Musica Del Medio Este

The music of the Middle East[->0] and North Africa[->1] spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Iran, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced (and hasbeen influenced by) the music of Greece[->2] and India[->3], as well as Central Asia[->4], Spain[->5], the Caucasus[->6] and the Balkans[->7], as in chalga[->8]. The various nations of the regioninclude the Arabic[->9]-speaking countries of the Middle East and North Africa, the Persian tradition of Iran[->10], the music of Turkey[->11], various Jewish traditions from Israel[->12], theKurdish[->13] music, Berbers[->14] of North Africa, and the Coptic Christians[->15] in Egypt all maintain their own traditions.
Throughout the region, religion has been a common factor in uniting peoples ofdifferent languages, cultures and nations. The predominance of Islam allowed a great deal of Arabic influence to spread through the region rapidly from the 7th century onward. The Arabic scale isstrongly melodic, based around various maqam[->16] or modes (also known as makam[->17] in Turkish music). This is similar to the dastgah[->18] of Persian music. While this originates with classical music,the modal system has filtered down into folk, liturgical and even popular music. Unlike much western music, Arabic music includes quarter tones[->19] halfway between notes, often through the use ofstringed instruments (like the oud[->20]) or the human voice. Further distinguishing characteristics of Middle Eastern and North African music include very complex rhythmic structures, generally tensevocal tone, and a homophonic texture[->21].

[->0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East
[->1] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Africa
[->2] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_music
[->3]- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_music
[->4] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia
[->5] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain
[->6] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caucasus
[->7] -...