AMAR Foundation · Arab Music Archiving & Research

A century of Arab music, voice after voice

The singers, composers and instrumentalists of the Nahḍa and the first records, kept, restored and told by AMAR in Qornet el Hamra since 2009.

  1. 1847 Yūsuf al-Manyalāwī
  2. 1852 Ibrāhīm al-Qabbānī
  3. 1852 Salāma Ḥigāzī
  4. 1857 ‘Abd al-Ḥayy Ḥilmī
  5. 1870 Dāwūd Ḥusnī
  6. 1875 Sayyid al-Ṣaftī
  7. 1880 Zakī Murād
  8. 1885 Munīra al-Mahdiyya
  9. 1885 Sāmī al-Shawwā
  10. 1888 Sulaymān Abū Dāwūd
  11. 1894 Sheikh Amīn Ḥasanayn Sālim
  12. 1896 Zakariyyā Aḥmad

Six doors into the archive

Every record is tied to all six. A line runs through the doors and holds one record; the door that opens is what links it to the record before. Open any door to go in.

People

178 artists to hear

Singers, composers and instrumentalists of the Nahḍa and the first records. By role:

  • Singers127
  • Musicians62
  • Composers43
  • Actors21
  • Reciters14
  • Ensembles9
Artists & Music

Recordings

494 recordings

Each with a 30-second preview, and 6,046 recordings more on reel. By medium:

  • 78 rpm446
  • Radio26
  • Cylinder11
  • Private recording8
  • Film3
Listening room

Works

359 titles

One piece, many voices: the songs and pieces recorded most often.

  • قره بطك سيكاه10
  • بياتي9
  • كل مين يعشق جميل8
  • راست8
  • من قبل ما اهوى الجمال7
  • على الوحدة أراك عصي الدمع7
One piece, many voices

Musical language

13 forms · 38 maqāmāt

The forms, maqāmāt and rhythms of the tradition. Recordings by form:

  • Dawr124
  • Taqsīm58
  • Qaṣīda55
  • Muwashshaḥ27
  • Bashraf25
  • Mawwāl25
The music, form by form

Record companies

15 companies

The companies that recorded the music and pressed the discs. Recordings by company:

  • The Gramophone Company151
  • Odeon98
  • Baidaphone91
  • Polyphon18
  • Columbia12
  • Cairophone9
Record companies

Places & periods

Timeline ⁦1800⁠–⁠1944⁩

When the records were made, decade by decade:

  • 1890s3
  • 1900s140
  • 1910s57
  • 1920s126
  • 1930s47
  • 1940s8
  • 1950s8
Timeline

On the line

دور في البعد ياماDawr FelBuud Yama

ʿAbd al-Ḥayy Ḥilmī · music by Muḥammad ʿUthmān · Odeon, 1905

Episode 99

    The archive hall, Qornet el Hamra

    The Foundation · Qornet el Hamra

    A Lebanese foundation for the preservation and dissemination of traditional Arab music, since 2009.