Book Review

[kenjari]

Music In Egypt
by Scott Marcus

This was one of the best books in the Global Music Series. It was clear, thorough, and, within the parameters of the series, rigorous. I was especially happy with the explanations of the melodic and rhythmic modes - the explanations were good, and the listening examples that went along with them included both demonstrations and sections of actual pieces. I especially liked the way that the listening exercises required multiple listenings of the same piece, each time focusing on different aspects of the music.
Also, I just really, really liked Egyptian music. I found myself listening to the music examples for fun as well as for the listening exercises.

Comments

[shellaby.livejournal.com]

What pieces are you listening to? I don't know if the Egyptian music I listen to qualifies to be in a book about it, although I imagine Oum Kulthoum must be there. Anyway just curious.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

There was an example of madh, two different kinds of mizmar ensembles (I liked the sa'idi best), and a suite of classical Egyptian pieces played by a takht ensemble. I was very much into all of those. There was a whole chapter on Oum Kulthoum - she was really interesting, and I'm going to have to look up more of her music. There was also an example of more modern Egyptian pop - a song by the singer Hakim. I thought the particular song chosen was pretty cheesy, but I'm curious about other songs and singers because I'm not writing off an entire genre based on one example.
I'll see if I can paste a track list into another comment.