Canon of Qanun (5)

  

Elie Achkar
Moyen-Orient: Chants Qanun
Middle East: Qanun Songs

1996

Tracks:

01. Rêves a Baalbek
02. Nocturnes
03. Ivresse Orientale
04. Nostalgies
05. Carthage Éternel
06. Songes d'Autrefois
07. Parfums Tziganes
08. Ombre des Pyramides

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 Elie Achkar one of the greatest Kanunists from Lebanon ...

... in Paris, France where Elie Achkar is a well-known concert performer, conductor and music promoter.

Elie Achkar. The Conductor

One of the most respected  virtuoso of Qanun playing in the Arab world. The Lebanese Elie Achkar  has learnt the musical craft at the hand of the master Sabsabi. He took part in several festivals in France and Europe and was in the Fairuz ensemble between 1973- to 1979. He also accompanied the great Wadie Al-Safi as well as leading voices such as Lotfi Bouchnak and the trumpet supremo Nassim Maalouf. His collaborations include the diva singer Safo for whom he worked as artistic director and composer creating a touring project inspired from the universe of the legend Oum Kaltoum.

He was the recipient of the prestigious  Said Akl prize for innovation in the fields of arts and literature in 2003. Achkar has written several books and essays on Arab classical music and is about to finalise his PHD on Ethnomusicology in Paris IV university.

Elie Achkar is a regular conductor at the Arab World Institute in Paris. He created and directed a successful season for the diaspora and the non Arabs called Fairuziates.

Naziah Meftah would rarely perform without Elie  and when it comes to interpreting  Fairuz . Asked why this connection and bound Naziha has one answer: ‘’ He is authentic and knows the uplifting  of an atmosphere that is dazzling, soulful and in fact reminiscent of the legend herself. He is connoisseur and had this privilege to  perform with her for so many years. There is something as close to her as you can get by having  Elie among us . ‘’ 

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Canon of Qanun (1)

    

Qanun

East Mediterranean 

Musical Instruments

Egypt, Syria, Liban, Turkey, Greece

2003
    

Tracks:

01 - Mostafa Masri - Bayati Taqsim And Samai (El-Aryane)
02 - Samer Hamdan - Nahawant Taqsim And Folk Danse
03 - George Hakim - Rast Taqsim And Doulab
04 - Husein Unal - Hicaz Taksim And Pesrev (Veli Dede)
05 - Husein Unal - Huzzam Taqsim And Pesrev
06 - Husein Unal - Rast Takisim And Metal (Ali Rifat Bey)
07 - Petros Tabouris - Ballos
08 - Petros Tabouris - Yenovefa
09 - Petros Tabouris - Kalamatianos
10 - Petros Tabouris - Rast Zeibekikos
11 - Petros Tabouris - Hasapikos

Musicians:

 
Egypt - Mostafa Masri - Syria - Samer Hamdan
Lebanon - George Hakim - Turkey - Husein Unal
Greece - Petros Tabouris

    

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Qanun

The kanun (Arabic: قانون‎, qānūn, pl. qawānīn; Greek: κανονάκι, kanonaki; Armenian: քանոն, k’anon; Persian: قانون‎, qānūn; Azerbaijani: qanun; Turkish: kanun) is a string instrument played in much of the Middle East, Central Asia, and southeastern Europe. The name derives from the Arabic word kānun, which means "rule, norm, principle" itself from ancient Greek 'κανών' rule. Its traditional music is based on maqamat. It is a type of large zither with a narrow trapezoidal soundboard. Nylon or PVC strings are stretched over a single bridge poised on fish-skins on one end, attached to tuning pegs at the other end...

wiki

  

 Folk instruments of Greece: 

Kanonaki (Kanoun)

The origins of this fascinating instrument are found in Asia, many centuries before the Classical Greek Era. It was then known by the name of PSALTIRION. However, it is believed that KANONAKI owes its name to Pythagoras , the great Greek Mathematician who was a musician as well, and who observed, as it is said, the harmony of stars. As an experiment, he produced a basic musical instrument, a monochord (only one string), the "kanon" which he divided into seven spaces. We do not exactly know when the PSALTIRION was named KANONAKI. It's very probable though that this happened with the growth of Islam and the contact of Arabs and Turks with the people of Europe.

