Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century
Johnny Farraj · Sami Abu Shumays
Jul 2019 · Oxford University Press
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About this ebook
What makes hundreds of listeners cheer ecstatically at the same instant during a live concert by Egyptian diva Umm Kulthum? What is the unspoken language behind a taqsim (traditional instrumental improvisation) that performers and listeners implicitly know? How can Arabic music be so rich and diverse without resorting to harmony? Why is it so challenging to transcribe Arabic music from a recording? Inside Arabic Music answers these and many other questions from the perspective of two "insiders" to the practice of Arabic music, by documenting a performance culture and a know-how that is largely passed on orally. Arabic music has spread across the globe, influencing music from Greece all the way to India in the mid-20th century through radio and musical cinema, and global popular culture through Raqs Sharqi, known as "Bellydance" in the West. Yet despite its popularity and influence, Arabic music, and the maqam scale system at its heart, remain widely misunderstood. Inside Arabic Music de-mystifies maqam with an approach that draws theory directly from practice, and presents theoretical insights that will be useful to practitioners, from the beginner to the expert - as well as those interested in the related Persian, Central Asian, and Turkish makam traditions. Inside Arabic Music's discussion of maqam and improvisation widens general understanding of music as well, by bringing in ideas from Saussurean linguistics, network theory, and Lakoff and Johnson's theory of cognition as metaphor, with an approach parallel to Gjerdingen's analysis of Galant-period music - offering a lens into the deeper relationships among music, culture, and human community.
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5.0
3 reviews
Akshay Susvirkar
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December 24, 2020
This is a lovely well written book.... Almost textual value yet a great flow! Combined with their site Maqam world and Shumayys' Maqam Lessons site and his Maqam Lessons YouTube channel this forms a strong foundation for Arabic Maqamat system understanding, a task which no one has attempted to document for complexity of it! But both have done a great job to break it down to a lot of ease and make accessible to people! Especially non musicians who want to build an ear for understanding Arabic Classical music!
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