Category: FOREDOFICO

New article/Dossier: MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project

English

[French translation below]

NEMO-Online is delighted to propose this new article by Amine Beyhom on notational tools and graphical analyses of melody and rythm.

Musical notation has been reputed as disqualified for the analysis of “Foreign” musics since – at least – the experiments of Charles Seeger with the Melograph. It is nevertheless still used as the main analytic – and teaching – tool for these musics in most researches in musicology, and today in the teaching of these musics in autochthonous conservatories. Seeger’s experiments brought at his time cutting-edge solutions – and alternatives – to score notation but, surprisingly enough, these solutions seem to have not worked out very well in the long run.

Beyhom proposes a voluminous dossier including three parts and relying on the pioneering works of Seeger – and other ethnomusicologists – as well as on the improvements of his method that we have witnessed in the last decades. The first part expounds the past, and on-going debates about the (mis-) use of score notation as applied to “Foreign” musics, while the second part offers a retrospective of Maqām music notation. The third part of the dossier describes different tools of pitch and spectrum analysis which help understand – and listen better to the analyzed music while exposing, in fine, the author’s work and propositions for the implementation of video-animated analyses in the teaching of ethnomusicology as one major basis for this teaching. The dossier is accompanied by a short power point show (PPS) and 41 video-animated analyses (total time = 2 h 13 m).

Amine Beyhom: “MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 7 |2018-11| p. 145–256.

Français

Nous avons le plaisir à NEMO-Online de publier ce nouvel article par Amine Beyhom sur les outils de notation et d’analyse graphique de la mélodie et du rythme.

La notation musicale est réputée être disqualifiée pour les analyses de musique “étrangères” et ce depuis, au moins, les expériences de Charles Seeger avec le mélographe. Il n’en reste pas moins que la notation classique reste l’outil principal d’analyse de ces musiques dans les recherches musicologiques, et de leur enseignement dans les conservatoires locaux. Les méthodes de Seeger étaient à l’avant-garde de la recherche pour une analyse –  et une notation – alternative des musiques traditionnelles mais, de manière assez surprenante, ne semblent pas avoir pris racine dans l’enseignement de l’ethnomusicologie.

Beyhom propose un dossier volumineux en trois parties, basé sur l’oeuvre pionnière de Seeger – et d’autres ethnomusicologues – ainsi que sur les améliorations de cette méthode apportées au fil des recherches par ses successeurs. La première partie retrace les débats soulevés par l’utilisation (ou non) de la notation musicale classique pour les musique non occidentales – notamment non semi-tonales – tandis que la deuxième partie est consacrée à une courte rétrospective historique de la notation de la musique du maqām. La troisième partie décrit divers outils d’analyse des hauteurs et du spectre d’une mélodie qui sont une aide à l’analyse – et à la compréhension, sinon à une meilleure écoute – de ces musiques. En conclusion l’auteur appelle à implémenter l’enseignement des analyses vidéo-animées de hauteurs dans l’enseignement courant de l’ethnomusicologie, comme outil principal d’analyse des musiques “autres”.

Le dossier est accompagné d’un fichier Power Point contenant quelques exemples d’analyse avec curseur se déplaçant horizontalement sur l’écran, et de 41 analyses vidéo dont le temps total s’élève à 2 heures et 13 minutes.

Amine Beyhom: “MAT for the VIAMAP – Maqām Analysis Tools for the Video-Animated Music Analysis Project,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 4 7 |2018-11| p. 145–256.

Release of CERMAA Video of Kyrie Ekekraxa by Petros Byzantios performed by fr Makarios Haidamous 2012

The CERMAA is delighted to publish this video animation (below) of the chant Kyrie Ekekraxa, a well known composition by Petros Byzantios in the 19th-century Constantinople (now Istanbul). This animation relates to a performance in 2012 by fr. Makarios Haidamous, with the text in Arabic language. The audio was published in Amine Beyhom’s book on Byzantine chant in 2015 (see http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/584), with Power Point animations for four Lebanese cantors (including fr. Makarios Haidamous), together with Greek versions of this chant (8 versions in all). Two other recordings were undertaken with a fifth Lebanese cantor: it was however too late to analyze them as the book was already under print. The two additional recordings were published as audio recordings in the accompanying CD-Rom of the book.
This is the second video animation based on Pitch analysis with the Praat program that the CERMAA publishes on the internet. The first video was the Hurrian Song H6 performed by Lara Jokhadar (http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/archives/926). A series of video animations of different versions of Kyrie Ekekraxa should be made available during the year 2018. The aim of this series is to demonstrate the variety of interpretations of one chant by different cantors.
As with Lara’s animation for H6, the upper part offers a general view of the analysis while the lower part shows the detailed analysis which includes, in this case, an overprint of the Byzantine scale of the 1881 (Second) Reform of Byzantine chant.

