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Alhan Middle Eastern Ensemble
ALHAN explores the rich classical and spiritual music of the Middle East. They will perform a Turkish Sama'i and several Muwashshahat or songs from the Arab-Andalusian tradition. The second half of the program will be highlighted with compositions by the 20th century Egyptian composer Mohammed 'Abd al Wahab and songs written by the Rahbani Brothers for the great Lebanese singer Fairuz. The members of Alhan bring many varied musical backgrounds to their exciting interpretation of Middle Eastern Music. Madeleine Hanna, lead vocals and duff; Lauren Hastings, violin; Tom Kovacevic, oud, nay and vocals; and Eric LaPerna, riqq, and nay.
ALHAN Middle Eastern Music Ensemble performs classical and popular Arabic and Turkish music of the 17th to the 21st centuries. Alhan's repertoire is drawn from compositions of some of the preeminent composers of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and Turkey. They also perform muwashshahat, a song form developed in 10th century Andalusia and performed throughout the modern Arab world. Alhan plays a number of instruments unique to Middle Eastern Music. The oud, on which the theory is given, is a short necked fretless lute. The riqq is basically a well- made tambourine which has a very developed technique including multiple hand positions and ways of striking the head and symbols. The nay is a rim blown bamboo flute which traces its ancestry back to Sumer. One of the distinct features of both Arabic and Ottoman music is the advanced system of maqamat or modes built on tetra chords and microtonal intervals. This system divides the western diatonic scale of 12 semitones into "quarter" tones. There are dozens of modes in current use today. The music also uses a number of iqa'at or rhythmic modes with patterns of five, seven, ten, fourteen, etc as common as three and four and measures that run to the length of twenty eight, forty four, etc beats. Middle Eastern Music, through its microtonal scales and complex meters seems capable of an almost unlimited range of melodic and expressive possibility.
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14 Maine Street
Brunswick, ME 04011
United States
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