Year 10 - Music
Song, dance and maqam in Palestinian folk music
Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern music
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Unit Summary
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Lesson Summary
You will learn to understand some of the key forms of Palestinian music and can improvise using a maqam.
Key Notes
- Palestinian folk music has many popular forms, many of which are performed for dance.
- Ataaba is a popular song form in Palestine, and dabke is an important traditional form of dance across the region.
- Traditional Palestinian and Arabic music is based on a maqam, which is a set of notes.
- Each maqam is microtonal and includes seven notes. They are usually taught by ear. Bayati is a common maqam.
- Performers improvise using the maqam, including in taqsim at the start of a performance.
Vocabulary To Learn
- ataaba: a traditional form of solo Palestinian love song that is often heard at weddings and other occasions
- dabke: a type of folk dance; it can be performed with different styles of music
- microtonal: music that includes notes between the 12 Western semitones; these small intervals are called microtones
- taqsim: an improvised solo based on a maqam that introduces a piece of music
- maqam: a set of notes, (like a scale) that forms the basis of a composition; it is microtonal and has seven notes
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- There are only 12 possible notes.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Explain the lesson in two key points.
Palestinian folk music has many popular forms, many of which are performed for dance. Ataaba is a popular song form in Palestine, and dabke is an important traditional form of dance across the region.
2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'ataaba'
a traditional form of solo Palestinian love song that is often heard at weddings and other occasions.
3. Correct this common mistake.
Mistake: There are only 12 possible notes. Correction: There is an infinite possible number of notes. Imagine that an octave is a cake. We can divide it into 12 equal slices (12 Western notes) or 24 smaller slices (the Arabic system). In theory, we could divide it into any number of slices/notes.
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