Author: Navid

Maqam is a word that brings up ideas in our head immediately. Over the last century or more we have generally discussed maqams in terms of scales, intervals, jins/ajnas (trichords, tetrachords, and pentachords), sayir/seyir (melodic pathway/movement). But did you know that there was a time that nobody in the middle east discussed music with the word “maqam”. This word was not a musical term until the 15h century. So where…

One of the primary sources and collections for traditional Arabic muwashahat, Min Kunuzina “Our Treasures”, can be downloaded here. It’s a great source if you want to get into learning Arabic muwashahat. The poetry and melody is very old. Sometimes the poetry and the melody are authored by unknown individuals. You also find some instrumental Samai written by Ottoman composers. Even better if you can read Arabic, then you search…

Farid al-Atrash has written many catchy tunes during his lifetime. But the first time I was exposed to Farid’s music was his Oud Taqasim. At first, I didn’t really get it.  I thought it sounded a bit out of tune, a little messy; sometimes he appeared to be showing off.  As a Persian musician and an outsider to Arabic music, it took me many years of getting used to the…