rojaros
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Oud Blues #1 by The Rhythm Strings Duo
Hello, in this piece we're exploring the use of the oud in a different context ... best wishes
Robert
Oud Blues #1
BTW the oud used here is my old Copcuoglu ...
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Ararat66
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Hi Robert
Thanks for posting that - I really enjoyed listening and thinking of various possibilities it suggests. It is interesting to see how far the oud can
be played whilst retaining its 'Oudiness', and what happens when you go beyond that point then back again.
thanks
Leon
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rojaros
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Hi Leon,
many thanks. We're really pushing the frontiers here. I was amazed myself that it came out that way, because I felt like entering a foreign territory
while playing.
Maybe music itself is universal, but every instrument has something - I wouldn't call it its ...ness (like in 'Oudiness') - but certainly a center of
gravity that comes from its typical sound and its typical way of playing. For me Oud is more of a modal instrument, so it creates a certain
resistance to modulations, especially if they are chromatic, and this friction with my own inner conventions and with the other instrument (cello)
that is different and shares similar characteristics, too, provides room for exploration.
I use also guitars in our work, and this creates an entirely different kind of friction ...
I'm sure it's not our last work of this type.
best wishes
Robert
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Ararat66
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Hi Robert
This is really interesting. What I mean by 'oudiness', which is quite a woolly term but necessarily so, are those qualities that make an oud (or any
instrument) more than just a machine for producing notes. There are qualities to the oud that come from its tonality, but also its fretless nature
and picking techniques.
The fretless nature combined with double strings lends itself to obviously mictotones, slides, and the unique palatte of hammer-ons and pull-offs that
is so different from a guitar for example.
The use of mizrap/risha creates a rhythmic quality very different from a plectrum that seems to my ears to accentuate the unique subtleties of the
instrument.
I came to this from guitar (which I still play) and I think oud could be played in just as 'unrestricted' way as a guitar whilst extending and
honouring its intrinsic nature.
I thought your observation on a sense of resistance to chromatic lines was really interesting. I spent the first year or so simply trying to not
sound like a musician playing the oud like a guitar. Now I have a better sense of the oud now after 5 or 6 years or so, I'd like to revisit this
ground but as an oud player.
I use the word 'oudiness' in a similar way to a term they used to describe painters that were 'painterly' ... the term was often misunderstood as
simply meaning artists that used thick paint in a way that was obviously expressive of the substance of paint. More deeply and subtly it can hint at
the descriptive qualities of the substance of paint to create something beyond its material quality and more than just representation ... like the
droplets of light in a Vermeer ... which are intrinsic to the amazing quality of these paintings and would be different as a photograph.
Taking the spirit of this analogy, some players are more obviously 'oudy' than others in the way that Expressionist painting is blatantly painterly
but some are oudy in the way Vermeer could be painterly. I think the oud is an amazing instrument to explore because of this, and the traditions it
brings with it.
I think also that the oud has such a very strong experimental basis in makam that is fundamental to its tradition - listening to the masters such as
Udi Hrant, Sunbati, Targan, Bacanos, Farid etc you can hear how avant garde and extreme some of their improvisational journeys and musical enquiries
would get.
To me, this is a very interesting aspect of the oud and how it develops as an instrument. My own sense is that its intrinsically experimental roots
have created its musical engine-room, and that these then feed into the mainstream. I am not an expert I have to say, these are just my observations,
but I do find it fascinating.
Cheers
Leon
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rojaros
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Hi Leon, thanks for clarification. I understand better now what you mean by 'oudiness'.
Within that term there certainly is a big space for very different music to be played. I imagine one could get stuck to certain 'microtones' and
certain sound production techniques as much as a 'classical' violinist coud get stuck in the corresponding tradition. So though there is a certain
tradition of experimentation and improvisation within the maqam system, still there could be many subtle prescriptions and 'no goes'. So finally one
always has to muster certain courage to explore beyond these prescription and prohibitions, still playing authentic music. Never ending process ...
best wishes
Robert
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Ararat66
Oud Junkie
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Hi Robert
I'm not entirely sure exactly what I actually mean by 'oudiness' - the point is I'm still finding this out myself  its all part of the process I suppose, a bit like tuning a string up and down to find
the resonance in the middle.
I see the microtonal aspect of oud being rather liberating and insofar as we can get stuck to anything when developing our music it adds another
dimension to the perpetual circle of habit forming - moving forward - habit breaking - moving forward to new habits etc.
I like what you are doing.
Cheers
Leon
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