The Middle Eastern Ensemble, "Bereket" was established at UT Austin Fall 2006, under the direction of Prof. Sonia Tamar Seeman. “Bereket” is a Turkish word with cognates in Arabic and Persian which translates as “abundance”, “fruitfulness”, and “divine gift”. The course is offered as a practical introduction to music of the regions of the Middle East and related areas. The ensemble has several goals: to gain experiential understanding of the music and cultures of the Near, Middle East and North Africa, to foster community outreach, to work with campus language and other classes, and to create a sense of community around musical performance.Using the organizing musical principles of Middle Eastern classical and urban traditions, ensemble members learn to play basic melodic and rhythmic, techniques in structuring improvisations, how to participate in suite-like performance formats such as fasil, waslah and nawba, and perform in semi-improvised heterophonic styles. These practical goals will also provide the opportunity to learn about and discuss linguistic, cultural, historical, and political implications of the traditions from this region.
Repertoire
The ensemble’s repertoire includes music from the Near East, the Middle East, Southeastern Europe, and North Africa. Each semester the repertoire is based on a certain era or topic. Recent themes have included: “Music of the Turkish Ottoman Court and Urban Traditions” (Fall 2006); “Music of Minorities” (Fall 2007); “Western Orientalisms and Eastern Occidentalisms” in conjunction with the Early Music Ensemble (planned for Spring 2008)