Customer Reviews

The Aleppo Suites

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When I purchased this 3-disc album, I wondered if I was a tad crazy. After all, these are traditional Arabic poetry sung by one man accompanied by a chorus of 6, two playing frame drums. Forty-three tracks for 143 minutes of one musical sound is a long time. However, having read Jonathan Holt Shannon's book "Among the Jasmin Trees. Music and Modernity in Contempory Syria," I was curious about these Aleppo Suites. Hassan Haffar is an important muezzin, one who calls Muslims to prayer and chant/recite the Qu'ran, who is in residence at the Great Mosque in Aleppo. These poetic songs, which permit ornamental improvisations, are each in 11 different maqams, or scales. As in Hindistani ragas, the unique modes have different emotions. The album would provide an opportunity to experience these different maqams and their respective emotions. But would tedium set in? Thus, in one continuous listening without consulting the lyrics (they were all similar anyway), I discovered that each of the suites was indeed different and they held my interest throughout. With only the modes, the rhythms, and the melodies, I experienced joyful romance; serious pathos and longing; heroic strength; religious devotion; craving; thankfulness and praise; love and encouragement; the suffering of separation; and the power of action. I was amazed. This album, recorded in 1999 in Paris and issued after 10 years, is a major contribution to the musical art of maqam and to the Syrian style of suites.