The concert will feature Muwashshahat and Qudud Halabiyya as well as renditions of Arabic Tarab songs originally performed by Umm Kulthum, Mohammed ‘Abd Al-Wahab, Asmahan and Abdel Halim Hafez, among many others. The concert will also feature more contemporary Arabic Tarab songs as well as vocal and instrumental improvisations. This concert will be extra special as Yousef will be performing Armenian, Assyrian and Turkish songs that are popular in the city of Aleppo.
Tarab— often translated as musical enchantment, rapture or ecstasy— is a genre of Arabic music that refers to a state of musical and emotional enchantment experienced by its listeners.
Often considered to be the epitome of songs in the Arab world—especially in the Levant—the Muwashshahat are strophic poems set to music. Of Andalusian inspiration, they treat the themes of love, longing and spirituality. They continue to be cherished and even composed by Syrians at home and abroad. The Qudud Halabiyya are lighter songs in both standard and colloquial Arabic that are well-known around the Arab world today.
