Part 1: Introduction to the Musics of the Region

The large and diverse geographic area that we call the Middle East and Central Asia supports widely shared, important musical practices. The singing of fine poetry, sophisticated melodic improvisation, and musical composition using a great variety of long, complex rhythmic patterns are the basis for essential aesthetic values. Large, often open-ended forms that offer the potential for spontaneous alteration at the request of an audience are integral to the construction of social time—of entertainment—in...