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Samaii Muhayyar

Musical Composition
         Samaii

     (Taqseem Oud ).After the Bashraf and a group of Muwashahat, a musical group would play a musical piece shorter than the Bashraf.  It’s called “Samaii”, and is similar to the Bashraf in its composition.  The “Samaii” is composed of four parts and a “Tasleem” that is repeated after every part.  The Samaii is distinguished by having a rhythm of ten fast beats (Rhythm  ) , and it’s fourth part has a rhythm that is different from the original one.  It either goes with Six beats (Rhythm ), or three beats (Rhythm ).  Here is a Samaii in Farah Faza by Jameel Bey (Samaii Farah Faza ). The last part of this Samaii is of three beat rhythm (Samaii Farah Faza  ).

      Tunisia is the only country that has Old “Samaiyat”.  They are not Turkish, and composers are un-Known.  It’s possible that they were written in the Sixteenth Century.  However, they kept their Tunisian flavor in performance.  Here is Samaii Rast Al-Theel, with a last part that has both three slow beats, and a fast six beats (Samaii Rast Al-Theel  ). 

       In the Arab Mashriq, the first Samaii that came about (in 1925) was called “Samaii Araby”.  It was composed by Three Virtuoso musicians; Abdil-Hamid Al-Qababi (Qanoon Player), Muhammad Al-Qasabji (Oud Player) and Sami Al-Shawwa (Violin Player).  Here is a part of (Samaii Araby ).  We notice that this Samaii is missing the rhythmic variation in the fourth part, and is a simple composition.  This Samaii was followed by a well known Samaii by Ibraheem Al-Arian. This Samaii was followed by Tens of Samaiyat in various parts of the Arab World.  And here is (Samaii Al-Arian ). 

Samaii Bayati
Samaii Rast
Samaii Farah Faza
Samaii Nahawand
Samaii Hijaz Kar Kurd

Please visit the following Web Sites for an extensive collection of Classical Arabic Music:

http://www.classicalarabicmusic.com

http://www.traditionalarabicmusic.com

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