This video is my attempt at providing a *very general, high level*, yet comprehensive, extremely general breakdown of Middle-Eastern musical cultures, and how they differ from one another as much as, for example, Russian and Irish music differ from one another. Within the popular worldview, the Middle-East is often presented as a culturally monolithic region with little awareness to its immense diversity and the differences between individual cultures. My attempt is to get people to visualise the Middle-East in the same way they think of the West-nobody thinks of "Western music" as a homogeneous reality where American folk music and French folk music are near identical or interchangeable. This video can act as a "beginner's guide" for conceptualising how Iranian and Arabic music are as individually distinct from one another as Ukrainian and Italian music are, and, in the case of viewers unfamiliar with the Middle-East, hopefully reshape their vision of the region into one that better takes into account its diverse, heterogeneous nature; one of individual cultures with distinct and unique identities, each of these with its own distinct regional styles which I’ll cover.

@SlaveofGod777

2 жыл бұрын

Alrighty

@theodiscusgaming3909

2 жыл бұрын

diverse and homogeneous? don't you mean heterogeneous?

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

@@theodiscusgaming3909 oops thanks for pointing that out!

@gutemorcheln6134

Жыл бұрын

@@faryafaraji Uncle Farya, would you be so kind and point me to the epic bağlama play at 25:27? Tireless searching on youtube has not borne fruit for me.

@faryafaraji

Жыл бұрын

@@gutemorcheln6134 Sorry about the late response! There you go mate kzread.info/dash/bejne/Y4J7tbKradXQidI.html

As a North African who's accustomed to Andalusian and Arabic music. the first time I listened to classical Iranian music through the miracle of the internet 20 years ago. it felt so alien and unintelligible.

@Hanible

Ай бұрын

You Tunisian right?

@mansmo9513

Ай бұрын

@@Hanible Algerian

@Hanible

Ай бұрын

@@mansmo9513 kifkif 😘

@mansmo9513

Ай бұрын

@@Hanible ههه متشرّفين

As an American whose formal musical education largely began and ended learning the recorder in 2nd grade, I’m on a binge on these videos and they are SUPER helpful, and I’ll tell you why: For 15 years, I’ve been studying various forms of traditional and modern Middle Eastern/Mediterranean dance, which means I’ve actually been steeped in a diversity of “middle eastern” music for awhile. Now, while I’ve learned the names of some of the instruments and obviously the cultural and emotional importance of certain songs, when it comes to formal discussion of the music theory, most of my dance teachers mostly talk about the different RHYTHM structures of the different musical traditions (like I took a whole 3 class series just about how to dance to Turkish 9/8 and woooo boy 😅🫠). So I’m in a weird position where I can be like, “well this song SOUNDS Egyptian, but like I can’t really explain why…?” But this-and your other videos-have given me a lot more specific vocab to identify what I hear and appreciate it more fully ☺️

From an Irish perspective, the opposite of "ornamented" is "boring" (it's how beginners play).

Dude, if someone asks me to imagine a Persian, you look exactly the part. It's as if you jumped out of a Taq e Bostan relief

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Haha thanks man, I'm honoured!

@jankopransky2551

13 күн бұрын

My thoughts exactly!

I'm five minutes in and loving the informal yet direct style of the video. Seriously, looking forward to more of these. This channel is going to get to 100k in no time. All the best Farya! Ok, back to the video, this is so interesting and I love this topic!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Coming from a master of informational videos that means a whole lot man! Thanks so much!

@tarvos_trigaranvs

11 ай бұрын

A few days, and there he is at 100k! :) Well deserved!

