Author Question: What is the context of this example? How is the Ud performance in Ud Taqasim in Maqam Rast similar ... (Read 85 times)

asd123 · **on:** Jul 25, 2018

What is the context of this example? How is the Ud performance in Ud Taqasim in Maqam Rast similar to the Call to Prayer: Azan? (Call to Prayer). According to Worlds of Music, how can the structure of improvisation be thought of as similar to language structure? What are some of the characteristics of Arab music that stand out in this example? (Answers the last question may vary.)

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Describe and discuss the bara dance.

What will be an ideal response?

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

Answer to Question 1

Ud Taqasim in Maqam Rast is an excerpt of a ten-minute-long improvisation (taqasim) by Mr. Al Asadi performed on ud, recorded July 2000 in Nazareth, Israel. In Arab music, a solo taqasim can occur as a prelude to a composition, in a space between composed passages of a performance, with an ensemble providing a rhythmic-melodic ostinato in the background as in Al-Shagal, . . . or as a performance in and of itself
As in the Call to Prayer: Azan initial musical statements are separated by pauses and they get longer, higher in range, and more decorous as the improvisation continues.
Musical ideas are grouped together like words into phrases and phrases into sentences. Phrases and sentences are organized into paragraphs. Phrases, sentences and paragraphs all feature concluding remarks' or cadential statements called qaflat (s. qafla) a technique that is absolutely essential to instrumental improvisation in Arab music.
Significant musical features: non-metric taqasim; initial phrases separated by pauses and elaborated upon as the music proceeds; the intonation of the Arab maqam; and the significance of the qafla (cadential statementsee above)

Answer to Question 2

It is a social dance that originated in the Dhofar province but has spread throughout Oman.
Two men or boys (or more) dance side by side, bounding to the rhythm and swaying their daggers (hanjarfjanbiyah) overhead.
While the music for bar'a is performed by a community of male and female musical specialists, the dance . . . is a male dance.
It is enjoyed at weddings and other social events.

Formulaic Composition and the Solo Taqasim (instrumental improvisation)

The theory of formulaic composition is applicable not only to vocal artssong, poetry, and story tellingit is also a useful way to think about instrumental music.

Ud Taqasim in Maqam Rast