Program Notes & Repertoire
“4000 Years of Maqām Music in the Mediterranean”
Date: 11 May 2025 from 19:00 to 20:10
Location: San Lorenzo Church (indoors), Venice, Italy
Maqām Festival Ensemble:
Nidaa Abou Mrad, conducting, kemanšē, medieval fiddle and violin
Tarik Beshir, singing and ‘ūd
Rafka Rizk, chanting
Ghassan Sahhab, qānūn and lyre
An initiatory historical musical journey that recapitulates in two parts the arborescence of modal music around the Mediterranean.
The first part of the concert consists of a modal music path through space and time around the Mediterranean Sea, in seven steps.
The first station, that of Antiquity, begins in Ugarit (Syrian coast), around 1500 BC, with the Hurrian Hymn H6, addressed in Nidqibli mode to the goddess Nikkal, the first written music in human history, in cuneiform notation, composed by Urhiya, transcribed by Richard Dumbrill and realized by Nidaa Abou Mrad. This station continues with a Greek hymn of the 1st-2nd century AD, the Epitaph of [the composer] Seikilos, inscribed in alphabetical musical notation on a stele at Tralles in Asia Minor.
Document 1: Hurrian Hymn H6
Document 2: Epitaph of Seikilos
The second station is that of ancient and medieval Christian songs: (1) Hymn to the Holy Trinity from the manuscript of Oxyrhynchus (P. Oxy. XV 1786, found in Egypt) of the end of the third century, hymn noted according to the ancient Greek vocal notation, (2) Hymns of the Nativity “Šubhō l-haw qōlō” of the Syriac Maronite and Syriac Orthodox liturgies (oral tradition of Saint Ephrem), (3) Golgotha Hymn of the Coptic Orthodox Holy Week liturgy, (4) Paschal Apolytikion in the Eastern Orthodox Roman Liturgy, (5) Offertorium “Jubilate Deo” in Gregorian chant, interpreted according to the neumatic notation of the Abbey of Saint Gall (9th century), in modal symbiosis with the Oriental Christian chants.
Document 3: Manuscript of Oxyrhynchus, P. Oxy. XV 1786, Sackler Library in Oxford
The third station is that of instrumental and vocal music of the late Abbasid era (based on the alphabetical and numerical musical notation of Ṣafiy ad-Dīn al-Urmawī (1216-1294), transcribed by Nidaa Abou Mrad): (1) Ṭarīqa wa-ṣawt [prelude and singing in mode] min Nawrūz fī ḍarbi r-ramal; (2) Ṭarīqa wa-ṣawt Ḥusaynī ramal on the poem of the Religion of Love by Muḥyi d-Dīn ibn ‘Arabī (1165-1240), musicalized in the Abbasid style by Nidaa Abou Mrad.
Document 4: Alphabetical and numerical musical notation of Ṭarīqa wa-ṣawt min Nawrūz fī ḍarbi r-ramal, at the end of Ṣafiy ad-Dīn al-Urmawī’s Book of Cycles
The fourth station is that of Maghreb-Andalusian music, with the chanting of the qaṣīda “Arāka ṭarūban”, according to the tradition of the Tunisian Ma’lūf (referring to the interpretation of Aḥmed el-Lawz (1913-1958) which originates in the Arab-Andalusian tradition of Cordoba.
The fifth station is that of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, songs composed in the 13th century by Alfonso the Wise, king of Castile and troubadour, in collaboration with Christian, Muslims and Jews musicians, interpreted here in symbiosis with the modality of maqam: (1) instrumental prelude " La quinte estampie réale " (13th century France), (2) Cantiga 322 “A Virgen”.
Document 5: Miniature illustrating the collection of Cantigas de Santa Maria
The sixth station is that of the Trecento, with an Italian instrumental music of the 14th century, the Lamento di Tristano (MS Additional 29987, British Library) and a musical paraphrase of the end of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.
Document 6: The manuscript of Lamento di Tristano (MS Additional 29987, British Library)
The seventh station is that of instrumental and vocal music of the Nahḍa era (Arab cultural renaissance 1798-1939), particularly during the period 1768-1932, in its encounter with Sufism, in its poetry and ecstasies induced by the arborescent spirit of maqām, focusing on the qaṣīda (poem) of the (mystical) “Two Loves” by Rābi'a al-'Adawiyya (713-801).
The second part of the concert is a development in continuity of the seventh station of the first part.
Document 7 : 'Abdu al-Ḥamūlī (1843-1901)
In fact, The Arabic instrumental and vocal art of maqām music has known two golden ages, in the Abbasid era and in the Nahḍa era. The Egyptian singer, improviser and composer 'Abdu al-Ḥamūlī (1843-1901), surrounded by singers and instrumentalists from Egypt and the Levant, replanted the maqām tree in the Nile Valley, after a long period of creative hibernation. Like the endogenous hybridizations that have characterized the reforming dynamics of the Nahḍa in different cultural fields, this revitalization was made by hybridizing four homogeneous musical grafts: (1) the Levantine artistic musical tradition, (2) the Egyptian popular musical tradition (3) the Sufi musical tradition, and (4) the Ottoman artistic musical tradition. From this endogenous mixing comes a hybrid musical form, the waṣla, which is a canonical dialectical path: (I) thesis of measured precomposed (instrumental and vocal) preludes; (II) antithesis of unmeasured improvisations in the cantillation style of taqsīm, yā lēl and mawwāl; (III) synthesis of semi-improvised responsorial vocal forms, performed by the taḫt (a chamber music ensemble).
Document 8: Šayḫ Yūsuf al-Manyalāwī (1850-1911) with Muḥammad al-‘Aqqād’s taḫt
One waṣla will be developed in arborescence from maqām Rāst, with,
I. in thesis, taḥmīla Rāst (semi-improvised instrumental form) and muwaššaḥ “Aḥinnu šawqan” (vocal composition),
II. in antithesis, cantilled improvisation instrumental (taqāsīm) and vocal (“Yā lēl” and mawwāl) in maqām Rāst, and, |
III. in synthesis, dōr (semi-improvised responsorial form) “Aṣli l-ġarām”.
The concert concludes on taqāsīm and dōr “Fī zamāni l-waṣl”, in maqam Nahāwand and Aqṣāq rhythmic cycle (with four irregular pulses).
AEON Collective is a non-profit WAQF driving impact and regenerative development in Saudi Arabia and globally. Through a human-centric, nature-positive approach, we integrate science, culture, and innovation to empower communities and restore balance between people and planet.
TBA21 is a global art and advocacy foundation committed to social and environmental transformation. Through its collection, exhibitions, and Ocean Space in Venice, it supports artists and cultural practices that foster peace, affirm life, and celebrate diversity.
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