Thaipusam, is an annual festival beginning on a full moon day between January 14 and February 14. This festival is celebrated in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and South Africa. It is celebrated by all Hindu castes, from the highest Brahmin to the lowest Dalit. An important feature of Thaipsam is the kavadi ritual. This follows the myth of Surapadma, the demon, who eventually became Lord Maruga's honest devotee, Idumban. This conversion is represented by purification ceremonies, around which the festival focuses, and in which participants enter a state of trance, in order to carry out physically demanding feats. Kavadi originates from a Tamil (South Indian) word, kavati. It describes anything that can be suspended on the body (pole, hooks and chains). Today, it is taken to mean a semi-circular structure that is decorated with flowers, peacock feathers and palm leaves. The kavadi is drawn by devotees who have hooks, attached to their skin, with which to pull along the structure. The Brahmin caste, however hook small pails of milk onto their skin instead. The kavadi usually bears a vel (flesh-piercing implement), which represents Lord Maruga's lance. Devotees who 'take kavadi' do so in a higher state of mind or trance. Chanting, music, especially drumming, and incense are used to induce trance. Focusing mainly on fieldwork undertaken around Thaipusam in Kuala Lumpur, this thesis examines the background of the ceremony, its Hindu connections and the different music associated with each caste. The different drumming patterns, of each caste in particular, are transcribed, analyzed and compared, together with the melodic music of the nadaswarum, the instrument associated with the Brahmin music.

This bachelor thesis explores crossover possibilities between jazz and middle eastern music by arranging folk songs and composing new music based on elements from both genres and performing it with jazz and folk musicians. The study includes a brief explanation of maqam and traditional music of the middle east, its development during the 20thcentury, the impact of western music, including jazz, and some examples of this impact in different countries in the region.It also describes my composing and arranging process leading to new compositions with mutual characters from jazz and folk music and rehearsing these compositions with a band of musicians from different backgrounds. This work subsequently resulted in a concert on March 11th where we performed five compositions, of which two were based on folksongs written for this project.

My project is first and foremost about developing a pedagogical method for teaching Middle Eastern folk and classical music on the violin. As a secondary goal, I want to know if my own playing could benefit from applying such a method and become more skilled in expressing myself artistically on my instrument.  In order to achieve this, first, I have transcribed and notated music from different music styles of the Middle East, including Kurdish, Persian, Arabic and Turkish music and described the specific traits of these different styles. Then, I have created a method of how to represent different stylistically important elements in the music, e.g. the most popular ornaments used in this music, as well as finding new ways of representing them by new symbols. Finally, I have devised exercises for learning and perfecting these style elements, such as ornaments.           There is no well-established method for teaching the Middle Eastern styles of violin playing (Eilenberg, 1993). This fact makes it challenging for students to learn and pass on the tradition. Unlike Western Classical music, Middle Eastern music involves using different modal systems, including scales with quarter tones. The modes and corresponding scales are called Maqam and there are a great many of them. (Todorov, 2018)A violinist playing this style of music, usually uses intricate ornamentations in playing on these scales when making an extemporization or improvisation on the maqam, called Taksim. Not having a method for this complicated music style, makes a new learner to rely solely on learning by ear and learn through imitation, which is today often performed by listening to recorded sources. In my personal experience, it took many years of careful listening and imitating to learn how to play Middle Eastern music on the violin.          As an accomplished violinist and teacher, now I want to establish and develop my method so students can take advantage of it and learn this music more thoroughly, faster and become more accomplished in expressing themselves within the style. My hope is that this method will help preserve the Middle Eastern style of violin playing and make it easier to pass on to the next generations. Furthermore, the method will also help an interested foreigner to understand and potentially learn Middle Eastern music on the violin. Thus, my research interest is to investigate in what way I can describe, notate the pertinent stylistic elements of the music for to develop a ‘Method for oriental violin playing’, including notations, exercises, and teaching process, that can make a musician understand the Middle Eastern music styles and learn to play them. The ultimate aim is to pass the tradition easier and faster, giving aspiring violinists possibility to develop their violin playing within this field. Hopefully, from notating and transcribing these styles the tradition can be preserved. A specific question is also to investigate the usefulness of the method for groups of violins.   Secondary research interest is to investigate how this work might influence the development of my own playing, in terms of technique and expressing.    Summary of research questions:    -              How can I describe and notate the Middle Eastern violin styles with details? -              What are the most important stylistic elements and techniques?  -              How can I teach this music? -              How can I pass on the tradition faster and easier with the help of a method in a way that develops the field of Middle Eastern violin styles? -              Can I develop my own playing and artistic skills by applying exercises for stylistic features? / <p>Samai Hijaz                                       Göksel Baktagir (Turkish) Bogazici                                            Baki Kemanci (Turkish)</p><p>Alan Kamil – Violin </p><p>Feras Sharstan – Kanun</p><p>Saman Taha – Piano</p><p>Mårten Hillbom – Raqq and Cajon </p><p> </p><p>Swedish folk music meets Kurdish folk music!    (Kurdish and Swedish)</p><p>Alan Kamil – Violin </p><p>Tommy Lundberg – Violin </p><p> </p><p>Pirozbe                                          Nasir Razazi’s Song (Kurdish)</p><p>              Violins:</p><p>Alan Kamil</p><p>Tommy Lundberg </p><p>Anna Ekborg</p><p>Sandra Arvman</p><p>Nichelle Johansson</p><p> </p><p>Saman Taha – Piano </p><p>Mårten Hillbom – Cajon</p><p> </p><p>Swan Lake                                        Mojtaba Mirzadeh (Persian) Soran Badinan                                  Dilshad Said (Kurdish)</p><p>Alan Kamil – Violin </p><p>Saman Taha – Piano </p><p> </p><p>Nassam Aleyna el Hawa                 Rahbani Brothers – Fairouz (Arabic)</p><p>Alan Kamil – Violin </p><p>Feras Sharstan – Kanun</p><p>Saman Taha – Piano</p><p>Mårten Hillbom – Darbuka </p><p> </p><p>Eshveh                                              Bijan Mortazavi (Persian)</p><p>Alan Kamil – Violin </p><p>Saman Taha – Piano </p>