I'm from Germany and have a background in church music, and this video helped me realize that "Western" music shows a lot more similarities to "Near Eastern" music (as broad as those terms are) once you strip back a few centuries of separate development. I can't speak for the instrument side of things, but some of our oldest vocal church music is far richer modally and made far heavier use of melismata than younger Western music. I believe these can be called relics from a time when Western music was significantly more similar to Near Eastern music (superficially, of course!), coming out of that ancient Roman-Greek-Iranian cultural sphere; and only in the last couple hundred years did we kind of go insane regarding harmony and instrumentation. Came by way of polýMATHY's recommendation, and I have to say that this is a fantastic video! I really like the way you teach with that levitous attitude and your channel appears to be a goldmine! Thank you for this video, I will definitely subscribe.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

You hit the nail right on the head, that’s precisely it. As you say, the oldest forms of Christian chant are almost indistinguishable from “oriental” singing, Marcel Péres’ works on Old Roman Chant are the best example of that due to the heavy use of melismata. Interestingly, Timothy J. McGee made the case that ornamentation and melismas lasted much longer in the West than the early Middle-Ages, and that possibly even 1300’s troubadours singing might have been more similar to “Oriental” singing, which would be fascinating And thanks alot for the kind words!

@joshuaperkins9916

2 ай бұрын

@daisybrain9423 I think to a certain extent with certain dialect, scale and rhythm differences, this type of singing is somewhat universal in ceremonial situations. For instance I’ve heard melismatic singing in some traditional far eastern music of Asia. The traditional psalms singing of the Scottish highlands called (presenting the line) is is another example. This call and response style is rich with ornaments and improvisation. But yet a lot more regional in the sense it is often sung in major and minor pentatonic and some Dorian. It was a style sung in England at one time as well and became one of the major backbones of American music styles including gospel. It was said that Melodie’s were written at Westminster to be sung then repeated by the largely illiterate population through out the British country sides, but the melodies soon changed reflecting local folk music traditions.

Τhe "accordions walking down the street" really got me for some reason

@jonirischx8925

Ай бұрын

The accordions are walking down the street, and they hear somebody playing americans

Dude, after watching your 'Epic Talking' videos, I will never look at music the same way again... and I'm very happy about that.

I've never thought that I'd watch a 40 minute lecture on Middle Eastern music. This content is really unique and professional, and you are clearly very knowledgeable in this subject, I hope your channel will grow and get the deserved attention.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot my friend!

As an Iranian, I can totally feel the differences between Persian and Arabic music (or other Iranian and Middle Eastern music), not just the playing style, but their feelings, vibes, colors, emotions, and moods are completely different🙃 دمت گرم داداش واقعا یکی از بهترین ویدئو هایی بود که تابحال در این زمینه دیدم❤️

little did this mans Persian ancestors know he would be both a musically trained bard and also trained in the sacred art of mw2 quickscoping

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

One must honour the ancient art of mw2 quickscoping mastered by the ancient Achaemenids. The only reason they lost to the Greeks was because they didn't have their snipers

@vulpesinculta9253

Ай бұрын

Umm, aktually 🤓☝That was Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Not Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

@commenter4898

17 күн бұрын

@@vulpesinculta9253 They all sound the same to me. They have guns and they are played on a PC. Can't see any difference.

Fascinating lecture, those 40 minutes went by in a flash. Also, compared Russian and Texan folk just after I finished, and it's really uncanny how similar they are!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting! There's an exercise I often do with my Western musician friends when they want to think in more universal terms: I ask them not to listen to Western music at all for a few days and just listen to other musical languages. When they return to Western music again, initially, they realise it all sounds very similar. Your experience pretty much follows the same line-how we experience difference vs similarity is very subjective to what headspace we're in :)

@someguy2744

Жыл бұрын

Kind of unrelated to the original comment, but I would like to add to 27:10 (or adding to 19:00 instruments and 26:21 how they are played) that the šargija/saz in Bosnia is an instrument that is (presumably) brought over by the Ottomans, however (despite my very limited knowledge on the subject, but based on a comparison of a few performances of both Bosnian and Turkish performances) I think it is played differently than the Turkish saz/bağlama and I think the instrument itself might be a bit differently made. As well as the accordion - as you said the first association for Americans would be French music (the theme song for 'Allo 'Allo comes to mind even though it is composed by a English composer and is an English show, the show is about the French in WW2 and it is made in the style of French music to ,of course, match the show's atmosphere/theme) or Polka (or Weird Al Yankovic), however I think it is used regularly used in the Balkans in folk/turbo-folk/sevdalinke - and this is maybe more of a proper example of how the instrument can be played differently to match a certain region's music or style of music. (Peđa Predrag Krnetić has some accordion covers here on KZread) And maybe an even better example of the accordion and the saz is the violin - i.e. it's use in concert music of Europe, Turkish, Arab, and Disco music - due it being fretless it lends itself to be very adaptable to all styles since you can play any note precisely - for example quarter-tones which are usually not present in Western Music.

