|
The Music of the Arabs
Habib Hassan Touma
Translated by Laurie Schwartz
Encompassing a history of more than 2000 years, the music of the Arabs is unique among the world’s various musical cultures. Based on a modal tone system --- one of the few autonomous tone systems of our time --- Arab music is characterized by the maqam phenomenon, an original type of improvisation that is common to both secular and sacred Arabian art music.
The book presents an overview of Arabic music throughout history and examines the artistic output of contemporary musicians, covering secular and sacred, instrumental and vocal, improvised and composed music. Typical musical structures are elucidated, and a detailed bibliography, a discography (mainly covering the last 50 years), and a guide to the Arabic alphabet for English speakers are also provided.
The paperback includes an audio CD of seven traditional Arabic pieces performed by contemporary Arab musicians (75 minutes).
0-931340-88-8, 260 pp, 38 b/w photos, 209 music examples, 6 x 9", hardcover, © 1996
|
Price: $29.95 US
|
|
More ...
• larger image of cover
• Other books by this author
•
Table of Contents
•
About the Author
•
Press Release
Review this book and share your comments with other customers!
|
What people are saying about this book...
Media Reviews
"A nicely written personal perspective of Arabic music. . . . [It is] one of the few published books in English dedicated to this subject. As such, it provides a great service and a valuable resource."
— Sami Asmar, www.turath.org
"Finally, a readable, authoritative introduction to Arabic music has been translated into English."
— Arabesque
1997
"Touma’s “primer for professionals” on Arab music ranks among the most important books of its kind."
— Choice
"A wealth of useful and readable information about one of the world’s major classical musics."
— Virginia Danielson, Notes
"A superb survey of Arabic classical music."
— Claire Johnston, Jareeda
"[The Music of the Arabs] offers a wealth of infomration that a music scholar will appreciate, and Touma goes to great length to make the book comprehensible and interesting to the non-musician as well. [It] is recommended reading for anyone seriously interested in Arab music and belongs on the shelves of all music libraries."
— Laila Salibi-Cripe, Middle East Librarians Association, Number 77
2004
Customer Reviews
Essential reading | February 4, 2003
Reviewer: K. C. from Detroit, MI
This is probably the seminal book in English on Middle Eastern music. Having scanned a friend's copy, I can hardly wait to read it.
Excellent | January 30, 2003
Reviewer: A. R. from Aylmer, Quebec
An absolutely necessary book. Scientific. Congratulations to the author.
|
|
