Topic: Middle Eastern Instruments and their Interpretation
Learn to identify and recognize by sound and sight several different musical instruments used commonly in the Middle East:
- kanun – demonstrated by Umut Yasmut
- oud – performance by the very famous Egyptian singer, actor and musician Farid El Atrache
- ney
- kawala – deeper sound than the ney but a related instrument demonstrated by İbrahim Savas
- tabla, darbuka or dumbek – demonstrated by Souhail Kaspar
- tabl baladi
- riq
- rebaba (kemengeh)
- mizmar
- zurna (mainly Turkish, related to the mizmar)
- kaman aka violin
- bendir, duff or tar – demonstrated by Karim Nagi
- sagat, zills or sil sil – demonstrated by Karim Nagi
- mihbaj or coffe grinder, 2nd mihbaj clip
- organ (keyboard) – demonstrated by Omar Khorshid for another very famous Egyptian singer and actor Abdel Halim Hafez
- accordion – played at another concert for Abdel Halim Hafez
- bagpipe – played for a Palestinian debke troupe, accompanied by the tabla
- clarinet – played by Husnu Senlendirici and Ismail Lumanovski
- bouzouki (mainly Greek)
- cümbüş (mainly Turkish)
- saz, baglama (There are many varieties of this insturment, but that are in the same closely related family) demonstrated by Hasan Genc, here is an extra clip with Ismail Altunsaray
- buzuq (also in the saz/baglama family)
- arghul
Find taqsims highlighting some of your favorite instruments. I recommend getting the Serpentine Taqsim recording we used in class if you don’t already have it. First listen and identify where you feel that instrument. Then practice dancing to it focusing on the following areas:
- the impedus from the feeling
- working through the body top to bottom or vice versa
- isolating it in one body part
- following the changing pace of the music, concentrating on the fast and the slow
- following the range of the music, concentrating on the highs and the lows
- changing levels
- the impedus from the feeling
- working through the body top to bottom or vice versa
- isolating it in one body part
- following the changing pace of the music, concentrating on the fast and the slow
- following the range of the music, concentrating on the highs and the lows
- changing levels
- changing directions
- considering lines, particularly the poses you take at the breaks in the taksim
- looking for layers, is there a second layer and how do you interpret that?
- pay attention to how each instrument makes you feel and move a little differently, compare particularly closer instruments, like an oud and a kanoun or a nay and a violin, if they are similar in smoothness, how are they different in what they make you want to move?
Watch this youtube clip of the famous Egyptian dancer Dina and notice how she interprets the Oud in her body and how it varies from when she is interpreting the full orchestra. Here is a second example to look at, the famous Turkish dancer Nesrin Topkapi doing a very different interpretation of a beautiful nay piece. Here is a a lovely taqsim by the Spanish dancer Alika. I’m having a hard time finding taqsim clips on youtube with dancing that I really like (niether of the above are really taqsims, just songs), so if you find any good ones on your own, send them my way.
Read the article "Things for the Belly Dancer to know about Middle Eastern Music". Choose a piece of music (preferably Arabic) that you will be working with for this session. Bring it to class next week.