834083

Music in Contemporary Cairo: A Comparative OverviewAuthor(s): Ali Jihad RacySource: Asian Music, Vol. 13, No. 1 (1981), pp. 4-26Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/834083 .

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MUSIC IN CONTEMPORARY CAIHO: A COMPARATIVE OVERVIEW

by Ali Jihad Racy

While certain assumptions govern the study of music in general, others dominate the study of broad musical areas. It is widely accepted that in each major Near Eastern or Asiatic "high culture," one should expect to find a self- contained indigenous musical repertoire, which is authentic, ancient, musically sophisticated, and socially exclusive. Such a repertoire is usually described as "classical music," "art music," "court music," and "serious music." Implicit in this view is a stylistic and conceptual dualism between the repertoire just outlined and another which coexists and interacts with it. This latter repertoire is assumed to be recent, eclectic, ubiquitous, closely connected with the mass media, musically less sophisticated, and generally less revered. It is also depicted by labels such as "popular music," "light music," "commercial music," and "film music."

In certain areas in East and Southeast Asia, the Near East, North Africa, and Europe, the classical-popular dualism may have obvious semantic, musical, and social correspondences. Ethnomusicologists have correlated attributes of the former category with the "classical musics" of India and Western Europe, the musiqi-ye asil or dastgah music of Iran (Zonis 1973:14), and the sanat musikisi or klasik m'izigi of Turkey (Signell 1977:1;14). Certain characteristics of the latter category have been associated with repertoires such as Indian "film music" and "popular music in Western society" (Nettl 1972:218).

In some other areas, the dualistic model is less discernible or simply too narrow and arbitrary. In his paper, "Classical Music, Cultural Roots, and Colonial Rule: An Indic Musicologist Looks at the Muslim World," Professor Harold Powers indicates that if the above conceptual and musical distinction is transposed from India to West Asia, it tends to become inapplicable. In his words:

Indeed, the epithet "art" . . . or "classical" . in the familiar paradigm of art/popular/

folk may well be inappropriate in the core Muslim world today, however appropriate it may have been for court music and Sufi music in Ottoman and Qajar times (Powers 1980:6).

Providing fresh insight into the study of music in the contemporary Near East, the above remark seems of particular relevance to the music cultures of present-day Cairo and neighboring cities in the Levant region.2

4



By maintaining the comparative approach taken by Professor Powers, we can highlight a number of significant first-glance contrasts. These contrasts, however, can be established not only between the Near East and India or the Far East, but also, to a significant degree, between Cairo, which is the main topic of this article, and other Near Eastern cities. In some of these cities, the existence of relatively clear boundaries between the various styles can be easily ascertained. The roles assigned to various musical instruments can be used as a guide. For example, in modern Istanbul, the tanbur (lute) and ney (flute) remain closely connected with the Mevlevi repertoire and the legacy of Ottoman court music. A tanbur player is not expected to play the dance repertoire typical of gypsy nightclub musicians. However, a Turkish kanun (zither) or clarinet player may perform the fasil, a major Ottoman compound form, but would normally specialize in a repertoire (giftetelli, longa, sirto) associated with nightclub dance entertainment. The existence of distinct, albeit overlapping, Turkish urban styles, has been described as follows: "Some types of popular music [italics mine] may utilize a variant of the classical modal system, or possibly some classical instruments, but the style and repertoire differ from the classical" (Signell 1977:11). This distinction extends to specifics such as ornamentation, texture, intonation, and the freedom to improvise short instrumental interludes between precomposed melodic phrases.

In the musical cultures of Cairo, Beirut, and Damascus, it is difficult to find an analogue to the model described by Signell. Instruments such as the 'fld (lute), qXnun, violin, ny, and riqq (a small tambourine) appear in a wide variety of musical contexts. An Egyptian qn7Un player may perform for a small gathering of musical connoisseurs. If highly proficient, he may be a member of a radio ensemble or an accompanist for a vocal celebrity such as Umm Kulthtrm (d. 1975). He may also play regularly in a nightclub in Cairo, Beirut, or London. Actually, the same performer may appear in several of these contexts, and a piece composed for the radio or for an Umm KulthUm concert might be performed in a nightclub or for a private group of listeners.

Another type of contrast can be made between the musical cultures of Cairo and Teheran. Bruno Nettl's research on the music of Iran demonstrates that in Teheran several musical styles can, with a certain measure of facility, be differentiated from one another. In addition to Persian classical music, there is a large multi-faceted genre which around 1969 was dis- seminated widely on 45 r.p.m. discs and which can be considered as Iran's popular music. Within this genre Nettl was able to isolate various types of songs. Each type seemed, with a fair

5



amount of consistency, to manifest a particular musical character or ethnic influence. Certain types emulated Iran's indigenous classical music, while others were based on traditions such as Persian folk music, Western popular music, and Russian folk songs (Nettl 1972:222-229).

