The Arab Music Archiving and Research foundation (AMAR), in collaboration with the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), presents “Sama‘ ”.
“Sama‘ ” discusses our musical heritage through comparison and analysis…
A concept by Mustafa Said.
Dear listeners,
Welcome to a new episode of “Sama‘ ”.
Today, we will be analysing dawr “Farīd el-maḥāsin bān” also known as “Ẓarīf el-maḥāsin bān” –we will clarify this point later on.
We have eight recordings of this dawr… among the many other existing ones:
The first recording, made during Odeon’s first recording campaign in 1903 –among the first ones after the Gramophone campaign at the beginning of the same year– is of Aḥmad al-‘Ajamī;
A recording was made one year later in 1904 by Egyptian Odeon, yet we did not select it because I was too lazy to fix its flaws, and also knowing that there is another recording of the same score performed by the King’s brass band –we will discuss this later;
The second one is a marvellous recording made in 1905 by Odeon of Sitt Asma al-Kumthariyya with the two instrumentalists who accompanied Aḥmad al-‘Ajamī, i.e. Ḥāj Sayyid al-Suwaysī (‘ūd) and ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Qabbānī (qānūn), added to ‘Alī ‘Abduh Ṣāliḥ (nāy);
The third recording made two years later in 1907 by Odeon is of Sulaymān Afandī Abū Dāwūd accompanied by Ibrāhīm Sahlūn (violin), Muḥammad al-‘Aqqād (qānūn), ‘Alī ‘Abduh Ṣāliḥ (nāy), and Muḥammad Abū Kāmil al-raqqāq (riqq);
The fourth recording made in 1909 by Gramophone is of ‘Abd al-Ḥayy Ḥilmī accompanied by Ibrāhīm Sahlūn (violin), Muḥammad Ibrāhīm (qānūn), ‘Alī ‘Abduh Ṣāliḥ (nāy), and a percussionist I do not know playing a ṭabla not a riqq;
The fifth recording made much later, in 1924, by Polyphon is of the King’s band;
The sixth recording made four years later maybe in Berlin by Baidaphon is of Muḥammad Qadrī –we will learn about this later on;
The seventh is a March 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab/Oriental Music recording of Dāwūd Ḥusnī accompanied by Muṣṭafa Riḍā (qānūn), himself playing the ‘ūd, and Maḥmūd Raḥmī (riqq);
Our eighth recording made in the late 1950s by the Bahrain Radio is of Muḥammad Zuwayyid (‘ūd) accompanied by a percussionist I do not know playing the ṭabla.
Now that we have listed the recordings, let us listen to the dawr in full performed by Aḥmad al-‘Ajamī who condensed it into one side of an Odeon record made in 1903. As mentioned earlier, he was accompanied by the great Ḥāj Sayyid al-Suwaysī (‘ūd), ‘Abd al-‘Azīz al-Qabbānī (qānūn)…
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He performed a dūlāb ḥijāz, a dawr to the ḥijāz, and a taqsīm layālī ḥijāz all on one record-side. He did not deny us anything… Before we start discussing this dawr to the maqām ḥijāz in detail, let us also listen to a full recording of it performed by the King’s brass band…
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This recording does not require a lengthy analysis. While, on the other hand, we must highlight a difference that may not be obvious to some listeners: the first recording represents the form intended for this dawr…
(Note that I do not know who wrote this dawr that was probably composed by ‘Abduh al-Ḥāmūlī –because it is similar to his compositions–, while some attribute its composition to Muḥammad ‘Uthmān and others to Dāwūd Ḥusnī. I personally think it was composed by ‘Abduh al-Ḥāmūlī because of its style… it may as well have been composed by another).
… So here is the difference between Aḥmad al-‘Ajamī’s recording and the recording of King Aḥmad Fu’ād’s brass band:
The first recording represents the dawr as it was intended to be played, even though it is short and condensed…etc… yet it includes all the required elements;
Whereas the second recording, i.e. the recording of the brass band, represents the dawr as read from a score then orchestrated. Consequently, it is no longer a dawr but has become a maqṭū‘a.
