TUNE ~ Near East/Far West Fusion compositions by Eric Ederer ~ produced by Daniel Cossu ~ mixed by Jonathan Cossu More notes below... click "Read more..."! Ethnomusicologist and composer Eric Ederer began studying and playing various kinds of Near Eastern music around 2000, and researched both his MA and PhD on Turkish music while living in Istanbul. Having composed music for motion picture advertising with Cinetrax Music Library since the mid-1990s, Eric and Cinetrax producer Daniel Cossu began recording some of Eric's "non-commercial" pieces a few years ago as a side project and finally decided to release the better ones in a series of "micro-albums" — TUNE is the first of these, and is also the "maiden voyage" of the Nautilauta, a musical instrument in the mandocello family that Eric invented to play both Near Eastern maqām musics, Persian dastgāh music, and experimental Western music in Just Intonation. Descriptions of each piece on TUNE follow: Pesendide Taksim (1:50) This is the first tune recorded on the Nautilauta, a hybrid East/West instrument I designed and which — with the support of its many generous Kickstarter backers — luthier Josh Humphrey made real in June of 2012. “Pesendide” is the name of a Turkish "makam" (melodic mode) invented by Ottoman Sultan Selim III (d. 1808); a "taksim" is an unmetered, spontaneously composed instrumental performance. As with all of the music on this micro-album, this piece is in Just Intonation. Many thanks, again, to the Nautilauta’s supporters! Jurjuna (3:35) Jurjuna (spelled "curcuna" in Turkish) is the name of a fast-moving rhythmic mode in ten beats — 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 — popular in Turkey, Armenia, and Iraq; pieces in this metric scheme are known by the same name (in the same way you might call a piece a “waltz,” or a “tango”) ... boring name, fun piece. Though played mainly on Near Eastern instruments, it is the only piece on this micro-album that is not in any particular makam/maqām (melodic mode), and the only one using an instrument not in Just Intonation (the octave mandolin, in 12-tone Equal Temperament). Bowed cümbüş tanbur, ud, and octave mandolin played by Eric Ederer; daire (frame drum, with and without brushes), bowed guitar, and electric bass played by Daniel Cossu. Gülizar Mandıra (2:50) Again a prosaic name: "Gülizar" is the name of a makam, and "mandıra" is both the name of a rhythmic mode (2 + 2 + 3) and a kind of piece using it. Ud by EE; daire (with brushes) by DC. Hüseyni Peşrev (4:14) Also called “A Tale of 3 Lous.” After a brief taksim on the ud (the grandfather of the lute), there follows a piece in the traditional Ottoman "peşrev" form in the makam Hüseyni, which I composed to honor the memories of 3 friends who have passed from this world: Lou Harrison, Lou Savett, and Lou Genise (may their names resound with serious mirth). Ud by EE; daire by DC. Geçiş (Passage) (6:16) The Turkish word "geçiş" means both “passage” and “modulation,” in a musical sense. This is a spontaneously composed ud taksim with many modulations beginning in the makam Nişabur and ending in Muhayyer-Sümbüle (for those of you wishing to follow along, in broad strokes the chain of makam modulations goes: Nişabur→Suzinak→Karcığar→Isfahanek→Dügâh→Muhayyer-Sümbüle). Ud by EE; water-filled wine glasses by DC — the drone here is the only “canned” sound on this micro-album (it’s supposedly a looped sample of a bamboo flute). Muwāshshaḥ Without Words #1: Bayyāti Nāwa (3:21) A muwāshshaḥ is a medieval Andalusian poetic form, and by extension, the musical genre used to accompany it. Beginning in Muslim Iberia (roughly 711 to 1492, where many muwāshshaḥāt were composed in Arabic, Hebrew, and early Ibero-Romance languages) the genre spread throughout North Africa and to the Levant. This one is actually just something I thought felt like a muwāshshaḥ; there were never any words to it — so much for the history lesson! It’s in the mashriqi (eastern) Arab maqām called Bayyāti Nāwa (that is, Bayyāti on the note called nāwa) with some modulatory moments in Husayni and Shuri (also on nāwa) and a bit of free-form fooling around on the Turkish lâvta. I also made up the rhythms: mostly in 13 beats (3 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2) and a bit in 12 (3 + 3 + 3 +3). This piece is dedicated to Harry Ewasiuk, who donated generously to the Kickstarter campaign that funded the creation of the Nautilauta. Nautilauta and lâvta by EE; violin, daire and darbuka by DC. I hope you enjoy these pieces and will "keep an ear out" for future works — thanks! Eric Ederer