The modern music culture of Cairo eludes such a stylistic typology. The classical-popular division, with all its familiar implications, can be particularly misleading.3 For decades the modern mass media--disc, film, theater, radio--have been shaping the musical careers and products of practically all prolific and highly respected Egyptian artists. It is noteworthy that since the early 1930s almost every established Egyptian male or female singer has been both a recording artist and a movie star--'Abd al-Wahh-ab, Umm Kulthmn, and Asmahan, to name a few--a phenomenon which might be unthinkable in some other cultures. The most highly regarded works by artists such as those just mentioned were usually composed for film, radio, or the 78 r.p.m. disc. To add, within each single composition there is usually a wide variety of musical moods and ethnic influences. A song by 'Abd al-Wahhab or Asmahan usually displays a conglomeration of contrasting segments whose styles range from being similar to Egypt's Sufi music to having a tango rhythm with accordion accompaniment. It would be difficult to fit either of the "classical" and "popular" descriptions to an artist such as Shaykh Sayyid Darwish Cd. 1923), the composer of what became Egypt's new national anthem less than two years ago.4 Considered the most influential artist in Egypt's modern history, Darwish composed several pieces in the traditional muwashshai and dawr forms. Under the influence of European music, particularly Italian opera, he also composed theatrical comic duets, vaudeville songs, Egyptian stage musicals, and nationalistic anthems.

It may be argued that the applicability of the "art- popular" distinction to Cairo's music is a matter of degree and interpretation. It is also possible that in Ottoman Cairo, a certain form of compartmentalization had existed. During the nineteenth century, there was a major tradition associated with professional male instrumentalists (Nlatiyyah), whose ensemble was called the takht, literally "platform," and with male singers such as the well known 'Abduh al-H-muli (d. 1901) and Shaykh Yisuf al-ManyalwTl (d. 1911). This tradition was, on the whole, highly esteemed and considered musically sophisticated. There was another major tradition associated with the female professional musicians, or 'awalim, literally "learned women." Entertaining female audiences only, these musicians specialized in strophic songs based on colloquial Egyptian texts. The 'awallim songs were regarded by many Egyptians to be ubiquitous and much less sophisticated.5 Yet today, despite these historical distinctions, the contrasts

6



between Cairo and other neighboring cities remain prominent.

These contrasts are connected with basic social and historical factors. In Asia and North Africa we encounter a number of twentieth-century musical traditions whose historical and theoretical roots go back several centuries and whose domains were primarily the courts of the rulers and the aristocracy. On the whole, such self-contained legacies have three main attributes: a) exclusivity: in other words, they were cultivated primarily on the level of a particular social elite; b) continuity: namely they have been perpetuated and maintained actively, in some cases through theory or systematic training; and c) immunity: their territorial integrity (instruments, genres, texts, contexts, etc.) was largely

observed and safeguarded against factors of internal and external change. Such attributes, for example, can be ascertained in the nawbah tradition of Morocco. According to Philip Schuyler:

Moroccan Andalusian music (al-ala al-andalusia) is part of the longest continuous tradition of art music in the world. As the name implies, the tradition came to Morocco from Southern Spain, where Muslim courts flourished for seven centuries in Cordova, Sevilla, and Granada. The beginnings of Andalusian music can be traced to the early 9th century A.D., with the arrival of Ziryab, a freed Persian slave, at the court of Abderrahmane II, in Cordova. At that time, it was common practice for Moorish sultans to import musicians from the East. Ziryab, however, founded a conservatory in Cordova, to spread and perpetuate his musical idea, and from that point, Arabic music in the Western Islamic world began to take an independent direction . .

So far, Andalusian music has resisted both death and the tendency to become a museum piece. It has survived the move into the 20th century, just as it survived the move from Andalusia to Morocco (Schuyler 1978:33;42).

The presence of continuity and immunity is also implied in a description of the salient musical attitude among the Japanese:

Despite the complete modernization of Japan in a technological and economic sense, Japanese individuals have been able to maintain equilibrium between present and past. The Japanese businessman goes to his office in a European suit, but spends the evening in traditional attire. He is also willing to tolerate both Japanese classical music,

7



which he wants unchanged and un-Westernized, and the highest quality of Western music. The Japanese musician specializes, even within his own classical tradition; he does not try to excell in both Western and Japanese music. Nor has he adapted Western instruments to the Japanese classical tradition. He allows his classical music to exist, untouched by modernization, in a corner of his life, much as there are several distinct corners within the classical tradition itself (Nettl 1975:87).

A somewhat comparable attitude towards long-established traditions can be seen in India. A graduate student who has studied both Indian and Near Eastern music writes:

The Western world has adopted a mode of consciously breaking from the past. The various forms of art are ruled by the need for the individualized statement. The goal is to be on the "cutting edge of style." The prevailing attitudes of many Eastern cultures stand in strong contrast. The keeping of tradition is at a premium. The musician, like the painter, boasts that his product is the same as that of his predecessors hundreds, thousands of years ago. In India this situation is perhaps at its extreme: we find treatises written and attributed to famous individuals who lived 500-1000 years previously. (The greatest music theorist of this century,

Bhatkande, presented his work as a marvelous discovery! from the distant past.) Musicians today date their instruments and their styles 300 to 1500 years earlier than can be verified. Thus, a culture can fool itself in believing that the desired, the traditional, still exists today.

In the Western world a similar fervor stands behind the endeavor to perform and hear older compositions in the "original" form. A Westerner would feel privileged if he were to hear a Baroque chamber work performed on a Stradivarius set of instruments, or a classical keyboard piece played on a late-eighteenth-century pianoforte.

