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Hafiz
One of Iran's most famous poets
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Qur'an
Holy book of Islam
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Melisma
Sung melodies with many notes to a syllable
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Quarter-tone
Tones that lie in between notes on a Western piano
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Jewish diaspora
The scattering of Jews from their ancestral homeland in Palestine to many areas throughout the world
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Islam
- Religion founded by the prophet Muhammad.
- Includes Five Pillars:
- Confession of faith
- Prayer five times daily
- Almsgiving
- Fasting during Ramadan
- Making a pilgrimage to Mecca
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Ghawazi
Egyptian women who dance only for entertainment
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Qira'ah/'tilawah
Chanting of Qur'an verses
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Mu'adhdhin
The singers of the Adhan (call to prayer)
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Sufism
Mystical form of Islam more accepting of music in religious context
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Dhikr
- "Remembrance" ceremony in Sufi religion.
- Cyclic rhythmic figures accompany a repetitive chanting of scripture
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Dervishes
Dancers who whirl around to achieve spiritual union in the Sufi tradition
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'ud
- Plucked chorophone with pear shaped resonator
- no frets
- 5-6 courses
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Tanbur
- Long-necked plucked chorophone
- 3-4 courses
- drone strings
- teardrop resonator
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Kaman
Name for the European violin
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Tar
Classical plucked lute of Iran with hourglass resonator
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Rabab
Bowed spike lute with hemispherical resonator
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Kamanche
Snort-necked fiddle with a fingerboard and pear-shaped body
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Santur
Trapezoidal hammered zither played with wooden mallets
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Nay
- End blown notch flute
- played from the side of the mouth
- found in classical ensembles
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Zurna
Double-reed aerophone with a bell flare
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Arghul
- Single reed aerophone
- two cylindrical pipes tied together and played at the same time.
- One pipe is the melody and the other is a drone
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Daff
- Shallow frame drum played with hands and fingers
- associated with religious contexts
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Darabukkah
Goblet shaped drum played with the fingers
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Zagharit
High cry rapidly trilled with the tongue
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Circular breathing
Achieving uninterrupted air stream by simultaneously playing and breathing in through the nose
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Tarab
The transcendent emotional experience that comes from the combination of highly expressive music and poetry
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Responsorial
Alternating leader/group singing
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Antiphonal
Two alternating groups singing
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Maqam
Modal construct in Arabic music
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Tetrachords
Segments of four chords related by the mathematics of vibrating string ratios
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Quarter-tones
Intervals that are half the size of the smallest European interval
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Jins
- Smaller segments that form scales
- usually from trichords, tetrachords, and pentachords
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Taqsim
Nonpulsatile improvisations that represent the maqam
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Layali
- Nonpulsatile vocal improvisations
- use melismas on the syllables "ya layl, ya 'ayn"
- instrumentalists follow the singer's improvisations
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Sayr
The "path" of the maqam that is a sequence of emphasized pitches in taqsim
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Modulation
- Temporary shifts to a related maqam
- use a common tetrachord to smooth the transition
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Iqa'
A characteristic rhythmic pattern
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Suite
A series of songs and instrumental pieces unified by their reference to a single maqam
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Waslah
Egyptian name for a suite
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Takht
- An ensemble for playing a suite that has around five musicians that play in heterophonic texture
- Qanun (zither)
- 'ud (lute)
- Nay (flute)
- Riqq (tambourine)
- Violin
- Singer and chorus
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Bashraf
An instrumental genre adapted from Turkish Sufi music
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Dulab
Metered instrumental form - brief heterophonic introduction to the next song
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Muwashshah
- "you, with the slender waist" - strophic form
- developed in the courts of Muslim Spain
- concerns the ideal of a woman's beauty and love
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Waslah in Maqam Huzam
Classical suite of songs played by a takht in Egypt in the maqam of Huzam
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Firqa
- A large ensemble of twenty or more musicians in Egypt
- combined Arabic and European instruments
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Umm Kulthum
- Egyptian singer that sang in firqa and was popular.
- Adapted the qasida form for performances.
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Sha'bi
- Music associated with underclass youth
- Had rhythmic patterns of folk dances
- Monophonic and heterophonic melodies
- Nonpulsatile vocal improvisations
- Adopted short phrases, clear refrains, and syllabic text-setting of popular music elsewhere
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Rai
- Algerian style similar to Egyptian Sha'bi
- Began with female singers singing on controversial subjects
- Overtaken by European instruments and male singers
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Al-jil
- Mainstream pop music that smoothes out the rough edges of other genres
- Features synthesizers and other European and Indian influence
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Nashid
Popular music genre that has explicitly Islamic lyrics
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Rumi
- Iranian poet
- "and the music within us is from thee"
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Dastgah
- Scale that classical improvisation in Iran is based on
- Has a heptatonic scale called Maye that includes quarter tones
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Maye
Heptatonic scale of dastgah that includes 3/4 and 1 1/4 tones
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Gusheh
Short, related melodies that define a dastgah
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Radif
The entire body of gusheh that describe each dastgah
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Chahar mezrab
- A quasi-pulsatile gusheh
- strongly rhythmic
- featured in a dastgah performance
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Motreb
Musicians that perform light classical, dance, and traditional entertainmusic in Iran
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Dastgah Mahur
A popular dastgah that is marked by a characteristic optimistic mood
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Ist
The final note, or tonic, of the mahur dastgah
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Levites
A hereditary caste of professional musicians in early Jewish history
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Shofar
A ram's horn trumpet used in Jewish ceremonies
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Cantillation
A standard method of chanting Biblical texts
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Ta'amim
Signs that indicate the melodic formulas for cantillation
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Cantor
A single singer that performs cantillation in public services
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Sephardic
Jews that settled in Spain and Portugal and were dispersed throughout the Mediterranean
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Ashkenazi
Jews that settled in central and eastern Europe
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Hazzanut
Nonpulsatile songs based on scales and collections of melodic motives
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Shteygers
- Modes of the Ashkenazi cantoral traditions
- Include characteristic motives and tonal relationships
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Nigun
The songs of the Hasidic Jewish movement that have abstract syllables
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Klezmer, klezmorim
- Jewish folk musicians that play dance music for weddings and other events in Jewish communities
- Features syncopation and nondiatonic scales
- A pair of violins, a bass, a dulcimer (cimbalom) and clarinet
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Romance/romancero
- Popular genre of the Sephardic Jews that originated in Renaissance Spain
- Sunk in Sephardic language (ladino)
- Ballad-type folk songs
- Originally sunk by women without accompaniment
- Now sung with guitar accompaniment
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Ladino
Sephardic language used in romancero music
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A Rumenisher Doyne
A nonpulsatile Klezmer song featuring a solo clarinet player that improvises
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