School of Khedivial

1.     Introduction

The School of Kentival was a specific kind of art music played on special occasions. The concert always consisted of three wasalat, the third was the one most appreciated by the audience, because the singers' voice would then reach the pinnacle of versatility. The wasla It is , a suite of songs alternating with orchestral interludes, all performed within connected modal structures. No matter how long an improvisation lasted, the duration of a wasla It could never last more than an hour or an hour and a half: the intervals between different wasalat They gave way to all kinds of jokes, celebrations and chatter. A basic prerequisite for success for female singers was intelligence. (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

The genius of the emerging Hedhival School lies in being able to combine these musical cultures, mixing the constituent elements of the Sufi Dhikr (religious overhang) in the mold wasla. In no other activity did elite pleasure become accessible to the working class (at least those in the city), who could attend the largest public concerts Mutrisyn When Hedive decided to offer such concerts for the occasion ̕ îd al-gulûs (the day of the throne) or who could afford a place at the café-concerts of Azbakiyya.  In no other occupation were Syrian Christians, Jews Hara and Muslims all equal, helping and respecting each other.  The performances presented in various theatres of Cairo, whether they are suitable theatres or for coffee-concerts, alternated between elite songs and light music. The same performer should be able to present both repertoires according to the desire of the audience. The overlap between these two repertoires began long before the Roaring Twenty, Cairo's golden age (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

One of the most important events in the life of cafés-concerts of the pre-war period is the large number of women appearing on stage.  Either outrageously shamelessly ̕Awālim Whether newbies to theater, these women now refuse its label ̕alma. And yet, the "the osta" and the hysterical laughter with which they fill their records leave no doubt about their origin... Their typical way of ascent was the transition from animating wedding ceremonies to a steady job in a cabaret (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

2.     Politics

Egypt underwent major reforms after the 19th century, long before Japan even began its modernization program. Under the rule of Muhammad Ali (1805-1848), educational reforms were at the heart of the modernization program and were given great importance. Tignor argues that the emergence of a Westernized school system has created a gap in Egyptian society among members educated in political and religious schools. Tignor explains that one system trained young men to serve in the current administration, while the other, although modernized, prepared them to take on more traditional roles. According to him, this resulted in a deep rift and conflicts between members of the two elites. He writes that "Only a few men had the ability, energy, vision, or opportunity to move from one system to another, since there were no normal access channels." (Daoudi).

Under the rule of Muhammad Ali Pasha and later Khedive Ismail, Egypt underwent a process of rapid modernization. Reforms included the military, the construction of new infrastructure, and changes in education, although Muhammad prioritized military reforms. He wanted to train bureaucrats, engineers and doctors to reflect European military superiority. But the students ended up having a different goal than the one Ali had envisioned. They created a generation of students who spoke about culture and languages and later supported reforms that brought about substantial changes in the education system (Daoudi).

3.     Arts

At the cultural heart of the spiritual awakening, Nahda, Egypt's modernization movement in the 19th century was the end of innovations that came on the train of military, scientific, technological imports from the West. The vanguard of this movement, which is simultaneously unfolding in Istanbul, came from a leading member of the government. It may seem remarkable that graduates of such a conservative religious institution took the lead as a change. Egypt did not have an imperial state service with its own education as the Ottomans did. Thus, the conservatively-raised sheikhs and watts were obliged to play the role filled by Otto's grand viziers and their ambassadors in European capitals, aided by converts from the West seeking work among "secular" Muslims who identified with the state rather than the educated ulema. In Egypt, the reasoned voice advocating change came from the very custodians of the conservative tradition. Consequently, this voice would speak throughout the century with great caution, often hesitantly and sometimes in contradictory ways (Livingston).

4.     Music

Since Ismâ̕ îl Pasha's accession to the throne, Egyptian musicologists envisioned a policy of patronage that went beyond the scope of occasional invitations. The ceremonial policy pursued by Ismail Pasha in so many other areas, and especially his efforts to beautify Cairo, cannot but confirm the image of this ruler as the patron of the arts (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

The great masters who were at the origin of the golden age of Arabic music in its time Nahda They left no theoretical literature or correspondence illustrating the intellectual foundations of their artistic method. Very few people understood the position taken by the method of the Hedivival School in Nahda and agreed to create this connection between a spiritual framework and an aesthetic creation. To meet the Western cultural challenge, Egypt had to present a learned art of high value. The challenge was real: the Egyptian elites, taught in French universities, had free time to discover the high position of music in Europe. Dazzled by orchestras and opera, they simply could no longer accept a purely traditional Arabic music (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

