Muhammad
al-Qabbânjî
Congrès du Cairo, 1932
First Musical Congress, Cairo, 1932
Mu'tamar al-musīqī
al-awwal, al-Qāhira, 1932
al-maqām fī
al-ºIrāq
bolingo.org
AAA 087, les Artistes Arabes Associés
(1994)
01 - taqsīm santūr
[3:07]
02 - taqsīm kamānah [3:07]
03 - ya yūsuf al-Hosnī [13:01]
04 - ma dār hosnek bi-shiºrr [6:34]
05 - rāhet layālī al-hanā [21:01]
06 - al-wīl wīlī [3:03]
07 - la tadhunnū ºīnī tanām [3:17]
08 - Hud al-ºīsh w-aghnam [4:47]
[en las pistas #1 & 2, en los taqāsīm toca Yūsuf Banū]
Maqam in Iraq Vol.1
& 2
The International
Congress of Arabian Music in Cairo in 1932:
Mohammed Elqabbandji
The form taken in Iraq by the sawt of hidjaz is the maqam
which is the most perfect and noblest form the learned music of that
country can offer. The maqam is performed by one singer (the qari)
and three musicians who play respectively the santur (similar
to a mediaeval dulcimer i.e. psaltery struck by mallets), the djoza
(spike fiddle) and the tabla or tombak (a double drum).
To constitute the djalghi baghdadi of nuba ensemble another
kind of drum is added: a riqq - the drumhead of which is
stretched over a wooden frame -. The principal part characteristic of
the maqam is a poem written in one of the sixteen varieties of
classical metres either in literary Arabic or in colloquial language.
In the latter case the poem is called zuhairi.
The maqam, the tradition of which has lasted in Iraq for nearly four
centuries, has been transmitted orally by the Iraqi masters in an
uninterrupted chain between past and present. The singer improvises
melodic passages making freely use of different rhythms while passing
progressively from one region of the chosen mode to another. Displaying
all his virtuosity and flexibility of voice he reaches the acme of the
maqam; then leaves it imperceptibly and comes to the final note of the
mode after having embroidered musical phrases, all of them proofs of
his talent and inventiveness.
The maqam starts with the tahrir often preceded by an
instrumental introduction called badwa and composed on a
well-defined rhythm; the singer accompanies the badwa passing
alternately from high-pitched notes to low-pitched ones. The tahrir is
made of one or more songs, the texts of which may be extended by one or
two Arabic, Persian or Turkish interjections added by the singer when
the texts of the songs prove too short with regard to the improvised
melody. The maqam ends with the taslim or taslom which
is a text set to a falling melodic passage ending with the final note
of the scale of that maqam. Between the tahrir and the taslim there are
a series of melodic passages of variable length which are performed
alternately by the singer and the musicians and which develop in turn
the different regions of the scale.
The artists who interpret maqam-s are considered to be autorities on
the matter of repertoire; they know all about it and are famous for the
specific way in which they interpret a given maqam. Some of them are
famous for the passages they have added to certain maqam-s, others for
the composing of whole maqam-s with a view of enriching the already
rich repertoire.
A concert when only maqam-s are played is called a fasl. In
such a fasl the maqam-s are always played in the same order and the
fasl is named after the first maqam of the series. The Iraqi repertoire
offers five fasl-s : bayat - hidjaz - rast - nawa and husseini.
At the end of every maqam the orchestra plays a pesté
which is a piece of music composed in the same mode as the maqam. This
device allows the singer to rest before the beginning of the next
maqam. In former times it was usual to play several fasl-s on a musical
evening.
Among the masters of the maqam who have carried on its musical
tradition, generation after generation, and whose names are still known
nowadays, we will mention: Mulla Hassan Babudidji (1782-1840) and his
pupil Ramallah Shiltag who taught a whole generation of artists, the
most famous of whom were Ahmed Zaidan and Mulla Osman Almussili. Many
artists of the following generation have Ahmed Zaidan to thank for
their musical talent and their fame, for instance Rashid Kandardji
(deceased in 1963) and Abbas Chikhali.
Among the next generation we will quote the great master Mohammed
El Qabbandji who was born in 1901 and considered the greatest of
his time for the register of his voice as well as for the precision of
his interpretation of the traditional maqam. Endowed with a vast
memory, he had memorized a great number of poems, which allowed him to
sing what was fit in all circumstances. He was sent to the
International Congress of Arabian Music in Cairo in 1932, as a
representative of Iraqi music. Many of his interpretations were
recorded on that occasion, which gives us an opportunity to hear them
nowadays. We have also come across music played by Abbas Chikhali and
recorded at the same period but its commercial success has been rather
limited. What is recorded here is all the more valuable as it is nearly
unavailable. The companies that released those masters' records do not
exist any longer. The extant recordings have been taken care of
miraculously by the BBC Record Library and put at our disposal since we
have undertaken to save the musical heritage of the Arab World in our
Anthology of Arabian Music.
[from bolingo.org]
Recordings from the
Conference on Arabic Music held in
Cairo 1932
The conference on Arabic music was held in Cairo 1932 on the initiative
of baron d'Erlanger and under the presedency of King Fouad I in the
presence of several great musicologists, composers and orientalists,
uniting the best of the classical and popular music styles performing
musicians of the Maghreb and Asia Minor. After recordings made under
the direction of Béla Bartòk and Mansûr Awad in
connection with the conference, the Gramophone Company published
noncommercially more than one hundred sixty 78 rpm discs. That is more
than 320 sides of approximately 3 minutes each.
Finally in the 1990's some reissues from this vast body of recordings
made at the Cairo conference 1932, previously only accessible to a few
specialized scholars was made available on CD for the enjoyment and
scrutiny of a wider audience. The ones that I know of are listed below.
If there are omissions or editions that I am unaware of please let me
know!
Click on the
thumbs for more information about the recordings