On the concept of improvisation in Middle Eastern music

Contributors

Program

Improvisation characterizes much of the traditional music of the Middle East. It manifests itself either as interpretative freedom in the performance of pre-composed genres or as a spontaneous, creative shaping of not pre-composed, mostly non-metrical forms. As a central vehicle for ecstatic excitement, improvisation is considered a highly developed art form that requires exceptional skill and inspirational creativity. Modal improvisations in particular have a clearly observable emotional effect. The aim of the lecture is to illustrate the improvisational genres, their performative effect and the concept of improvisation in Middle Eastern music.

Prof. Dr. Salah Eddin Maraqa is Academic Advisor at the Department of Musicology and Honorary Professor of (Historical) Ethnomusicology at the College of Music Freiburg. His research focuses on the history, theory and practice of Middle Eastern music from 1500 onwards.

The lecture is part of the FZM lecture series "Improvising: Spontaneous Creativity in Art and Everyday Life".

In the summer semester 2026, the Freiburg Research and Teaching Centre(FZM) is organizing a lecture series on the topic of improvisation from various specialist perspectives and facets. In addition to ten lectures by members of the FZM and guests, which will take place on Wednesdays in the lecture hall of the University's Musicology Department, events with improvisational-musical performances or cross-genre performances are planned on five Monday evenings at the College of Music, two of which are part of the FZM event series "musik + wissen".

Here you will find the short program (pdf) (this file is not barrier-free) with all individual dates of the public lecture series.

The Freiburg Research and Teaching Center (FZM) is a joint institution of the College of Music and the University campus Freiburg with the aim of mutual networking in music-related research and teaching.