The Arab Music Archiving and Research foundation (AMAR), in collaboration with the Sharjah Art Foundation (SAF), presents “Durūb al-Nagham”.
Dear listeners,
Welcome to a new episode of “Durūb al-Nagham”.
Today, we will resume our discussion about the ‘ūd with Mr Mustafa Said.
Mr Mustafa, we have talked about Egyptian instrumentalists.
Let us now go outside Egypt and talk about the instrumentalists from other regions whom we will be listening to.
Those who made ‘ūd recordings in North Africa include Tunisian Khumayyis Tarnān who recorded in Germany with Baidaphon in 1928, as well as with Gramophone at the 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab Music, playing on the strangely tuned ‘ūd we talked about previously.
We could listen to him…
It is said that he held the plectrum in a very special way, and always used the rashsh or firtāsh (the fast descending and ascending movement of the plectrum in order to create a continuous sound) technique –that turned out to be a Yemeni musical form– in a Maghreban style.
Let us listen to him!
(♩)
Mr Mustafa, whom will we listen to after Khumayyis Tarnān?
Great Iraqi instrumentalist ‘Āzūrī Hārūn who recorded with Baidaphon in Germany in the 1920s and at the 1932 Cairo Congress of Arab Music, both with Al-Qubbangī. He also made solo ‘ūd recordings of beautiful Iraqi playing: his ‘ūd playing of maqām is incredible… He played in a pure Iraqi style, displaying his ability and the agility of both his right and his left hands.
Let us listen to ‘Āzūrī Hārūn’s playing …
You have kindled our interest!
(♩)
Can we listen to something from the Levant?
Yes.
Levantine Shaḥāta Sa‘āda had a specific dialect that was closer to the Egyptian dialect than ‘Āzūrī Hārūn’s. His playing was continuous and included less pauses/silences, and his fluid tunes very quite strange, including the taqsīma ḥiṣār būsalīk that was recorded by no-one else at the time.
Let us listen to it …
(♩)
Other experiments took place in the Levant, including those by Turkish ‘ūdist Nash’at Bēk –who settled in Aleppo– who played what he called arābatshā ḥijāz and turksī ḥijāz, i.e. an Arabic style taqsīma and a Turkish style taqsīma. His ‘ūd was quite a unique instrument, a combination between a ‘ūd and a ṭanbūr, and is called the nash’at kār in Aleppo until today.
We could listen to ‘ūdist Nash’at Bēk.
Beautiful. Let us listen …
(♩)
In Turkey, there were beautiful recordings of numerous ‘ūdists…
Let us listen to something by Ibrāhīm al-Maṣrī, Maṣirlī Ibrāhīm Afandī, who fully merged Turkish and Arabic playing, thus creating a beautiful style that may be the origin/basis of what is known today in Turkey as the Arabesque… even though Ibrāhīm al-Maṣrī performed pure maqām taqsīm-s and ordinary bashraf-s and samā‘ī-s. In my personal opinion, this was the playing style before chauvinism appeared.
Let us now listen to Ibrāhīm al-Maṣrī’s taqsīma Afraḥnāk.
Let us listen …
(♩)
Dear listeners, we have reached the end of today’s episode of “Durūb al-Nagham” about the ‘ūd presented with Mr Mustafa Said.
We will resume this discussion in our coming episodes.
Today’s episode was presented by Fadil al-Turki.
“Durūb al-Nagham”.
- 221 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 12 (1/9/2022)
- 220 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 11 (1/9/2022)
- 219 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 10 (11/25/2021)
- 218 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 9 (10/26/2021)
- 217 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 8 (9/24/2021)
- 216 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 7 (9/4/2021)
- 215 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 6 (8/28/2021)
- 214 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 5 (8/6/2021)
- 213 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 4 (6/26/2021)
- 212 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 3 (5/27/2021)
- 211 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 2 (5/1/2021)
- 210 – Zakariyya Ahmed – 1 (4/28/2021)
- 209 – W-al-Lāhi lā astaṭī‘u ṣaddak 2 (4/6/2017)
- 208 – W-al-Lāhi lā astaṭī‘u ṣaddak 1 (3/30/2017)
- 207 – Bashraf qarah baṭāq 7 (3/23/2017)