We find similar instruments under the names of triangle psaltirion, magadis, epigonion, simikion etc. in written sources of Classical Greece, but there is not a definite evidence whether they are the same PSALTIRION. On the opposite, in Byzantine and Metabyzantine years there is plenty of visual information about it in illustrated manuscripts and wall paintings in churches.

 

 source

About Qanuns

قانون (Qanun) means "law" in Arabic and probably derives it's name from the Greek "κανών"(Kanon) meaning "rule".  It was most likely given the name because in traditional ensembles it lays down the law of pitch for the other instruents and the singer.  The Qanun is known to have been a part of Middle Eastern music since at least the 10th century.  It's widely believed to have descended from the ancient Egyptian arched harp.  Altough it's exact origination is not known there are local legends attributing it's creation to Ibn Al-Farabi.  Farabi was a philosopher born in a village called Wasij (near Farab, Turkistan) in 870.  Al-Farabi wrote a rather extensive ammount on music theory in both Arab and Persian classical music.  His works include a book titled 'Kitab al-Musiqa al-Kabir (Book of Great Music)' and a treatise on therapy called 'Meanings of the Intellect' which addressed music as a form of therapy.  He was know to have played and invented several instruments and was such an accomplished player he could make his audience laugh or cry at will...

read it all here

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The art of the Buzuq (3)

Ali Jihad Racy

Simon Shaheen
Taqasim

Improvisation in Arab Music

1977

Tracks:

1. Maqam Kurd 20:20
2. Maqam Nahawand 13:10
3. Maqam Bayyati 8:53

Performers:

Ali Jihad Racy: buzuq

Simon Shaheen: 'ud

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 The Art Of Improvisation in Arabic Music, with Ali Jihad Racy, Buzuq, and world famous Simon Shaheen, Ud. Two virtuosos perform extended, magnificent improvisation.

This album retains its special place, despite Ali Jihad Racy's later recital.

source

Taqasim (the plural of taqsim) are extended, non-metrical instrumental improvisations. This collection of three such pieces features Simon Shaheen on 'ud and Racy on buzuq, offering a rare opportunity to hear the sublime, at times feverish, interactions of two virtuoso performers.

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Taqasim is an exceptional recording issued by Lyrichord Records of improvisations by two masterful musicians, buzuq player Ali Jihad Racy and oud performer Simon Shaheen.  This 1991 album is said to be the first instance of these two instruments paired together and the three tracks, "Magam Kurd;" "Maqam Nahawand;" and "Maqam Bayyati" feature phenomenal playing as the men alternate solos building upon a melody on their respective instruments, demonstrating both exceptional speed and control as well as wonderful melodic invention.

Generally, taqasim have been employed in supportive roles in Arabic music performances, either as introductory to a song or as a connective bridge between two parts of a larger suite.  In some cases, longer taqasim performances have been demonstrated, although the constraints of modern recording limited its availability in that format.  With this record, however, the opening "maqam" or melodic development, is 20 minutes long, while the remaining two are 13 and 9 minutes, respectively.  In any case, listening to these two masters "duel" with their exceptional soloing makes the time go by so quickly.

Of note is the way in which Racy and Shaheen build off the melodic theme, using four-note tetrachords of varying scales and pitches to modulate from one maqam or melodic mode to another.  So, while there is a defined structure with the tetrachords as established within the maqam, the skilled improviser has a great deal of freedom in creating those modulations.

The names of the pieces are, in fact, the monikers given for tetrachords, that is, the "Kurd;" "Nahawand;" and "Bayyati" are tetrachord types which define how Racy and Shaheen craft their interpretations.   The Nahawand, for example, is roughly analogous to the first four notes of a minor scale in classical music in the West.  The "Kurd" generally corresponds to those notes in the Phrygian mode.  The Bayyati (Bayati) is the more common of the tetrachords used in Arab music.

As to the instruments, they are similar in appearance, having pear-shaped bodies with plucked lute strings, but the oud has a deeper sound and is unfretted and the buzuq has a longer neck, smaller body, frets, and a more metallic, ringing sound.

