Urab

Urab (عرب) (pronounced OO-rahb) refers to a type of fast, trill-like ornament found in Arabic music. In Western classical music, trills are largely decorative embellishments that adorn a melodic line. In Arabic music, however, these rapid ornamental figures are the highlight of a performance, showcasing how a musician can manipulate and play with them expressively. This distinction became the seed for the entire piece.

From the opening measures, these fast trills ripple across the full orchestra, establishing themselves not as decoration but as the central musical idea. I have always been drawn to taking a small gesture like this and seeing how far it can grow on its own. As the piece unfolds, these trills transform. In the contrasting middle section, the brass breathe them slowly, stretching what was once a surface-level flash of energy into something more introspective. I wanted to explore not just what these figures sound like, but how they feel when given room to expand.

The trills draw on the maqam system of Arabic music, which requires the orchestra members to play pitches outside the normal realm of what they are used to on their instruments. At other moments, I westernize these pitches, and we hear something closer to the traditional orchestral sound we know, all still in the guise of these ornamental figures. This back and forth mirrors my own experience as someone born and raised in the United States whose blood comes from countries very far away. Urab is a reflection on that experience, told through the lens of these minute gestures that Arabic musicians have perfected for centuries, explored here from the surface all the way down.