Abed Alkhamrah

Koma

This work traces some methods of Ottoman classic music through its development into national music, and thereby introduces the music of the metropole as a history of migration. The travels of musicians and their work show the major influence of Cairo, Istanbul, Paris, and Berlin on musicians, music methods, history, and epistemology. The record of the palestinian musician Abed Alkhamrah is a parallel approach to a non-existent musical memory by improvising it. It reclaims the agency for the melodic Koma-tone which was expelled from the lexicons of national music.