Ottoman 1500 – 1900
An elaborate “classical” style developed in Turkish after the 14th century, reaching its peak in the 17th. Like classical Urdu, it was heavily influenced by Persian in metrics and vocabulary. Many exponents of this “high” style came from the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman Empire. On the other hand, a rich and moving folk poetry in popular syllable-counting metres has always flourished among the Turkish population of Anatolia and Rumelia. The mystical songs of their poet Yunus Emre (died c. 1321) contributed greatly toward shaping this body of literature, which was preserved in the religious centres of the Sufi orders of Islam. From this folk tradition, as well as from Western literature, modern Turkish literature has derived a great deal of its inspiration.
Ottoman classical music (Klâsik Türk Mûsikîsi, Sanat Mûsikîsi, Saray Mûsikîsi) developed in palaces, mosques, and Mevlevi lodges of the Ottoman Empire. Above all a vocal music, Classical Turkish Music traditionally accompanies a solo singer with a small instrumental ensemble. In recent times instruments might include tanbur lute, ney flute, kemençe fiddle, keman Western violin, kanun zither, or other instruments. Sometimes described as monophonic music, the variety of ornamentation and variation in the ensemble requires the more accurate term heterophonic.
Overview
Ottoman court music has a large and varied system of modes or scales known as makams, and other rules of composition. A number of notation systems were used for transcribing classical music, the most dominant being the Hamparsum notation in use until the gradual introduction of western notation. Turkish classical music is taught in conservatories and social clubs, the most respected of which is Istanbul’s Üsküdar Musiki Cemiyeti.
A specific sequence of classical Turkish musical forms become a fasil, a suite an instrumental prelude (pesrev), an instrumental postlude (saz semaisi), and in between, the main section of vocal compositions which begins with and is punctuated by instrumental improvisations taksim. A full fasil concert would include four different instrumental forms and three vocal forms, including a light classical song, sarki. A strictly classical fasil remains is the same makam throughout, from the introductory taksim and usually ending in a dance tune or oyun havas?.[3] However shorter sarki compositions, precursors to modern day songs, are a part of this tradition, many of them extremely old, dating back to the 14th century; many are newer, with late 19th century songwriter Haci Arif Bey being especially popular.
Musical instruments
Traditional instruments in Turkish classical music today include tanbur long-necked plucked lute, ney end-blown flute, kemençe bowed fiddle, oud plucked short-necked unfretted lute, kanun plucked zither, violin, and in Mevlevi music, kudüm drum. Older instruments still in use include lavta
Genres
Ottoman classical music comprises many genres, among which are the suites called fasil. A fasil typically includes many instrumental and/or vocal movements, including taksim, pesrev, sarki, beste, and kar, among others.
Modern Arabic Music 1800 – 2000
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Arab society went through a period of modernization and westernization that influenced their music as well. Music experts of the time attempted to standardize and simplify the music theory, which until that time had been an oral tradition, taught from master to student without the assistance of a written notation.
Contemporary Egyptian music traces its beginnings to the creative work of luminaries such as Abdu-Al Hamuli, Almaz and Mahmud Osman, who were all patronized by Khedive Ismail (1830 – 1895), and who influenced the later work of Seyyid Darwich, Um Kulthoum, Mohammed Abdul wahhab, Abdel Halim Hafez, Zakariyya Ahmad and other Egyptian music giants.
20th Century
Egyptian music began its recorded history in the 1910s, around the time composers such as Seyyid Darwich were incorporating western musical forms into their work. Some of the Middle East’s biggest musical stars have been Egyptian. Um Kalthoum was especially popular, and is considered the most successful Egyptian recording artist in history. Most of these stars, including Um Kulthoum, were part of the classical Egyptian and Arabic music tradition. Some, like Abdel Halim Hafez, were associated with the Egyptian nationalist movement in 1952.
In the 20th century, Egypt was the first in a series of Arab countries to experience a sudden emergence of nationalism, as it became independent after 2000 years of foreign rule. Turkish music, popular during the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the region, was replaced by national music. Cairo became a center for musical innovation. The Arab world incorporated instruments from the West, including the electric guitar, cello, double bass and oboe, and influences from jazz and other foreign musical styles. The singers remained the stars, however, especially after the development of the recording and film industry in the 1920s in Cairo. These singing celebrities include Abd el-Halim Hafez, Farid Al Attrach, Asmahan, Sayed Darwish, Mohammed Abd el-Wahaab, Warda Al-Jazairia, and possibly the biggest star of modern Arab classical world – Oum Kalsoum.