Racy, a native of Lebanon, is a long-time professor of ethnomusicology in the renowned department at the University of California, Los Angeles and has recorded two other Lyrichord albums and a collaboration with the tremendous Kronos Quartet (whose Howl, U.S.A. album has been featured on this blog.)  In addition to the  buzuq, which has a relationship to the saz, which comes from Iran and Turkey (a great Axiom Records release by Talip Ozkan is to be detailed here, as well.)  He is also a master of the nay, a reed flute that is to be noted in a later post here on the amazing music of the Whirling Dervishes.

Shaheen, who hails from Palestine, is also a dual instrumentalist of note, being also a violinist.  He performed on another featured item from the blog, Material's Hallucination Engine and his connection to that collective's leader, Bill Laswell, led to a Shaheen album, released on Laswell's fantastic Axiom label, devoted to the music of Egyptian composer Mohammed Abdel Wahab, who skillfully blended Arabic and Western styles together in rich orchestral pieces--this record will also be covered here.  Shaheen also made a complement of sorts to Taqasim, when he released Saltanah with Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a musician from India who created his own sitar/slide guitar hybrid--another album, blending the maqam with the raga,  that will someday make an appearance here.  Recipient of a National Heritage Award from President Clinton, Shaheen has two bands, lectures, composes film soundtracks and much more.

It is hard to think of an album that has as much power, grace, skill, and art using improvisation from established structures than this--jazz improvisationis equally as thrilling.  Moreover, anyone interested in guitar music can easily see how the origins of that Western instrument can be traced back to the many impressive musical traditions of the Near and Middle East.  Finally, music is the "universal language" and examples like Taqasim show that, whatever cultural differences exist in a sometimes polarized and politicized world, music gives an opportunity to transcend those variations through something relatable and unifying.

no mistake to visit the source : )

Ali Jihad Racy (born 1943 in Ibl al-Saqi, Southern Lebanon, moved to USA in 1968) is a Lebanese born American performer, composer and Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Racy is internationally recognized for his extraordinary musicianship and his numerous publications, including his award-winning book, Making Music in the Arab World: The Culture and Artistry of Tarab (Cambridge University Press, 2003). He is a master of many traditional instruments, particularly the nay, and the buzuq.   
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The art of the Buzuq (2)

Matar Mohamed

Musique Traditionnelle Arabe 

Sur Bousoq

1972

Tracks:

A Rash Sur Le Maqam Atarkord     23:02

B1 Takssim Nahawand Ochak     12:06
B2 Takssim Bayati Nawa     11:43

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Traditional arab music on buzuq

 
Matar Muhammad was born in 1939 in the Bekaa plain (Lebanon) and died in 1995. He came from a family of Gypsies, wandering musicians from father to son. From the age of seven onwards, his father and elder brother initiated him into buzuq playing. He made his professional debut in the early sixties, through the BBC’s Arab programmes, but he really became famous through the performances of “Arduna ila al-abad” during the Festival of Baalbek. After that, his reputation extended throughout the Arab world and beyond. Heir to an oral tradition, his inbred gifts allowed him to practice a truly sophisticated art in an empirical manner. His course has been that of an outstanding soloist and an imaginative improviser who nevertheless remained faithful to the spirit and theoretical principles of Arab music.

***

The buzuq belongs to the large family of tanbûr, long-necked lutes, the existence of which has been traced back to Al-Farâbi – Al-kitaâ al-musîqi al-kabîr [The Great Book of Music] – who describes it as identical to the tanbûr al-baghdâdi. The pear-shaped sound-box measures approximately 40 cm long and the neck about 80 cm. The latter carries twenty six frets (adjustable ligatures). The two double metal strings are usually tuned to the octave and plucked with a horn or quill plectrum (rishah).

source of the music and : )

Thanks! 

 Matar Muhammad, a virtuoso with an expressive style, has been acknowledged in the Arab world as the greatest player of the long-necked buzuq lute, one of the symbols of the Gypsy communities in the Middle East.

read some more (pdf)

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The art of the Buzuq (1)

 

Issa

L'Art du Bouzouk

2001

Tracks:

01. Chahnaze en 5
02. Maqam Ajam
03. Maqam Kurd
04. Qadi Sero
05. Maqam Nahawend
06. Maqam Husseyni
07. Voyage à travers les Maqams
08. Maqam Hidjaz
09. Retour aux sources

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Issa Hassan (artist name also: Issa), born December 25, 1970 in Lebanon, now living in France, is a Kurdish musician, Bouzouki player and composer. 