In the contemporary music of Cairo, these aspects of exclusivity, continuity, and immunity do not altogether apply to a single self-contained repertoire. The country's political history provides some explanation, primarily since in Egypt the ruling class was for centuries non-Egyptian and constantly changing. In his introduction to Edward Lane's nineteenth- century monograph on Egypt, John Manchip White remarks:

8



It was, in any case, no novelty for the Egyptians to live in subjection to foreign and un-Egyptian rulers: they had been doing so without intermission for over two thousand years. In 526 B.C. the Persians invaded Egypt and became its rulers, to be followed in 332 B.C. by the Greeks, in 30 B.C. by the Romans, and in 323 A.D. by the Eastern Romans or Byzantines. . . . From 640 [the time of the Arab conquest] until 1952, another thirteen centuries, Egypt was governed by dynasties that were alien to it. They poured into Egypt in flamboyant succession: the Ommeyads, the Abbassids, the Tulunids, the Fatimids, the Ayubites, the Mamelukes, and finally the Turks (White 1973:ix).

Such political transience may have contributed to musical transience. Also, the long domination of various foreign powers may have created a musical schism between the ruling class and the people of Cairo, who in the nineteenth century incorporated a substantial number of non-Egyptians including Turks, Greeks, and Armenians--about one-fifth of the population according to Lane (1973:25). We know very little about music under the Mamelukes (1250-1517) who were supposedly tyrannical and mis- trusted by the Egyptians. Also, little is known about the musical role played by the Ottoman aristocracy, whose language and probably musical taste were Turkish rather than Egyptian. The tenuous musical link between modern Cairo and the Ottoman era is acknowledged by contemporary Egyptians, many of whom voice contempt towards the musical past. Stating that in essence purely Egyptian music did not develop until the late nineteenth century, Kam"Nl al-Namji, a prominent writer and musical critic, says:

The Arab listener did not rid himself from Ottoman, Persian and gypsy musical gibberish, which was widespread among the male and female singers, until less than a hundred years ago. That was when 'Abduh al-Hmtlu-i began to Egyptianize and Arabize the singing of Egypt, and to depart from the lingering remnants of Ottoman singing and gypsy screaming which our country was subjected to during the epochs of 7 national and social decadence (al-Najmi 1972:74).

The history of the Khediveal rule, which started with Muhammad 'Ali (r. 1804-1848), is usually associated with Westernization. This was manifested in the importation of the European military band, a package which brought with it the seeds of European theory, notation, and music education. Known as an avid Europeanizer, Khedive Ism'TlC (r. 1863-1879) erected the famous

Euroeanier, hedie Is'm' Q



Opera House in Cairo and brought Italian opera into Egypt. He also patronized a number of Egyptian musicians including the vocal celebrity 'Abduh al-mI~mli. Reportedly, he enabled al-yHmIli to visit Istanbul so that this singer could gather new and relevant musical techniques (al-Khula'i ca. 1904:142). During the British occupation of Egypt (1882-1922), the direct effect of the ruling bureaucracy upon musical patronage was probably minimal. During this era, Cairo witnessed the gradual disintegration of traditional musical and other professional guilds, the great influx of European musicians and music teachers, the rise of a thriving record business, and the dramatic popularity of new art forms, namely the Egyptian musical play and vaudeville during the 1920s. Egypt's film industry was fully launched in the early 1930s with the first talking musical film appearing in 1932.

A chronological survey of available Egyptian music recorded since around 1904 can reveal many elements of continuity. Among these elements are the predominence of certain maqam-t such as Bayy~ti, the frequent use of the Wahdah and similarly short but highly ornate metric modes, the cultivation of vocal and instrumental improvisatory techniques, and the persistence of certain types of melodic ornaments and cadential formulas. On the other hand, aspects of musical change have been both extensive and intensive. Most musical genres seem to have lived ephemeral lives. According to twentieth-century Egyptian writers, the major nineteenth-century genres were of relatively recent origins. The muwashsha , an old vocal genre typical of Syria and North Africa, was reportedly brought into Egypt by a man from Aleppo in the late seventeenth century (KImil 1971: 10). The dawr, at one time one of the most popular genres in Egypt, was developed essentially during the second half of the nineteenth century (al-Khula'T, ca. 1904:89). Instrumental forms such as the Turkish bashraf (pegrev) and the European march entered Egypt mostly during the nineteenth century (Rizq ca. 1936:143).

After World War I, these and several other forms either gradually became outmoded or were constantly changed. Such a change can be best illustrated by extant recordings of the qagidah, a vocal form based on classical Arabic poetry. Before World War I, this form was normally improvised and accompanied by the takht. In the 1930s, while such a style of performance was becoming unfashionable, 'Abd al-Wahhab had already begun to compose new gap'id, accompanied by larger ensembles and replenished with Westernized interpolations in which the piano, oboe, and cello would be heard (Racy 1977:239).

On the level of attitudes, a fervor for musical change has been deeply seated in Cairo's musical thinking. There has been a persisting concern especially among learned individuals

10



that the "current" music of Egypt is in a state of crisis and that there is an urgent need for it to acquire new blood. Regarding the state of the Egyptian song today, the prolific writer Najib MahfUz concedes that, "when I compare between the past and the present, I feel deeply distressed because the past had the good next to the bad, but now the good has disappeared and nothing remains except the bad" (al-Dasuqi 1980:17).

