Transposition is the identify of a musical undertaking cross-pollinated by each Palestinian and Western classical music. Abdul-Wahab Kayyali, at present based mostly in Montréal, is an oud virtuoso. He’s teamed up with GRAMMY-nominated cellist Naseem AlAtrash to carry out his unique music.
The microtonal music of Arabic maqam and Western harmonies mix in an East-West fusion that composer Abdul-Wahab Kayyali calls neoclassical; the oud and the cello make harmonious collaborators, because it seems.
The Transposition mini-tour will convey them to Ottawa on June 4, Toronto on June 5, and Montréal on June 6.
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali initially studied the oud on the Nationwide Music Conservatory of Amman, Jordan. He additionally studied with Iraqi oud virtuoso Munir Bashir. As a soloist, he has carried out all through North and South America, in Europe and the Center East. In 2020,he fashioned the worldwide music trio Les Arrivants in Montreal, and launched a debut solo album title Juthoor the identical yr.
Naseem Alatrash
GRAMMY-nominated Palestinian cellist and composer Naseem Alatrash relies in Boston. He has carried out at venues such because the Kennedy Middle, Lincoln Middle, and the Monterey Jazz Pageant in a profession recognized for bending and mixing genres.
Alatrash’s music blends jazz with Arabic music and modern influences, classical coaching with improvisation. Together with a busy solo profession, he performs with the Turtle Island Quartet, Terence Blanchard, and Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound. He’s an assistant professor of Cello at Berklee School of Music, and directs ensembles at Tufts College and Longy Faculty of Music.
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali performs Ajam Improvisation, from “Les Arrivants” live performance at Carleton School, April 20 2024:
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali: The Interview
How did he come to compose music for the duo of oud and cello? It’s not essentially an apparent mixture.
“I studied the oud on the Nationwide conservatory of music at Jordan within the 90s,” Kayyali explains. He started by giving about equal time to learning each the cello and the oud. The latter received out when it got here time to select.
“However I like the instrument, and it has a particular place in my coronary heart,” he says of the cello.
Kayyali lived within the US for a time, the place he met and related with cellist Naseem Alatrash. The 2 had mentioned performing collectively, and had plans to start in 2020 when the world of stay music got here to a crashing halt with the COVID pandemic.
“I stored holding on to the concept that sooner or later, we’d have the ability to play collectively,” says Abdul-Wahab.
On his eventual arrival in Canada, Kayyali wasn’t working as a full-time musician at first. When he made that swap, it put him right into a place to use for funding to develop music for the oud and cello.
The Music
“This system mainly consists of my compositions for probably the most half,” he explains. Many of the materials was written over the previous few years. “Two have been composed particularly for this undertaking.”
The outcomes have been initially recorded with one other cellist based mostly in Montréal, with a stay efficiency that occurred in Ottawa in 2023. “Since then, Nassim and I’ve been in dialogue making an attempt to get this to occur.” The main points lastly got here collectively final fall. “We’ve been engaged on it ever since.”
Regardless of their longstanding mutual pursuits, the Canadian mini-tour will likely be their first. “This would be the first time that we play collectively.”
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali and cellist Sheila Hannigan carry out Kayyali’s Transposition: Duo for Oud and Cello:
Is it the Cello?
There are a number of different notable collaborations between cellists like Naseem Alatrash, French cellist Vincent Ségal, and different instrumentalists that enterprise past the standard Western orchestration. Is it one thing concerning the cello…?
“I feel actually, you probably have musicians which can be open — the very first thing it’s essential do, and I attempt to do that as properly, is get out of your consolation zone,” Kayyali says. It’s about coming collectively to get used to performing in methods outdoors the standard. “[It’s] utilizing their talent set in a artistic method.”
He factors out that Alatrash’s background can be Palestinian, in order that despite the fact that he’s chosen to specialise in a Western instrument, the microtonal music is already in him and his creativeness.
“This music doesn’t sound overseas to him,” Abdul-Wahab says. “However I do suppose that the cello, perhaps due to the register, is extra forgiving of points to do with intonation and tonality.”
A violin, he factors out, could be extra liable to problematic intonation. “I feel the cello is a superb complement to Arabic music.” The bottom C is identical on each the cello and oud. “For our two devices, they match very a lot in register.”
Their variations and contrasts create curiosity, reminiscent of bowed vs. plucked method, and the rhythmic prospects of the oud. “I really feel like that distinction can be complementary.”
If increasingly more musicians are utilizing the cello outdoors the realm of Western classical music, it might simply be that they’re catching as much as its adaptable nature. Surprisingly, there are few technical points between the cello and oud.
“We tune the identical, as lengthy we tune to a specific reference — 440 or 442,” he explains. “We have now sheet music, and it’s fairly detailed.” Naturally, that features variations to the ornamentation and phrasing, together with different components.
Creating Up to date Palestinian Music
“I give it some thought as neoclassical, as a result of it’s classically knowledgeable,” says Kayyali. That features each Western and Arabic classical music. “It’s a product of its time,” he provides, “or, I might describe it as modern microtonal music. The cello is ready to play microtones.”
He treats each devices as soloists, with passages the place they play collectively. “I attempted to search out the proper combination and the proper sounds.” The aim is to create complementary sounds. “It’s like having a dialogue. I can begin a phrase, and the cello completes it. It actually has to face on each legs.”
Alongside the best way, he hopes to showcase each devices in novel methods. “It’s actually making an attempt to current these devices in ways in which they haven’t been offered.”
Closing Ideas
Naturally, in 2025, as a Palestinian, it’s inconceivable to flee present occasions. Nevertheless, he doesn’t need the music to be skilled, or live performance attended, solely due to his nationality.
“I need the artwork to face by itself two ft no matter its identification.”
Two of the compositions in this system have been written particularly to revolve across the problems with Palestinian identification. “One was earlier than October 7,” he says. The opposite was written just some days after, after what he describes as a collection of sleepless nights.
“I simply needed to empty all of it on the sheet music in entrance of me,” he says. “It’s a really troublesome time for our neighborhood.”
Music and identification, in the long run, are inseparable, whilst he’d just like the music to be judged by itself deserves. “That is our method of creating our humanity,” he says. “I do need folks to provide the music an opportunity,” he provides.
“Actually, the music isn’t sure by geography. For me, that is the promise of music, of artwork, is to problem this concept that people could be separated by something.”
Even in relation to purely aesthetic issues, purity is one other method of expressing exclusion — and sterility.
“Combination normally produces higher outcomes,” he says. “Purity is an evil assemble.”
Whereas his major instrument is the oud, one with a historical past that stretches again 1000’s of years, he makes use of it in a recent mode.
“I’m not considering of it as a relic of the previous.”
- Discover extra particulars and tickets for the Ottawa live performance on June 4 [HERE], the June 5 live performance in Toronto [HERE], June 6 in Montréal [HERE]
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Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. Beforehand, she was a contract author with a specialty in tradition and journey for 3 a long time, and a artistic writing teacher for Ontariolearn.