Pitch is political: learning Arabic maqams and decolonizing music

Sami Abu Shumays has uploaded his complete lecture on politics and maqams. He talks about how decolonizing music also meant decolonizing himself—reconnecting to his roots as a Palestinian American. This is essential context for Sami’s work, which includes the Arabic tuning section of Ableton Live 12’s tuning implementation and free companion site.

Live 12 will have an interactive companion site exploring tuning

Ableton Live 12 will ship with new integrated tuning support — but there’s more. An interactive website will explore the context and musical traditions behind some of those tunings, along with interactive tools for working with tuning and modes. Here’s a preview.

Peter Kirn - November 23, 2023

Tuning into Arabic music: electronic-vocal duo Rust and Hany Manja (with Bitwig Studio download)

Making instruments work in tune with musicians and singers means making them work with more than 12-tone equal temperament alone. So it’s great to see this profile of Hany Manja and his duo Rust with Petra Hawi. Plus Bitwig Studio users can get your hands (and ears) into the action – with a Micropitch download.

Peter Kirn - January 23, 2023

V Collection 8.2 – Apple M1, faster GUIs, tuning support, and it’s 50% off for Black Friday

Peter Kirn - November 25, 2021

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