To most writers, critics, and performers, however, it is unthinkable that a contemporary musician should return to the older ways. Such a return might occur in Iran in the form of adopting a master's radTf, roughly, a repertoire of primary and subsidiary modes, or in India by identifying with a garana, basically, a lineage of musical masters (Newman 1978: 187). Contrastingly, in Cairo it is usually felt that the primary goal of the musician is to live up to current political and cultural challenges. Thus, if the artistic impetus of Indian music seems past-directed, that of Cairo's music is unmistakably present-oriented. Occasionally, Egyptian writers postulate that musical phenomena, such as the takht and maqam Bayy~ti, can be traced as far back as Pharaonic Egypt.8 Yet such linkage is seldom intended to grant legitimacy or weight to the takht tradition, which after the 1920s became practically obsolete, or to maq;m Bayyti, which according to one Egyptian educator must be abolished because its neutral intervals cannot be played on European orchestral instruments (HUfiz 1971:185).

The emphasis on musical change has been accompanied by concern about the country's world image. In the twentieth century, Cairo's public has been identifying strongly with a non-Egyptian musical model, namely music of the West. Viewed as the ultimate in advancement and sophistication, European art music is generally accepted as muslgqa 'alamiyyah, namely "international music" whose provenance is pan-cultural rather than exclusively European. At the same time, the most widely accepted emblem is for Egyptian music "to evolve out of its local reality into the realm of international conceptions," but also to maintain its "local Egyptian character (al-tba' al-Masri) and the elements derived from its actual environment" (Nuwayrah, et al. 1964:51).

In light of the social, political, and musical backgrounds already presented, we turn to the music itself. The following is a general description of the various musical genres, categories, and criteria found in Cairo today. To begin with, Cairo's music can be regarded somewhat arbitrarily as a group of overlapping and interconnected musical domains. One multi- faceted musical domain is found in the cities and is associated with a professional craft of singing and performing on local instruments including the 'Ud, the ny, the qanun, the violin, and the riqq. When referring to this domain, Near Eastern Arabs

11



use_a variety of general concepts such as fann, "art" or "craft"; musiga, "music"; and farab, roughly "enchantment" or "entertainment." Similarly, instruments such as the 'Ud and the qanun are called Tl3t tarab, "tools of enchantment," although the word mutrib Is applied only to the vocalist. In view of its prominence and pervasive impact, this domain may be considered as the central component of Cairo's music.

This musical domain tends to exclude indigenous religious and folk traditions, as well as the music of Europe and the West. A religious performer usually is not referred to as a mutrib, "one who enchants," but is given titles such as muqri', "one who recites" [the Quran], and munshid, roughly, "one who chants"--the latter normally applying to a performer of Sufi songs. Likewise, a performer who specializes in music of the countryside is less likely to be described with words such as mu rib and fann"En, "artist," but rather with folk designations such as shi'T7i, 'poet-singer," or mughann• baladT, roughly, a "native" or "Folk singer." The central domain just described is also often referred to as mutsiq5 sharqiyyah, "Oriental" or "Middle Eastern music," to differentiate it from musiqa gharbiyyah, "Western music," primarily European art music. By the same token, the word mutrib would not apply to an opera singer.

The music history of Cairo strongly indicates that these conceptual and musical boundaries between the central domain and other musical domains inside and outside Cairo are flexible. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the title mutrib appeared with the names of scores of Sufi trained singers who became famous recording artists and kept the religious title shaykh. Among them were Shaykh Ytsuf al-ManyalaTwi, Shaykh Salamah Hijazi, and Shaykh 'All Maimtd. The word mutrib has also been applied to urbanized folk singers such as Muhammad Taha who is well known in Cairo and other Arab cities as a singer of the Upper Egyptian mawwa~l, an improvisatory vocal genre.

There is also ample evidence that in twentieth-century Egypt the sharqT-gharbi, "Eastern-Western" distinction has been very loosely applied. The majority of Egyptian music textbooks present European music theory combined with listings of maq~m scales and Near Eastern compositions transcribed in Western notation. Students who enroll in the official conservatories to study performance on a native instrument such as the 'id or qanun usually must learn European music theory and notation. In 1973, the Egyptian Higher Academy of Music Education, one of the major musical institutions of Cairo, offered a curriculum in which European and Egyptian musics were well-integrated. The subjects ranged from piano technique and European music pedagogy to a course on the application of European polyphony to the Arab maqgmt.

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Internally, the central musical domain is far from being rigorously compartmentalized. Today, a few pre-World War I generic names remain in use. It is understandable that, with the gradual obsolescence of major pre-World War I genres, and the fusion of the various styles and repertoires, certain generic distinctions would become anachronistic. According to Kamal al-Najmi:

The modern Egyptian song is now called merely a "song" (ughniyah), no more and no less. Today, it would never occur to a text writer or a composer to refer to his song as a mUn-UlUj, a taqtiuqah, a dawr, or a tawshil. Also, among the new text writers, composers, and singers, nothing has remained except the names: "mawwl" and "qa?idah," but without any actual basis for these two beautiful names (al-Najmi 1972:88).

Present criteria differentiating one composition from another are often too general and based on extra-musical factors. The aghan1 or "songs" are occasionally recognized by their texts and divided according to the textual subject matter, a criterion also used for classifying classical Arabic poems. Accordingly, there are aghani ' Nfiyyah, "sentimental songs," aghTni wataniyyah, "nationalistic songs," and others. It is conceivable that, in each type, certain musical traits are more typical than others. Yet, the use of the text as a criterion remains at best sporadic, ambivalent, and musically inconsistent.

