Malek Jandali - Echoes from Ugarit

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Malek Jandali - Echoes from Ugarit
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Artist...............: Malek Jandali
Album................: Echoes from Ugarit
Genre................: Classical
Year.................: 2009
Codec................: Shine
Version..............: MPEG 1 Layer III
Quality..............: Extreme, (avg. bitrate: 224kbps)
Channels.............: Dual Channel / 44100 hz
Tags.................: ID3 v1.1, ID3 v2.4
Posted by............: Somebody on 13/03/2010

Included.............: NFO, PLS, M3U
Covers...............: Front

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Tracklisting
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1. (00:05:39) - Andalus
2. (00:08:05) - Sulaima
3. (00:03:22) - Piano Dream
4. (00:06:03) - Leil
5. (00:07:21) - Yafa
6. (00:04:59) - Echoes from Ugarit
7. (00:04:42) - Eid
8. (00:05:05) - Arabesque

Playing Time.........: 00:45:17
Total Size...........: 74.2 MB

NFO generated on.....: 13/03/2010 6:40:45 PM


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Melodies Descriptions:

1 Andalus: Andalus is a rhapsody flavored with many near Eastern and
Spanish melodies. The complex harmony reflects the tolerant multi-cultural,
multi-religious Islamic Spain. The linear Arabic melodies flow with a vivid tango
rhythm symbolizing the Arabic influence on European music. The scene of this
piece is Alhambra, the proud jewel of the Islamic empire in Europe.

2 Sulaima: Sulaima is based on an old Syrian love poem. The melody,
considered with or without the words, is a song of the heart: as simple,
concise, and appealing as the thought in the lines from which it was inspired.
The accompaniment is enhancing and enriching the effect of the melody. The
vigorous central section provides an abrupt contrast, but the return of the
opening ensures that this chant ends in a mood of ethereal tranquility.

It sings the love of a deep, strong but well-poised nature. Faithful and true
but devoid and frenzied, like a fire that would warm and brighten a life,
without consuming it. It demands a quality of tone like that of the cello, deep,
rich and resonant but never explosive. My beloved grandfather, Bourhan
Droubi, used to sing this song to my grandmother. His voice still resonates in
my heart, and this piece is dedicated to his loving memory.

3 Piano Dream: Piano Dream, in E minor, is the mechanical piece of the
album. It may remind one of a Bach Toccata, with its red-blooded chromatics,
and its quirky baroque turns and ornaments. This "Syrian Suite" opens with a
tranquil running accompaniment in the left hand, indicating the inner voice of
the heartbeat of time. There are feelings of rushing, nonstop activity, and
agitation. Imagine a Venetian merchant in the 16th century visiting the
ancient Syrian bazaars experiencing in awe its vivid colors, rich spices and
exotic sounds. There is a mischievous feeling, but also one of grace.

4 Leil: Leil is a nocturne in G minor. The term Leil means "night" in Arabic. This
piece properly embodies the nocturnal scenes, moods, and experiences. It is
the mood of a great and noble human heart, with infinite capacities for
tempestuous emotion. But, in its hour of introspective reverie, it finds a
sympathetic environment and symbolic expression of its own solemn peace in
the kindred silence of the summer night.

5 Yafa: Yafa is about the profound human desire of returning home and an
anguish over a dear loss. The piece is in F minor and contains interesting
rhythmic turns switching between fear and anger. Massive contrasts of
sound and movement create constant tension and relief, and shape an acute
formal and dynamic clarity.

The constantly recurring sevenths and ninths and frequent suspensions lead
to warm, emotional melodies and rich, sensuous harmonies. This combination
suggests vague, half mystical, half passionate longings, the indefinable
unrest, the subtle blending of joy and sadness, which wake and stir the
human heart at the voice of justice. The music depicts a dream of those
happier days, long past, touched by a transient gleam of hope.

6 Echoes from Ugarit: Echoes from Ugarit is much darker and more reflective,
taking us back to 3400 B.C. and has some fascinating chord changes. This
work is based on the oldest music notation in the world, discovered on clay
tablets in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit. These tablets contain a hymn to
the moon god's wife, Nikkal. Although thousands of such tablets were
discovered over the years, these very tablets contain words and notation of
a song all composed in the same "maqam" or mode (called nid qabli). Further,
they contained instructions for a singer accompanied by musicians, as well as
instructions on tuning the strings of the harp.

The hymn was arranged into a melancholic piano work preserving its rhythmic
structure and building a musical bridge to the past. The scale was modified to
the modern D minor.

The following excerpt from the Ugaritic hymn provides us a glimpse into the
people, mood and music of this primordial culture. Apparently, the song is a
lament, "the plaintive cry of an infertile woman" seeking the answer to her
barrenness from the moon goddess, Nikkal.

She (the goddess) let the married couples have children,
She let them be born to the fathers
But the begotten will cry out, "She has not borne any child"
Why have not I as a true wife borne children for you?


7 Eid: Eid is a musical festival celebrating jubilant tunes and cheers. The
central idea of this music is traditional Syrian folk songs. The work is full of the
jollity of a family celebrating their most honored holiday, the "Eid". The music
is piquant, brilliant and playful, full of odd rhythmic devices and fascinating
melodies.

Frequent changes of time signature, scales and tempo, together with rich
Arabic melodies and jazz chords, conspire to create that rhapsodic and
expressive style. The work contains several fine bits of attractive, sensuous
Syrian melodies, many rich and vivid harmonic combinations, some telling
cadenzas, and one superb climactic finale.

8 Arabesque: he expression "Arabesque" is derived from the term "Arab".
The title of this piece implies florid, melodic figuration while pursuing a
repetitive rhythmic pattern. The beginning and the end of the piece are
based on the same material, which intensifies the feeling of structural unity.
In music, the idea of duplicating the peculiar charm of the "Arabesque" has
been occasionally used, suggesting the delicate interwoven tracery in tonal
effects.

The Arabs are imaginative, beauty-loving people with a strong instinct for
artistic expressions who created and developed a new form of art, which is
known to the world as "Arabesque". The aim and effort of this form of art are
to express or suggest ideas, moods and qualities in their abstract essence,
by means of form and symbolism. Arabesque is a direct product of Islam and
reached its highest development among the Arabs in Spain.
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