What are the characteristics of Middle Eastern music?
Middle Eastern music. Both types of music also include characteristic nonmetric improvisations. The melodic and tonal construction of performances, which is based on a system of modes called maqām in Arabic, also is the same in folk and art-music traditions.
What are the musical instruments of Middle East?
Middle Eastern music. The Middle East has been an important source of musical instruments for other parts of the world. Bagpipes, guitar, lute, oboe, tambourine, viols, and most zithers have a Middle Eastern origin.
What is the texture of Music called?
We can say a piece of music has an open or closed texture, or a thick or thin texture, for instance. We can also use more formal terms, such as monophonic or polyphonic to describe musical texture. But what kind of music do these words describe?
What are the intervals in Middle Eastern music?
Essential in Middle Eastern music are intervals of 150 cents (three-quarter tones) and 250 cents (five-quarter tones), along with half and whole tones (100 and 200 cents); some 20th-century Middle Eastern theory builds intervals from combinations known in ancient Greek theory as comma (24 cents) and limma ….
What texture is often used in Arab music?
The texture of Arab music is heterophonic.
Which of the following textures is more common in traditional Middle Eastern music?
Heterophony. The last musical texture, Heterophony, is found in musical cultures from around the world. However, it is less commonly heard in Classical Western music than the others. It is prevalent in the traditional music, especially that of Middle East, Asia, and European folk traditions.
What kind of music is in the Middle East?
Traditional music of the Middle East includes a variety of string, wind, and percussion instruments. String instruments commonly heard in Middle Eastern music are the common harp and the violin, as well as the oud and the saz (both types of lutes) and the stringed qanun.
What mode is most Middle Eastern music?
Hijaz is one of the most common middle eastern maqams. To Western ears, it is the quintessential “middle-eastern sounding” scale due to its inclusion of a larger than normal (1.5 tone) interval from the second to the third degree (at least, when played in the equal temperament system).
What makes music sound Middle Eastern?
Further distinguishing characteristics of Middle Eastern and North African music include very complex rhythmic structures, generally tense vocal tone, and a monophonic texture. Traditional Middle Eastern music does not use chords, or harmony in the Western sense.
Why does Middle Eastern music sound different?
Unlike much western music, Arabic music includes quarter tones. These small changes, in what is to the Westerner's ear a single note, is often uncommon to our ear and may even seem out of tune. The rhythmic structures are generally very complex and carry a tension uncommon to western music culture.
What makes Arab music unique?
Unlike the tradition of Western music, Arabic music contains microtones, which are notes that lie between notes in the Western chromatic scale. While notes in the chromatic scale are separated by semitones (or half steps), notes in Arabic music can be separated by quarter tones.
What is the difference between Middle Eastern music from Western European music?
A major difference between Western music and Middle Eastern music is that Western music tends to be based on a scale (sometimes called a key), while Oriental music is based on a maqam. In the words of the late San Francisco musician Mimi Spencer, a maqam is "something more than a scale, something less than a tune."
What is Middle Eastern singing called?
Ululation is practised in all parts of Africa; the Middle East; and Central-to-South Asia, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bengal, Odisha, and Assam in India, and Sri Lanka.
What musical mode sounds Arabic?
In music, the double harmonic major scale is a scale whose gaps may sound unfamiliar to Western listeners. This is also known as Mayamalavagowla, Bhairav Raga, Byzantine scale, Arabic (Hijaz Kar), and Gypsy major.
What scales are used in Arabic music?
Arabic scaleDouble harmonic scale, a scale with two augmented seconds.Quarter tone scale, or 24 tone equal temperament.17 equal temperament, a tuning dividing the octave into 17 equal steps.More items...
What instruments does Middle Eastern music use?
Bagpipes, guitar, lute, oboe, tambourine, viols, and most zithers have a Middle Eastern origin.
What is the texture of African music?
Texture. African music, from the communal nature of African society, is marked by the simultaneous sounding of two or more pitches. Melody and rhythm are interwoven within this dense structure of various instrumental and metric combinations.
What is an important characteristic of African music?
There are eight characteristics that define African music: Polyrhythms, ostinato, the use of percussion, background shimmer, close connection with the music and language, participatory nature of the arts, a close connection with the performing arts, responsorial form.
Which instruments are especially associated with Indian music?
Instruments most commonly used in Hindustani classical music are the sitar, sarod, tambura, sahnai, sarangi, and tabla; while instruments commonly used in Karnatak classical music include the vina, mrdangam, kanjira, and violin.
Which of the following excerpt was used in the text as an illustration of program music?
Which of the following excerpts was used in the text as an illustration of program music? Excerpt B was used in the text to illustrate program music. Listen to how the music tells a story with a quick tempo, interesting instrumentation and a skipping elf-like rhythm at the beginning.
What is Middle Eastern music?
Middle Eastern music, music of the Arabic-, Turkish-, and Persian-speaking world. Despite three major languages and associated cultural differences, the music can be seen as a single great tradition because of the unifying element of Islam. The fact that Islam has historically found music. Middle Eastern music, music of ...
Why is Middle Eastern music considered a great tradition?
Despite three major languages and associated cultural differences, the music can be seen as a single great tradition because of the unifying element of Islam.
How much is a Middle Eastern interval?
Essential in Middle Eastern music are intervals of 150 cents (three-quarter tones) and 250 cents (five-quarter tones), along with half and whole tones (100 and 200 cents); some 20th-century Middle Eastern theory builds intervals from combinations known in ancient Greek theory as comma (24 cents) and limma …
What instruments are found in the Middle East?
The Middle East has been an important source of musicalinstruments for other parts of the world. Bagpipes, guitar, lute, oboe, tambourine, viols, and most zithers have a Middle Eastern origin. This article was most recently revised and updated by Virginia Gorlinski, Associate Editor.
What instruments play in unison?
Melodic instruments—such as the nāy(flute), zornā(double-reed instrument), ʿūd(short-necked lute), and sanṭūr(trapezoidal zither) —play in unison with the solo line during the composed parts and echo it one or two beats behind in the improvised parts.
Where is Arabic spoken?
Arabic language, Southern-Central Semitic language spoken in a large area including North Africa, most of the Arabian Peninsula, and other parts of the Middle East. (SeeAfro-Asiatic languages.) Arabic is the language of the Qurʾān (or Koran, the sacred book of Islam) and the religious language of all Muslims. Literary Arabic,…
Is rhythmic treatment the same as prosody?
Both tend to feature soloists, either alone or accompanied by a small group. Rhythmic treatment also is similar, being closely related to principles of prosodybut also employing rhythmic modes called īqāʿātin Arabic. Both types of music also include characteristic nonmetric improvisations.
What is Middle Eastern music?
Middle Eastern music refers to different various music styles that span across the Middle East. The various nations of the region include the Arabic-speaking countries of the Middle East, the Iranian traditions of Persia, the Jewish music of Israel and the diaspora, Armenian music, Azeri Music, the varied traditions of Cypriot music, the music of Turkey, traditional Assyrian music, Coptic ritual music in Egypt as well as other genres of Egyptian music in general, and the Andalusian classical music very much alive in the greater Middle East (North Africa), all maintain their own traditions. It is widely regarded that some Middle-Eastern musical styles have influenced Central Asia, as well as Spain, and the Balkans .
How many strings does Middle Eastern music have?
It has about 26 triple-string courses, plucked with a piece of horn. The musician has the freedom to alter the pitch of individual courses from a quarter to a whole step by adjusting metal levers. Middle Eastern music also makes use of the violin, which is European in origin.
What is the name of the string instrument that Farabi invented?
Another popular string instrument is the qanoun, developed by Farabi during the Abbasids era. Legend has it that Farabi played qanoun in court and alternately made people laugh, cry, or fall asleep. The qanoun developed out of string instruments described in inscriptions that date to the Assyrian period.
What is the Darbuka drum made of?
An instrument native to Egypt, the darbuka (both "tabla" and "darbuka" are its names in Egyptian Arabic ), is a drum made of ceramic clay, with a goatskin head glued to the body. The darbuka is used primarily in Egypt, and it has its roots in ancient Egypt. It is also used in other countries in the Middle East.
What is the Arabic scale?
The Arabic scale is strongly melodic, based on various maqamat (sing. maqam) or modes (also known as makam in Turkish music). The early Arabs translated and developed Greek texts and works of music and mastered the musical theory of the music of ancient Greece (i.e. Systema ametabolon, enharmonium, chromatikon, diatonon ).
How long does Middle Eastern music last?
Traditional Middle Eastern music does not use chords, or harmony in the Western sense. Often, more traditional Middle-Eastern music can last from one to three hours in length, building up to anxiously awaited, and much applauded climaxes, or tarab, derived from the Arabic term طرب tarraba.
What is the Armenian Duduk made of?
Winds. The Armenian duduk is a very popular double reeded, oboe-like instrument made out of Apricot tree wood. The Moroccan oboe, also called the rhaita, has a double-reed mouthpiece that echoes sound down its long and narrow body. A similar instrument is called the sorna.
How to describe texture in music?
However, the most common terms to describe texture in music all describe how many voices, or parts, a piece of music has, and how the melodic part relates to the harmonic parts.
What is Musical Texture?
In music, texture is basically a way to describe how the music or sound is organized.
What is a classic example of polyphonic texture in a Bach piece?
A classic example of polyphonic texture in a Bach piece is his “Fugue No. 17 in A-Flat Major”:
What is the texture of Chopin's prelude?
Chopin’s Prelude In E Minor. Homophonic texture can also be where multiple different instruments or singers all play the same rhythm, but play different notes, creating chord and harmony changes. This is often called block chord texture or homorhythmic texture .
What is the next type of texture?
Homophonic. The next type of texture is called homophonic texture. Just like mono meant “one”, homo means “same” or “similar”, so this type of texture is one where you can have multiple different notes playing, but they’re all based around the same melody.
What is a round in music?
Like with the songs “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” or “Frère Jaques”, rounds are when everyone sings the same melody, but beginning at different times, creating the feel of multiple separate melodies. The two other kinds of texture can be made polyphonic if a second, countermelody is introduced to the music.
What are some examples of monophonic songs?
Many simple songs we learn as children are monophonic – for example, the “Alphabet Song” or “Happy Birthday”.