  

 
Issa’s story began long time ago, in a small village in Turkish Kurdistan, when his grand-parents took the road to exile, to a country which, at the time, represented a degree of safety: Lebanon. About thirty years later, someone was born there who is becoming one of the Masters of the bouzouk and one of those Eastern musicians whose contact with other musical horizons make it possible to look forward enthusiastically to what the century present will offer. Because Issa has become a Parisian and gives us the pleasure of hearing a music both rooted in Kurdish culture and impregnated with the flavours and scents of his travels.

His playing shows virtuosity together with the originality one expects from a great musician and the broadminded spirit and musical humour that his fluency in the modal system of the Eastern music allows. But, whether he plays with jazzmen or flamenquists, he is never separated from what constitutes the heart very heart of his music: the Kurdish soul. With his bouzouk he has crossed the world and sung in places as varied as the Institute of the Arab World, the Wild Cabaret, the festivals of Ris Orangis or of Médina of Tunis, Jerusalem or Kensington Town Hall in London. Today, as cultural consultant of the Paris Kurdish Institute Foundation, Issa is as enthusiastic about traditional as by contemporary Kurdish artistic expression.

read it all here

The word buzuq is Turkish and occurs in 'bashi-buzuq,' the name given to the Ottoman troops, literally meaning 'burnt head' or 'uprooted.' In its folk form, the buzuq is a larger and deeper-toned relative of the Turkish saz and has a body carved from a single piece of wood. In its modern, urbanized form, the body is constructed from separate ribs and has mechanical, rather than wooden pegs.

A long-necked fretted lute, the buzuq is usually furnished with two courses of metal strings, a double (C4) and a triple (G3), played with a thin piece of horn or a plastic plectrum. The metal strings give the instrument a bright sound quality, while the fret distribution (~24 movable frets) offers many microtonal possibilities.

The buzuq, typically used as a solo instrument, is not considered a member of the standard Arab ensemble. It is found in both folk and urban contexts in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, and is associated with itinerant Gypsy musicians. The Rahbanis (Lebanon) latety popularized the use of this instrument and made it more mainstream.

The buzuq is slightly limited for the execution of the Arabic maqam, given that it's fretted. However frets are usually added for the most common quarter tones (E, A and B), and can be moved for additional fine tuning. Despite that fact a slight difference in intonation is noticed when the buzuq plays alongside a oud or a qanun for example.

Masters of the buzuq: Mohammad Abdel Karim (Syria), Matar Muhammad (Lebanon - Gypsy), Ali Jihad Racy (Lebanon).

source

buzuq

wiki

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Allo, Allo, Allo Beirut - Happy New Year!

  

Sabah ‎– شمس الشموس 

The Wonderful World of Sabah
1966

Tracks:

A1     الو بيروت Allo ... Bayrouth    ♥

A2     يا بيت الدين Ya Beit Eddine    
A3     القلعة El Kalaa    
A4     من الشام لبيروت Menesham Lebayrouth    

B1     شفتو بالقناطر Sheftou Bel Anater    
B2     عالورقة خرطشت شوي Al Warka Kharbtasht    
B3     دبكة من هالوادي Dabka Men Hal Wade    
B4     عطشانة يا صبايا Atshana Ya Sabaya    

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The World mourns Sabah the singer, beautiful symbol of a vanished golden age.

With an ‘entire past’ fading, the death of an admired diva revives memories of the lighter side of life from Cairo to Beirut.

As a child in the late 1950s, the leading Egyptian theatre director Hassan el-Gueretly remembers accompanying his mother to the workshop of Pierre Clouvas, a couturier in central Cairo. Various Miss Egypts bought their dresses there, as did Sabah, the Lebanese singer and actress. For the young Gueretly, it gave a rare frisson to see the superstar’s avant-garde clothes up close.

“I remember walking around the atelier and seeing Sabah’s robes hanging on mannequins in the next room to my mother,” Gueretly recalls. “As a lover of performance and film, I was thrilled to move among her clothes.”

