Rhythmic cycles and structures in the art music of the Middle East

In Indian classical music, ragas constitute specific combinations of tonic intervals potentially capable of evoking distinct emotions. A raga composition is typically presented in two modes, namely, alaap and gat. Alaap is the note by note delineation of a raga bound by a slow tempo, but not bound by a rhythmic cycle. Gat on the other hand is rendered at a faster tempo and follows a rhythmic cycle. Our primary objective was to (1) discriminate the emotions experienced across alaap and gat of ragas, (2) investigate the association of tonic intervals, tempo and rhythmic regularity with emotional response. 122 participants rated their experienced emotion across alaap and gat of 12 ragas. Analysis of the emotional responses revealed that (1) ragas elicit distinct emotions across the two presentation modes, and (2) specific tonic intervals are robust predictors of emotional response. Specifically, our results showed that the ‘minor second’ is a direct predictor of negative valence. (3) Tonality determines the emotion experienced for a raga where as rhythmic regularity and tempo modulate levels of arousal. Our findings provide new insights into the emotional response to Indian ragas and the impact of tempo, rhythmic regularity and tonality on it.

The ballad as a narrative genre of the chamber-vocal music

In both Persian and Turkish art-music traditions, despite their significant current differences, the musical idiom of the 15th-century Timurid court is regarded as a significant forbear. Late 15th-century theoretical literature, however, refers to regional variations across the Middle East; these were exacerbated by a lack of continuity in Safavid and Ottoman court patronage during the 16th century, resulting in loss of repertoire and eventual replacement. Yet in the late 17th century commonalities between Safavid and Ottoman art-music practices re-emerge. Although not identical, indeed partly divergent, these practices share a core of frequently used modes and rhythmic cycles and use the same structures for complex song-settings; they even have elements of vocal repertoire in common, while certain Ottoman instrumental pieces are labelled ‘Persian’. There is evidence for the maintenance in both traditions of aesthetic constants in the domains of modulatory practice and formal articulation that can be observed much earlier.

Reviewed by: The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun Leslie Hall (bio) The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanun. 2008. One CD (51:26). Performed by the Traditional Arabic Music Ensemble. Produced by George Dimitri Sawa. Ontario Arts Council/Conseil des Arts de l'Ontario. English notes by George Sawa. Distributed by CDBaby.com. ISBN 978-0-9809661-0-7. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, George Sawa has lived in Toronto since 1970, where he completed his PhD in historical ethnomusicology. He is known for his qanun(78-string zither) performances of Egyptian folk, classical, and dance music, as well as his scholarly publications on Arabic musical practice, including his book Music Performance Practice in the Early Abbasid Era 132-320 AH/750-932 AD(1989). The Art of the Early Egyptian Qanunis one of five recordings nominated for a 2009 Canadian Juno Award in the World Music Album of the Yearcategory. [End Page 215]The accompanying 15-page booklet has photographs of the musicians and their instruments, informative notes about the repertoire and performers, and details of rhythmic patterns and melodic modes. Both the recording and booklet are important resources for musicians, scholars, dancers, and music libraries. Performing with George Sawa, percussionist Suzanne Meyers-Sawa shows her skill and flexibility on various tambourines and drums, particularly darabukka(goblet-shaped drum), while Raymond Sarweh adds rhythmic embellishment on the riqq(tambourine). The chamber ensemble allows the listener to appreciate the unique timbres of the instruments, and is particularly welcome among numerous recordings by large Middle Eastern ensembles filled with western violins, cellos, and electric guitars. Originally, the qanun had gut strings and the performer used finger positions to achieve diff erent microtones. In the early 20th century, small metal stops ( mandalsor orabs) were added to create fixed microtones. For this recording, George Sawa, aided by a Canadian harpsichord maker, removed the mandals which had been added to a 19th-century Egyptian qanun. After experimenting with various types of strings, he also decided to re-string the instrument using high-quality harp strings. The lack of mandals means that the tuning is flexible and not limited by a European-inspired tempered quarter-tone tuning system; however, one must then have the skill to produce correct-sounding microtones. Sawa, a versatile performer, teacher, and scholar, has that ability. His unique qanun has a flexibility and warm, mellow sound that is quite different from modern instruments. Most of the repertoire on the recording is lively dance music, primarily from the late 19th and early 20th century, including "Dance of the Noble Ladies" and "Ceremonial Entrance of the Professional Dancers," both from the early 20th century. Other dance pieces include a group of Egyptian Sufi dances and a set of anonymous dances and improvisations compiled as a "Tribute to Mohammad Ali Street Composers." These latter works are mainly in three modes or makam—Rast, Huzam, and Suznak—partly in keeping with the original concept of the fasil(suite) in a single mode, and partly for ease of tuning and recording, as the instrument needs time to settle between tunings. The focus on three makam allows the listener to gain a better understanding and appreciation of these modes. The fast dance works contrast with the slower tempos of three instrumental preludes ( peshrevs) from the 1700 collection by Dimitri Cantemir, a Moldavian prince who lived in Istanbul as a royal hostage from 1687 to 1691 and 1693 to 1710. The peshrevs are all in Rast makam, with the third and seventh lowered by one comma. In the recurring refrains of the peshrevs and in several improvisations ( taksim), Sawa shows his skill in ornamentation and variation, highly valued artistic devices in Middle Eastern musical and visual arts. Some of the [End Page 216]taksim are freestyle, whereas others are in rhythmic cycles such as 8/4 or 4/4, the latter inspired by a 1928 recording. In summary, this recording is both creative and scholarly, with an intriguing mixture of Ottoman and Arabic repertoire and tuning. George Sawa is an exceptional performer with a unique perspective that combines the contemporary and historical. For those wishing to learn about Middle Eastern music, or for those already...

