Transposition is the identify of a musical undertaking cross-pollinated by each Palestinian and Western classical music. Abdul-Wahab Kayyali, at the moment 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 deliver 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 shaped 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 Competition in a profession recognized for bending and mixing genres.
Alatrash’s music blends jazz with Arabic music and up to date 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 Faculty of Music, and directs ensembles at Tufts College and Longy College of Music.
Abdul-Wahab Kayyali performs Ajam Improvisation, from “Les Arrivants” live performance at Carleton Faculty, 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 really 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 be capable of 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 essentially the most half,” he explains. Many of the materials was written over the previous few years. “Two had been composed particularly for this undertaking.”
The outcomes had been initially recorded with one other cellist based mostly in Montréal, with a stay efficiency that passed off in Ottawa in 2023. “Since then, Nassim and I’ve been in dialogue making an attempt to get this to occur.” The small print lastly got here collectively final fall. “We’ve been engaged on it ever since.”
Regardless of their longstanding mutual pursuits, the Canadian mini-tour can 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 same old Western orchestration. Is it one thing concerning the cello…?
“I believe actually, when you have musicians which can be open — the very first thing you’ll want to do, and I attempt to do that as effectively, is get out of your consolation zone,” Kayyali says. It’s about coming collectively to get used to performing in methods outdoors the same old. “[It’s] utilizing their talent set in a artistic manner.”
He factors out that Alatrash’s background can be Palestinian, in order that regardless 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 international to him,” Abdul-Wahab says. “However I do assume that the cello, perhaps due to the register, is extra forgiving of points to do with intonation and tonality.”
A violin, he factors out, can be extra vulnerable to problematic intonation. “I believe the cello is a superb complement to Arabic music.” The bottom C is similar on each the cello and oud. “For our two devices, they match very a lot in register.”
Their variations and contrasts create curiosity, resembling bowed vs. plucked method, and the rhythmic prospects of the oud. “I really feel like that distinction can be complementary.”
If an increasing number of musicians are utilizing the cello outdoors the realm of Western classical music, it could 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’ve sheet music, and it’s fairly detailed.” Naturally, that features variations to the ornamentation and phrasing, together with different parts.
Creating Modern 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’d describe it as up to date 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 seek out the suitable combination and the suitable 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 introduced.”
Remaining Ideas
Naturally, in 2025, as a Palestinian, it’s unimaginable to flee present occasions. Nevertheless, he doesn’t need the music to be skilled, or live performance attended, solely due to his nationality.
“I would like the artwork to face by itself two ft no matter its identification.”
Two of the compositions in this system had been written particularly to revolve across the problems with Palestinian identification. “One was earlier than October 7,” he says. The opposite was written only a few 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 tough time for our neighborhood.”
Music and identification, ultimately, are inseparable, whilst he’d just like the music to be judged by itself deserves. “That is our manner of building our humanity,” he says. “I do need individuals to offer the music an opportunity,” he provides.
“Actually, the music shouldn’t be sure by geography. For me, that is the promise of music, of artwork, is to problem this concept that people will be separated by something.”
Even in the case of purely aesthetic issues, purity is one other manner of expressing exclusion — and sterility.
“Combination often 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.