@TheAnticlinton

Жыл бұрын

Well Russian folk music is not western. East slavic music in general uses less string instruments and has more modes. Russian folk music sounds more from the middle eastern musical provinces due to far more minor scales used

@Vitalis94

Жыл бұрын

@@TheAnticlinton Er, who is arguing that it is, actually?

@TheAnticlinton

Жыл бұрын

@@Vitalis94 You said texan and Russian folk music sound similar when theyre absolutely not similar at all or even in the same musical province

OK I’ll say this, as someone from Saudi Arabia this is one of the best videos that explains the differences between Arabic Persian Turkish and Greek music. Even in Arabic music there are some differences depending on the region as well. I just want someone to list the samples of the Arabic songs because I know the songs but I don’t know The voice is because they are probably covers but I like the samples.

@AbdoZaInsert

7 күн бұрын

عداك العيب يا ميلاد عبدالباقي ما قصرت

I would never have expected a forty minute video on a topic I have no knowledge on would actually be fun to watch.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot my man! I definitely want these vids to be accessible to everyone, and not even need any knowledge of music of theory.

I love the humour of this man

Mentioning Spanish, Turkish and Arabic music while skipping North African music was a bit disappointing, but still one of the best videos on musicology I ever seen. bravo.

This happens to us Galicians a lot! They say our music reminds them of North African music, while we consider oursleves quite celtic influenced and are far both linguistically and culturally even from Andalusians in South Spain, which one could say it's very influenced and is a part of North African music.

I really appreciated this style of video! Keep on with the good work!

Great video, thank you very much, also huge props for including other regions to explain better!!!

The differences are striking ! Thank you your videos are great

That was great information. Thank you so much for your Insight.

super cool! Love this kind of videos. Really interesting to see historical connections through musical similarities - like the regions with melismatic singing. Salutations from Brazil :)

What a great video. Love it!!

Interesting video, Thank you

Thank you Luke for your suggestion :) Very good and informative video

Glad to see your channel growing, keep up the great work man!

❤️❤️❤️❤️so eloquent and interesting thank you for making this video and making me think

Deeply appreciate of this unique way to analyse music...

This is so fascinating thank you :)

man you are so articulate in the way you explain things, freaking love it!

Thank you for the interesting information which I didn't know.I learned something new today.

Man I love your music: big thank you for posting these videos too. I've always had musings and questions about music in my own part of the world, but I've never even had the vocabulary to even know how to ask. Thank you for making music theory accessible to the average person the way you do.

you make something ive never really had a interest in very interesting to listen to, keep up the work!

Geez. I watched one of your videos and couldn't get enough. I'm up to the fifth video and I think I've learnt more about music in the last two hours than I have in a lifetime. Thanks.

Very informative video! Really nice comparisons to grasp the differences! Thank you :D

This was an amazing and you are amazing! I learned so much.

Honestly those in depth and long Videos that explain music and the difference between cultures are just great to watch even for those who dont know much, keep up the great content 👍🏼

You are such an inspiration to me as a person and as a nerd and I have so much of your content left to devour.. Keep on doing you, my man.

I could watch and rewatch this on a loop. I hope your channel grows even more 🌱

Very nice to hear explicitly what I somewhat grasped intuitively about the differences.

Loved this! Would love to see more of this style of content from you

Absolutely loving this vid! It's so eye opening to see the complexity of musical cultures. Makes me appreciate it a lot more!! Thanks for your work and for sharing your knowledge with us!

