{"id":46197,"date":"2023-03-30T00:19:22","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T20:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/?p=46197"},"modified":"2023-03-30T00:19:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T20:19:25","slug":"from-andalusia-with-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/from-andalusia-with-love\/","title":{"rendered":"From Andalusia with love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Faraj Abyad is an interesting performer. He\u2019s a Syrian-American composer, singer and a multi-instrumentalist, brought up in the States and living in New York City. He specialises in writing and performing music in a distinctive Arabic tradition \u2013 albeit one that sits well in a contemporary setting, where modern Western influences inform his Arabic traditions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has always felt committed to his Arabic heritage, but he understands the influences of other styles in his music. So while he won\u2019t be suddenly flipping from maqam to Miles Davis, he does make full use of the u\u2019rab, the interpretative trills and variations that allow the individuality of the performer to come through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially this is equivalent to improvisation in modern Western music; and perhaps that\u2019s why if you listen with an open mind, you might hear echoes of Portuguese fado, popular Egyptian music, and even 1950s French chanson. Maybe it was just us filtering the sound through our own experience; or maybe Abyad has successfully tapped into an Arabic vein that runs through much Mediterranean music.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Typically he composes music to classical Arabic poetry of the past and present. He says his goal as a musician and singer is to celebrate the beauty of traditional Arabic music while appealing to the modern ear, and in 2022 he was commissioned by the Abu Dhabi Music Festival to produce an album of modern tarab \u2013 music that reflects a heightened sense of emotion or ecstasy \u2013 to the words of great classical Arabic poets, the likes of Ahmad Shouqi, Mahmoud Darwish and Nizar Qabbani. He recorded at New York\u2019s Power Station Studios, where some of the greatest American musical icons have laid down their music, and the result is his recently released debut album Kisses of Poetry<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abyad described this as \u201ca culmination of a year of hard work with a team of over 40 musicians, poets, engineers and artists that tell my life story\u201d. As the press release puts it (accurately): \u201cit pays tribute to the traditions of Arabic maqam and rhythm while at the same time challenging musical traditions and incorporating touches of western and world music techniques\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His concert at The Arts Center on 5 April draws on this work, in particular homing in on the eleventh century love letters written between Ibn Zaydun and Wallada Bint al-Mustakfi. Although this was a time when the Umayyad Caliphate was in its twilight years, culture and scholarship flourished in the courts of the Umayyad city states \u2013 particularly poetry. Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (1001\u20131091 was a wealthy and independent woman of leisure at the court of Cordoba; and she had a brief but legendarily torrid love affair with Ibn Zaydun (1003\u20131071), an influential nobleman with a quick wit and silver tongue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least at the start of their relationship, Wallada and Zaydun had to keep their liaison a secret; and a great deal of their courtship seems to have taken place through poetry, no challenge for two of the greatest poets of the age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This provides the framework for Faraj Abyad\u2019s Andalusian Love Story.<\/em> Influences from modern Khaleeji, Latin, and classical music intertwine with classical Egyptian and Syrian muwashsha\u1e25 styles to create a modern sound rooted in Arabic heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faraj Abyad will be singing and playing oud \u2013 although adept on the violin and percussion, he usually plays the oud in his public performances. \u201cThe oud is now my main instrument because it\u2019s always with me,\u201d he told The National in a recent interview. As with the acoustic guitar, the oud can allow a singer to perform without the need for any other players. It\u2019s also easier to compose on the oud than say the violin. But clearly it\u2019s not just a matter of convenience: \u201cfor me, and a lot of singers, the oud is used as support. When you sing and play the oud, you have to know when to give more space to the oud or your voice \u2013 how to let it complement your singing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has always felt committed to his Arabic heritage, but he understands the influences of other styles in his music. So while he won\u2019t be suddenly flipping from maqam to Miles Davis, he does make full use of the u\u2019rab, the interpretative trills and variations that allow the individuality of the performer to come through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essentially this is equivalent to improvisation in modern Western music, and perhaps that\u2019s why if you listen with an open mind, you might hear echoes of Portuguese fado, popular Egyptian music, and even 1950s French chanson. Maybe it was just us filtering the sound through our own experience; or maybe Abyad has successfully tapped into an Arabic vein that runs through much Mediterranean music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically he composes music to classical Arabic poetry of the past and present. He says his goal as a musician and singer is to celebrate the beauty of traditional Arabic music while appealing to the modern ear, and in 2022 he was commissioned by Abu Dhabi Music Festival to produce an album of modern tarab \u2013 music that reflects a heightened sense of emotion or ecstasy \u2013 to the words of great classical Arabic poets, the likes of Ahmad Shouqi, Mahmoud Darwish and Nizar Qabbani. This album was recorded at New York\u2019s Power Station Studios, where some of the greatest American musical icons have laid down their music, and the result is his recently released debut Kisses of Poetry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abyad described this as \u201ca culmination of a year of hard work with a team of over 40 musicians, poets, engineers and artists that tell my life story\u201d. As the press release puts it (accurately): \u201cit pays tribute to the traditions of Arabic maqam and rhythm while at the same time challenging musical traditions and incorporating touches of western and world music techniques\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

His concert at The Arts Center on 4 April draws on this work, in particular homing in on the eleventh century love letters written between Ibn Zaydun and Wallada Bint al-Mustakfi. Although this was a time when the Umayyad Caliphate was in its twilight years, culture and scholarship flourished in the courts of the Umayyad city states \u2013 particularly poetry. Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (1001\u20131091 was a wealthy and independent woman of leisure at the court of Cordoba; and she had a brief but legendarily torrid love affair with Ibn Zaydun (1003\u20131071), an influential nobleman with a quick wit and silver tongue. At least at the start of their relationship, Wallada and Zaydun had to keep their liaison a secret; and a great deal of their courtship seems to have taken place through poetry, no challenge for two of the greatest poets of the age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This provides the framework for Faraj Abyad\u2019s Andalusian Love Story. Influences from modern Khaleeji, Latin, and classical music intertwine with classical Egyptian and Syrian muwashsha\u1e25 styles to create a modern sound rooted in Arabic heritage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faraj Abyad will be singing and playing oud \u2013 although adept on the violin and percussion, he usually plays the oud in his public performances. \u201cThe oud is now my main instrument because it\u2019s always with me,\u201d he told The National in a recent interview. As with the acoustic guitar, the oud can allow a singer to perform without the need for any other players. It\u2019s also easier to compose on the oud than say the violin. But clearly it\u2019s not just a matter of convenience: \u201cfor me, and a lot of singers, the oud is used as support. When you sing and play the oud, you have to know when to give more space to the oud or your voice \u2013 how to let it complement your singing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faraj Abyad performs the world premiere of <\/b>Andalusian Love Story <\/em>at the Red Theater at The Arts Center, NYUAD, on 5 April. Tickets are AED 105 and the show starts at 9.30pm. Details and booking here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Faraj Abyad is an interesting performer. He\u2019s a Syrian-American composer, singer and a multi-instrumentalist, brought up in the States and living in New York City. He specialises in writing and performing music in a distinctive Arabic tradition \u2013 albeit one [… more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magpie.ae\/staging4\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}