For my first music assessment of the semester, I am required to present a 10 minute viva voce for my teacher, addressing the topic of my own choice. A viva voce is 'An examination where questions are asked and answered orally rather than by written paper. A viva voce is a two-way discussion between examiner and student in which the student must demonstrate an understanding of the concepts of music in the topics studied.'

At the moment I have decided to ‘Discuss how Karl Sander’s fascination with Egyptian Mythology influences his music/playing style’ or something along those lines. I only plan to make reference to his side project material, specifically Saurian Meditation, as Saurian Exorcisms release date is after the due date of the assessment.

My topic of choice is not yet finalised but it will closely relate to the aforementioned. The reason I have posted this thread is for possible suggestions/ideas/discussion regarding my half-chosen topic as I feel it is a bit ‘iffy.’ General discussion of Karl Sanders music in general is also much appreciated. Thanks

you could talk about his using traditional Egyptian and other middle-eastern instruments. He also has all kinds of places where he talks about his fascination with that kind of culture and how he incorporates it, so some quotes shouldn't be too hard to find. Also, perhaps some looks at lyrics? those are easy to find, and if you can prove their relationship to Egyptian mythology, then its a definite contribution. Some of those simple thing shouldn't be overlooked, there a lot you can find really. you could look at things like, again, instruments and lyrics, and also confirmed influences, actual sounds, preludes/interludes, song structures, song titles, topics, imagery such as on album art, etc...

I've heard ancient greek music is hard to recreate because we don't have much documents to give us details about it. So how do we know what egyptian music sounded like? there were no musical sheets as far as I know yet it seems everyone more or less has the same concept of egyptian music.

Where does it comes from?

Karl Sanders' asshole

I think his attempt at recreating music that could resemble what was heard at the time and place of the Pharaos is mostly done through the usage of a middle-eastern range that is more influenced by the music developped by the original Arabs than by the culture that was hosted in Egypt, which is the closest thing we know to what might have been the music present in Egypt, but it's a wild guess. My guess is that Karl Sander's music probably doesn't sound like Ancient Egyptian music at all. Sure the music in Ancient Egypt might have influenced that of the Arabs, but I think Indian culture had a much stronger influence on Arab music than the Egyptian culture.

The main element my music teacher wants me to address is the performing media, otherwise known as the instruments used in the song/album etc. Vast detail discussing musical concepts, such as pitch, melody, harmony, duration, tone colour, dynamics, expressive techniques, texture, structure etc. is what he’s looking for and that’s what I plan to mainly talk about. However, all your suggestions will definitely be referred to and intertwine with the topic. Thanks for the help

I think broadening beyond his fascination with Egypt would be best. The main ethnic instrument (a baglama saz) used on the debut Sanders album is not Egyptian in origin but rather Turkish for recent origin, Persian if you want to go back a bit further. The percussion includes tympani, frame drums, and gongs---none of which are Egyptian in origin, as far as I'm aware. The guitar synth imitates sitar, a Southwest Asian instrument. I haven't heard the upcoming one yet, but it appears the only major addition to the mix is the glissentar, which is a Canadian/Arab hybrid between the Western acoustic guitar and the oud.


Not really enough of pure Egypt here to really just focus on Egypt. I think mentioning that his fascination goes beyond Egypt and into the wider Middle East is essential to making the session stretch to ten minutes. Look up his description of the upcoming Nile album; he mentions that it is being influenced by Iranian (contemporary Persian) and Hindu music. He has said before that he likes Orhan Gencebay, a Turkish baglama saz player. If you are planning on using quotes to support your arguments, these will great.

Awesome. I will take everything you said into consideration. Thanks

Ah, my bad. i don't think i can add much that hasn't been added, although you could, like mentioned, see if you can find anything about perhaps unique structuring used in that general are (middle-east). as per things like dynamics, you could of course talk about how the more egyptian parts are phrased with the death metal, and things like, referring to duration, how long those portions last, how they add to the dynamics of the song, and change the atmosphere. hope that helps, and good luck on your project!