Release of HURRIAN SONG 6 (H6) by CERMAA (DUMBRILL/BEYHOM/AZAR-BEYHOM) performed by Lara Jokhadar

Release of the first animated video produced at CERMAA.
HURRIAN SONG 6 (H6) was arranged by Richard Dumbrill, Amine Beyhom and Rosy Azar Beyhom in 2012, and performed by Lara Jokhadar.
The video (below) shows the Pitch analysis of Lara’s voice with Praat, in two sections (upper and lower). The upper section offers a general view, while the lower section shows the detailed analysis, with horizontal red dashed lines showing the tonic and the octave, blue dashed line for the fifth and green for the fourth.
Special thanks to Wim van der Meer and to Kabalan Samaha for their help in producing this first video.

CERMAA Director Amine Beyhom awarded the 2017 Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi Prize / Le prix 2017 Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi décerné au Directeur du CERMAA Amine Beyhom

English

We are delighted at CERMAA to announce that Amine Beyhom, director of the CERMAA, was awarded on the 28th of October 2017, by the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi Prize for the year 2017. The prize is awarded every three years.

The video of the presentation speech is available at https://www.facebook.com/TheSocietyForEthnomusicology/videos/1601780733223099/ : 1:27:20-1:29:04. (The excerpt can be directly watched at http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SEM_2017-General-Membership-Meeting-1601780733223099-12.mp4)

Transcribed excerpt from Katherine Butler Schofield’s presentation speech:

It’s an enormous privilege in this year, of all years, to announce the winner of the 2017 Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi prize, which is bestowed to recognize the scholarly contributions of an individual music scholar or music institution in the Islamic world. The committee, constituted by Laudan Nooshin as chair […] and other members, which are Jonathan Glasser and myself, we are delighted to award the Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi prize this year to Amine Beyhom […]. Amine Beyhom is an impressive Lebanese scholar who has taken on a broad comparison project that links musical traditions that are at the historical heart of the Islamic world. He has engaged seriously with a huge geographical and historical range of musical practices, and has built up a broad network of colleagues in the Arabic speaking world and in France. He has clearly had a long-term influence on musicology and ethnomusicology, and giving him this award is both an honor for him, and an opportunity for him to engage more closely with English-speaking colleagues, particularly in the growing field of historical ethnomusicology. And as well as the work in itself, we were impressed by the number and range of letters that we received in support of his nomination. Please, give him a round of applause, in absentia [applause].

Amine Beyhom would like to express his heartfelt thanks to all the persons and institutions who nominated him for this prize.

Français

Le CERMAA a le plaisir d’annoncer qu’Amine Beyhom, directeur du CERMAA, a reçu le 28 Octobre 2017, de la Society for Ethnomusicology, le Prix Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi pour l’année 2017. Le prix est décerné tous les trois ans.

La video comprenant le discours de description du prix et du lauréat est disponible à https://www.facebook.com/TheSocietyForEthnomusicology/videos/1601780733223099/ : 1:27:20-1:29:04. (L’extrait est directement visible à http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/SEM_2017-General-Membership-Meeting-1601780733223099-12.mp4)

Traduction de l’extrait (texte de présentation du Prix Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi 2017 par Katherine Butler Schofield):

C’est un énorme privilège, et particulièrement cette année, d’annoncer le lauréat du Prix Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi 2017, qui est décerné pour reconnaître la contribution académique d’un chercheur ou d’une institution du monde islamique en musique. Le comité, constitué de Laudan Nooshin en tant que présidente […], et d’autres membres qui sont Jonathan Glasser et moi-même, nous réjouissons de décerner le Prix Lois Ibsen Al-Faruqi à Amine Beyhom […]. Amine Beyhom est un chercheur libanais impressionnant qui a entrepris un vaste projet comparatif qui relie entre elles des traditions musicales qui se situent au cœur du monde islamique. Il s’est impliqué profondément dans un très large panel, historique et géographique, de pratiques musicales et a développé un réseau étendu de collègues dans le monde arabe et en France. Il a clairement influencé durablement la musicologie et l’ethnomusicologie, et l’octroi de ce prix est aussi bien un honneur qu’une incitation pour lui à s’impliquer plus étroitement avec ses collègues de langue anglaise, plus particulièrement dans le domaine en expansion de l’ethnomusicologie historique. Et, autant que par la qualité de l’œuvre en soi, nous avons été impressionné.e.s par le nombre et l’éventail de lettres que nous avons reçues en soutien à sa nomination. Veuillez l’applaudir, in absentia.

Amine Beyhom remercie de tout cœur les personnes et les institutions qui l’ont nominé pour ce prix.

FOREDOFICO joins forces with Sinn el-Fil municipality (Greater Beirut) for the concert of Sabil / FOREDOFICO et la Municipalité de Sinn el-Fil (Grand Beyrouth) soutiennent le concert du groupe Sabil

Sen Al Fiel Poster-corr_cropped