Le Maqam en Iraq, vol. 1 (Congrès du Cairo, 1932) / AAA 087



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


APN 88 - 9-10
Various Arabic Artists Congrès du Caire 1932 Vol.1-2
(Institut du Monde Arabe et Phonotheque National du France)
AAA 006
Various Moroccan Artists Maroc - Musique Classique
(La Musique Classique Marocaine Congrès du Caire 1932)
AAA 094
Mohamed Ben Hassan et Mohamed Cherif
La Musique Classique Tunisienne Congrès du Caire 1932 Malouf (Tunisie)
AAA 098
Elhadj Elarbi Bensari et Rodwane
Congrès du Caire 1932 - Ecole de Tlemcen "Gharnata"
AAA 087 Le Maqam en Irak vol 1 - Congres du Caire 1932
Iraq - vol 1
AAA 097
Le Maqam en Irak vol 2 - Congres du Caire 1932
Iraq - vol 2
CEDEJ K7
Congrès de Musique arabe - Le Caire 1932
Enregistrements de musique égyptienne (morceaux choisis).
There are also a few recordings from the conference of 1932 that appears on an accompanying cassette to the printed proceedings and papers of a Conference held in 25-28 May, 1989 on the Conference of 1932. It was made available with the "Actes du Colloque" (Papers of the Colloqium) at this occasion and later as a supplement to the volume of collected papers printed in Cairo 1992 by CEDEJ.