Awesome video! greetings from Brazil

Your channel is both informative and entertaining😊

Very interesting video. Congrats! It's also quite funny. Nice channel, thanks for the music and the good content.

This is the exact content that KZread has been needing! I was entertained through the whole video and learned so much! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you so much for this!

Just discovered this channel. Definitely not disappointed. Excellent video essay, thank you!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot!

Very well done sir and it's really informative. Never thought about these topics before. Thanks for the video😊

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot Eugene!

Really a fantastic video. Excellent. I learnt a lot. I will still have trouble telling them apart, but the journey has started (Thank to Luke Ranieri for the suggestion)

Amazing video mate! I intended to watch about ten minutes and ended up watching the whole thing!

I love this new style of video. You have lots of knowledge to share.

Just discovered your content. Your just awesome thank you 🙏🏾

You have a commanding voice for this sort of thing. Good content, my brother. I love all of the Eastern musical variants and subdivisions.

Your video lectures are making my slow work day fly by 😂 As a westerner i’ve always been fascinated by eastern musical traditions but never knew how to approach learning about them. Your videos have been a great primer!

This is awesome! I learned a ton.

I sat down and watched this in its entirety and was focused the whole time. Mr. Faraji, I could listen to to you explain music for ages. Thank you

One thing I like of you is that you actually explain all the meaning and the context behind your songs. And obviously I like your songs.

Excellent, informatve and analytic !

Came here thanks to the recomendation of Luke from polymathy, youre funny and informative as hell 👍🏻

Awesome video! Greetings from Poland! Thanks for mentioning our acordeon tradition :)

Hey Farya, amazing video. I'm an Indian guy and since the past year started listening to a lot of Turkish baglama music also some of Sinan Cem Eroglu and Muhlis Berberoglu's music and really loved it. This video really gave me a lot of insight into the differences between the countries from a musical standpoint. Keep up the amazing work. Would be amazing to se a deep dive into any of the South Asian styles of music someday. Have a great one. :)

Thank you for your videos. It is really eye-opening to hear music theory basics from someone who is not educated only in western music. Also, the historical context makes everything much easier to understand. As a biologist, I think a good approach to decide if something is similar or different would be to build a tree. So you would get a graphical representation of what is more or less similar in a bigger context. I had a quick look and it seems people do it for languages and also music but I did not have time to search for something that covers the whole world.

Very fun and informative video!

Watching your videos has been a true lesson. Thank you!

I'm looking forward more educational videos now. This one was really good

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot!

I've been meaning to make ethnomusicology videos and videos about just traditional music from all around the world on youtube for long but haven't really started, so it's no surprise that I'm more than glad I found your channel. That was a very educational 42min with many things I didn't know before. In the vicinity I'm most familiar with Greek music and mentally I did lump them into modal music before, but after I dug into regional Greek music and Greek music from different time periods I found that there are so many subtly different styles within it and it's really a mishmash of a lot of musical traditions. For example, music from Epirus/Ipiros would emphasize seventh a lot when music from Macedonia and Thrace use tons of compound 'irregular' meters and close intervals like Bulgarian. Though I've been reasonably exposed to it, I've never *studied* Iranian music before and the video made me more than interested in it and I'd like to know more. I think you also shed great light on the role of familiarity with regard to categorization. I'm Chinese and I practice various different styles of traditional Chinese music - there are so many different genres, languages, instruments, vocal styles, you name it, involved, but most westerners just go like 'it's pentatonic it's all the same' and envision it as the single style of lion dancing music or New Year music in Chinatowns. That's why the works of you (and potentially myself) are important and people (especially only trained in western music) should know about how varied the musicscape really is across the world.

Dude.. Dudeee.. DUUUDEEE! Yes please! Love the channel! You are filling a hole that is lacking in academic music youtube channels!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot!