Cairo Congress of Arab Music 1932
The Congrès du Caire (Congress of Arab Music- Mu’tamar al’musiq al-’arabiyya – was a large international symposium and festival convened in Cairo from March 14 to April 3, 1932 by King Fuad I. It was suggested to Fuad by baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger,[1] and intended as the first large-scale forum to present, discuss, document, and record the many musical traditions of the Arabic world, from North Africa and the Middle East (and also including Turkey).
By a royal decree made on January 20, 1932, a commission was appointed to organize the congress. It was headed by Minister of Public Education Muhammad Hilmi Isa Pacha, with d’Erlanger serving as vice-chairman and Mahmud Ahmed El-Hefni in charge of the General Secretariat.[2]
The festival was held at the National Academy of Music, at 22 Malika Nazly Street (now Ramses Street)[3] in the Azbakeya district of downtown Cairo.[1] It drew scholars and performers from throughout the Arabic-speaking world (including Muhammad Fathi, Ali Al-Darwish, Kamil Al-Khulai, Mahmud Hefni, Tawfiq Al-Sabbagh, Raouf Yekta Bey, Mohammed Gnanem, Mohammed Ben Hassan, Mohammed Cherif, and Mesut Cemil) as well as European scholars, composers, and musicologists such as Henry George Farmer, Rodolphe d’Erlanger, Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, Alexis Chottin (the head of the National Conservatory for Arab Music in Rabat), Father M. Collangettes, and Robert Lachmann. Nations sending delegations of musicians included Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey.
The Congress’s sections focused on the past, present, and future of Arabic music, and, believing such music in decline, made recommendations for its revitalization and preservation. 360 performances of Arabic music by the visiting groups were recorded, and most of these recordings survive in the Phonotèque of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.[4] 162 of these records were released by the HMV company, and a collection of those records was given to the Guimet Museum in Paris by King Fuad I.[5]
In addition, proposals for the modernization and standardization of Arabic music were presented, including a proposal to standardize the Arabic tuning system to 24 equal steps per octave, substituting an equal-tempered system for the earlier non-tempered system. The Egyptian delegate Muhammad Fathi recommended that Western instruments be integrated into Arabic ensembles, due to what he believed to be their superior expressive qualities.[6]
Three similar congresses were held in subsequent years, but none of the scale and influence of the one held in 1932.
The star of the East
Umm Kalthum (1904 – 1975) and Fairuz were by far the most popular singers of the Arab world. During her lifetime, Umm Kalthum was slightly more popular than Fairuz, however the latter’s reputation grew after the former’s death. Both are considered “Arabic Music Legends”.
1970 – Present
The world of modern Arabic music has long been dominated by musical trends that have emerged from Cairo, Egypt. The city is generally considered a cultural center in the Arab world – “the hollywood of the east”. Since the 1970s, Egyptian pop music has become increasingly important in Egyptian culture, particularly among the large youth population of Egypt. Egyptian folk music continues to be played during weddings and other traditional festivities. In the last quarter of the 20th century, Egyptian music (esp Shaabi) was a way to communicate social and class issues.
Innovations in popular music via the influence of other regional styles have also abounded from Morocco to Saudi Arabia. In recent years, Beirut has become a major center, dictating trends in the development of Arabic pop music. Other regional styles that have enjoyed popular music status throughout the Arab world include the Algerian raï, the Moroccan Gnawa, the Gulfian sawt, the Egyptian el gil and Turkish Arabesque-pop music.
More recently, popular artists have included, Sabah, Warda Al-Jazairia, Magida El Roumi, Latifa, Samira Said, Angham, Asalah Nasri, Thekra, Najwa Karam, Nawal Al Zoghbi, Ehab Tawfik, Hisham Abbas, Mohammed Abdou, Abdel Magid Abdullah, Wael Kfoury, Amal Hijazi, Elissa, Nancy Ajram, Haifa Wehbe and Natacha Atlas, Mohamed Mounir and Amr Diab.
HISTORY OF EGYPT RECORDINGS
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