Melodies of Arabia

The sound of Arabic music filled the room of the Arts & Sciences Auditorium with the performance of David Marcus, a pianist and music theory teacher at Georgia State University, on Sunday, Sept. 18.

Many songs were composed by or native to such places as Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq. Richard Greene of the music department opened up the concert with a welcome, stating that this music was like none ever heard in Milledgeville.

He also advised the audience to “turn off your phones and turn up your soul.”

The performance consisted of a small group of seven people, including David Marcus. Marcus is primarily a pianist and has been playing since he was 4 years old.

He has a Master of Arts in Arabic literature and a Ph.D. in music theory and currently teaches at Georgia State University. He says that the Middle East Ensemble typically plays where they are invited. Milledgeville was one such place.Many of the songs were very traditional in that no modern instruments were used. The instruments included the oud (Arab lute), the nay (wooden flute) and the dumbek or tabla (hand drum). Suheil Sedran played the oud, which looks and sounds like an unusual guitar.

Oliver Santana played the flute, the nay and the saxophone.

Danny Stern and Emrah Kotan played the tabla, riqq (tambourine) and daff (circular drum). Kerren Berz played violin and Sami Jaraysi provided the main vocals for certain songs.

Marcus played the accordion, the piano and provided vocals at one point.

Each of the performers was introduced and the two drummers had their own solo performance, showing off the unique sound quality of the three percussion instruments.

Marcus seemed eager to engage the audience in the performance, encouraging everyone to clap to the beat or even sing along.

Close to the end of the show, student volunteers from the Department of Music came up to sing with the players for the last three songs. Kaitlyn Haley, a senior liberal studies major, was one of those students.

“The words were hard to learn, but it was a good experience,” Haley said.

A few songs listed on the program were not played – as Marcus put it, it would be too much of a good thing.

Most traditional songs from the Middle East can be up to forty-five minutes in length, so for brevity’s sake they were shortened for this performance. The lyrics to the songs that included vocals were taken from Arabic poems.

“Poetry is a really big thing in the Arabic world,” Marcus said.

Many of the performers were just learning to play some of the instruments. Marcus was learning how to play the oud and Oliver Santana with the nay. It had an unusual sound, like a flute only much airier, and did not have a mouthpiece.

When asked what it was like to play such an instrument, Santana said it had taken him eight to ten hours just to get a peep out. “I took YouTube lessons,” he said with a laugh.

The group seemed to have a lot of fun performing, and that joy was as infectious as the music they played.

By the last song, the entire audience was clapping and gave the Middle East Ensemble a standing ovation.

Posted by Kathryn Shadden on Sep 22 2011. Filed under Features, Lead stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.