The agh37ni constitute the bulk of central domain music. As a rule they are precomposed and performed by a main singer to the accompaniment of a relatively large orchestra. Normally, such an orchestra would feature Near Eastern instruments such as the qanun and nay in addition to about a dozen or more violins, a few cellos, a double bass, and sometimes an accordion, a saxophone, or an electric organ. An ughniyyah has a recognized text writer and a composer who may be the singer himself, a good example being Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahha-b. The length of an ughniyyah ranges from about six minutes to about half an hour or longer. In the recent few decades, however, the longer songs appear to have been more prevalent and better received. Many of the longer songs, those of Umm KulthUm, for instance, are recordings of live performances.

Purely instrumental music is usually referred to as musiga ?mitah, literally "silent music" or "non-speaking music." Terms such as ma'zUfah, roughly "something played," or git'ah, literally "piece," refer practically to all types of precomposed ensemble music including recent pieces by 'Abd al-Wahha-b, al-Atrash, and others. Usually lasting for no more than five minutes, a ma'zUfah or a qgi ah would, as a rule, have a

13



programmatic title such as "The Caravan," "The First Love," and"The Mamelukes." Many pieces, however, are originally composed as

muqaddimat or "preludes" for specific songs, but

are commonly played as independent pieces and named after the songs they were composed for.

Solo instrumental music is simply 'azf munfarid, or "solo playing." Altogether, this genre is less predominent in Cairo's music than it is, for example, in India or possibly in Iran. It must be stressed that in Cairo's contemporary culture, considerable emphasis is placed on the composers and on precomposed ensemble music. Taqsim, roughly solo improvisatipns, have been recorded separately by famous artists such as the violinist Muhammad al Hifn-wi, and the late q~nUn player Muiammad 'Abduh Silih. Yet, in most cases, taqasim on various instruments appear within nightclub dance "routines" together with precomposed tunes. In such tunes, the meter, the form, and the melody are closely related to the dance music of Upper Egypt. Furthermore, the instrumentation has a strong tendency towards Westernization. The electric guitar, the accordion, the keyboard synthesizer, and the saxophone very often play jointly with the n-ay, the tablah (a pottery hand-drum), and even the

mizm~ar (a double-

reed folk instrument).

In the central domain, broad distinctions on the basis of the musical content can be found. Cairo's public usually uses the concept of lawn, literally "color," to mean a musical or ethnic character or style. Central-domain songs which achieve complexity through traditional musical means are typically considered to belong to a lawn Varab, roughly "enchantment color." Such songs make full utilization of the maqgm system including the use of a wide melodic range, intricate cadential patterns, modulations, and vocal ornaments. However, in most such compositions, the element of tarab per se is used predominently as a matrix in which segments in other contrasting styles are contained. In this case, the concept of lawn is used again to describe the character or style of each of these segments. In a typical song by 'Abd al-Wahhab, an episode based on a motif from Beethoven or Rossini is likely to be labeled as lawn gharbi or "Western color." A passage reminiscent of Upper Egyptian folk music may be labeled as lawn baladi, "native" or "folk color," or lawn Sa'Idi, "Upper Egyptian color." A passage emulating Western popular music may be described as lawn jaz or "jazz color," keeping in mind that in the Arab world the concept of "jazz" is most commonly used not as a reference to a specific genre, but to Western popular music in general.

In addition to tarab songs, one large central-domain category consists of songs commonly referred to as lawn sha'bi, roughly "common" or "vernacular color." Although featuring an overall traditional orchestration, timbre, and intonation,

14



sha'bi songs lack the modal complexity of most tarab songs. They are based on strophic forms and do not exhibit the linear variety, namely the different alwnh incorporated in most tarab songs. Finally, the texts of these song types are all in Egyptian colloquial Arabic.

In Cairo and in several neighboring Arab cities, a wide variety of "color" labels are used to differentiate musical compositions, and various parts within an individual composition. However, in many instances, the "color" or character of a composition would be recognized, but would not be articulated or specified. The audiences of Cairo and other Arab cities believe that an established singer such as the late Farid al-Atrash is not only a good performer of the lawn tarab, but also someone who has a lawn kh~ss or "distinctive color" of his own. Accordingly, this contributes to his greatness as a singer.

Within Cairo's central musical domain, the highest premium is generally placed upon songs which combine the acknowledged elements of tarab with modernity and innovation. Such a combination would be typical of Asmahin and 'Abd al-Wahhab songs in which established modal mannerisms blend with musical eclecticism and linear contrast. Songs which are associated with the lawn Sha'bi, and which derive certain aspects of form and rhythm from the folk music are, on the whole, prone to criticism for using hackneyed vernacular love themes, and for being musically too simplistic.

Despite this distinction, it would be inaccurate to compare Cairo's sha'bi songs to the popular music of Iran, India, and Japan. Sha'bT and tarab songs are not two clearly defined or totally separate styles. In many instances it is impossible to determine whether a song would be of a sha'bi or tarab quality, or of a different lawn altogether. The same singer may sing in more than one lawn. Singers who specialize in tarab or in sha'bi songs almost always appear together in the same concert and are accompanied by the same instrumentalists. Commonly referred to as iaflat munawwa'5t, or "variety performance," such a concert would typically feature one or two tarab singers, one or two sha'bi singers, a popular folk singer such as Muhammad Taha, a comedian, and a dancer. Finally, sha'bi songs are not necessarily more "popular" or more closely connected with mass media distribution than would be a recent tarab hit by Farid al-Atrash or Umm Kulthim. In effect, modern tarab songs which can be highly eclectic and Westernized appeal to a much broader audience extending throughout the entire Arab world.

