Rahim AlHaj can’t get the music of the oud out of his head. That’s just the way he wants it, he told a workshop of four oud novices on a recent Sunday in March.
Born in Baghdad, AlHaj started playing the oud, an ancient guitar-shaped instrument carved from a solid piece of wood, when he was 9 and studied under well-known Iraqi musician Munir Bashir.
An activist against the Saddam Hussein regime, AlHaj fled Iraq for Syria and Jordan in 1991 following the Gulf War. Now 40, he lives in Albuquerque, N.M., where he is an oud player and composer. He also has performed in hundreds of concerts around the world, and even toured with Bashir.
Music of the Mind
On a recent Sunday, he found himself at a Lower Manhattan cultural center, Alwan for the Arts, teaching four musicians how to play the Iraqi way.
“You find the whole maqam in your head,” he told his students.
The Arabic maqam is a system of melodies in traditional Arabic music. The system is based on both compositions and improvisations. Each maqam induces a different emotion.
AlHaj said the emotion depends on how you feel when you play the oud. “Maqam means the foundation of your soul. You need to settle your soul to play music,” he explained.
New CD
“That’s the idea of the Iraqi school,” he told his students. “The idea is how to use all of the oud.”
AlHaj recently released his CD, “Home Again,” which is touted on his website as “a tour de force of touching and evocative original compositions.”