The music Nahda of the Hedival School has had only fifty years to form a common musical repertoire that is inevitably too limited to prevent boredom when performed before an audience claiming innovation.  Since the musical works became the property of a record company rather than an artist, the company will sue anyone who dared to use any musical work without prior permission.  This prevented this music from becoming a classical legacy. For a music that was at the dawn of the century completely oral, the 78 rpm record was both an invaluable opportunity for preservation and the death sentence (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

The Dawr He can be considered the most important musical figure of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century. The Mutrib (singer) and a choir would perform a poem in dialectal Egyptian settings by a mulahhin (composer) who was often the singer himself. The Mutrib Accompanied by a takht (set of instruments) with a general of five instruments. Its main feature is its unique poetic form with very loose and free use of rhyme. It has at least four lines: the first couplet (Maddhab) and the second couplet (ghosn). The Dawr can have up to five Ghosn couplets. The Mutrib sings the Dawr composed according to a top maqam (mode) without dealing either with the faithful rendering of the notes written by the composer or with the variation of the composer himself (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

The words sung in Dawr They do not express a specific case in a historically determined society. They respond to the need to express feelings of love in sufficiently vague or universal terms to be experienced by everyone and reused by the public. The images are repeated, mixed and rotated in search of a universality of emotion. His vocabulary Dawr It ultimately works alongside the musical aesthetics that govern this form: the maqam.  For notes as well as words, a scale is fixed, spacing is predetermined and stations must be observed.  All combinations, all changes are possible, provided that they do not deviate from the rules. Its most famous singer and composer on the in the first half of the 19th century it was Muhammad al Maslub (1793–1928). Then came Abduh Al-Hamuli (1845-1901) and Muhammad ̕ Uthmân (1855-1900), who created remarkable numbers of adwar, contributing significantly, both as composers and solo singers, to the establishment of its final form Dawr (The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research).

Bibliography

About Wadih Sabra: Lebanese Composer (1876 - 1952) | Biography, Facts, Information, Career, Wiki, Life. https://peoplepill.com/people/wadih-sabra. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.

Back in Town - Fouad Fakhouri  - Laith Sidiq. Directed by Ismat Muhsen, 2017. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCiIuHccWfI.

Ballet de l’Opéra ‘Les Deux Rois’ de Wadia Sabra - Georges Daccache, Piano. Directed by Lebanese Classical Music Treasures, 2022. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_HeIzeOplg.

Daoudi, Safae. ‘Egypt Educational Reforms in the 19th Century: A Dichotomy Between Traditional Education and Modern Secularism?’ Afkar: The Undergraduate Journal of Middle East Studies 3, vol. 2, 2021, pp. 12–20.

Duo de l’opéra ‘Les Deux Rois’ - Wadia Sabra / Joyce El Khoury, Fady Jeanbart & Gianluca Marcianò. Directed by Fady Jeanbart, 2022. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iTbpkCVOBw.

Egypt - Symphonic Poem - Youssef Greiss. soundcloud.com, https://soundcloud.com/ramz-sabry-samy/egypt-symphonic-poem-youssef-greiss. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.

Farid al Atrash - Ya Zahratan Fi Khayali. Directed by Zouhair Wafeeq Bader, 2014. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QCtGBrMxmw.

‘Farid Al-Atrash’. Wikipedia, 14 Nov. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farid_al-Atrash&oldid=1121901321.

Layth Sidiq | Berklee College of Music. https://college.berklee.edu/people/layth-sidiq. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.

‘Layth Sidiq - Violinist’. Layth Sidiq, https://www.laythsidiqmusic.com. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.

‘Leyli and Majnun (Opera)’. Wikipedia, 3 June 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leyli_and_Majnun_(opera)&oldid=1091309183.

Livingston, John W. ‘Western Science and Educational Reform in the Thought of Shaykh Rifaa Al-Tahtawi’. International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 28, no. 4, 1996, pp. 543–64. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/176152.

‘Opera in Arabic’. Wikipedia, 12 May 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Opera_in_Arabic&oldid=1087523346.

The Nahda « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research. https://www.amar-foundation.org/the-nahda/. Accessed 16 Nov. 2022.

'Uzeyir Hajibeyov'. Wikipedia, 30 Oct. 2022. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Uzeyir_Hajibeyov&oldid=1119075150.

‘Wadia Sabra PR’. Fondation Diane, https://www.fondation-diane.org/press-release-fondation-diane-supports-and-revives-the-lebanese-musical-heritage-by-sponsoring-wadia-sabra-first-modern-musical-book-by-fady-jeanbart. Accessed 18 Nov. 2022.