In addition to the central musical domain, Cairo encompasses several peripheral domains which extend beyond modern Cairo, either to the historical past or to contexts

15



Figure I

WSTE• (d-eSTE R N ART ART

%let, POPULAR

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i/ CENTR AL iL

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16



outside Cairo and outside Egypt. Figure I is an approximate representation of the major domains. The large outer sphere stands for the entire music of Cairo. The inner sphere, shown in dotted lines, represents the central domain. The five parallel-line enclosures on the diagram contain the major peripheral domains. One of these domains, labeled pre-1919 music, is what many Egyptians would refer to as turath, "heritage," lawn qadim, "old color," or sometimes lawn tarab. Connecting modern Cairo directly with its musical past, it is, in a sense, the historical ancestor of the central domain itself. Its extension outside the larger sphere represents the music which existed primarily before World War I and which was associated with the takht ensemble.

The modern manifestations of this domain can be divided into three coexisting subdomains. The subdomain closest to the historical roots features older genres which are performed informally by soloists or by small groups in a manner reminiscent of the older takht ensemble. This subdomain is basically limited to a very small group of elderly amateurs and music connoisseurs who still appreciate the older genres and performance mannerisms. In this subdomain, the taqasim usually figure highly. Also performed are precomposed instrumental forms such as the samd'i and the muwashshab, both of which were popular in Cairo before World War I.

Another closely related subdomain centers around older compositions which are used primarily for pedagogical purposes. These compositions appear in Western notation in various anthol- ogies and textbooks. Performed typically by older musicians and conservatory students, this repertoire is based on precomposed pieces, most of which have been fashionable in Cairo, Aleppo, and Istanbul in the early twentieth century. The instrumental types include the

dUla-b, the taimilah, the

sama'i, the darij, and the bashraf, while the vocal genres are mostly muwashshahat. Several musiIc teachers and theorists believe that this repertoire embodies the fundamental elements of al-mu-siqa al-sharqiyyah and is a valuable background for a student of Near Eastern music.

A third subdomain consists of newly arranged and orchestrated renditions of works composed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily adwar and muwashshahat. These new renditions are presented periodically in formal concert settings under the auspices of the government's Higher Musical Committee. The main protagonist of this repertoire is Firqat al-Musiqa al- 'Arabiyyah, "the Troupe of Arab Music" which was established in 1967 with 'Abd al-HalTm Nuwayrah as conductor. The Troupe is exceptionally large, featuring a chorus of over thirty men and women, and ten or more violins, in addition to several cellos, qMnfTns, and 'uds. Collective singing is heard in all

17



genres including the adw-ar, which originally incorporated elaborate alternations between the mutrib and his small accompanying chorus. Moreover, instead of the delicate heterophony found in takht music, the Troupe's performances exhibit a dense texture created by many layers of unison and octave relationships. Also, genres such as the dawr, which originally allowed a fair amount of improvisation, are interpreted strictly as fixed works with preset melodic motifs and cadential patterns. Finally, the music is performed with added dynamic inflections which are indicated during the performance by the conductor. In short, having a substantial following among the young Egyptians, the Troupe has "established new norms of performance practice and musician/audience behavior" (El-Shawan 1980:106).

A second major domain encompasses the Islamic religious forms which are usually recognized by individual generic names. In this broad domain, the most ubiquitous and highly revered component is Quranic chanting. Shared in the rest of Egypt and in other Islamic countries, this legacy can be heard in a variety of sacred and social contexts (Nelson 1980:120). Recordings of Quranic chants have been made in Egypt since the first decade of the twentieth century (Racy 1977:93). At present, such recordings feature Egyptian religious performers, many of whom are famous both inside Egypt and throughout the Arab world, and to some extent throughout all Muslim countries. Aesthetically speaking, Quranic chanting, and other Islamic religious forms, are generally considered pure and impressive manifestations of the Arab modal and improvisatory practices. The musical relationship between the secular and the sacred in Egypt is indeed both intimate and delicate. Accordingly:

[For the Qurantic reciter]. . any formal training in music is limited to the principles and repertoire of Arabic music; it is up to the individual reciter to apply what he has learned to the art of reciting. There is no course of study in how to recite melodically. The reciter must depend on his ear, his talent, and his mastery of all the various skills to find the right balance that makes his art recitation and not music (Nelson 1980:107-108).

Meanwhile, many of Cairo's renowned secular singers are known to have begun their careers by chanting the Quran or by performing the adh'Nn or "call to prayer."

Another broad religious component consists of Sufi music and_various related vocal genres. Including the improvised qasidah, and the essentially precomposed tawshih, this

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component ranges from the ritual music of the various Sufi orders to various urbanized interpretations. The latter incorporate recordings made in the course of the twentieth century featuring Sufi qa?'id accompanied by regular takht instruments. A further religious category is relatively recent and more limited in scope. Since 1974, Sufi songs have been presented on the stage in modernized formats modelled stylistically after the Troupe of Arab Music. Known categorically as inshEd dini (religious chanting), these songs are usually presented during the concerts of the above Troupe, with an orchestra and a chorus of male singers only.