Petri Nets are modeling tools that are used in an enormous number of real-world simulations and scientific problems. The primary objective of this paper is establishing that Petri Net is one important tool that represents quality music compositional analysis process. In this work this has been illustrated how music structures can be processed by means of a more abstract kind of representation and allow to explicitly describing the process of computational modeling of Musicology that present the attempt on music composition from the fundamental musical objects like vocal and rhythmic cycles usage using Petri Net. This attempt has been obtained to answer the query that whether Petri Net is an adequate tool for modeling such a complex process as a complete composition of music from the fundamental musical objects like vocal and rhythmic structures is. The main focus behind this work is to explore that Petri nets can be used as a good basis for retrieval of music information in World Music.KeywordsPetri netsMusicologyRhythmic structuresIncidence matricesReachability graph

Music and choreography interaction in the stage dances of musical theater productions of the 17th – the first half of the 18th century

The rhythmic evaporation cycle is an ideal recorder of astronomical cycle signals, but studies on cyclostratigraphy have yet to be directly conducted on halite-rich strata. The Qianjiang Depression of the Jianghan Basin is a representative Eocene East Asian halite-rich basin, and the salt rhythmites that developed therein are important recorders of climate evolution in East Asia. This study selected five wells for basin-scale cyclostratigraphy analysis, taking the Lower Qian 4 member of the Qianjiang Formation as the research object. This study found that the basinal salt lake facies were dominated by obliquity cycles, whereas the shallow-water deposits mainly recorded short eccentricity cycles. The study also found that s3–s6 obliquity cycles could be detected throughout the salt lake sedimentary record. Therefore, a stepwise astronomical tuning scheme was adopted. First, the target intervals in different sedimentary areas were preliminarily tuned to s3–s6 obliquity cycles, and stratigraphic correlation was performed. Then, the tuned data were further adjusted using obliquity cycles to reveal the impact of obliquity on the development of salt rhythmites and establish a floating astronomical time scale (ATS). Sedimentary noise models and pollen analysis further demonstrated that obliquity amplitude modulation cycles drove periodic changes in hydrology and climate. Based on the spatiotemporal distribution of salt rhythmite–rich strata in Paleogene East Asia, this study proposes that the development of rhythmic evaporites can reveal the existence of a monsoon-like climate. Astronomical influence was an important driving force for developing the middle Eocene East Asian monsoon.

19th century was an era of nationalist movements in music. Nationalism was seen in important regions of the world, especially in Russia and Northern Europe. These nationalistic movements affected international art music composers of Turkey in the early years of Turkish Republic. Generally Turkish composers preferred to use traditional folk music elements instead of the elements of traditional art music. Either folk music with its melodic characteristic or maqam structure of art music is used by many international Turkish composers after the Turkish Fives. Generally, maqam factors are used as building stones in the compositions. The genre has been the less mentioned subject than maqam regarding the reflection of tradition. Besides, it is seen that the forms and genres of folk music are used in international art music. Here I present the composers’ preferences regarding Turkish music genres with notation samples.

