patrick Hogan, Performance Practice, Tchaikovsky, Yayli TamburSo I’m in the middle of “Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Syria” by Jonathan Holt Shannon who’s one of the leading experts on Arabic music (from an academic standpoint). What I’m really struck by is the story, and I hear and read this time and time again, of the issue of Modernization [...]
Also tagged "Among the Jasmine Trees: Music and Modernity in Syria", Arabic Music, Jonathan Holt Shannon, Middle Eastern Music, Mugam, Ottoman music, Syria, Western Classical MusicThis is a prewritten post as I will be performing at the Perkfection Cafe & Bar with Ahel El Nagam, Louisville’s Classical Arabic Band, and the Gypsies of the Nile bellydancer troupe. If any readers are so inclined then please come to the show for live Classical Egyptian and Arabic music as only Ahel El [...]
Also tagged Ahel El Nagam, Arabic Music, Bellydance, Classical Egyptian music, Egyptian music, Gypsies of the Nile, Indiana, Jeffersonville, Perkfection Cafe & BarI remember reading about a book years ago that cellist, Frances-Marie Uitti (she invented a playing technique using two bows so that she could play four part polyphonic music on the cello), that would be a technical manual on alternative 20th century cello techniques. What she ended up publishing was a chapter in the Cambridge [...]
Also tagged Bulgarian music, Cello, Music, music resources, Non-Western Cello Techniques, World MusicEventually I will blog more about using non-Western cello playing techniques. There’s a whole world of music out there and finding ways to adapt those styles to the cello isn’t without some precedent, but obviously it’s not something that’s easy to find. Until then I leave the reader with a few videos and links. A [...]
Also tagged Add new tag, Cello, Dhrupad music, Hindustani music, Music, World Music