One of the things I mostly enjoy in the modal traditions is the transition from one mode (maqam) to another. IMHO, as easy as it sounds when listening to it, to really tackle this transitioning is one of the most difficult things to do. I really like your explanation of syllabic and melismatic singing, I always thought of it as something discrete versus continuous (I could never describe it accurately). And I also love the Greek Orthodox liturgical chants. Another example of melismatic singing I also love to listen to is Kurdish singing (could it be close to Iranian singing?), melismatic singing adds an emotional dimension to music if you ask me. Thanks again for making these videos, I really apprciate it, you add the necessary musical vocabulary that I lack to describe the music I listen to.

Very informative video

@Berkh

2 жыл бұрын

Very Kurdish flag

Amazing breakdown. I've had limited exposure to Arabic, Iranian, and Turkish culture. Such a pleasure 😉

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and helping us to understand better similarités and differences , your présentation was outsanding🎉

I really learnt a great deal. Thank you very much.

Please do more videos on music history. The one on Greece and Japan was excellent. Bravo!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot!

Spas Mr. faraji, it Was very informative and interesting.

You are a very talented musician, composer and teacher. I really learn a lot from your videos. The content is great. It makes you think, and you keep it interested and the audience attentive. Thank you.

دمت گرم بالاخره یکی به این سوال پاسخ داد🌹 It's my pleaser to be your compatriot

OBJECTIVELY great video. Playing a taksim Segah (Sikah) rn for you my friend

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

There's nothing like a magnificent Greek taksim on the Bouzouki!

Thank you for the knowledge my dear kind Sir!

You should definitely do more videos like this one, if you have the time of course. What a fascinating insight into the topic. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us - in a very entertaining way, I may add! :)

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks alot my friend!

I've spent a fair amount of time delving deep into mediæval and early modern western European music, particularly that of Italy and France, and there are so many little similarities to much of what you discuss in this video. I'm particularly fascinated by music from the Middle East and India and I'm really happy to find more accessible information like this to help me along my journey in that direction. Thank you so much!

Pleeeease do the differences between Balkan music 🙏, i loved this in-depth analysis and you already slightly touched on that subject in this video

This is such an interesting essay! Just started listening to Iranian music and this is a great introduction describing elements of this enchanting musical form. Also, it was fun to watch! Love the way you have broken this down and used a freestyle format- real, yet professional and refined, in a way that’s very clear, digestible, and fascinating to hear at the same time. Thank you for this! Side note: love how this is the song that instantly pops in your mind when explaining an intricate concept @9:58 :p Also, you must have heard this a billion times, but you look like the Iranian version of Anthony Vincent (from Ten Second Songs) - and I mean that in the best possible way! :)

I didn't expect your first video of this kind to come so quickly and appear so professionally. It was very interesting to see how music is structured on a geographic level and would love to see/hear more about. I understood most of the video, to a surface level at least, which is great. Your presentation, the humour and casual nature is really enjoyable and grounding. The structure of the video is also really easy to follow, I didn't feel lost in the discussion at anypoint. In short, awesome. Also, I always found your turkic songs to be the most enjoyable, I think Iranian ones following them, which I guess makes sense if thats the preferred vocal style and your own background respectively.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

I'm glad to hear that, I definitely want everyone to be able to follow the information. I'm a folk musician myself, I never studied Western theory like sheet music etc, so I always find it easier when music is explained without complicated musical vocabulary. Funny enough I probably enjoy singing Turkish the most-I love the sound of the language and I prefer using the bass part of the voice when I can, and throat singing is my second favourite. For some reason I actually sing in tune more consistently with throat singing than "normal" singing

Great video keep it up proud of you

Este canal merece llegar al millón de seguidores muy pronto. ¡Es fantástico! Me encanta tu trabajo Farya. Muchas gracias por todo lo que nos enseñas.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Gracias por tu apoyo José :)