Sabah died 26st of November, aged 87, and her death prompted in Egypt as much as in Lebanon an outpouring of warm memories. At a bleak moment for the region, Sabah’s joyous career and character are reminders of a lighter side to life.

“When you think of the gloom we’re in in the Arab world, to hear her voice is to make life liveable,” said Gueretly. “It doesn’t make me nostalgic – I don’t think in terms of past and present, I think of the future – but to hear this dead woman sing, it makes you think she has a lot more life than many people who are living.”

Born Jeanette Feghali in a mountain village in Lebanon, Sabah took her nickname from the Arabic word for morning, an appropriate nom-de-plume for a woman adored for her sunny vitality. She moved to Egypt in the 40s and became a star of musical cinema, appearing in more than 80 films, performing about 3,000 songs, and developing a reputation for bold fashion choices.

Few remember Clouvas now, and while central Cairo still has its charms, it is no longer grand, and the shops are no longer fancy. Sabah is a throwback to what, according to one nostalgic narrative, was a more triumphant era. An era not of fundamentalism but of pan-Arabism. Of a Cairo, where Sabah spent her cinematic heyday in the 40s and 50s, that housed a flourishing film industry – a Hollywood-on-the-Nile or “Niley-wood”, as Gueretly jokes. And of a pre-civil war Lebanon whose celebrities one by one are dying.

“With her passing away, an entire beautiful past of Lebanon passes away,” Walid Jumblatt, the Lebanese politician, wrote last week. “She was a great singer of a Lebanon that my generation knew that will never come back.”

If in artistic terms Sabah was of another time, in social terms she was in some ways ahead of it. Other divas of her era married and divorced several times. Sabah’s nine or 10 marriages – no one is certain which – outnumbered everyone else’s. She broke taboos with her frank and frequent pronouncements about men and desire. And as she got older she ignored pressure to hide herself away, continuing to wear outlandish outfits and date younger men.

“In a male-dominant society, she was a symbol of woman power,” said Helen Shammas, a Syrian-Lebanese artist and writer who is related to one of Sabah’s husbands. “She was a free woman with nothing to hide. Joy, terror and disappointment all showed behind her heavy makeup. What amazes me most is that she was never ashamed of her old age – she dressed in outfits that betrayed her decaying body. I loved her acceptance of life.”

With fellow divas Fairouz and Umm Kulthum, Sabah became one of the undisputed giants of the age, building a successful stage career in Beirut after leaving Cairo for good in the 60s.

Unlike Fairouz, Sabah’s work was not political, apart from a couple of songs that dealt with pan-Arabism. And unlike Umm Kulthum, her songs were not weighty or serious. Nor was she a strong actress.

Instead her vocal technique, her warmth and sincerity as a performer, and the lighter nature of her songs [Yana Yana] were what made her loved. “She had no relationship with political issues – and that’s why people needed her,” said Momen al-Mohammadi, an Egyptian author and thinker.

Salwa, a Bahraini lawyer, recalls watching Sabah perform at a private wedding in the 80s, at the height of the Lebanese civil war. Her warmth has left a lasting memory. “Usually the famous singers would leave weddings quickly, but Sabah really looked like she was happy to be there,” remembers Salwa. “She would go up to people and interact with them. She sang old songs, new songs, whatever anyone asked her to. She was smiling the whole time.”

And she took people’s minds off the conflict in her homeland, says Salwa. “She was singing and dancing and jumping around when Lebanon was in a war – and she showed a different side to the country. Back then people didn’t go on holiday to Lebanon, and she was one of the few happy Lebanese people we saw.”

In Lebanon itself, 30 years on, Sabah’s death is about more than just the departure of an entertainer. For Fadi al-Abdallah, a Lebanese poet and critic, it has also raised gnawing questions about the nature of Lebanese identity.

“There is a general feeling that the symbols of the era are leaving, and that at the same time they haven’t been replaced by a new generation,” says Abdallah, who wrote a widely shared paean to Sabah last week.

“There is the feeling that the old times were better, and also objectively that the new era of art is less interesting, and less capable of leaving a mark in our heads and hearts. And that the ingredients of our identities are being more and more lost.”

source

wiki 
  

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