The subject of the research is the study of the specific stylistic features of the songwriting of the outstanding composer Suleiman Aleskerov, who played an exceptional role in the prosperity and development of the musical art of Azerbaijan, the study of the role of vocal music in the composer's work, the identification of the main features of his songs by analysis. The object of the study is the songwriting of Suleiman Aleskerov. In this context, the object of the study is to study the composer's attitude to the sources of song creativity, to the sources of folk music, to identify the national characteristics of the musical language of his songs, its originality. His songwriting is analyzed from the point of view of thematic and genre diversity, special attention is paid to the study of musical form, rhythm, mugham, melodic language of his songs. The main results of the study are that, despite the fact that Aleskerov's songs differ in musical structure, textural features, the definiteness of the national mugham is clearly expressed in them, the content of the melody, the intonation core is revealed. The author's special merits in studying the topic are that the main feature manifested in the melodies of songs is associated with the appearance of such mughams as shchur, segah, shushtar, bayat shiraz, which occur above the harmonic structure of a major or minor. Although his lyrical songs show the qualities inherent in folk songs, they differ in musical language. So, here the peculiarities of the romance genre come to the fore, and not folk songs. This is especially evident in the widely developed, smooth melody, which in its style is associated with mugham. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that the songwriting of Suleiman Aleskerov was studied, the musical language of his songs and the stylistic features of the composer were revealed. The composer's songs in various genres were analyzed, the themes of his work, genre features, creative attitude to folk music and mugham were revealed.

This study aims to determine how the structure of music andviolin technique Four Season "Winter" by composer Antonio Vivaldi.In the discussion of this study used the theories related to researchtopics such as Antonio Vivaldi biography, analytical understanding,understanding of musical forms, musical structure and technique ofplaying the violin. The method used by the researchers in this study isdescriptive-qualitative method. The sample in this study such as thesheet music and videos of Four Season "Winter" by composer AntonioVivaldi. The techniques of data collection in this research are workinglaboratory analysis the melody of violin instrument like musicalstructure and technique of playing the violin and literature studyconducted at the Laboratory of the Department of Music Arts, Facultyof Languages and Arts, State University of Medan. From the results ofthis study can be obtained structure of music Four Season "Winter" bycomposer Antonio Vivaldi has 63 bars with 12 motifs includingoriginal motive literal replications and development, up and downsequence, bridges, enlargement of the interval, 10 phrases and is a 3-part song form complex / major played by violin playing techniques asdiverse namely legato, staccato, trill, double stops, and sforzando andusing the dynamic crescendo, mezzo forte, forte, piano, with the righthand position of mixed fingering position of the I-VII. Interpretationof the Four Seasons "Winter" tells the eerie atmosphere transitionalclimate when winter freeze with the sound of the wind through thestrains indicated cruel instrument tones on the violin.

