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Taʼāzara

arabic word for collaboration

“The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”
― Bertrand Russell

“We share a common planet, and the world has learned the hard way that we have to get along and work together. We have learned, too, that cooperation can benefit all.”
― - Joseph Stiglitz

Global cooperation... Sure its a cliché we've heard way too many times before but some truths never change. We live in a very diverse would—many cultures, many religions and many political systems—this is how it is and how it has always been. The somewhat strange combination of Indonesian flutes and an Arabian oud playing Western music is a metaphor for our world... It may sound a little awkward at first but mutual respect and collaboration for diverse cultures is well within our grasp...

About the Music

Imagine walking down a dirt road into a small Indonesian village and hearing Indonesian flutes playing in the distance. As you get closer, you see a trio of flute players and a percussionist suddenly being joined by a visitor from the Middle East playing the Oud. Life is good when music fills the air!

Indonesian flutes and an Arabian oud - it's another international mash-up... The opening flutes sound a bit like a calliope but once the oud enters, it settles into a lovely group ambiance. The oud solo section sounds a bit more typically Middle Eastern but in the spirit of the cooperative concept, the recap once again recaptures the Western's world's influence.

Instrumentation:

  • Casio PX-S3000 - Suling, Oud, Percussion, Acoustic Bass
  • Roland TX-880 - Strings

About the Instruments you are hearing...

Suling

The suling or seruling is a bamboo ring flute that originated in the western part of Java, Indonesia, town as the Sundanese region. The Sunda or Sundanese are an indigenous ethnic group native to the western region of Java island in Indonesia. Sundanese culture, language and music are quite distinct from those of the Javanese people of Central and East Java. The Sundanese number approximately 42 million and form Indonesia's second most populous ethnic group. They speak the Sundanese language, The Bamboo ring flute can also be found in Southeast Asian, especially in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore.

Oud

The oud is a short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument usually with 11 strings but some models have 10 or 13 strings. Many current Arab players use this tuning: C2 F2 A2 D3 G3 C4 on the standard tuning instruments, and some use a higher pitch tuning, F A D G C F. Modern out players generally pluck the string with a nail file shaped plecturm called a risha in Arabic, mızrap in Turkish.

The oud is very similar to other types of Western lutes. The fundamental difference of the oud compared to the western lute is that it has no frets and a smaller neck. Similar instruments have been used in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia for thousands of years.

Modern-day ouds fall into three categories: Arabian, Turkish, and Persian, the latter also being known as barbat. Arabian ouds are normally larger than their Turkish and Persian counterparts, producing a fuller, deeper sound, whereas the sound of the Turkish oud is more taut and shrill, and usually (and partly) tuned one whole step higher than the Arabian.