A thanking, a question, and a request...

[TruePharaoh21]

Hey everyone,

Firstly, I want to thank everyone that participates in posting the greatest of music on this site. I feel as though I'm robbing you all of your music, as you all seem to have such great things to offer, and I have nothing rare at all. Thanks to the high speed connection I have at school, I was able to download all of the files in the stickies in the Classical Egypt section, of which I can never express how truly happy and thankful I am at this point.

You are all quite admirable in my eyes.

My question is just a general one, and is somewhat of an observation. I have noticed that the great files posted collectively comprise most of the main maqamat with the exception of Ajam... why is that? Yes, I do realize that the maqamat like Rast and Bayati provide for much more tarab and are far more shar'ee, but why the great divide?

My request is that it seems that you all have such a plethora of files, though instrumentals are far removed from the majority of the files here. I know the waslahs have some samais and bashrafs and such in their intro, but these types of instrumentals in their entirety are much needed. Is there any way we could get a sticky for samais, a sticky for longas, bashrafs, etc.?

Anyway, thank you all once again. You all are truly a blessing for a young man living in California with little access to the musical resources you all have.

TP21

[أبو علاء]

Thank you for your kind words and your interest. There's no reason for your embarrassment. The philosophy of this place is clear. Everybody may contribute to the extent they can afford and everybody can get what they want since the main objective of this forum is to make this part of our cultural heritage as widespread as possible so as to try and offet to it a new life.
As for your remark concerning the "divide" between 'ajam and other Arab music modes, I think there's first the fact that such "divide" just reflects the status of this mode among other ones. I might be mistaken but even statistically, unlike bayati, rast, sikah (with its various versions) and hijaz, 'ajam is not what I would call a fundamental maqam in our music. Yet, if you search the forum thoroughly, you'll find a few things in 'ajam (a mawwal by safti, a few dawrs by the same Safti, Zaki Murad and 'amin Hasanin, a very nice tawshih by Fashni in the religious section...etc
Instrumental music is relatively neglected. In fact, you'll have noticed there are entire sections that are in a worse sitiuation: Iraqi and North African ones to name only these two. This is due to the amount of recordings available to us, which is, to a certain extent, a reflection of the status of intstrumental music in Arab music in general, which is a status of dependence and inferiority vis-a-vis the various forms of vocal arts. It is also attributable to the reduced number of both knowledgeable and really active members in this forum and hence the absence to date of a moderator in charge of such section. Stickies are only created inasmuch as we have a minimum assurance as to our ability to provide a reasonable amount of pieces that justify it. Yet, I do promise to try and post some of the sama'is and basharif I have in my possession as a first step to fill this gap.

[kabh01]

صنع بسحر. العين تدل على العجم. يوجد أغاني لثومه وهي من من مقام العجم و الجهار كاه الذين لا تفرقهما الأذن كثيرا اللهم الا اذا كنت عازفا و تفهم بالدياز و نصفه و ربعه. المو سيقى الجميله التي تطرب القلب و السمع هي الموسيقى الحقيقيه في نهاية المطاف مش الطرطقه و النطنطه كقرقعة هذه الأيام!!!:) :)