Taqâlîd

Classical Oriental | Lebanon

The collection Taqālīd: Musical Traditions of the Arab World is devoted to traditional musical expressions of an artistic disposition from the Arab world or related Mediterranean and Middle-Eastern cultures. The range of musical genres extends from religious practices to parareligious mysticism to secular art music. Distancing itself not only from the literal conservatism but also from heterogeneous crossovers, the editorial line of this collection emphasizes living Tradition (Taqlīd) in its hermeneutic and initiatory sense, drawn to both revitalization and endogenous creativity. This tendency appears also in the choices—at once creative and rooted—of the graphic line, based on Arab calligraphy, that frames the compact disk.