Danielo - 6-24-2010 at 11:34 AM
Hi,
from the french Wikipedia, translated loosely (not in the English version) :
Several types of ouds are used in arabic-turkish music:
- oud hanin is a specific oud for solo playing with a small, almond-shaped bowl, a single soundhole, and a dim sound.
-oud rannan is a specific oud for ensemble music, with a pear-shaped bowl, three or five (???) soundholes, very resonant
Never heard before about this... (I thought that ouds hanin were made for women?)
Dan
John Erlich - 6-24-2010 at 02:42 PM
I've never heard put this way before.
I believe "hanım" means "lady" in Turkish. My oud teacher Naser Musa named his daughter Raneen, from an Arabic word meaning "resonance."
So...it sounds like the Franji Wiki article is talking about a "lady oud" and a "resonant oud." Other than the fact that I've never seen an oud with
5 sound holes, these sound like 2 familiar types of oud.
Just my $.02
Peace,
John
Reda Aouad - 6-24-2010 at 10:25 PM
John, I don't know the Turkish language, but I guess "Hareem" means lady, the same in Arabic.
"Hanin" (pronounced "Haneen" in English) literally means nostalgia. But it can also mean tenderness, which I guess is the intended meaning here. And
"Rannan" means ringing, or sonorous and resonant.
I've never heard of this classification for ouds.
Sasha - 6-24-2010 at 11:27 PM
Reda, 'hanim' is indeed a Turkish word for lady, and I have heard 'hanim oud' used to describe small-bodied or 'baby' ouds.
Reda Aouad - 6-24-2010 at 11:35 PM
Thanks. Good to know. But here the words "Haneen" and "Rannan" are used, which are both Arabic.
katakofka - 6-25-2010 at 09:56 AM
Hanem ..a word used in Egypt...ya sett haanem
Danielo - 6-26-2010 at 11:36 AM
thanks guys !
it makes sense to have resonnant and soft-sounding ouds but it seems strange that the latter is said to be for solo.. maybe it was meant there for
solo singing with oud backing.. anyway wikipedia is not always correct!
Abo Zaina - 8-8-2010 at 01:03 PM
Hi Dan
Hanin (ends with N not M) is as mentioned above nostalgia and also refered in arabic to home sickness or passion
Ranin is resonance
actually it makes sence to classify in such manner since some ouds (mainly egyption and Syrian) have the sound I don't know how to describe in english
but it is like the sound of Farid Al Atrach oud so we can call this Hanin.
while others (mainly Iraqi) is characterized by the resonating sounds specially the high tones like Munir bashir and Naseer Shamma ouds.
but what dosen't make sense it to refer each type of sound to a shape since shape may be the same and what make the sound is the materials and the
bracing and the measurments not pear or almond shape.
Regards
fernandraynaud - 8-8-2010 at 05:03 PM
Abo Zaina, the Wikipedia article is likely generalizing a bit. But what you describe makes perfect sense. I hear three fundamental oud types that we
might label as: the Turkish, with the bright zingy buzzy sound, the Iraqi, with an intermediate sound with long "Ranin" sustain and variants such as
the floating bridge type, and the Egyptian, the most percussive, a la Farid or Riyadh Al Sunbati, which I guess is the Hanin sound we all love.
Who knows all the factors that make an oud sound one way or the other, but in reviewing sonograms I can confirm what we hear, namely that the Egyptian
sound has a shorter envelope and an attack on the fundamental immediately followed in some 50 milliseconds by a sort of echo rich in higher and
lower harmonics, while the fundamental decays pretty fast. Obviously the distance between the bowl back and the soundboard is too small for a
simple reflection being "the echo", but somehow the sound resonates and bounces selectively inside the bowl. That character is emphasized
stylistically by playing "hocketing" style with the swinging wrist risha, and by knocking between the melody and the bass drone strings. The
Turkish has a buzz that includes a lot of upper harmonics, and a longer sustaining envelope, that the bowl concentrates and amplifies.
Where the action can be adjusted, setting a lower action brings out a more Turkish sound, especially on a very smooth fingerboard, or if fretted with
the nails like Armenians do. A higher action, and fretting with the soft fingertip pads on a less glossy fingerboard, favors the Egyptian sound. The
whole oud is best optimized for a specific sound, the resonances of the bowl and soundboard, and it's hard to turn one type into another, but an
adjustable neck and a choice of strings can go part of the way on an intermediate instrument like a Sukar. Fat nylon trebles are better suited for an
Egyptian effect, and PVF is better for the brighter longer sound. The brighter "Ranin" timbre is better suited to loud playing.
I hope in time we will come to fully understand what structural features determine the timbre. It's clearly not size or shape alone.