Music in Egypt : experiencing music, expressing culture / Scott L. Marcus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Marcus, Scott Lloyd, 1952-

Series:

Global music series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music--Egypt--History and criticism.

Music.

Music--Social aspects.

Egypt.

Music--Social aspects--Egypt.

Music--Religious aspects--Islam.

Islamic music.

Music--Egypt.

Ethnic music recordings--Egypt.

Ethnic music recordings, Islamic--Egypt.

Local Subjects:

Ethnic music recordings--Egypt.

Ethnic music recordings, Islamic--Egypt.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 200 pages : illustrations, maps, music ; 22 cm + 1 CD (4 3/4 in.)

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Music in Egypt is one of several case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the practice of music around the world. It sets the stage for an array of case-study volumes, each of which focuses on a single area of the world. Each case study uses the contemporary musical situation as a point of departure, covering historical information and traditions as they relate to the present.

Music in Egypt provides an overview of the country's rich and dynamic contemporary musical landscape. It offers an in-depth look at specific Egyptian musical traditions, paying special attention to performers and the variety of contexts in which performances occur. The book acknowledges the pervasive presence of Islam by focusing on two Muslim performance genres and by considering the age-old issue of the compatibility of music and Islam. It accomplishes the latter by incorporating the voices of many of the performers featured on the accompanying CD. The volume features a variety of musics that reflect and help to create a number of distinct regional, national, and community identities coexisting in Egypt today.

Drawing on more than twenty years of extensive fieldwork, Scott L. Marcus offers detailed ethnographic documentation of seven performance traditions found in Egypt today: the call to prayer; madh a genre of Sufi religious music; southern Egyptian mizmar folk music; early twentieth-century takht- based art music; music by the acclaimed singer Umm Kulthum, which dominated the mid-twentieth century; wedding procession music; and music by the current superstar pop singer Hakim. The book is packaged with an 80-minute audio CD containing excellent examples of each tradition. All of the examples are based in a single melodic mode-maqam rast-to best engage students with the musical form, structure, and practice of the traditions. Separate educational tracks on the CD introduce maqam rast and the variety of rhythms found in the CD examples. In addition, the CD features a special solo improvisation (taqasim) in maqam rast by UCLA, professor, Ali Jihad Racy, to help students better understand this particular melodic mode. Enhanced by eyewitness accounts of performances, interviews with performers, listening examples, and song lyrics that enable students to interact with the text, Music in Egypt provides a unique and hands-on introduction to the country's diverse and captivating music.

Contents:

CD Track List xxi

1 The Call to Prayer: A Communal Endeavor 1

The Enduring Tradition 1

Giving the Call to Prayer 1

A Community of Callers 6

Responses to the Call: An Interactive Phenomenon 10

Change 11

Mass-Mediated Broadcasts of the Call to Prayer 11

An Uneasy Juxtaposition 12

The Melodic Aspect of the Call to Prayer 13

2 The Eastern Arab Melodic Modes: The Maqamat 16

Melodic Texture 16

Arab Melodic Theory 19

The Scale System: Pitches and Intervals 19

Maqam Rast in Modern Arab Music Theory 23

Tetrachords 23

Transposition 25

Maqam Rast in Performance 25

Intonation 25

Accidentals 27

Melodic Leaps 29

Use of Multiple Upper Tetrachords 29

A Characteristic Progression through a Maqam's Defining Features 31

CD Track 33: A Taqasim by Ali Jihad Racy 31

A Region for Beginning the Performance of a Maqam 31

A Characteristic Manner of Progressing through the Rest of the Maqam 33

A Special Shape for the Islamic Call to Prayer 39

Modulation 40

3 Madh: A Genre of Sufi Religious Music 43

The Instruments in a Madh Ensemble 44

A Coffeehouse Context 48

A Sufi Zikr Context 49

Public Zikrs 50

Movement and Chanting at Zikr Rituals 50

A Weekly Zikr at the Mosque of Sidi 'Ali 51

Music in a Madh Cycle 52

Madh Mawwal Texts 53

Instrumental Passages 57

Features Shared among Many Eastern Arab Music Traditions 58

4 The Eastern Arab Rhythmic Modes 60

Skeletal Structures: Maqsum, Masmudi Saghir, and Sa'idi 60

Ornamenting the Rhythms in Performance 61

A Variety of Takk Sounds 63

Other Rhythms 64

Wahda and Zaffa 64

Malfuf and Sa'udi 66

Masmudi 66

Sama'i 67

Additional Region-Specific or Culture-Specific Rhythms 67

Changes Over Time 69

5 Upper Egyptian Folk Music for Weddings and Festivals: Mizmar Ensembles 71

A Mizmar Ensemble at an Upper Egyptian Wedding 71

The Ensemble 73

"Tipping" 77

The Repertoire 77

Solo Instrumental Improvisation 78

The Songs "Kan 'Andi Ghazal" and "Sama 'ti Yom Rannit Khulkhal" 79

Male Stick Dancing at Weddings 83

Sa'idi Mizmar at Saint's-Day Festivals 84

Male Stick Dancing at Saint's-Day Festivals 85

Sa'idi Mizmar / Tabl Baladi in Government Folk-Music Ensembles 86

"Gypsies"? A Shared Middle Eastern Tradition 87

Sa'idi Mizmar Music: Unique, Yet Partaking of a Shared Musical Tradition 87

6 Islam and Music: Is Music Haram? 89

The Highest Authorities: The Qur'an and the Hadith 89

Different Contexts/Different Rulers 90

Sufis: Developing the "Art of Listening" 91

The Sama' Polemic in Present-Day Cairo 91

Voices of Performers on the Accompanying CD 91

Other Voices in Present-Day Cairo 93

Maintaining a Separation between the Human and the Divine 94

7 Art Music of the Late-Nineteenth/Early-Twentieth Centuries: Takht Ensembles 96

From Takht to Firqa Ensembles 97

The Takht Ensemble 97

The Creation of a New Large Ensemble: The Firqa 100

The Takht Repertoire: The Wasla Suite Form 100

Reviving the Past 101

Creating a Takht Recording: CD Tracks 9-19 102

The Items in Tracks 9-19 104

The Improvisatory Genres: Taqasim, Layali, and Mawwal 104

Layali 104

Two Mawals 105

The Instrumental Dulab and Sama'i Genres 107

Two Precomposed Song Genres 109

The Taqtuqa "il-Bahr Nayim" 109

A Muwashshah 110

The Wasla as a Composite Sociocultural Entity 114

The Tarab Aesthetic 115

8 Art Music of the Mid-Twentieth Century: Umm Kulthum and the Long-Song Tradition 117

A New Superstar Emerges 117

The Development of New Mass Media 118

The New Ughniya (Long Song) Genre 119

Umm Kulthum's New Directions 121

Umm Kulthum's Ensemble 123

Other Famous Ughniya Singers 124

Performances Videoed and Then on Television 124

Umm Kulthum's Last Years 125

The Umm Kulthum Song, "Aruh Li Min," on CD Tracks 20-22 128

The Hall, the Stage 128

The Instrumental Introduction (Muqaddima) 129

Umm Kulthum Begins to Sing: The Vocal Refrain 130

The Poetic Text 131

Maqam Rast 136

9 Zaffa (Wedding Procession) Music 139

A Zaffa Band's Performance at a Five-Star Hotel 139

The Creation of the New Dumyati Zaffa Ensemble 142

The Sharqiyya Mizmar 143

Three Categories of Zaffa Ensemble Members 145

The Unique Sharqiyya Mizmar Style of Playing 146

Zaffa Songs 146

Maqam Rast and a Variety of Rhythms 150

Beyond Zaffa Performances 152

A Sharqiyya Mizmar Player's Life Story 152

10 Present-Day Pop Music: Hakim and the Sha'bi and Shababi Genres 155

A Wedding Performance 155

A Typical Performance Schedule 158

The Band 158

The Sha'bi and Shababi Pop-Music Genres 160

Hakim's Rise to Fame 162

The Early Years 162

Muhammad 'Ali Street, a Historic Center for Musicians 163

Shameful, but Not Haram 163

Stardom 164

"Modern Sha'bi" 165

An International Vision 166

Controversy 167

Creating a Sha'bi Song 167

Adding a Sha'bi Feel to the Three Traditional Components 167

The Arranger, a New Fourth Component 168

"il-Kalam Da Kabir" (CD Track 26) 169

Continuity and Change 171.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-195) and index.

ISBN:

0195146441

9780195146448

019514645X

9780195146455

OCLC:

61461922