David Parfitt
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Semai Abdel Karim and TP's great idea!!!
Hi
Does anyone have the sheet music for Semai Abdel Karim which appears on George Abyad's oud taqsim album?
David
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Brian Prunka
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If you post an mp3 somewhere, I'll make a chart . . .
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David Parfitt
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Hello Brian
That is very kind of you. There is an RM audio file of the semai on Mike's 'Oudism' page
http://www.mikeouds.com/music.html
The semai forms the intro to Track 1 (Rast) of the CD 'Taksims Oud' by George Abyad. (I guess the semai may have been composed by the same
Mohammed Abdel Karim that Mike featured recently?)
Best wishes
David
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Mike
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Hi David,
I think it is the same guy. I will double check with Wael though.
Take care,
Mike
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Brian Prunka
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Here you go . . . is it what you wanted?
It's not actually a sama'i; it's only 4 measures repeated.
It's in maqam suznak. I'm attaching a gif and a .pdf, whichever works better.
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Brian Prunka
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here's the gif
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David Parfitt
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Dear Brian
Thanks very much for taking the time over that - I really appreciate it. I got as far as the first bar and figured out it was suznak, but
couldn't work out the faster parts by ear. (Can I ask you what notation software you use? It certainly looks nice, and must be faster than
drawing the notes pixel by pixel like I did for my website!)
I must confess to being a bit of a formalist when it comes to Arab music (probably something to do with being a physicist), and I am fascinated by the
underlying structure of taqsims and the theory behind their modulations. I'm afraid my ear always lets me down though when it comes to analysing
them. It is amazing how little work has been done on studying this area in depth, beyond a few very obscure research articles. It seems like Erlanger
was the first Western author to try and codify this stuff (followed by Chabrier, who drew heavily on his work). I have a nice taqsim analysis by
Chabrier based on performances by the Yemeni oud player Jamil Ghanim.
I think your website and the Maqam World one are the first places I have seen anyone attempt to explain the idea behind modulations. Can I ask you
whether you have ever tried to notate a taqsim? I suppose it would be similar to a composition, but without the time signature or bars? I have seen
some transcriptions of Indian raga performances before and they seemed to work well.
Anyway, thanks again for your help.
David
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Brian Prunka
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Hi David,
the notation software I use is Finale. It's not really ideal for Arabic or Turkish music, but it's better than any of the alternatives
I'm amazed that you drew your notes for your site . .. you must have some patience, man.
as far as notating taqasim, I have done it a little bit, but it can be tricky, depending on the amount of rhythmic freedom the player exercises.
My next big project is to transcribe a bunch of Riad al-Sunbati's taqsim . . . he's so amazing.
Reading my website, I honestly think I've done a terrible job explaining modulation . . . I'm trying to put together something a little more
coherent, but it's hard to pin down in words. What I'd like to eventually have up is examples from taqasim, doulabs, samai's,
bashrafs, and muwashshahat to show the progression of the modulations.
Maqamworld is a fantastic resource. I'm really glad Johnny put it togetherd. He's got a great ear and really knows the maqamat--hard to
believe he's primarily a riq player
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TruePharaoh21
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Hey guys,
I know this post is a bit old, but I wonder if any new things have been notated (such as the taqsims that were mentioned above).
While it is nice to notate these kinds of things, I wonder if it would be more effective to simply present which of the maqamat are being modulated
to, which tetrachords seem to dominate in a certain part of the taqsim or song. I really liked it when I was starting with maqam theory in the
beginning when I went to maqamworld.com, for example, and found that page that delineates the modulations in Sunbati's taqsim on Bayati.
http://maqamworld.com/modulation.html
Many people here have years of experience in simply hearing the song and being able to tell what it has modulated to (I'm developing this great
talent, but I'm sure you all are much greater than I am at it!)
Any support for a project like this? I think I brought it up before, but there are tons of posts, and it must've fallen through the cracks.
TP21
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David Parfitt
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Hi TP
I was just thinking about what we discussed a while back too. Maybe we could take a different piece of music each month, say a semai or taqsim,
suggested by forum members (with a poll?). We could then post an audio file of it and maybe a sheet, perhaps in an ongoing thread at the top of one of
the forums so it stays current. Some of the more knowledgeable guys here would hopefully then analyse it and talk about the maqams/modulations used,
something along the lines of the Maqamworld example you mentioned.
I guess I stand to benefit from this more than I can contribute , but if people
are happy to give their time to it (as in the recent "Maqam Question" thread), then it would be a fantastic resource for all of us - kind of like a
monthly lesson!
Anyone have any more thoughts on this?
David
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TruePharaoh21
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Hey David,
I think most people are just reluctant to pick a maqam or a song. Perhaps we should have representatives pick, and then we'll get to see the unfolding
take place a bit more quickly. I personally don't have many recordings of samais and such (as you all can probably tell, I usually tend to focus on Om
Kolthoum, Farid, or Abdel Wahab songs... mostly Om Kolthoum ). As such, I feel
as though I'd be a bit biased in choosing if I was the only one, as I don't have many of the other recordings.
Anyone have a lot of recordings of samais, doulabs, longas, etc. and would be willing to share? I'm willing to be the one who gets the file through my
e-mail, compress it, and post it up here. Then I guess we could take a month in dissecting it. As soon as we have a volunteer for the sound files,
we'll start.
TP21
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David Parfitt
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Hi TP
I've got loads of CDs and would be happy to provide any audio files that are needed. People can have a look at the CDs with track listings on my
website if that helps:
Oud recordings
Don't have much vocal stuff though, so maybe someone else can help out there?
Tell you what, seeing as this was your idea, how about you get first pick of say three pieces of music, and then we start a poll on the forum to see
which one people would most like? That way it will hopefully get a lot more people interested in the whole thing.
We'll have to run all this by Mike of course, but I think he'll be pleased that we haven't been idle in his absence.
All the best
David
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TruePharaoh21
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Hey David,
I think it's a great idea, and truly appreciate the fact that you're willing to offer your sound files for us. I haven't heard Simon Shaheen's Turath
CD, but I'm relatively sure that the sound file I have of him playing Longa Riyad is probably from there. I think if we were to start out with a
longa, though, people would quickly withdraw from the idea. Perhaps you can recommend one of the Samais from that CD. Feel free to e-mail it to me.
I'll then post it up as a real player file (as it easily compresses, and I know how to do it ), and then as we progress and determine what each part of the samai is (i.e. which maqam it is in), I'll post
individual segments. That is to say... the Nawa Athar part of a Samai Nahawand will be its own file after we've determined that it is Nawa Athar. 
Let me know what you think.
TP21
P.S. For anyone who would like to e-mail me a song or sound file that they'd like us to dissect, feel free to e-mail me. It's just my login name
@hotmail.com. All the best
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David Parfitt
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Hi TP
How about if I mail you Samai Farahfaza (Tanburi Jamil Bey), Samai Nahawand (Masud Jamil) and Samai Nahawand (Ali Jihad Racy) from the "Turath" album,
and then you can choose which to start with or we can poll the forum members?
Is MP3 ok for you?
Best wishes
David
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TruePharaoh21
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Hey David,
MP3 is fine. I think the problem with doing a poll at the very beginning may be that too many people don't know about this little project yet. As it
grows in size (and hopefully, it will), I think we'll be better equipped to do polls and such. Thanks again, man. Let's get this going!
TP21
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David Parfitt
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Yep, good thinking! I'll get those MP3s emailed to you asap.
All the best
David
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kasos
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I can't contribute myself, but I look forward to enjoying the discussion, when it gets posted. Thanks for initiating this!
Mark
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