With Trump’s new travel ban taking effect today, we get a reminder that Trump doesn’t have real estate in every country in the world. Consider the Middle East, for example. Trump is building a new hotel in Oman and expanding his holdings in Saudi Arabia, according to a recent Newsweek report by Mandy Taheri. Therefore, Saudi Arabia and Oman are not listed in Trump’s travel ban.
I specifically chose Oman and Saudi Arabia for the example because they both border Yemen, which is listed in Trump’s travel ban. Part of the motivation for the travel ban in general is the supposed “large-scale presence of terrorists” in some of the countries singled out for this mark of dishonor. But of course if that reason was genuine, Saudi Arabia would be on the travel ban. Remember where most of the 9/11 hijackers came from?
Trump’s immigration policies, fueled by hatred, have already had a chilling effect on touring musicians. It has been documented that Mexican musicians have canceled American tours. It is not as well known what effect there has been on Middle Eastern musicians, such as oud player Ahmed Alshaiba if he were alive today.
Alshaiba did come to America, unfortunately to die in a car accident in New York in 2022. He made quite an impression when he was alive. In 2017, classical music station WQXR published an editorial on its website titled “Behold the Power of the Oud.”
The instrument is basically a living textbook ... of Middle-Eastern, North African, and Western European musical traditions. At first glance, it looks a lot like the lute — those long-necked and fretted string instruments you always see in raucous Renaissance paintings. But the fretless oud is much older and happens to be the direct ancestor of the European lute. The oud, which itself is derived from even older instruments from the same region, spread throughout early Islamic empires — including to Al-Andalus (present-day Portugal and Spain). There, the oud continued to develop, eventually evolving into the lute before making its way into wider European musical traditions. It has proved to be yet another musical thread linking seemingly disparate artistic traditions, which makes it all the more fascinating.
Last week [from March 27, 2017], Yemeni musician Ahmed Alshaiba dropped by the TED studios to perform a few selections on his oud and answer some listener questions about the ancient instrument. It’s a beautiful set — perfect for playing as you continue your work at the computer.
There follow three videos on that page, I’ve only listened to one of them as I write this. But yeah, he was a phenomenal player.
At first I was just gonna put these oud concerto selections as a subsection of the open thread about lute concertos, but when I heard the first few minutes of the Oud Concerto by Joseph Tawadros, I realized I had to give the oud a separate thread. Don’t listen to this next one too close to your bedtime, though.
Notice also some traditional Arabic percussion joining the oud soloist. Of course percussion is traditional Arabic in the cases that it hasn’t been absorbed into Western music yet.
This concerto by a different composer is much more lyrical, and maybe more suitable for the late hour I’m posting this.
The open thread question: What is your favorite ensemble music with oud solos?
EDIT, June 10, 2025: I had this one in a different Web browser tab and forgot about it. A regrettable omission. Please enjoy.
