10 years ago, we did this interview with Tony Gabriel!

[ASHOOR]

In October 2005, we did this interview with Assyrian singer Tony Gabriel, as he was slowly becoming a popular name in Assyrian music.

http://www.assyrianvoice.net/music/Interviews/Tony.htm

10 years later, Tony Gabriel is now one of the most popular Assyrian singer out there, having performed in hundreds of parties here in Canada and elsewhere.

Time flies!


Ashoor

 

[Googoo]

Does every Assyrian know every Assyrian? I find it cute how famous singers come to your weddings for instance, Juliana Jendo (I would have to pay a million to get an Arab singer singing at my wedding  :mfr_lol.  I did listen to some songs by Tony Gabriel and his voice gives you a positive and happy vibe. 


How do you see Assyrian music? is it going forward or backward?
-Honestly, it hasn't changed, it is still the same. Some of our people are hard to please, as they are not willing nor are they ready to modernize our music; simply take it to the next level.  Sometimes they look at me in a weird way when I come up with something new, that we have never tried before.  As long as we have this resistance to change and modernization (while still maintaining the rules of Assyrian music) our music won't go forward.


I agree on this point, the music beats need to change because they do sound the same.

 

[Cascade]

Does every Assyrian know every Assyrian? I find it cute how famous singers come to your weddings for instance, Juliana Jendo (I would have to pay a million to get an Arab singer singing at my wedding  :mfr_lol.  I did listen to some songs by Tony Gabriel and his voice gives you a positive and happy vibe. 


How do you see Assyrian music? is it going forward or backward?
-Honestly, it hasn't changed, it is still the same. Some of our people are hard to please, as they are not willing nor are they ready to modernize our music; simply take it to the next level.  Sometimes they look at me in a weird way when I come up with something new, that we have never tried before.  As long as we have this resistance to change and modernization (while still maintaining the rules of Assyrian music) our music won't go forward.


I agree on this point, the music beats need to change because they do sound the same.

Do you mean the beat or the melody? Both are distinctive mediums in music.

I can't see how the beat would change. After all, the common time (4/4) beat heard in western music is also ubiquitous. It's a pivotal characteristic of a song. The melody should definitely change though -- Most Assyrian songs are in a Phrygian mode (as with Arabic music). The Phrygian mode is that distinctive "exotic" sound that gives a song a foreign flavor. A lot of our songs are in that mode. That's why they'd sound alike.

 

[Googoo]

Do you mean the beat or the melody? Both are distinctive mediums in music.

I can't see how the beat would change. After all, the common time (4/4) beat heard in western music is also ubiquitous. It's a pivotal characteristic of a song. The melody should definitely change though -- Most Assyrian songs are in a Phrygian mode (as with Arabic music). The Phrygian mode is that distinctive "exotic" sound that gives a song a foreign flavor. A lot of our songs are in that mode. That's why they'd sound alike.

Yes, the melody. Arabic and Assyrian music are quite alike and both of them haven't changed much, although I think arabic music namely Egyptian and Lebanese do have several melodies compared to say, Iraqi (which is always the same). Did you ever meet a famous assyrian singer? Juliana Jendo, Janan Sawa, Linda George or Sargon Gabriel (Love him!!)? :heart:

 

[Cascade]

Yes, the melody. Arabic and Assyrian music are quite alike and both of them haven't changed much, although I think arabic music namely Egyptian and Lebanese do have several melodies compared to say, Iraqi (which is always the same). Did you ever meet a famous assyrian singer? Juliana Jendo, Janan Sawa, Linda George or Sargon Gabriel (Love him!!)? :heart:

Egyptian music tends to be in harmonic minor, which is a bit distinctive to Iraqi & Assyrian music. 

My parents have met Evin Agassi. He even visited my aunt's house for lunch. I wasn't there though. I would love to meet Linda George though.

 

[mrzurnaci]

if my hypothesis is correct, Modern Assyrian, Arabic, and Kurdish music all originated from medieval Turkish and Persian music which originated from a classical form of Persian music which originated from Mesopotamian music.

The ancestry goes like this...

Modern Assyrian+Arabic+Kurdish > Medieval Turkish + Farsi > Classical Persian > Mesopotamian.

 

[Cascade]

if my hypothesis is correct, Modern Assyrian, Arabic, and Kurdish music all originated from medieval Turkish and Persian music which originated from a classical form of Persian music which originated from Mesopotamian music.

