Shaheen teaches the Kimmel Center Youth Jazz Ensemble - photo by Charles Fox.
Local Teen Musicians Learn Arabic Music
by Tirdad Derakshani, Philadelphia Inquirer
published February 8, 2010
‘. . . Violin in hand, Shaheen strained to demonstrate one of the key musical differences between Western and Arabic music, the quarter tone. His directions were tailored to his audience, very technical and demanding.
“One of the reasons the melody is so rich in Arabic music is because of this quality called microtonality,” Shaheen, 54, explained in an interview.
“Look at the white and black keys on a piano. The distance between them is a halftone,” he said. “Now, imagine there’s another key between the white and black keys, maybe a red one. That helps you create quarter tones, which can be hard for Westerners to hear, unless they’ve been accustomed to it. In Arabic music we don’t really have harmony because of microtonality and the melodic richness we can produce.”. . .’
Click here for the full article and see slideshow of photos taken by Inquirer photographer Charles Fox.