Let us discuss the reading of a work: How is one supposed to write the notes of a certain piece into a score? The dawr was re-read from a harmony perspective –we will discuss this issue later. So the brass band added harmony to the dawr that, consequently, could be now played in a tashrīfa or a march in a military fashion, yet it made him lose everything else: the improvisation, the relation among the performers, and the relation between the performer and the listeners.
Now, let us go back to the madhhab: the dawr is to the maqām ḥijāz. The madhhab starts from the jawāb, i.e. from the aspect of the bayyātī’s 5th scale-step, i.e. the ḥusaynī in the case of a ḥijāz / dūkāh –‘Abd al-Ḥayy sings it to the ḥijāz / nawa–… So, at the ḥijāz’ 5th scale-step, there is a bayyātī aspect than can also be a rāst aspect at the 4th scale-step, i.e. the nawa in the case of a ḥijāz / dūkāh. So he uses the ḥijāz from a sub-octave, ḥijāz dīwān…
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At “We-kān iḥtagab ‘annī”, he stopped at the 5th scale-step.
Let us listen to “Farīd el-maḥāsin bān we-kān iḥtagab ‘annī”…
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In the second part, he descends one scale-step at a time until he settles on the dūkāh at “Shāf ghuṣēn el-bān wa-āl li-el-ḥamām yā ḥamām ghannī”. Note how he descends…
(♩)
This was the madhhab to the ḥijāz going from the jawāb to the qarār.
Let us conclude today’s episode with the dawr in full performed by Sitt Asma al-Kumthariyya. But first, let us highlight some remarks:
Sitt Asma sings the madhhab “Farīd el-maḥāsin bān we-kān iḥtagab ‘annī” (that we listened to earlier) and two dawr-s, not one: the dawr “We-fēn el-ḥabīb yā nās yigīlī yshūf ḥālī”, that everybody else sings and that we have heard performed by Aḥmad al-‘Ajamī. This dawr is followed by the second beautiful dawr “la-huwa illī ‘ishi’ yinhān” that only she sings. The first dawr is on the first record-side and the second one on the second record-side. She displays her instant creativity in her beautiful improvisations and modulates between the bayyātī, the rāst, the ḥijāz, and the ḥijāz kār, refuting the theory saying that dawr-s belong to the male repertoire and that ‘ālima can only sing ṭaqṭūqa-s, and demonstrating a sense for improvisation as great as the best Sheikhs. Sitt Asma al-Kumthariyya’s interpretation of dawr is among the best I have ever heard, and this dawr specifically is among the most marvellous she ever sang. Furthermore, the Takht Odeon’s accompaniment is marvellous, including Ḥāj Sayyid al-Suwaysī’s layālī to the bamb in the end (among the very few taqsīm-s he ever played to the rhythm) and his incredibly beautiful interpretation that sounds as if he were singing with her with his pick. You will witness this in this performance.
…So, a dūlāb ḥijāz followed by the full dawr “Farīd el-maḥāsin bān” on two sides of a 27cm record and that ends with her singing layālī to the bamb and taqsīm-s…
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Wow! What a beautiful performance by Sitt Asma and by Ḥāj Sayyid al-Suwaysī! What a unique right hand! … and his left hand too!
Strangely, his 5-strings’ ‘ūd is tuned to the yakāh, rāst, dūkāh, nawa, and kardān, and he plays the ḥijāz at the rāst while accompanying Sitt Asma al-Kumthariyya.
…Such beautiful layālī and taqsīm! Such a beautiful performance!
We have reached the end of today’s episode of “Sama‘ ”.
We will meet again in a new episode to resume our discussion about dawr “Farīd el-maḥāsin bān”.
“Sama‘ ” was presented to you by AMAR.
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