Prof. Dieter Christensen

Dieter Christensen, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, New York

Dieter ChristensenInternational Council for Traditional MusicCenter for Ethnomusicology

Dieter Christensen, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, New York

5.30 "Music and Society in Central Kurdistan": Prof. Dieter Christensen

6.30 Recital on Kamancheh (Spiked Fiddle) by: Ardashir Kamkar

6.45 Tea hreak

7.00 "Musical Fonns and Styles in Kurdish Music": Hooshang Kamkar

8.00 Recital on Daf (Kurdish Frame Drum) by: Hussein Zahawy

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Professor Dieter Christensen - Music and Society in Central Kurdistan

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Prof. Dieter Christensen - Music and Society in Central Kurdistan

The Eastern Zagros mountains, comprising the current Turkish provinces of Hakkari and Siirt and the adjoining Northern Iraq, are known to have been the home of Kurds since times immemorial.

Kurdish principalities of the now distant past, like Badinan and Culamerg, are remembered in the narrative of poets/singers and even in dance songs.

The oral literature of the Kurds forms a vast body of cultural knowledge, ranging from myths to the events of the day, and much of it is cast in musical form.

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Dieter Christensen is the Professor of Music (Ethnomusicology) and Director of the Centre for Ethnomusicology at Columbia University in the cit of New York and the Secretary General of the International Council for Traditional Music (UNESCO).

His studies of Kurdish music and culture took him and hi anthropologist wife Nerthus to Siirt and Hakkari in 1958 and 1965, to Central Anatolia in 1970, and Western Iran in 1962.He also worked with Kurdish immigrants in Berlin, Germany.

His publications on Kurdish music include several articles in scholarly journals, entries in various encyclopaedias including the New Grove, and records with rural Kurdish music from Western Iran and Hakkari.

Hooshang Kamkar - Musical Forms and Styles in Kurdish Music

Kurdish music, which is rich, vibrant and as diverse as its landscape and people, has been handed down from generation to generation, from singer to singer in the oral tradition since ancient times.However, so far, very liKle has been documented or researched about the forms and styles of Kurdish music and it is only recently that Kurdish music has been introduced to a western audience.

This lecture aims at exploring and analysing the important aspects of Kurdish music which can be divided into two main categories;

Prof. Dieter Christensen, Director

"Feld's sensitively recorded CD makes an already extraordinary book truly unique.",,Dieter Christensen, Director of the Center for Ethnomusicology, Columbia University