Fadi M. Al-Ghawanmeh

University of Lorraine and University of Oslo · Computer Science (UL) and Musicology (UiO)

This article presents a system to generate Arab music improvisation using machine translation (MT). To reach this goal, we developed a MT model to translate a vocal improvisation into an automatic instrumental oud (Arab lute) response. Given the melodic and non-metric musical form, it was necessary to develop efficient tex-tual representations in o...

The evaluation of machine virtuosity is critical to improving the quality of virtual instruments, and may also help predict future impact. In this contribution, we evaluate and predict the virtuosity of a statistical machine translation model that provides an automatic responsive accompaniment to mawwal, a genre of Arab vocal improvisation. We foun...

Mawwal is a traditional form in Arab music. It usually consists of several poetic verses narrated over an improvised melody in a particular maqam. During vocal improvisation, instrumental accompaniment functions as a background, limited to either a drone tonic, or following the singer's melodic path (Hamam, 2008). However, once the singer completes...

In the context of Arab maqamic music, mawwāl is a non-metric vocal improvisation and is often applied to narrative poetry. Upon the completion of each vocal sentence in the mawwāl, the instrumentalist performs a recapitulation, or a translation of the vocal sentence. This musical submission features the new and improved version of the mawaweel comp...

في سياق الموسيقى العربية المقامية، يُعدّ الموال ارتجالً غنائياً غير موزون، وغالبا ما يستخدم هذا القالب لسرد الشعر بطريقة مُغنّاة. عند الانتهاء من كل جملة غنائية في الموال ، يقوم العازف بأداء تلخيص أو ترجمة لها عزفا على آلته. هذا العمل الموسيقي يُسلّط الضوء على النسخة الجديدة والمطورة من تطبيق مواويل لجهاز الحاسوب، وهو تطبيق يقدم مرافقة (أو ترجمة) م...

Vocal improvisation is an essential practice in Arab music. The interactivity between the singer and the instrumentalist(s) is a main feature of this deep-rooted musical form. As part of the inter-activity, the instrumentalist recapitulates, or translates, each vocal sentence upon its completion. In this paper, we present our own parallel corpus of...

Vocal improvisation is an essential practice in Arab music. The interactivity between the singer and the instru-mentalist(s) is a main feature of this deep-rooted musical form. As part of the interactivity, the instrumentalist re-capitulates, or translates, each vocal sentence upon its completion. In this paper, we present our own parallel corpus o...

الأذان هو النداء للصلاة عند المسلمين. وهو من الناحية النغمية ارتجال لحني بصوت المؤذن عند أداء نص عربي محدد. نعمل في هذا المشروع على تطوير مواد تعليمية غنية، وذلك من خلال توفير مكتبة صوتية مكونة من تسجيلات حية للأذان الموحد في مدينة عمان. بحيث يتم فهرستها وفقا للمقام وكذلك المؤذن. كما نقوم بتحليل للمسار اللحني في هذا الاداء المرتجل لحنيا من خلال موس...

Adhan is the Islamic call to prayer; it is a vocal improvisation of a particular text performed by the Muezzin. We are developing a rich educational material; an audio library of tens of adhan performances based on live recordings of Amman city unified adhan. These are indexed according to maqam as well as to muezzin. We also perform verbal analysi...

Automatic maqam estimation is considered significant toward improving multimedia live music performances and automatic accompaniment. This contribution proposed a real-time maqam estimation model developed in the visual programming language MAX/MSP and configured for the nāydukah. The model’s design stood on basic formulas of Arab music maqamat as...

إن أتمتة تحديد المقام الموسيقي أثناء الأداء تعد أمراً مهمًا لتحسين الأداء الحي التفاعلي عبر الوسائط المتعددة وكذلك لتحسين أداء المرافقة الموسيقية الأوتوماتيكية . تقترح هذه المساهمة البحثية نموذجا لتحديد المقام الموسيقي لحظياً تم تطويره باستخدام لغة البرمجة المرئية MAX / MSP ، بجيث تمت تهيئة النموذج ليناسب آلة الناي، لا سيما ناي الدوكاه. اعتمد تصميم...