During the 10th to 15th centuries, Armenian musical art experienced unprecedented development. The musical compositions inherited from early medieval times, including psalms and hymns, gradually gave way to taghs (liturgical and lyrical songs) and melodies. By the late 10th century, the Armenian Renaissance began, marked by Grigor Narekatsi’s poem The Book of Lamentations and his innovative taghs, which became guiding elements for the future development of Armenian cultural life, literature, and various branches of the arts, including vocal music, poetry, visual arts, miniature painting, and manuscript illumination. Following Grigor Narekatsi, the tagh tradition was further developed by Hovhannes Erznkatsi (Pluz), Hovhannes Tlkurantsi, Nerses Shnorhali, and others. Their taghs and lyrical songs were closely linked to both folk minstrel songs and hymns, enjoying widespread popularity. The second most prominent philosopher-poet and hymnographer of the Armenian Renaissance, as well as a key figure in the continuation of Armenian musical traditions, was Nerses Shnorhali. He played a crucial role in the transformative reform of the Armenian liturgy and its musical structuring. His vast body of work includes hundreds of hymns, anthems, and spiritual songs that enriched the musical components of Armenian liturgical services, refined the melodies of sacred songs, and enhanced church chanting traditions. Later, in the 17th–18th centuries, taghs gradually lost their prominence, giving way to the evolving minstrel-folk compositions that eventually led to the development of the ashugh (troubadour) tradition. During this period, renowned ashugh schools emerged in Tiflis, Yerevan, Alexandropol, and New Julfa. Among the most distinguished figures of the Armenian ashugh tradition was Naghash Hovnatanyan, a poet, painter, and musician, who composed songs in a language accessible to the people, laying the foundation for the further evolution of Armenian ashugh music. Following Naghash Hovnatanyan, the tradition of Armenian lyricism and ashugh music was enriched by Sayat-Nova, Aghbar Adam, Niran, Shirin, Sheram, and Jivani. Their songs became an integral part of the national musical treasury, serving as cornerstones of Armenian national identity and self-awareness. The rich musical heritage left by these artists played a fundamental role in shaping the entire system of musical expression in Armenian compositional art. Naturally, Armenia’s historical development and its interactions with both Western and Eastern cultures had a certain influence on the evolution of Armenian musical traditions. However, despite external influences, Armenian musical art remained distinct from the medieval musical cultures of neighboring nations due to its unique national character, identity, traditions, developmental patterns, and distinctive features. The thematic and stylistic diversity of hymns, taghs, lullabies, folk-minstrel songs, and ashugh compositions, along with their rich performance techniques, innovative structural improvements, expressive uniqueness, and artistic depth, as well as their continuous adaptation to the national mindset and social-political realities, have fostered the continuous evolution of Armenian musical thought and artistic creativity for centuries.

Purpose of Research. The purpose of the research is to investigate the musical direction of world music as a polystylistic musical phenomenon that arose at the intersection of globalization trends and local folklorism from the point of view of a modern cultural phenomenon. Methodology. The research methodology combines the use of a systemic approach, as well as a set of the following methods: art history and cultural, analytical, comparative, historical ones, which are applied to the consideration of the concept of world music in modern musical art. Scientific Novelty. The scientific novelty of the research is the fact that for the first time the phenomenon of the musical direction of world music was investigated from the standpoint of the relationship among the categories of global, local and glocal in their cultural expression. Conclusions. In the conditions of globalisation and glocalisation, when the processes of fragmentation and compression of cultural texts are present in the world of total communication, all cultures are involved into each other, all of them are «hybrid», heterogeneous, differentiated. The musical direction of world music became a natural stage in the development of world culture and art, affecting a number of national cultures. Not being devoid of objective criticism, this direction serves as a source of intercultural communication and mutual enrichment of cultures. The processes of world migration with the music industry develop their own musical structures, technologies, performance contexts, influencing the socio-cultural environments of national societies. However, the resulting new transnational cultural products also affect authentic cultural samples, giving them new meanings as well. In the conditions of modern life, it is impossible to avoid international influences - ideological, stylistic or technological. Modern music is shaped by both global and local trends, where the local is more relational than oppositional. Contemporary music articulates global social, musical and economic aspects that encompass the experience of both national, locally authentic cultures and world musical practices. All these trends connect with the complex network of modern mass cultural communication, giving rise to new cultural and artistic contexts and phenomena. Keywords: world music, globalisation, local cultures, glocality, ethno-cultural features, musical culture, music industry.

The concept of hope holds profound significance in Ukrainian musical art, particularly within the contemporary ballet works of modern Ukrainian composers such as Viktor Rekalo, Ivan Nebesnyi and Ivan Harkusha. Amidst the backdrop of a nation shaped by a complex contemporary narrative and ongoing socio-political and historical challenges, these composers infuse their ballet music with themes of resilience, aspiration, and hope. This research explores how hope is conveyed through musical structures, sound effects, thematic motifs, and emotional expression within a selection of contemporary ballet scores. The study delves into the intricate relationship between music and choreography, analyzing how these elements harmonize to evoke a sense of hope in the audience. Moreover, it discusses the broader cultural and historical significance of hope in Ukrainian society, emphasizing how these composers contribute to the shaping of national identity and collective memory. By illuminating the distinctive ways in which modern Ukrainian ballet serves as both an artistic expression and a form of cultural commentary, this research offers valuable insight into the power of music to inspire hope in the face of adversity.

Kharkiv regional school of chromatic button accordion playing: the history, the personalities and the priorities of performing

Kharkiv regional school of chromatic button accordion playing: the history, the personalities and the priorities of performing