A King Among InstrumentsLet’s Learn About

the Oud and Arab Music

What to expect!

What Is an oud?

Arab Music

The oud today!

Where does the oud come from?The Arab World

Playing an oud

Parts of an Oud

Performing Arts and

Visual Art

WHAT IS AN OUD?

The oud is a wooden short-necked, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument. It usually has 11 strings grouped in 5 pairs and on single string.

WHERE DOES THE OUD COME FROM?The oud has origins in many countries, including ancient Egypt and Greece.

The early ouds were played throughout the Arab world and even date back to prehistoric musical ancestors!

THE OUD TODAY!

The oud today is based on a design from the 1,000 years ago in 11th century!

There are multiple types of oud around the world, but today we will discuss the Arabian Oud. A figure from 11th

century Iran, showing a short-necked oud.

THE ARAB WORLDThe Arab world is made up of 22 diverse countries. Each country has its own set of traditions, customs, and musical styles, all of which incorporate the oud in some way.

Most of these countries are located in Western Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. The region is sometimes referred to as SWANA (Southwest Asia North Africa.)

THE ARAB WORLD

Comoros

EgyptLibyaSaudi Arabia

Algeria

Mau

rita

nia

Moro

cco

Somalia

Sudan

Tunisia

Djibouti

Yemen Om

an

IraqSyria

Bahrain

Kuwait

Qatar

United Arab Emirates

Lebanon

State of Palestine

Jordan

ARAB MUSIC

The Arab world has a rich musical tradition that dates back to the 5th century. Much Arab music is rooted in the music and chanting of the orthodox Islamic church.

The music of the Arab world is as diverse as its many nations! The music has all grown out of shared traditions discussed in the next slides.

ARAM MUSIC: MAQAMS

In western music, most pieces are based around chords, or a collection of notes that are played at one time.

In Arab music there are no chords, only melodies. The melodies are based on collections of notes called maqams. There are 72 maqams in Arab music! Iraqi musicians performing maqams

ARAB MUSIC: IMPROVISATIONImprovisation, or Taqsim, is built by starting with the first note of a maqam and then repeating the maqam.

The performer will then add notes and rhythms. Sometimes they even use different maqams! The taqsim typically ends by arriving back at the notes played at the beginning.

Watch and listen to this example of a taqsim.

ARAB MUSIC: MICROTONES

In the video, you heard that Arab music uses microtones.

These can be described as: the notes between the black and white keys on a piano.

These additional notes can result in many musical possibilities!

ARAB MUSIC: MICROTONES

For example, a chromatic scale, or a scale using all the white and black keys on a piano, has 12 tones.

A chromatic scale with those tones and microtones could have could have MANY notes: 24, 36, 96!

PERFORMING ARTS AND VISUAL ARTWith thousands of years of history, the oud has inspired countless visual artists.

An early example from Egypt is the Musical Fresco from the Tomb of Nakht in the Theban Necropolis painted in 1350 BC. The person in the middle is playing an oud!

PERFORMING ARTS AND VISUAL ARTThis painting was made over 3,000 years later!

It was painted in 1904 by Austrian artist Ludwig Deutsch. Many of his paintings featured people and life in Arab nations.

PARTS OF THE OUD

Body Fingerboard

Peg box

Neck

Tuning Pegs

Soundhole

Strings

Bridge

Soundboard

PLAYING AN OUD

It is performed by strumming and picking the strings using a plectrum, or pick, called a risha.

When the strings are plucked, they vibrate against the flat top of the oud, which is the soundboard.

PLAYING AN OUD

The vibrations of the soundboard are amplified by the rounded body of the oud.

The sound resonates to make the sound louder so the audience can hear clearly. The sound comes from the sound hole and off of the whole instrument!

PLAYING AN OUD

Unlike a lute or a guitar, an oud has no frets, or bars across the neck to indicated specific notes.

It has a fingerboard, similar to a violin or cello, that allows it to make a lot of notes, including microtones.

If you like the Oud and want to learn more, consider learning how to play!

You can also find and attend performances of the

National Arab Orchestra.

Slides written and organized by Will Bibyin collaboration with Michael Ibrahim,founder and music director of theNational Arab Orchestra.