londonoudi
Oud Maniac
Posts: 68
Registered: 1-1-2009
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
do-re-mi; solfege? (Beginner question)
Hi everyone,
I am wondering if all will become clear at some stage but my question is this:
When we name a maqam we call it for example, bayati on do, or bayati on re, nahawand on do or nahawand on sol (which is apparently farahfaza).
But when we do solfege, or call out the notes in the maqam we call the do re mi (movable do) regardless of the fact that the scale started on re/sol
i.e. something other than 'do'. E.g. Farahfaza starts on sol not do.
So why is this done so? Why arent the notes just named from the beginning and fixed. E.g. farhfaza would be sol-la-si-do-re-mi-fa-sol.
Am I the only one who finds this slightly confusing? Or has this been done to simplify things? Are there any pitfalls things I should worry about
regarding this system in general? Can we just call the notes c-d-e-f-g-a-b-c?
As I said I am a beginner and only just starting to read music so any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks!!
London oudi
|
|
|
myeyes2020
Oud Junkie
Posts: 172
Registered: 10-5-2007
Member Is Offline
Mood: na3im
|
|
Hi London,
I've never seen a musician of Arabic music use that concept of "moveable do." Middle Eastern musicians are trained with Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La,
Si.
I've also observed that if a maqam, like Bayati, which traditionally begins on Re, is transposed to say maqam Bayati on Sol, then the notes would be
"sol la si do re mi fa sol." Some Westerners will promounce the solfege differently for flats and sharps. I observed that Middle Eastern musicians
will keep the pronounciation the same. In the example of Bayati sol, it's understood that "la" is really "la nus bemol" (A half flat) and si is (b
flat) etc...
The musician also has the freedom and descretion to describe as "la nus bemol" etc...
Of course you can use "C D E F G A B" as long as you are consistent. Most Middle Easterners may not be comfortable with that and it may cause some
confusion if you are comunicating. "C" sounds exactly like "Si."
In the following video clip: at 3:45 is an example of how an Egyptian instructor, Dr Atef Abdel Hamid, describes jins bayat and jins kurd. as he calls
out the tetrachord, he says "mi" both times to describe the two different notes Eflat and Ehalf flat. then he desribes the notes in more detail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoGdmjTcq54&feature=related
hope that helps!
Adel Ibrahim
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbprobrown/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
