Oriental music: from the Middle East to the Far East
The Palestinian-American scholar Edward Saïd once complained about the Western notion of “the Orient”. According to him, they tended to mix up many totally different cultures – Turkey, India, China … as if it’s all the same.
At the KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam, they do know the difference. They know that the music in Turkey is completely different from the music that is made in China or Indonesia. In 2004, they still held a festival where all these different traditions were present, with the intention of getting people more acquainted with the music, and letting them see not only the differences but also the similarities. Because in the end, musicians all over the world are very much alike.
This episode we will listen to two concerts from this festival. In the first concert, we hear music from Turkey: Ottoman music to be precise. It certainly sounds oriental, with smooth melodies and exotic-sounding scales. The compositions are very much constructed within a certain style and built carefully, as is typical for classical music from any region.
In the second concert, we travel thousands of miles to China. Key to Chinese art is knowing what to leave out: the scale has only five tones and there are no bass instruments. Instruments like the Chinese pipa (a type of lute) and the dizi (a bamboo flute) echo two different Chinas: on the one hand, we hear the traditional China with folk music from different provinces of the Celestial Empire. On the other hand, we hear modern compositions from known composers, that have a reputation of their own. They aren’t radically different, but the two worlds form a contrast nevertheless.
Playlist
1. Serif Tarian – Ferahfeza saz semai
2. Farabi – Rast
3. Seyfeddin Osmanoğlu – Bayati peşrev
4. Kanuni Omar – Bayati semai
5. Sulayman Ergüner Dede – Uzzal sitro
6. Son yürük semai
7. Kudsi Ergüner – Méditerranéen
8. Kudsi Ergüner – Scoutari
9. The girl from Tjesjin
10. Niao Tou Lin (traditional music from Guangdong)
11. Xing Jie (traditional music from Jiangnan)
12. Kuchnag Jun – Jianqi
13. He Tiangquan – Fenghuang Zhangchi
14. Yangguan Sandie
15. Sun Wenming – Tan Le
16. Bainiao Chaofeng
17. Guo Wenjing – Late spring
18. Wu Bang-zi (flute music from Northern China)
19. Taojinling
