PaulS
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Bait al oud
I was at the graduation concert for four grads of Naseer Shamma's Bait al Oud here in Abu Dhabi last night.
Even though you could hear his musical influence in each of the selections, there was an amazing diversity among the four--a Palestinian, a Yemeni, a
Sudanese and a young, 14 yr old qanoun player from Syria. You could clearly hear the distinct styles. Everyone played with a remarkable
professionalism. I left feeling that these rich traditions are still alive, though struggling, and also beginning to mix with each other.
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Jody Stecher
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Why *struggling*? Could you please say more about that?
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PaulS
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struggling
My impression is that here in the Arab world, which is westernizing at rapid pace, the native musical traditions are falling on deaf ears among many
of the younger generation. There are noble attempts to replant those traditions--like Mr. Shamma's, but I don't know how well they will succeed.
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Lysander
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I remember Signell saying something about how in the past it was customary to always perform songs from memory though these days sheet music is always
used during a performance. But could you say something about what else with regard to the musical style is changing or evolving? And isn't this a
natural evolution?
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PaulS
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Oh I am really not knowledgeable enough to talk about changes. I am only going on impressions. Mr. Shamma is certainly a dominating presence
musically, especially since he has taken up residence here and his style I know is not 'traditional' but I have learned a whole range of pieces the
last few months, Turkish, Egyptian, Kuwaiti etc and the people at the centre are mostly expats exiled from those places. So what I see is that room is
being made for those traditions and for the encounter with modern jazz western music that you find in Bashir and Shamma for example. All quite
exciting I think--if it actually takes root in the next generation! People are still learning mostly by ear and the written pieces have lots of
addenda to them. As I said, the concert was quite diverse.
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sandoval
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Registered: 3-11-2014
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PaulS I sent you and u2u
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