Piano

The piano as a Western instrument was included in Arabic music since the early 20^th century, it was used to add a modern classical color to Arabic compositions, as is the case in “al-Siba wal-Gamal” by Muhammad Abdel Wahab, in 1939. With that said, what we call Arabic Piano is the instrument played melodically (without harmony) within the Arabic maqam framework.

The earliest Arabic piano pioneer was the Lebanese Wadih Sabra who played the piano endowed with additional notes (quartertones) during the Cairo Arabic Music Congress of 1932. Later, Lebanese Abdallah Chahine also altered a piano to play quartertones and recorded an album called “al-Nagham al-Khalid” with taqasim in the most common maqamat.

Toward the end of the 20^th century, Lebanese musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani recorded many songs and instrumental compositions using an acoustic or electric piano to play either maqam melodic lines, or harmony within a Jazz-fusion genre.