Cool Stuff: Arabic and Indian Music

 Oh, the wonderful places that we have been and the wondrous places we will continue to go! Although I have enjoyed exploring the different cultures and their musics, I am so thrilled that we have gotten to Arabia and India! The history alone is so unique and in return it makes the music even better. Although I have heard this type of music before, I have never really taken the opportunity to delve into and actually study the music that comes from these cultures. 

1. The Food of India - India is quite unique in many ways and one of their staple mottos is unity through diversity. Like all cultures around the world, India has their own style of food. The staple foods of India include wheat, rice and pulses with chana. The most important of them all is Bengal Gram. The type of food that I decided to focus more on was Kashmiri food. This type of food originated from Kashmir Valley which is the crown of India. This place is located within the Himalayas. Regions that Kashmiri food is noticeable in is Afghanistan, Persia, and Central Asia. Spices that are widely used within the Kashmiri cuisines include cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and fennel. In the Kashmiri Muslim tradition, there is a multi-course meal that is called the Wazwan. The Wazwan is considered by the community an essential and fundamental aspect of their culture and essence. I love food and looked forward to hopefully trying some Indian cuisine some day. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-food/kashmiri.html

2. It's All About the Riq - The riq is similar to a tambourine and is considered a hybrid instrument. It is a hybrid instrument because it is an idiophone along with a membranophone. This instrument is used as a traditional instrument in Arabic music. The riq is not only used in Arabic music but in folk music within Turkey and Greece. Players are able to use their fingers, hand slaps, tapping the jingles, and shaking the riq back and forth to make sound. When the riq is played, it opens the door for multiple timbres to be heard. Some timbres are more resonant, and others are sharper than others as well. https://salamuzik.com/blogs/news/all-about-riq-instrument

3. The Maqams of Arabia - A maquam is "a series of scales, habitual melodic phrases, modulation possibilities, ornamentation norms, and aesthetic conventions." Maqams consist of all these intricate details in order to create a rich melodic framework. A sayr is the maqams melodic course. These scales can be built by the banding of two or three scale fragments called jins. The first note of the maqam scale is called the tonic and they are usually made of 7 notes that repeat at the octave. However, some maqams have the ability to go beyond 8 notes. While on the other hand, there are few maqams that do not reach the 8th note.  maqam.php