A third peripheral domain encompasses European art music and its Egyptian derivatives. In Cairo this entire category has appealed primarily to a cosmopolitan group which includes political thinkers, music critics, government officials, and foreigners. The roots of European art music in Egypt may be traced back to the late nineteenth century when Italian opera made its way into Cairo. But the music became more viable after 1959 with the emergence of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. During the 1960s, Egyptian symphonic music became Cairo's most politicized musical idiom. The creation of "international music" became a revolutionary emblem for musical and cultural change, and for the construction of a new progressive national image (Al-BirUdi 1966:99). Incorporating a large number of foreign performers mostly from Eastern Europe, the Cairo Symphony was gradually disbanded in the early 1970s (El-Shawan 1980:105).

This Egyptian domain can be divided into two main subgroups. One consists of European works proper, in other words, those composed by Europeans. The music heard in Cairo ranges chronologically from Bach to Debussy. Yet, the most popular has been nineteenth-century music, including post- Romantic works from Eastern Europe and Russia. Furthermore, the most venerated idiom has been symphonic music. The second category or subdomain consists of works in the tradition of European art music, but composed by Egyptians. Many of the composers have been conservatory trained in Moscow, Paris, and other European cities. For these composers, the main vision for Egypt's "international music" has been the emulation of the late and post-Romantic symphonic models. A major source of inspiration has been composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Khachaturian, who composed elaborate programmatic symphonic works, and who often utilized folk musical elements. In addition to their musical appeal, such works are considered best suited for combining "internationalism" with the depiction of national and political ideas (see Badran 1970:94).

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A fourth peripheral domain incorporates music in the European popular musical idiom. In Egypt this music has been almost too dispursed to be one self-contained category. Whereas Europe's art music had been propagated institutionally through the Symphony Orchestra, Western popular music has been assimilated in a somewhat diffuse form and has been largely absorbed by the central musical domain. Despite its diffuse nature, this domain can be divided into two areas. One area incorporates the variety of regular Western compositions played privately or in public nightclubs either by Egyptian or by Western performers. There is no accessible information on what types of popular music have been most popular in Cairo. Although the categories range from French "romantic" songs to American dinner music, in the past decades the strongest influence upon Cairo and other Near Eastern cities has apparently come from Europe rather than North America. The other area contains Egyptian songs modelled after Western popular music. For decades such songs have been almost inconspicuous, especially if compared with their counterparts in other Middle Eastern and Asian countries. In the late seventies, with the increasing influence of Western popular music and the cultivation of related forms by local musicians in other Arab countries, primarily Lebanon, Cairo's music began to witness a new synthesis. Egyptian songs featuring a homogeneous blend of local and Western popular elements began to emerge.

Appreciated by many young educated Egyptians, such songs are accompanied almost entirely by Western instruments, especially the electric guitar and the jazz drum-set. The lyrics are in Arabic and the singing is performed by a few male singers and instrumentalists in a manner vaguely reminiscent of the Beatles. The vocal quality tends to be novel. The chest voice and the rapid vocal vibrato would be typical of a modern French singer such as Charles Aznavour. Also, some harmony is used, although the melodic line stays prominent. The tunes are either newly composed or derived from local sources such as the musical plays of Sayyid Darwish. Some are also adaptations of recent Lebanese songs, a phenomenon virtually unprecedented. As a whole, this repertoire represents a new and growing trend which Cairo had resisted in earlier decades.9

A fifth peripheral domain encompasses Cairo's folk music and is known by labels such as lawn sha'bi, lawn baladi, and filklUr (folklore). This domain affects a large segment of the population and connects Cairo musically with the Nile communities from Upper Egypt to the Delta region. This domain can be divided roughly into three different segments. One segment consists of folk genres directly linked with areas outside Cairo and less influenced by Cairo's central musical domain. To this varied group would belong genres such as the

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instrumental music which accompanies the z3r, a female therapeutic trance dance. Also included would be an open-air type of Sufi dhikr during which the folk mawwTl form and folk instruments such as the salabiyyah, a type of reed flute, can be heard. Another segment consists of songs which have been largely influenced by urbanization and central-domain music. Best examples of this category are Muhammad Taha's songs which have been distributed widely on L.P. discs and cassettes and which are accompanied by folk instruments such as the sal5miyyah and the arghtl, as well as central-domain instruments such as the violin and the accordion. The last and probably smallest segment consists of modern arrangements based on folk musical material. Such arrangements may accompany the stage performances of Cairo's dance companies including the well-known Rid" Troupe. Typically known as "folklore," this category contains new compositions as well as new renditions of common folk songs and dance melodies. The arrangers, some of whom are well versed in both Egyptian and European music, often make use of Western harmony and intonation, and employ a large ensemble of Egyptian and European instruments.

The five major domains discussed in this article constitute the bulk of Cairo's music, but not the entire gamut of musical activity in the city. Other smaller domains exist. Examples include Coptic church music and the musical traditions of various Middle Eastern and Asiatic communities. Periodically, performing troupes from countries such as Greece, Turkey, and India, perform in Cairo. Also, occasionally, singers and instrumentalists from other Arab countries appear in public. It is noteworthy, however, that today the musics of Third World countries seem to have so little direct influence upon Cairo. From this angle, Cairo differs from Teheran, for instance, where musical elements from Russia, India, and the Arab world can be detected (Nettl 1972:228). Even the influence of neighboring Arab countries upon Cairo seems relatively minimal. This phenomenon appears in contrast to the colossal musical effect exerted by Cairo upon the rest of the Arab world, and to Cairo's musical borrowings from Aleppo and Istanbul during the late nineteenth century.