In this multidisciplinary study, the main research question was how to improve the value of entrepreneurial initiatives that provide the web service of automatic accompaniment to Arab singing. As an example and case study, we considered the Mawaweel website that offered an automatic accompaniment to Arab vocal improvisation as a main service. After...

Although automatic accompaniment debuted in the mid-1980s, it was not applied to Arab music till recently. This is due, in part, to the lack of research applying informatics to Arab music, also to the particularity of Arab music. As a case study, we review the melodic part of the mawaweel web model for the Accompaniment of Arab vocal improvisation,...

We present a new process in which we utilize music analysis software as an effective way to teach Arab singing and ornamenting in educational workshops. We discuss the analytical, visual and performance capabilities of a couple of software. Then, we review the aspects of the process: tasks, methodology, work-schedule and requirements. A thorough de...

This study discusses Arabian modes (Maqamat) in contemporary Arabian songs. This is done through two-stage analysis of a random sample of these songs broadcasted in common Arabian music space channels. The first stage analyzes each song separately, extracts its main features, and inserts them in schedules categorized by modes. The second phase is a...

This study discusses Arabian modes (Maqamat) in contemporary Arabian songs. This is done through two-stage analysis of a random sample of these songs broadcasted in common Arabian music space channels. The first stage analyzes each song separately, extracts its main features, and inserts them in schedules categorized by modes. The second phase is a...

INTRODUCTION “Mawwāl” is an Arab term that refers to the traditional/classical vocal improvisation of the Middle East and North Africa. It is a non-metric form that is usually applied to narrative poetry. It is usually preceded by a short instrumental improvisation or composition as a preparatory phase to develop the sense of “Saltanah” (modal ecs...

[مقدمة ملخصة] "الموّال" – وجمعه المواويل – هو قالب موسيقي عربي تقليدي وشعبي. لا يرافقه الإيقاع غالبا، ويستخدم عادة لسرد الشعر بصورة ملحّنة. وحيث يشيع استخدام لفظ "الموّال" في المشرق العربي، فإن لفظ "الاستخبار" – وجمعه الاستخبارات– يشيع في بلاد المغرب العربي للدلالة على هذا القالب الموسيقي. غالباً ما يسبق الموّال ارتجالات آلية (تقاسيم) أو مقطوعة موس...

The accuracy and reliability of automatic music transcription plays and important role in music information retrieval applications. This paper investigates a previously reported Automatic Music Transcription (AMT) system for the Arabian flute (Nay)with the aim of extending its features and improving its performance. Several critical design factors...

Most educational musical software is designed for occidental music and instruments. As Arabian music has special features, utilization of most available musical software is limited. This article presents educational tools developed for Arabian woodwinds. These tools are based on a recently proposed system devoted to melodic retrieval of Arabian woo...

تقدم هذه الورقة نظاما حاسوبيا قادرا على تحليل واستخلاص خصائص الموسيقى العربية لالة الناي العربي بهدف أتمتة التدوين الموسيقي لها. وقد تم استخدم الناي كنموذج لاجراء هذا البحث بهدف تمكين المهتمين في مجال الموسيقى من تحليل واستخلاص النغمات الموسيقية لآلة الناي وتدوينها حاسوبيا. وجدير بالإشارة هنا بان أتمتة التدوين الموسيقي لآلة الناي هو الأكثر صعوبة مق...

Unlike occidental flutes, Arabian flutes have gained only limited attention in literature over the past years. Moreover, the least tone-to-tone distance in Arabian music is only half of that of occidental music and therefore the analysis and features extraction process of Arabian music is more challenging. This paper investigates the tone-to-tone f...

Automatic music transcription has gained momentum in years due to the several benefits it provides as educational resources to give budding musicians hints during composition and/or training exercises. Unlike western music, Arabian music has gained only limited attention in literature over the past years. Moreover, analysis of Arabian music tones i...