Music for Peace in the Middle East spotlights Jewish, Muslim, and Christian musicians who fostered peaceful coexistence through collaborative music-making. This page focuses on an exceptional musical encounter: Palestinian (Israeli-Arab) Simon Shaheen and Iraqi-Jew Avraham Salman.
Before immigrating to the US in 1980, Simon Shaheen arranged to visit Avraham Salman, a qanun virtuoso whom he greatly admired. The music heard here was recorded under exceptional circumstances—one of the rare instances where musicians of different ethnic backgrounds joined together for the sole purpose of creative music-making. They spent the morning in Salman’s Ramat Gan home, the two musicians enjoying an infrequently-played classical repertoire of sama‘iyyat. Although they had only played together a few times, the level of inspiration was high. Extended taqasim were interspersed between the sections (khanat) of the sama‘iyyat. Their session was entirely unrehearsed except to agree on the order of taqasim. We include their remarks to convey the spirit of this remarkable musical encounter.

Avraham Salman was considered one of the finest qanun players in the Middle East. Like many blind Iraqi-Jewish musicians, he studied at the Jewish School for the Blind in Baghdad and immigrated to Israel shortly after the foundation of the state in 1948. Salman soon became well-known, particularly through recordings and performances for the Israel Broadcasting Authority. Salman was an extremely versatile musician, performing in many styles, e.g. the mainstream style recorded here, the Iraqi style which accompanied traditional maqam singing, and Western styles, for example a concerto for qanun and symphony orchestra. The extended taqasim here demonstrate Salman’s genius with their modulations to remote maqamat and the inclusion of coloristic elements (e.g. glissandi produced by pressing the tuning key against the strings).

Simon Shaheen (b. 1955, Israel) is a world-renowned ‘udist, violinst, and composer. He was extensively recorded in 1980 and 1985 by ethnomusicologist and student of ‘ud, Esther Warkov.
For additional recordings of Shaheen from 1980 see "Taqasim Instrumental Improvisations in Near Eastern Traditions. Anthology of Musical Traditions in Israel" http://bit.ly/1TjorE9

Read about the contributions of Avraham Salman and Simon Shaheen to musical life prior to 1981 in "The Urban Arabic Repertoire of Jewish Professional Musicians in Iraq and Israel: Instrumental Improvisation and Culture Change" at Academia.edu http://bit.ly/1niES7r

Copyright 2017 Esther Warkov