Author Question: What is the context of CD 3:13? How do the lyrics reflect Arab diaspora? Who was Said Al Asadi and ... (Read 269 times)

09madisonrousseau09 · **on:** Jul 25, 2018

What is the context of CD 3:13? How do the lyrics reflect Arab diaspora? Who was Said Al Asadi and what was his reaction to this recording?

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

How does poetry relate to the core values of Bedouin culture?

What will be an ideal response?

dreamfighter72 · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 25, 2018

Answer to Question 1

CD 3:13 is a 78-rpm recording circulated widely within the Arab American community in the United States diaspora during the 1940s and 1950s. The recording features singer Sana Khadaj, who alternates between metric, strophic verse and solo lines in free rhythm; and is accompanied by immigrant musicians (e.g., violin, qanum zither).
Note singer's range of vocal color and ornamentation and use of Arab mode (maqam).
The lyrics exhibit typical themes of Arabic literature and poetry: love, longing, and nature.
Said Al Asadi was the elder artist (singer of traditional genres of Palestinian poetry) of the Al-Asadi family home the author of the chapter visited in Nazareth, Israel (see above). He was moved to tears when he heard the chapter author's CD of Music of Arab Americans: A Retrospective Collection and realized that his Palestinian countrymen had been perpetuating their culture in the United States.

Answer to Question 2

Poetry has been recited or sung for centuries in pre- and post-Islamic Arabia and the prevalence of poetry and song illustrates the key position of language in Arab culture.
Transient nomadic desert tribes called Bedouins have memorialized the distinctive characteristics of their life in song, dance, poetry, stories, and artifacts that are key to Arab collective identity.