MODULE 3
Umm Kulthum – was the sound track to his youth
Her voice – words penetrating into your brain, psych
The lady of cairo
Im afraid your heart is held by someone else
Treats the word somebody else
Tarab – enchantment, really being carried away by music
Religion and Language – are the dominance influences in Arab culture
Conquest by the arab calaquacks
1500’s rise of Shi’te iran, ottomans
Ottomans rose aft erh arab claquacks receded
Napoleon briefly occupied eygpyt
British occupation of Egypt
1952 Egyptian revolution
2010 - ? Arab Spring
Music Terms
Ornament: a melodic “decoration”; adding notes and musical alterations to the notes of a melodic line. They decorate melodies
Melismatic: vocal melody with melisma; singing syllables of text with multiple notes
Syllabic: vocal melody in which each syllable of text receives a single note. Opposite of Melismatic (Swedish) (Rap music)
Relationship between Music and Islam
Cant be of this world
Call to Prayer
Mineretes – call muslims to pray
Adhan: Muslim call to prayer
Muezzin: performer of adhan
Not considered music through follows musical rules, including rules of maqamat (Arab scales and ornaments)
Why is it musical
The call to prayer is chanted in a beautiful way
Gives more beauty to these words
Each line is repeated in the call to prayer
It is treated differently when it is repeated
Arab Music
Textures: monophony (solo), heterophony (group), “melody and drone”
Link w/ language
Human voice is the model that they try to immolate
Microtonal – many scales, with the exception of one or two, they are all microtonal
Strong tradition of improvisation
Speech or talk could be completely composed
A talk is on the spot talking
Reading the text book vs. listening to a lecture
Tarab: ecstasy or enchantment
Goal in performance
Sama; deep, holistic listening experience
Audience Feedback
Maqam – plural; maqamat – enhanced/melodic Arab scale (review; a scale is a group of pitches arranged in ascending order)
Taqasim; improvisation; unmetered instrument improvisation exploring a maqam
Iqaat0 metric cycles with groups of low accents (dumm) and high accents (takk) (singiqa)
Taqasim ‘ala al wahdah – metered instrumental improvisation
Nay – reed flute. Airy breathing amber. Breathe of life and living things. Why the nay sounds the way it does. Returns to the reed where it was cut
Ud – short-necked lute. Arabs were in southern Europe. Strings are doubled up. Large sound bodies. Neck is flat and no frets underneath it and you can play microtones, unlike the bass. You can adjust your tunings
Qanun - plucked zither (zither a chordophone with its strings stretched across a flat chamber. Resonance
Kamanjah – fiddle/violin (formeraly a fold fiddle, now a modern Western violin).
Common Arab Membranophones
Darabukka - goblet shaped drum (Morracco)
Riqq – tambourine (Jingles)
Daff – large frame drum
Takht - a small traditional ensemble (ud +nay + qanun + kamanjah+ riqq or darabukka)
Firqa – large modern ensemble (takht instruments + orchestral strings)
Umm Kulthum – most prominent singer in the Arab world in the 20th century
Career intersected with technological development and Egyptian nationalism
She was prominent when these other things were happening
Arab singing: ornaments, melismas, bahha (ability to break voice during a climatic passage to enhance effect); tradition to repeat lines upon request
Repeats could stretch a song out to 40 or 50 minutes
Things To Watch For In The Video
Primacy of text/Koran in Arab music
Issues of gender (upbringing, career)
Examples of tarab, maqam
Three technologies important to her career
Heterophony (how firqa (orchestra) follows Umm Kulthum’s melody

MODULE 4
They can be just as radical, of not more so, in their religious beliefs and politics as their peers who spend their days in the mosque, madrasa, or even an al-Qa’eda training camp.
If we thing of what