I found it hilarious when you started sounding snobbish :) An interesting and informative video. As for the internal, Eastern part of Croatia being different from that of the Dalmatian coast, maybe there are historical and hence cultural reasons for that. Plus, you had an interesting point on Greek and Roman architectural order.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Good points! From what little I know of Croatian music, I've gathered that the Western coastal part was under heavy influence of the Venetian Republic for centuries, so the music that developped was Italian-derived. The same thing happened to the Ionian Islands of Greece, where their secular and religious music is disconnected from the rest of Greek tradition, and is evolved from Italian influence. Interestingly enough I met Croatians here in Canada who told me the recent military conflicts helped in pushing Dalmatian music as the national norm of Croatian music-the more eastern styles were deemed closer to Serbian culture, so there was a tendency to want to differentiate themselves given the tragic political climate of the time. Greece had something similar too: the authorities of the newly formed nation-state in the 1800's tried making the music of the Ionian Isles the standart form of Greek music in order to differentiate themselves from the Turks, but in the case of Greece that failed.

Fantastic video! To me, an historian amateur that know very little about music tradition around the world, this is really a gold video. I didn't know anithyg about the ties of greek and what we call middle eastern music. Really thanks, Farya. By the way, as Italian, gold moments when you have to resort to Italian to explain stuff ahaha good appoggiatura, I say.

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

I swear it's impossible to talk for more than 5 minutes about music without using one of your words, it's insane haha

Sometimes I wish I could just soak knowledge into my brain. This video comes close enough. Awesome work.

Que hermoso video, tendre que verlo varias veces para aprender todo

dude i love this video tf very nice job

Very informative he was very good a using expressive words to describe & interpret music. And of course his music demos .

Excellent video!

J'ai trouvé ta chaîne y'a quelques semaines et je suis tout simplement estomaqué par la qualité et le réalisme des musiques. Je cherchais juste des musiques avec une vibe cool et j'en avais trop marre que ce soit les mêmes créateurs mient en avant et là pfiou quelle révélation. Je viens d'écouter 42 mn de musicologie alors que j'y pige absolument rien mais c'était fascinant. Et même d'un point de vue anthropo-politique, ça montre bien comment les gens font des généralités énormes sur les cultures qu'iels ne connaissent pas ! Merci encore pour ton fabuleux travail ! J'ai hâte des prochaines sorties :)

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Merci beaucoup! Je suis content de savoir qu'il y en a comme toi qui aiment et la musique et les vidéos de ce genre; personellement j'adore faire les deux alors c'est cool!

@grzegorzbrzeczyszczykiewic3918

2 жыл бұрын

@@faryafaraji Dude how many languages do you speak?!

This is a fascinating lecture - I listened to it twice and I still feel I need to do it one more time to fully digest the information you provide here. I am an archaeologist specializing in the crusader period so I am very interested in the heritage of the region but my knowledge about music traditions is limited - thank you very, very much for making and uploading this ! I will look forward for more :) PS. I was wondering, if your music (which is great, I particularly love psalm 135 and the ballad of Vahram) would you consider working on Syriac (Jacobite / Maronite / Melkite, maybe even Nestorian) chants? Either way, thank you once again - great job!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

Syriac is quite mysterious to me so I should definitely look into it, thanks for the suggestion!

@Haifa-iz5rc

2 жыл бұрын

@@faryafaraji Wow, thank you very much for replying! I do not want to take more of your time, so I will just repeat that I honestly enjoy listening to your music ('Hikantoi" and "Song of Hormizd" are also just marvelous). I will wait for new materials (songs and lectures) from you - all the best from Haifa!

Brilliant! Would love you to do a deep dive into the lack of bass instrumentation and the differences in drumming style in Iranian music. Growing up I always felt the Tombak was playing to the Tar/Setar instead of the Tar/Setar playing to the Tombak.

Man, can't wait to see what my favourite mw2 epic quickscope compilation KZread channels just uploaded!

@faryafaraji

2 жыл бұрын

the dopest killstreak montages 👌👌

I'm binging your videos and loving them, another fun fact is that even the same instrument is built differently and has a different tone across countries, even within same world, like the Oud, the Turkish Oud has a different size and tone (higher) than the Arabic Oud, which is divided to Syrian Oud, Iraqi Oud, Egyptian Oud and so on

I'm totally 'music-blind', still loved the video: its presentation and informativeness. Keep up the good work. Respect from Russia.