Arab  Music

Al-Takht

World of KZ

Personal  Prespective

Musical  Forms of  Libya

Aicha  Redouane

Kan Zaman from a Personal Prespective
 by Kathleen Hood
 

As cellist and one of the four non-Arab musicians in the Arabic classical ensemble Kan Zaman, people often ask me why I like playing Arabic music. Sometimes I tell them it's because I like the ornamented melodies. I especially like the ones played in the maqamat (melodic modes) huzam or bayyati, which use quarter tones.

Sometimes I tell them that although I come from a background of playing Western European classical music, I don't miss the lush harmonies which are the hallmark of that music. On the contrary, I feel that the lack of use of harmony in Arabic music serves to accentuate the importance of the melody and the rhythm.

At other times, I tell people I like Arabic music because of its improvisatory and spontaneous nature. It has a structured framework, yet built into that framework are opportunities for taqâsîm (solo instrumental improvisations) and mawawil (vocal improvisations.)

But even though I was originally attracted to the music for all those reasons, one of the main reasons I like playing with Kan Zaman is because of the people. I feel like we are small, close-knit community who share a love of this music.

Kan Zaman started when a small group of us met at Professor Jihad Racy's Near Eastern Ensemble at UCLA. We liked playing together so much we decided to get together outside of his class to play more. We then added singers and started working on muwashshahat (an ancient form of Arabic-Andalusian sung poetry, dating back to the 10th century) and other classical vocal genres. After much rehearsal, we began performing at various venues throughout the Southland, recently performing a sold-out concert at Cal-Tech's Beckman Auditorium.

We are now a non-profit organization. Our mission is: "To perform music and song from the classical and folk traditions of the Arab people in order to propagate this art and associated culture and to educate the local, national, and global communities about it." To this end, our future plans include performing a concert on September 22 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park sponsored by the Arab Cultural Center of San Francisco, a concert on September 28 at Cal Poly Pomona, and starting a school devoted to the instruction of Arabic music. I feel privileged to be in this pioneering group, one of the few of its kind in the United States.