A closer look at Cairo's music demonstrates the large degree of interaction between the various musical domains. The central domain derives substantially from the surrounding domains. The contrary is also true. Religious, folk, and takht-related genres exhibit comparable patterns of modernization and borrow basic elements of style and instrumentation from the central musical domain. At the same time, the peripheral domains interact with one another. Symphonic composers incorporate folk and religious themes and sometimes even utilize central domain instruments in their compositions.

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Such close musical interconnections are consistent with the flexible conceptual boundaries among the various styles and repertoires. They are also compatible with the communal attitude with which Cairo's public tends to view its music, or for that matter music of the world at large. This attitude may explain why a learned critic from Cairo would be willing to discuss and judge a relatively wide variety of artists and domains, and why an Egyptian filmmaker might decide to incorporate in his films musical elements that seem so diversified. The same attitude may also indicate why a composer such as Muhammad 'Abd al-Wahha-b would borrow from local Sufi and folk sources as well as from the works of Rossini and Beethoven.

The various domains also share basic aesthetic criteria and principles. The lawn criterion and the premium on distinct "color" are applied to artists and musical works from various domains and traditions including those found outside Cairo. Furthermore, the premium on combining the indigenous and the familiar with the novel and the innovative is applied to virtually all domains and artists. Such a combination is a prime contributor to the success and recognition of an artist within his own domain. It is also largely responsible for the exceptional influence and prestige of the central domain. Indeed, the central domain has been the ideal arena for combining the common modal and metric techniques with Western and other recently acquired musical elements.

To conclude, Cairo's musical culture is to be under- stood in light of specific social, political, and geographic backgrounds. Factors such as the long period of foreign domination, the lack of highly structured indigenous socio- political hierarchy, and the city's relative physical isolation may have all played instrumental roles in shaping the music and the musical behavior. Such factors might account for long-maintained intrinsic traits such as: the acceptance of open boundaries among the various musical traditions inside and outside Cairo; the perpetual urge to change; the urgent concern about maintaining a local identity; and the persisting world consciousness and quest for "internationalism" which, at present, assumes the form of identifying with the West. These traits give Cairo's music its distinctive character. They also demonstrate that paradigmatic approaches and distinctions such as "classical music," "court music," and "popular music" have limited utility for the researcher of world music cultures.

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NOTES

1. This article is based on material presented in a panel held at Princeton University in May 1979 and chaired by Dr. Harold Powers. Contributions by the panelists have appeared together in a 1980 issue of Asian Music (Vol. XII No. 1). I wish to thank Dr. Harold Powers of Princeton University, Dr. Salwa El-Shawan of New York University, and Professor Muhammad Eissa of the American University of Cairo for their most valuable suggestions.

2. Making comparisons between the status of traditional music in the Islamic Near East and in India and Indonesia, Dr. Power's paper established the basic theme for the 1979 Princeton panel.

3. The Arabized term klassiki or "classical" has been traditionally applied to classical Arabic poetry "shi'r klassiki," which has its roots in pre-Islamic Arabia. When used in a musical context, the word klassik almost invariably refers to European art music.

4. In recent decades, Egypt's national anthem was changed twice. The famous Khediveal March remained in use until the fall of the royal regime in the early 1950s. The succeeding revolutionary anthem "Wallah Zamn Ya

Sila-hi" was in turn

replaced by another one after the recent Egyptian-Israeli peace accord. Titled "Biladi BilSdi," the new anthem was originally composed by Darwish around 1919.

5. A contemporary writer actually states that the dawr form, which was sung by the male performers, corresponded to classical music in Europe, while the taqggqah form, which was sung by the 'awalim, corresponded to the popular music (Rashid 1968:5).

6. This description is by Mr. Scott Marcus, a Ph.D. student of ethnomusicology at the University of California in Los Angeles. Quoted here with his permission, the text originally appeared in a final exam paper written for a course on Near Eastern music which I taught during the Spring of 1980.

7. This and other quotations from Arabic sources are my own translation.

8. These specific connections came up in a conversation I had with two informants in 1973.

9. The best-known group representing this trend is called "al-Misriyyin" or "The Egyptians," probably as a reaffirma- tion of its musical and national "Egyptianness." This group uses primarily new lyrics written by the well-known writer,

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actor, and poet Salah J-hin. Lebanese songs have appeared in the repertoire of another group called "The Jets."

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No. 64, June, 92-99.

al-BirUdi, 'Abd al-Fatta- 1966 "Musiqana al-Masrahiyyah fi al-Marhalah al- Thawriyyah," al-Masrah, No. 31, July, 97-101.

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Nettl, Bruno 1972 "Persian Popular Music in 1969," Ethnomusicology

XVI, No. 2, 218-231.

1975 "The Role of Music in Culture: Iran, a Recently Developed Nation," in C. Hamm, et al. Contemporary Music and Music Cultures. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 71-100.

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Egypt, 1904-1932. Ph.D. thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Zonis, Ella 1973 Classical Persian Music; an Introduction.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

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