journeyman
Oud Junkie
Posts: 492
Registered: 12-28-2003
Location: Toronto, Ontario
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
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samai as basis for improvisation
I was wondering if there are examples of players using the samai form as a basis for improvisation. (takseem) On the recordings that I have, the
samais seem to be played fairly straight, or with a little bit of ornamentation. It would certainly be a challange to improvise in the 10/8 time
signature with the modulations and not get lost. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Peace to all,
Roy
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eliot
Oud Junkie
Posts: 252
Registered: 1-5-2005
Location: The Gorges
Member Is Offline
Mood: Aksak
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It's a real good exercise in building a sense of the unfolding of makams. You decide beforehand that the taksim will be in, say, Nihavent, and your
first "hane" will be in nihavent, your second in nikriz, your third in suzinak/huzzam, and your final one resolve back on Nihavent. Each "hane" is
basically 4 bars long, and followed by a "teslim" that is some sort of simple thing that ends convincingly in Nihavent, hopefully something simple
enough you can replicate it a few times.
Sometimes I "improvise" in semai form when I forget the 2nd and 3rd hanes of a composed semai and I'm on stage and need to not look like too much of a
fool.
In Turkish music, there are a number of vocal aksak-semai song forms, too. They're real different from the most known "saz semai," or instrumental
semais. I believe these were at one time popular in Egyptian repertoire, too - "Ya Wahid" comes to mind.
Maybe I'll record and upload some of my wacky semais for you all to tear apart...
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