The ancestry goes like this...

Modern Assyrian+Arabic+Kurdish > Medieval Turkish + Farsi > Classical Persian > Mesopotamian.

Wait... wait, if Assyrian music came from Farsi why is there Farsi music today?

*****sarcastic nod to that ubiquitous evolution question about humans and monkeys*******:mrgreen:

 

[Googoo]

More like Medieval Turkish is a mixture of Greek,Mesopotamian, Arabic and Persian (Turks having the last empire would mean they would extract stuff from previous empires and or ethnicities making up their empire). After all the empires ended, every ethincity has it's own thing.
Turks and Kurds are the same tbh, I can't tell the difference between the Kurdish-Turkish and the Turkish but I can tell the difference between the Kurdish-Iraqi (Makes you jump more during line dancing haha) vs Turkish/Kurdish-Turkish.

 

[Cascade]

More like Medieval Turkish is a mixture of Greek,Mesopotamian, Arabic and Persian (Turks having the last empire would mean they would extract stuff from previous empires and or ethnicities making up their empire). After all the empires ended, every ethincity has it's own thing.
Turks and Kurds are the same tbh, I can't tell the difference between the Kurdish-Turkish and the Turkish but I can tell the difference between the Kurdish-Iraqi (Makes you jump more during line dancing haha) vs Turkish/Kurdish-Turkish.

In what way they're same? For starters, Kurds and Turks speak two totally different languages (one is Indo European and the other is Turkic). I would say, rather, that Kurds and Persians are virtually alike (physical appearance and their Indo-Iranian language).

 

[mrzurnaci]

In what way they're same? For starters, Kurds and Turks speak two totally different languages (one is Indo European and the other is Turkic). I would say, rather, that Kurds and Persians are virtually alike (physical appearance and their Indo-Iranian language).

prior to the racist attitude of modern Turkey's policies towards Kurds, Kurds and Turks were essentially best friends since the battle of Chaldiran up to the fall of the empire...

Kurdish is indo-Aryan but if you're going to go as far as indo-european, you might as well call Turkic as Sino-Altaic...

anyways, she means that their style of music and rhythm is similar/same.

 

[Googoo]

prior to the racist attitude of modern Turkey's policies towards Kurds, Kurds and Turks were essentially best friends since the battle of Chaldiran up to the fall of the empire...

Kurdish is indo-Aryan but if you're going to go as far as indo-european, you might as well call Turkic as Sino-Altaic...

anyways, she means that their style of music and rhythm is similar/same.

True that, they were close when modern turkey was first formed too (they used to intermarry but such cases are rare now). Yes, I meant the style of music is the same not the looks or language. Kurds despite being aryan have a completely different style of music compared to Persians, Baluchis and Afghans etc, their music is more like Assyrians, Arabs and Turks. Their music is closer to Turkish though apart from the Kurds of Iraq (Which is like I said, more louder and makes you jump while line dancing more than having a set of "neat" line dancing steps to follow as like Turks and Kurdish Turks).

I'll just give an example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBppFohB5ks (Persian)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCsECqFfFAk (Afghan but I think he's singing in the Afghan dialect closest to Persian, Dari)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hOsQxIEAWY (Kurdish-Turkish, ignore the language but just listen to the melody, it sounds similiar to Turkish music more than it sounds similiar to Kurdish Iraqi)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEcepaw8ztw (Kurdish Iraqi)

It could be a bit biased but anyways my whole point is that Kurdish Iraqi is quite distinctive from Kurdish Turkish and Turkish. As a whole, I find it weird that Kurdish music is closer to Arabs,Assyrians and Turks than their fellow Aryans.

 

[mrzurnaci]

As a whole, I find it weird that Kurdish music is closer to Arabs,Assyrians and Turks than their fellow Aryans.

The main reason for this is that, prior to the fall of Ottoman empire, Kurds were a mostly a semi-nomadic people and were nomadic even before then.

Nomadic people do not have a culture as highly developed as sedentary populations. The Kurds that did become sedentary during their nomadic phase were assimilated into whatever population they lived near or with.

The semi-nomadic phase began when the Ottoman Turks settled them into Assyria and Armenia; from that point on, Kurds learned about civilization from the Turko-Persian form of culture that originated from Perso-Mesopotamian culture.

Much of Arab culture can be traced to Persia and Mesopotamia as well.