Changing Styles

# Changing Styles

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts

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# *Takht* ensemble and the *wasla*

* Urban contexts
  * Cairo, Beirut, Aleppo, Damascus, etc.
  * Weddings, celebrations, public spaces (like coffeehouses)

* Stigma of female singers
  * Questions of appropriateness

* Page 97: newer contexts similar to Vaudeville
  * Inclusion of comedy, dance

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# *Takht* ensemble and the *wasla*

* In the late 1800s
  * All men (some groups exclusively women)
  * One of each main instrument

* More recently a chamber ensemble
  * Ease of touring, gigging
  * National Arab Orchestra, Arabesque Ensemble in the USA

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### NAO Takht Ensemble: "Sama'i Bayati al-Aryan"

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### NAO Takht Ensemble with Usama Baalbaki: "Awil Marra"

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# Expansion of the takht

* 1930s, incorporating more violins, adding cellos and other instruments
  *	Firqa is largely a violin/bowed string sound, unlike the qanun/ʿud heavy takht
  *	Still taught by ear, not worried about bowings

* More details on this next time…
  *	Example: Sabah Fakhri with firqa
  * Note instruments, ornamentations, male chorus
  * Can you hear the quarter tone "tonic"?

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### Sabah Fakhri with a *firqa*: "Ya mal ush-shamu"

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# Beginnings of change

*	Cairo's government run Arab Music Ensemble performing takht music as a firqa
  * Tastes are changing
  * Larger ensembles continued to be in vogue

* Other aesthetics
  * Changing dress, systems of education, not just instruments
  * 1932 Cairo conference

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# Wasla suite

* Collection of songs organized based on rhythm
  * Heavy to light, with instrumental and vocal improvisations

* Based in *muwashshah* (Andalusian) poetic genre

* Later, adapted the (then Turkish) sama'i
  * Like the dulab, opened a wasla
  * Other additions, as well

* Focus on layers of texture
  * Using instrumentation shifts, improvisations, rhythms
  * Constantly changing throughout the evening

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# A *wasla* in *saba*

* Sabah Fakhri (b. 1933), Syrian singer
  * Born in Aleppo, known for performance of older styles, *muwashshah*, command over maqam system

* All translations by Faisal Zedan, transcription by Scott Marcus

### Sama'i (3:00)

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### Ghuddi Jufunik (Avert Your Eyes) (5:00)

* Afwar variations
  * D - D - | - - T - | T - D - | D - T | T - - -
  * D - D - | T - T - | T T D T | D - T | D - T T
  * D - D - | T - T - | T T D T | D T T | D - T T
* Lyrics
  * Avert your eyes [eyelids], O eyes of the narcissus flower 
  * In front of you I became shy to kiss my companion 
  * The beloved slept a deep sleep [its eyelids were wilted]
  * [but] your eyes stand guard, not feeling sleepy

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### Al-ʿInaya Sudaf (Being Cared for is by Chance) (10:00)

* D - - T D - T - - D T -
* Adapted lyrics
  * Being cared for is by chance and that which is given is granted without the perseverance of the feet [not because of one’s hard work]
  * He who knows, knows; and he who is ignorant will blame [others] 
  * Don’t count on any other than the people of honesty
  * You will not attain higher states by intelligence and glory 
  * God makes happy whomever he wants, and makes miserable whomever he wants

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<audio controls="controls">
  <source src="/assets/sabah-fakhri-ya-ma-asad-issubhiyya.m4a" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
]

* Masmudi
* Adapted lyrics
  * O how happy is the morning with the rise of the dawn,
  * with it the sun quenches the thirst of the pearly planets
  * O, O, O, O, by God, I can’t sleep all night
  * Get up and play, it is suitable for you that I slaughter a ram for you 
  * I will become a shepherd for you and herd the sheep with my staff
  * Get up and play, and quench [my thirst] 
  * Your breasts are [like] cup[s] of china O girl
  * Why don’t you listen to me? Now it’s a time of freedom
  * O master, be tender with me
  * Have mercy with the one so taken with love
  * There is no cure and the heart is confused

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<audio controls="controls">
  <source src="/assets/sabah-fakhri-ya-hwayda-lak.m4a" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
]

* Chorus: slow maqsum, verse: malfuf
* Adapted lyrics
  * Ya hwayda to you, Ya hwayda to me, ah
  * May God help he who is suffering
  * O, O my, she cut it; the girl cut her hair 
  * She went to her father and insisted “I don’t want an ignorant grey haired me” [one who acts less than his age]
  * O, O my, from them, most of my suffering is from them 
  * By sword I will take their daughter and leave for my family’s village
  * O, O my, from the girls, most of my suffering is from the girls 
  * Their saliva is the sugar of sugar cane, it heals the one who is sick, the one who is in crisis

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<audio controls="controls">
  <source src="/assets/sabah-fakhri-dumik-dum.m4a" type="audio/mpeg">
</audio>
]

* Malfuf
* Adapted lyrics
  * Dumik, dumik, dumik, dum 
  * On the lap of the precious one, I become sleepy 
  * You promised but you didn’t come and sleep flew away from my eyes
  * I wish I were a green meadow and the ghazal [the beloved] would come and graze and the dew would fall [rain] on me and spring would come again
  * I wish I were an aromatic flower [geranium?] in the window above 
  * Hopefully [every time] my beloved passes by he will answer my greetings [say hello back to me]

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class: title, center, middle

# Changing Styles

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts