“Mamiana” is All Around This World’s adaptation of an Iraqi-Kurdish love song. We first heard “Mamiana” on the Smithsonian Folkways “Kurdish Folk Songs and Dances” (it appears there as one of the melodies in “Love Songs”), and our version arose organically: “Mamiana, sing to me Mamiana, oh how I love you, sing to me Mamiana….” Enjoy!
Tag Archives | Iraq
Getting Real with Rida
Rida El Abdallah is one of Iraq’s most popular homegrown pop stars….
The music Rida El Abdallah blends classical Arabic maqamat with popular contemporary styles and his lyrics address social and political issues by exploring the dynamics of human relationships. Rida was born in Baghdad and began singing the music of Iraq at an early age. He studied music at a conservatory in Baghdad and was on his way to becoming a composer, performer, oud player and even an artistic critic of the Saddam Hussein’s regime–his songs during the 1991 Gulf War urged citizens to put down their guns and play instruments in their place–when he graduated from the Academy of Arts, Music and Theater and was drafted for his eighteen month compulsory military service.
From this point Rida’s life takes a horrifying turn. His story is a rough one and not necessarily appropriate for kids (or, for that matter, for grownups), but you should absolutely read the biography on his website. In a nation that has endured trauma after trauma, Rida’s trials are sadly all too familiar to his fans. On the other hand, so is his determination to survive so he can continue to sing.
Making the Most of Maqamat
Let’s start where we really should — with the Iraqi Maqam.
Classical Iraqi music, like much Arab classical music, is deeply passionate, poetic and has a complex internal structure based on “maqams,” interlocking scales (for those familiar with musical terminology, more like “modes“) that indicate a relationship of notes that creates a particular desired emotion or mood. In essence the Iraqi maqam originated over a thousand years ago, but they came together in their modern form in the mid-1800s. Maqamat (the plural of “maqams”) in Iraq are slower than most others in the Arab world and are predominantly in minor keys.
Iraq Around The Clock
This week in our online class we visit Iraq. In the United States we may not hear about Iraq on the news lately as much as we did for the many years of active War, but when Iraq was front and center in every single news report for years and years and years…you’d think we would have all become experts in Iraqi history, geography, politics, culture………. Nope. When many Americans sit back and think about the country, its people and life there, even apart from what we learned about its immediately recent history – mainly Saddam and the War — what did we really learn? We certainly didn’t learn about Iraq’s several thousand year history as the “cradle of civilization.” In class this week we won’t go all the way back to Babylon, but we’ll purposely ignore geopolitics and make beautiful music.
