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Title page for ETD etd-08172011-154232


Type of Document Dissertation
Author Kima, Doron
URN etd-08172011-154232
Title Seeds Of Hope
Degree Doctor of Musical Arts
Department Music, College of
Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title
Ladislav Kubik Committee Chair
Evan Jones Committee Member
Mark Wingate Committee Member
Brian Gaber University Representative
Keywords
  • Seeds Of Hope
Date of Defense 2011-05-11
Availability unrestricted
Abstract
Seeds of Hope, written for nay (Middle Eastern flute), oud (Middle Eastern lute), and

western orchestra, is an attempt at synthesizing two different musical traditions into a

single cohesive work. The musical traditions that are consciously synthesized in Seeds of

Hope are western classical and popular Arabic music, which is based on the Maqam

system.

Maqam (plural Maqamat) is widely known as a conceptual organizational framework just

like as scales or modes in western music. Each of the Maqamat is based on a theoretical

scale, specific notes of emphasis, and a typical pattern of melodic movement. In many

instances the Maqam begins around the tonic note of the scale, gradually ascends, and

finally descends to the tonic. Unlike western music that is organized by half steps or half

tones, most of the Maqamat include also quarter tones as part of their organizational

structure.

The modal conception and organization of melody is paralleled by a modal treatment of

rhythm. In Arabic music, metric modes are employed in various metric compositions and

are widely known by the name Iqa-at (singular Iqa). Influencing the nature of phrasing

and the patterns of accentuation of a musical composition, these modes are rendered on

percussion instruments. Each Iqa has a specific name and a pattern of beats ranging in

number from two to twenty-four or more, and each consists of rests and beats

distinguished by timbre.

Seeds of Hope may be seen almost as a western concerto-type composition. However

unlike the multiple-movement structure and the virtuosic writing for the soloists in

western concertos, Seeds of Hope is written as one long movement and my goal was to

write as simple as possible for the soloists in order to stay loyal to the tradition and

character of the instruments. Also, unlike western concertos where the soloist should play

the part exactly as written, the nay and the oud players are encouraged to embellish the

lines according to their own tradition without changing durations in order to achieve as

authentic sound as possible just as they would embellish their parts while playing in an

Arabic music ensemble setting.

The piece is based on the melody that occurs on rehearsal numbers A24 to A26, which is

the culmination of the piece and is the only time that this melody is played explicitly

from beginning to end. I worked my way toward this melody by leading to it through

increasingly more explicit fragments of the melody. From the beginning and throughout

the course of the composition I disguised fragments of the melody through Cellular

rhythmic and melodic motivicism, which means small rhythmic and melodic fragments

that could be varied and developed by using simple procedures of permutation such as,

augmentation, diminution, extension and elision. The first recognizable fragment of the

melody is played by the obo in the third measure of rehearsal number A10. The melody is

an integration of different Maqamat and Iqa-at.

The piece was genuinely written with seeds of hope for a better future in the Middle East.

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