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.

Ahmed Mukhtar, Iraki virtuoso udist invited for a workshop/demo in Beirut by CERMAA/FOREDOFICO

Ahmed al-Mukhtar, Iraki London based virtuoso ud player and teacher of Arabian music is invited by CERMAA/FOREDOFICO to demonstrate Iraki improvisations in the frame of a Masterclass at the Lebanese Conservatory (CNSML) in Sinn-el-Fil (Beirut-Lebanon), from 15:00 to 17:00 on Thursday the 23rd of April 2015, venue “S”.

Ahmd Mukhtar
Ahmed Mukhtar

Mukhtar will also sign his new CD “Babylonian fingers” on this occasion (booklet available for download at http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/?p=497).

CD cover

Free admission for all who wish to listen or take part in the masterclass; below: the text of the official invitation.

 دعوة عامّة

ورشة عمل ومحاضرة حول العود مع المؤلف الموسيقي وعازف العود أحمد مختار

يدعو المعهد الوطني العالي للموسيقى بالتعاون مع مركز الأبحاث حول الموسيقى العربية وقريباتها إلى ورشة عمل ومحاضرة حول العود والمقام العراقي والارتجال للمؤلف وعازف العود أحمد مختار يوم الخميس الواقع في 23 من شهر نيسان 2015 في القاعة “س” في سن الفيل في تمام الساعة 3:00

يتخلّل المحاضرة إطلاق للأسطوانة الجديدة للمؤلف أصابع بابلية

لمحة عن المؤلّف

في مطلع 2015 اختير الفنان العراقي احمد مختار لمشروع إصدار اسطوانة مع 12 موسيقي من العالم تحت عنوان “موسيقى العالم من اجل اطفال الحروب” برعاية الامم المتحدة لمكانته الموسيقية ولتوظيفه الموسيقى في خدمة الإنسانية. كما ومُنح جائزة الحمراء للفنون الشرقية برعاية الملكة البريطانية عام 2009 وكُرّم عام 2005 من قبل المنظمة الطبية الدولية لمساعدة المتضررين من الحروب والإرهاب واختير في عام 1999 مع 16 موسيقي لإصدار اسطوانة بعنوان “المادة 14” وهي مادة لأول قانون حقوق الانسان في الامم المتحدة

لمعلومات حول الأسطوانة، الرجاء قراءة الدفتر المرافق للقرص المدمج على العنوان التالي

http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/?p=497

لمزيد من المعلومات حول المؤلف الرجاء مشاهدة الروابط التالية

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJE3zJ4whQs&feature=youtu.be

www.amukhtar.com
http://www.taqasim.net/school/index.html
https://www.facebook.com/ahmed.mukhtaroud

 

 

Richard Dumbrill invited by CERMAA/FOREDOFICO at CNSM

Richard Dumbrill is an English archaeomusicologist. He will speak about ancient Middle-Eastern musical systems at the Lebanese Conservatory in Sinn-el-Fil (Beirut-Lebanon), from 16:30 to 18:00 on Thursday the 23rd of April 2015, venue “S”. Dumbrill’s paper to be translated by Rosy Azar Beyhom during the event.

Richard Dumbrill will show that the earliest form of music theory sprouted in the Ancient Middle East some 4000 years ago, long before Pythagoras. Unlike with Greek music theory, where there is no contemporary textual evidence, (the earliest copies dating from the Western Dark Ages, around 1000 AD) Mesopotamian evidence rests with cuneiform clay tablets. The oldest dates from 2300 BC and the most recent from the first millennium BC. These texts are unequivocally about music theory and explain the formation of systems the nature of which being the source of the later maqam system. It is also very likely, that they used more than one musical system and this would be comparable to their metrology which also used a variety of systems.

Free admission; below: the text of the official invitation.

دعوة عامّة

“بداية التنظير الموسيقي في الشرق الأوسط القديم”

محاضرة للبروفيسور ريشارد دمبريل

في الثلاثاء 21 نيسان 2015 في القاعة “س” سن الفيل الساعة 4:30

 

يدعو المعهد الوطني العالي للموسيقى بالتعاون مع مركز الأبحاث حول الموسيقى العربية وقريباتها إلى محاضرة للبروفيسور ريشارد دمبريل حول أقدم ما وجده الإنسان حول التنظير الموسيقي في الشرق الأوسط القديم

يتناول المُحاضر حقبة تعود إلى 4.000 عام أي إلى ما قبل فيتاغورس، ترتكز على النقوش المسمارية من بلاد ما بين النهرين. تتميّز هذه النصوص المنقوشة بالتفسيرات حول الأنظمة الموسيقية وتكوينها وتطورّها (من المرجح) إلى ما يُعرف حاليًا بالمقام

يعود أقدم نقش مسماري إلى 2.300 ق.م. والأحدث إلى الألفية الأولى ق.م

أظهرت الدراسات حتى الآن أنّ الأقدمين كانوا يستعملون عدّة أنطمة موسيقية وذلك يتطابق مع تعدّد أنظمة القياس التي وُجدت في تلك الحقبة

 Figures from RD Beirut presentation 2015_Page_4 Figures from RD Beirut presentation 2015_Page_5 Figures from RD Beirut presentation 2015_Page_1 Figures from RD Beirut presentation 2015_Page_2 Figures from RD Beirut presentation 2015_Page_3

Le livre d’Amine Beyhom Théories de l’échelle et pratiques mélodiques chez les Arabes ‎–‎ Tome 1 est en accès libre sur internet

Français

Le livre d’Amine Beyhom Théories de l’échelle et pratiques mélodiques chez les Arabes ‎–‎ Tome 1 est en accès libre sur internet. La version proposée (V. 1.01) a été revue et corrigée.Vous pouvez télécharger librement la version en basse résolution (impression possible à 150 ppp) à l’adresse : http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/?p=482.

Bonne lecture…

 

English

Amine Beyhom’s book Théories de l’échelle et pratiques mélodiques chez les Arabes – Tome 1 is now freely available on the Web. This version (V. 1.01) has been emendated and updated. Free download in low res for printing at 150 dpi at: http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/?p=482.

Call for papers for/ Appel à contributions pour/ NEMO-Online No. 2

English

NEMO-Online No. 2 : Call for papers

Research groups CERMAA, ICONEA and PLM are seeking papers for the second issue of NEMO on the theme of ‘Modality in all its forms’. All papers welcome including Occidental forms of modality and subject to editorial rules. Papers to be sent before the end of July 2013 to Richard Dumbrill, or Amine Beyhom.

Français

Appel à contributions pour NEMO-Online N° 2

Les centres et groupes de recherches CERMAA, ICONEA et PLM ont le plaisir de confirmer que le deuxième numéro de NEMO sera consacré à “La modalité dans tous ses états” et acceptera les articles concernant tous les aspects de la modalité, y compris dans toutes ses déclinaisons occidentales, sous réserves de conformité aux normes de la revue et de suivi du protocole d’édition.

Les articles doivent être envoyés avant fin juillet 2013 à Richard Dumbrill ou Amine Beyhom.

Perma/link/lien : http://nemo-online.org/archives/1196

FOREDOFICO, CERMAA and ICONEA with the “Friends of the National Museum” foundation to produce a documentary film on the Making of Hurrian Song H.6.

Lyre-reconstructed-by-R.-Dumbrill
A lyre reconstructed by Richard Dumbrill for the Hurrian song H.6. project in Lebanon

In October 2012, ICONEA Director Richard Dumbrill visited Lebanon, initially to attend a conference in Beirut on Rituals in the Ancient Levant. The conference was cancelled following a bombing in the metropolis. Dumbrill seeked help from CERMAA/FOREDOFICO to produce a documentary film on the subject he had intended to give at the National Museum. The documentary, funded by the Friends of the National Museum and CERMAA/FOREDOFICO is about the research work Dumbrill has undertaken for the past 25 years on the translation of the oldest known musical text, written in the Hurrian language, dating from about 1400 years BC, and found at Ugarit in North East Syria in the 1950s. The documentary was shot by Paul Mattar, Founding member of FOREDOFICO, in a renowned archaeological site, and at the headquarters of CERMAA, in the suburbs of Beirut.

