Oud

• And if you can't come for Succot (http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/all-together-now.html ) come in November for the annual Festival of the Oud (http://www.gojerusalem.com/SitePage.aspx?SiteID=175 and http://www.confederationhouse.org/english/festivals/oud/ ). For Midwestern Americans it is a different form of music. I think that if you are even a little bit open, the sound will captivate you.
• Oud, tabla (drum), and another stringed instrument like a small harp held flat on the musician's lap, plus a very thready Arab "recorder" (the kind you blow into). Two male singers. One female. Oh, she was so good! She came pnto the stage bulgy in her black lace top (over a gold lamee skirt) showed every bulge. No glamor. Just voice. Heavenly voice.
• It was mostly music and lyrics by one man, Jewish, born in Jerusalem in 1890, who wrote Arabic, Hebrew, and Ladino (http://www.orbilat.com/Languages/Spanish-Ladino/ old Spanish dialect spoken by descendents of Jews exiled from Spain) poems in Jerusalem, Tunisia and Egypt. He also wrote music, although his poems are also sung to mudic from Arabic movies of the 1930s. (See http://www.confederationhouse.org/english/festivals/oud/schedule/?date=12-11-2006 )
• A lot of the audience knew the songs and sometimes sang along to complicated rhythms and scales and melodic patterns very, very foreign to western ears.
• If the musicians came to Madison, even there listeners might be entranced, even with ears conditioned to different scales. ButI sat among people whose music it is.
• You may feel a little lost. The patterns you expect in music don't form. But the energy grows. By the end, after the third or fourth repitition, I could join (in a diffident undertone) the chorus of Ya Khabibi.
• Last night Michael went to a concert of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim music oud music. Also spectactularly good. I also managed to get a ticket for the concluding concert of Persian music.
• Why didn't we notice the Festival in time to buy tickets to every singel concert (except maybe the hard rock opera)? We did but thought,"Oud. One concert will be enough of that." Wrong!
• If you're coming to Israel in November, buy tickets ahead of time for the Oud Festival.
• See also http://jerusalemblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/performing-arts-in-jerusalem.html because three or four of the Festival artists also appeared with The Tizmoret http://cdbaby.com/cd/tizmoret )

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox