A Greek long-necked plucked lute

What is an additive rhythm?

A bar made of unequal groups of beats

An Arabic mode, which can include quarter tones

An interval smaller than a semitone

A fretless lute used in Arabic music

Several players decorating the same melody at once

Rhythms of the World: Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East

Greek folk music uses the bouzouki (a long-necked plucked lute), along with violin, clarinet and accordion.
Many Greek dances use irregular, additive time signatures, such as 7/8 counted 3+2+2 in the kalamatianos dance. The syrtos is a popular line dance.
The sirtaki (from the film Zorba the Greek) starts slowly and speeds up (accelerando).
Rebetiko is a Greek urban folk style, often sad, played on bouzouki and baglamas.

Arabic music is built on maqam: modes that can include quarter tones (microtones), notes between the notes of Western scales.
Rhythms follow iqa', repeating rhythmic patterns played on the darbuka (a goblet drum) and riq (a tambourine).
Instruments: oud (a fretless lute), qanun (a plucked zither) and ney (an end-blown flute).
Features: heterophony (several players decorate the same melody at once), melisma, rich ornaments, and taqsim, an improvised solo with no fixed beat.

The hora is an Israeli circle dance, often to Hava Nagila, which speeds up as it goes on.
Klezmer is Jewish folk music for celebrations, with clarinet and violin crying and sliding. It often uses a scale with an augmented second, which sounds exotic to Western ears.
The dabke is a Palestinian and Levantine line dance with stamping feet, accompanied by the mijwiz (a double-reed pipe) and drums.
Across the region, listen for additive rhythms, accelerando, ornaments, drones, call and response, and instruments such as bouzouki, oud and darbuka.

What is a bouzouki?: A Greek long-necked plucked lute: It leads much Greek folk music.
How is the 7/8 of the kalamatianos dance usually grouped?: 3+2+2: An additive rhythm.
What is an additive rhythm?: A bar made of unequal groups of beats: Common in Greek and Balkan dances.
What is a maqam?: An Arabic mode, which can include quarter tones: It shapes the melody.
What is a microtone?: An interval smaller than a semitone: A quarter tone is one.
What is the oud?: A fretless lute used in Arabic music: Fretless, so it can play microtones.
What is a darbuka?: A goblet-shaped drum: It plays the iqa' rhythms.
What is heterophony?: Several players decorating the same melody at once: Common in Arabic ensembles.