|
Hello everyone, and
welcome to Afif Taian's official Website! Afif is a professional oud
player, currently working with the great Takht Ensemble, Kan Zaman.
Kan Zaman is headed by Wael
Kakish, a widely known person among musical society.
Afif Taian plays the
oud, a Middle Eastern instrument. In the next few pages, you will be
able to listen and see how he does what all of us oud fans admire so
much.
You will see how much feeling Afif puts into the oud, the talent
that he has, and the dedication that he has to the instrument as
well as to music in general.
WHAT IS THE OUD?
The oud is a stringed
musical instrument, still
in use in many Arabic
cultures. Related to the European
lute, its name is derived
from the Arabic word for Wood
which is probably the name of tree the Oud was made from. (Al-'ud
became 'lute'.) The Oud is not fretted and was and still used by
many arabic composers for composition. Live performances don't rely
heavily on Oud, for another instrument the Qanoun can produce
similar sound and is more pragmatic, mainly because of it's ability
to produce wider range of sounds and with higher amplititudes. The
oud's features are similar to the guitar: a sound box, five to eight
pairs of strings (except the "bassest" or lowest string which
usually have one string) which are called Awtar (singular watar), a
shorter neck (relative to the guitar) called al-raqeba, at least one
hole (Some have several) called Al-qamaria, a bridge called al
Ghazala, and keys for toning the strings called mafateeh. The bridge
and the strings are knot in a similar fashion of the flamenco
guitar. The soundbox of the Oud is usually parabolic in shape, by
that it doesn't have a straight back as the guitar. The pluck or the
reeshe for the oud is usually an index-finger long, and is made from
beard's feather (thus the name; usually an ostrich feather), but
contemporarily plastic plucks are used. Oud is very famous in arabic
countries due to the fact that it's easy to improvise on the oud
unlike other instruments which either require accompaniment or are
too complex to play.
Copyright © Wikipedia
Encyclopedia 2003
|
|
7/26/2003
Afif will soon be coming out with a new CD! This
will be his first CD, and it will be coming out
within the next few months.
7/26/2003 Afif's Website is
launched!
|