Rosy Azar Beyhom and Amine Beyhom, CERMAA founding members contributed to the Orientalisation of Dumbrill’s original rendition of the Hurrian material. The song was recorded at the CALA recording studios, a subdivision of FOREDOFICO specialised in archival recordings. Saad SAAB, President of FOREDOFICO made improvisastions on the Ꜥūd on the theme of the original music. The singing of the melody, and the acting on site was entrusted to a young and promising Lebanese singer, Lara Jokhadar Al-Aro. There, Lara played the role of a young woman afflicted with the curse of being childless, and sang her sorrow to the moon goddess NIKKAL so that she may bear child.

 

Lara Jokhadar al-Aro

 

 

The original score for the Hurrian H.6. song has been published in Richard Dumbrill’s article for NEMO N°1 :

  • Dumbrill, Richard : “Modus Vivendi,” Near Eastern Musicology Online 1 1 |2012-11| p. 89–116.

Theme for/Thème de NEMO-Online N° 2

English

NEMO-Online No 2 : Contribution theme.

Research groups CERMAA, ICONEA and PLM have the pleasure of calling for papers for the second issue of NEMO on the theme of ‘Modality in all its forms’. All papers welcome including Occidental forms of modality and should respect editorial terms and conditions.
Papers to be sent to either Richard Dumbrill or Amine Beyhom.

Français

Thème de NEMO-Online N° 2

Les centres et groupes de recherches CERMAA, ICONEA et PLM ont le plaisir d’annoncer que le deuxième numéro de NEMO sera consacré à “La modalité dans tous ses états” et acceptera les articles concernant tous les aspects de la modalité, y compris dans toutes ses déclinaisons occidentales, sous réserves de conformité aux normes de la revue et de suivi du  protocole d’édition.

Les articles doivent être envoyés à Richard Dumbrill et/ou Amine Beyhom.

The first issue of NEMO-Online Vol. 1 No. 1 is now available / Sortie de NEMO-Online Vol. 1 No. 1

English

NEMO-Online Vol. 1 No. 1 is available

CERMAA is delighted to inform you that the first issue, of Vol. 1 No. 1 (November 2012) is now available. It includes contributions of François Picard (France), Erik Marchand (France), Jacob Olley (Great Britain), Rosy Azar Beyhom (Lebanon), Markos Skoulios (Greece), Richard Dumbrill (Great Britain) et Amine Beyhom (Lebanon ; France).
The editorial and the summary page are available online. The hard copy (Price = 40 €) is distributed by Geuthner, France and downloadable from December 2013.

Français

Sortie de NEMO-Online Vol. 1 No. 1

Le CERMAA a l’immense plaisir d’annoncer la sortie du Volume 1, Numéro 1 de NEMO (Novembre 2012) avec des contributions de François Picard (France), Erik Marchand (France), Jacob Olley (Grande-Bretagne), Rosy Azar Beyhom (Liban), Markos Skoulios (Grèce), Richard Dumbrill (Grande-Bretagne) et Amine Beyhom (Liban ; France).

L’Éditorial et le Sommaire sont accessibles en ligne. La version imprimée (Prix = 40 €) est distribuée par Geuthner ; la version numérique (payante) sera mise en ligne à partir de décembre 2013.

(shortlink=http://foredofico.org/CERMAA/?p=394)

 

 

CERMAA and ICONEA at USEK

Amine Beyhom of CERMAA and Richard Dumbrill of ICONEA presented papers on July 12-14 2012 Conference at the University of the Holy Spirit (USEK) at Kaslik Lebanon.

Amine Beyhom spoke about the need for accurate definition in specific terms.

Richard Dumbrill spoke of possible Near-Eastern origins of both maqam and Pythagorean systems in Bronze Age archeomusicology.

Theme for / Thème pour / NEMO-Online N°1 – ‘Questioning Modality’ – “La modalité en question”

Theme: ‘Questioning Modality’ – “La modalité en question”

 

The theme for the forthcoming issue of NEMO-Online (VOL. 1) is ”Questioning Modality’ or, “La modalité en question“. Contributions welcome in English, German, French and Arabic. Please email by end of November 2011 to Amine Beyhom.

Click here for guidelines

Please read the discussion below, in English or in French, as well as  recent postings (French), referencing guidelines. Please download the transliteration guidelines for the Arabic language prior to sending your paper.

Discussion (English) :

Winnington-Ingram’s definition (Mode in Ancient Greek Music, Cambridge University Press 1936) is a classic:

Mode is essentially a question of the internal relationships of notes within a scale, especially of the predominance of one of them over the others as a tonic, its predominance being established in any or all of a number of ways: e.g., frequent recurrence, its appearance in a prominent position as the first note or the last, the delaying of its expected occurrence by some kind of embellishment.

Other definitions, mostly influenced by Ancient Greek philosophy or by Indian music ragas, introduce the concept of ‘ethos’, or may emphasize  internal balance between the pitches of  the scale. There is also much confusion about the perception of “mode” and “maqām”, or with any other terms, for a particular culture, a melodic construction the characteristics of which being akin to Winnington-Ingram’s definition.

However, a series of disturbing questions are raised: does mode really exist (Harold Powers, ‘Is mode real? Pietro Aron, the octenary system, and polyphony,’ 1992) ? Is mode an intellectual construct of the West (Harold Powers, ‘Modality as a European cultural construct,’ 1992) similar to the construction of  ’Folk Music’ versus ‘Art Music”‘ (Matthew GELBART, The Invention of ‘Folk Music’ and ‘Art Music’, Cambridge University Press, 2007) ? Can the term ‘mode’ have a single definition, from Ancient to Contemporary Music, from Scotland and Brittany to Iran, India and the Arabian Peninsula ? Is tonality related to modality, and how can they be defined ? And what is the role, if any, of formulation  in modal construction ?

Technical problems arise, such as mode versus pentatonism; defining its boundaries; where does it begin, where does it end, and does mode influence the music or reciprocally whenever they meet ? Is mode relevant to non octavial scales and to the construction of scales with genera ? Are modality and temperament compatible ?

Although modality is widely used in musical discussions, no definition is yet satisfactory.

This first issue will concentrate on non Western mediaeval or polyphonic modality, including papers dealing with the modality of Western Folk music.

 

Discussion (French) :

La définition du mode par Winnington-Ingram (Mode in Ancient Greek Music, Cambridge University Press 1936) est considérée comme un classique :

Mode is essentially a question of the internal relationships of notes within a scale, especially of the predominance of one of them over the others as a tonic, its predominance being established in any or all of a number of ways: e.g., frequent recurrence, its appearance in a prominent position as the first note or the last, the delaying of its expected occurrence by some kind of embellishment.

D’autres définitions, peut-être influencées par les descriptions de musiques de l’Inde ou encore par la philosophie grecque, intègrent le concept de l’”éthos” dans cette définition, ou peuvent insister sur un équilibre interne entre les degrés de l’échelle ; par ailleurs, certaines conceptions confondent “mode” avec “maqām” ou avec tout autre terme se rapportant à une musique dont les caractéristiques sont proches de celles décrites par Winnington-Ingram.

Ces définitions appellent plusieurs questionnements, dont ceux concernant l’existence même de la modalité (Harold Powers, “Is mode real? Pietro Aron, the octenary system, and polyphony,” 1992) et son introduction dans la réflexion sur la musique (Harold Powers, “Modality as a European cultural construct,” 1992), avec un parallélisme possible, sinon probable, entre cette construction et celle du concept de musique “folk”, en opposant celle-ci à la musique dite “d’art” (Matthew GELBART, The Invention of “Folk Music” and “Art Music”, Cambridge University Press, 2007).

D’autres questions peuvent être posées : peut-on se contenter d’une définition unique du mode, notamment pour des musiques s’échelonnant de l’Antiquité jusqu’à nos jours, et se déployant dans une aire géographique qui va de l’Écosse et de la Bretagne jusqu’à l’Iran, l’Inde et la Péninsule arabique ? La “tonalité” est-elle liée à la “modalité”, et comment ? La modalité influence-t-elle d’autres musiques, et est-elle influencée par elles, et comment ? Quel est le rôle de la formularité dans la modalité ? Des maqām supposés être pentatoniques, ou basés sur une structure pentatonique, peuvent-ils être des “modes” ? Peut-on toujours parler de modalité dans le cas de structures non-octaviantes, ou encore basées sur des constructions scalaires en genres ? Modalité et tempérament sont-ils compatibles ? etc.

Toutes ces questions montrent que les concepts de “mode” et de “modalité”, bien que largement répandus, sont encore à préciser.

Le premier numéro se concentrera sur la modalité hors Occident médiéval ou polyphonique, mais incluant les musiques traditionnelles européennes.