At the Fringe of Time
Notes on the Ramal Ensemble’s Program

Madeleine Onwuzulike

It is often the subtleties and nuances that define a work of art—and the music of the Ramal Ensemble is particularly rich in these. In their original compositions for the chamber music formation of clarinet, oud, percussion, piano, and cello, the members of the ensemble, first founded in Damascus in 2011 and re-founded in Berlin in 2016, organically weave together many influences into a single fascinating texture. Elements of Western and Arabic classical music blend with contemporary sounds and improvisation in what might be described as a living simultaneity of the un-simultaneous, and a fitting reflection of our multi-voiced present.

Tonight’s program explores the fringes of time—moving between musical experiences, memories, and shared moments, all of which build bridges between different cultures and traditions.

It opens with Yazan Alsabbagh’s Shadows. In five episodes, the composition expresses various emotional states resulting from the experience of exile and migration. It captures the bright and dark moments of life in contrasting themes, imbued with a melancholy yet hopeful color through the use of the Doric scale. Depictions of loneliness, nostalgia, anxiety, loss, and the process of assimilation to new surroundings reflect the complexity of memories.

Pianist Angela Boutros, who has worked with the ensemble many times, joined the group as a regular member this year. Describing her compositions for this program, she says: “When I first started writing the music for this concert, I struggled to find a concept that could encompass what I was composing. I finally realized that the music itself was the concept—or perhaps, it was the absence of a traditional concept that made it meaningful. My pieces were born out of pure intuition and a natural flow, written directly into paper. It is honest and unfiltered, a reflection of the relationship between close friends at an evening gathering. Musically, it is a fusion of influences that mirror our shared experiences. The compositions weave together the rich tradition of Arabic maqamat with improvisation, blending them seamlessly with the harmonic language of jazz and modern techniques. The result is a sound grounded in our heritage yet open to the world we now inhabit.”

Nomad’s Song is a musical reflection of Boutros’s sojourn in the Saudi Arabian desert, where she performed a concert “surrounded by the vast, serene beauty of the landscape. It captures the deep sense of connection I felt with the desert’s rhythms, but also the profound solitude and the nomadic heritage that has shaped its history.”

Elias Aboud’s Mosaic Suite, on the other hand, was inspired by the complex geometrical forms of Damascene mosaics. To create these traditional and ancient artworks, the basic material, often wood, is cut into small geometrical forms and then assembled with other materials, such as mother-of-pearl and silver, in complex patterns. The first movement of the suite, “Roots & Loops,” works in a similar way: the roots of traditional music are combined with new, repeated musical structures (loops). The second movement, “Fragments of Memory,” reflects the experiences of the Syrian civil war. Like parts of a mosaic, memories of the times of conflict and of peace are conjoined, contributing to one shared identity. The music begins with dissonant tensions and fragmented sounds that gradually develop into harmonies or renewed disturbances. Contrasting passages and melodies represent different cultures or regions of Syria, creating a feeling of plurality in the face of the division. The music expresses sorrow and pain as much as hope, with individual, seemingly disparate parts ultimately merging in one overarching melody. The third movement, “Tales of Bayat,” uses the eponymous maqam—one of the most common in Arabic music—as its point of departure. As any mosaic is a unique piece of artisanal mastery drawing from a creative source, the composition is a collection of musical stories that form a harmonic whole in their diversity. 

Once upon Rast by Saleh Katbeh uses rast, a maqam with strong Arabic connotations that rarely appears in the context of Western music—not least because its scale, with two quarter-tone steps, is difficult to harmonize in a Western system. Setting himself a special creative challenge, the composer decided to write a funk piece on the basis of this maqam. Basilius Alawad’s Half Step focuses on that particular half step heard at the beginning of many Arabic maqamat; it is also part of flamenco scales whose rhythmic elements the composition incorporates as well.

To open the second half of the concert, Angela Boutros’s Inner Whispers takes listeners on an emotional journey through the complex landscape of the mind. The music moves from dreamy introspection to tension, doubt, and, finally, resolution. Katbeh’s Sufi Scapes Suite is loosely inspired by the atmospheres of Sufi music. In its first part, “Meditation,” a theme—somewhat elusive as it is augmented and not precisely defined in terms of rhythm—is heard four times, each time with a different bass line, the density of sound intensifying with each repetition until all voices and registers are involved. In contrast, “Vortex,” with its obsessive circling motion evokes images of Sufi dervishes. A rising and descending scale, in 7/8 time, evolves and expands until it is lost in the all-consuming momentum of a great whirl. Alternating with a lyrical middle section and a passage of free improvisation, the turning wheel remains a recurring motif.

Hands & Fingers is a virtuoso piece by Elias Aboud, featuring solo parts for piano and Arabic hand percussion. A dialogue between two musical worlds, it pairs the piano, an instrument strongly associated with the tradition of Western music as well as melodic and harmonic richness, with the various percussion instruments whose playing techniques are characterized by rhythmic complexity and multi-layered sound structures.

Basilius Alawad’s Screamwave comes alive in the merging and juxtaposition of contrasting elements, combining complex themes with simple grooves and vice versa, all in an atmosphere of excitement and tension. Doors by Angela Boutros, which closes the program, is a musical journey through the different emotional states we experience as we navigate life’s challenges and opportunities, with each door representing a different feeling—joy, doubt, safe, curiosity, anxiety, and resolve.

Translation: Alexa Nieschlag

Madeleine Onwuzulike, born in Berlin in 1998, studied musicology and Italian literature at Humboldt University in her hometown. She has worked for the Pierre Boulez Saal and Stegreif Orchester, in the dramaturgy department of Berlin’s Deutsche Oper, with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and as a freelance musicologist and dramaturge.