One could never know, W. About the spelling, it is always difficult to transliterate Arabic (a language I speak, I lived in the Middle East for two years), especially because of all the dialects and all... At least in Cairo I heard people saying "eskandariyya" - and, yes, it's "Oh girl from Alexandria!"
The lyrics in Turkish for this tune is hilarious, it's about a rich woman who falls in love for her male secretary. On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Wolodymyr Smishkewych < [email protected]> wrote: > Say, just for kicks: isn't "Iskadariyya" a very mildly corrupted form of > Eskendariyya, the name in Arabic for the city of Alexandria? So "O > daughter/girl of Alexandria"--makes sense since it was for so long one of > the most metropolitan cities on the mediterranean basin...easy to see it > navigate its way via greece & turkey, Roma, into the land of the Magyars... > just my mind wandering, purely conjectural of course. :^) > > cheers, > Vlad > > Wolodymyr Smishkewych > wolodymyrsmishkewych.com > [email protected] > > > > On 14 Dec 2009, at 02:22, [email protected] wrote: > > Today's Topic Summary > > Group: http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy/topics > > - Digest for [email protected] - 7 Messages in 3 Topics [2 > Updates] > > Topic: Digest for [email protected] - 7 Messages in 3 > Topics<http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy/t/753dd1ec73794068> > > Arle Lommel <[email protected]> Dec 13 09:45AM -0500 > > Hi Augusto. > > I'm wondering the basis for the claim that the Hungarian HG follows > Arabic/Turkish modes? The tuning, aside from absolute pitch, is identical > to > the French instrument. The keyboard looks different (because of the spaces > in it), and yes, one key looks inverted compared to a piano, but the lower > row (the only row on some of the earliest examples known) plays the Ionian > (major scale), and the upper row simply adds in the missing pitches on the > Western diatonic scale (and no, it doesn't use any quarter tones). So I'm a > bit confused about what you're trying to say. I know you play the Hungarian > instrument, so you do know what you're talking about, and I suspect that > I've misunderstood what you wanted to say, but without further explanation, > your statement conveys something about the Hungarian instrument that isn't > the case (that it uses a "different" scale from most European instruments). > > Now it is true that Hungarian HG music uses a lot of modes besides > Ionian, including Mixolydian (very common), Lydian (less common), Dorian > (extremely common), and Aeolian (very common), all of which appear in the > HG > repertoire, but the modes one plays and the instrument's basic scale are > two > different things. Other modes, notably the Hungarian Gypsy scale (which > does > correspond to a maqam in the Kurd family), appear frequently in Hungarian > music, but are not often found in the Hungarian HG repertoire. Maqāmāt > consist of multiple ajnas, but the combinations are not fixed, so no single > keyboard would be an "Arabic" keyboard. > > However, if you assume an Ajam-family maqam, your statement would be > generally true of both French and Hungarian HGs (as well as all diatonic > major scale Western instruments), so that wouldn't seem to be what you mean > as it wouldn't differentiate or tell us anything other than that there are > Ajam maqāmāt that generally correspond to the western Ionian scale. > > Regarding the bellydance repertoire, that I have less trouble seeing, > since maqāmāt corresponding to the Hungarian modes (none of which are > uncommon in Western folk music) exist and there was a considerable period > of > musical exchange in the region and ongoing contact with Balkan music where > your statement about using Arabic modes is indubitably true. > > Best, > > -Arle > > > On Dec 13, 2009, at 1:38 AM, Augusto de Ornellas Abreu wrote: > > > > > Augusto de Ornellas Abreu <[email protected]> Dec 13 05:04PM > -0200 > > I was making reference to that odd key on the top (which I love, > btw)... > With it (no need for quarter tones), it is very easy to play many > Arabic-Turkish tunes. > > What I meant too was what you mentioned on your last paragraph. There > was > (as still is to a point) a lot of exchange between Eastern Europe and > the > muslim world, especially via Turkey and the Ottomans. Many tunes that > the > Arabs or the Turks claim that are theirs, the Greek, the Bulgarian or > even > the Hungarian claim the same. > > An example (which is great for bellydancing, BTW) is "Üsküdara" (there > are > great videos of it on youtube, especially one by a Spanish group called > Mediterranea or something like it), which the Arabs call "Yaa banaat > Iskadariyya" and the Greeks, "Apo Xeno Topo" > > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hurdygurdy" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy > > The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at > http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from > new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "hurdygurdy" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]<hurdygurdy%[email protected]> > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy > > The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at > http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from > new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. 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