Country in North Africa at the south-eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, with its capital at Cairo. Although its total area is close to one million km2, its cultivated and settled area, which includes the Nile valley and delta and the oases, is only about 35,500 km2. The two main districts are Lower Egypt (around the delta region) and Upper Egypt. Of its total population of about 68 million (2000 estimate), about 85% are Muslim, with Christians of various sects the largest minority. Most of the population is now at least partly of Arab descent, but there are some distinct ethnic minorities, notably the Nubians in southern Egypt and the nomadic Berbers in the desert areas.
The art music of Egypt since contact with Islam has been part of the mainstream of Arab music in the Middle East and is discussed along with other aspects of Middle Eastern art music in Arab music, §I. However, Egypt’s pre-Islamic musical history and its continuing popular traditions are local to the country itself and are therefore discussed under the present heading. This article also includes some consideration of the development of Arab music in Egypt during the 19th and 20th centuries.
II. Classical and popular traditions
ROBERT ANDERSON (I), SALWA EL-SHAWAN CASTELO-BRANCO (II, 1, 2, 4), VIRGINIA DANIELSON (II, 3)
The importance of music to the ancient Egyptians can hardly be exaggerated. Ihy was the god who presided over the art, but many of the greatest Egyptian deities, such as Amun, Hathor, Isis and Osiris, had musical associations. It was no accident that when describing Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium, Virgil (Aeneid, viii.696) has her rattling the ‘native sistrum’, the instrument most associated in the Roman mind with Egyptian rites. Osiris himself is dubbed ‘the fair sistrum player’ in a papyrus (probably 4th century bce), containing the Songs of Isis and Nephthys, and from Dynasty 21 (c1070 bce) great political influence was wielded at Thebes by the divine wives of Amun, royal princesses whose duties included playing the sistrum before the god. Although idiophones provided Egypt's earliest and most characteristic instruments, temple scenes, tomb paintings and museum collections testify abundantly to the variety and richness of Egyptian music-making. (For a discussion of the Egyptian art of cheironomy see Cheironomy, §2.)
Classical authors preserved many traditions about ancient Egyptian music. Plutarch recorded that Thoth (Hermes) invented it (De Iside et Osiride, 352.3) and that Osiris used it extensively in his civilizing mission throughout the world (356.13), although there were notable restrictions on its employment in his worship (Strabo, Geography, xvii.1.44). Plato, supposed to have studied in Egypt, extolled the excellence of Egyptian musical standards (Laws, 657), and Pythagoras is said to have investigated musical theory there (Iamblichus, De vita Pythagorae, iv). Dio Cassius (Roman History, xxxvii.18) stated that Egyptian music was closely connected with astrology. Plutarch commented on the significance of the sistrum's structure (De Iside et Osiride, 376.63) and on the fact that the inhabitants of Busiris and Lycopolis made no use of the trumpet because its braying sound recalled the god Seth (Typhon), whose colour resembled that of an ass (362.30). Diodorus Siculus attributed the discovery of the lyre to Thoth (History, i.16) and commented on the dangers of effeminacy through indulgence in music (i.81). Herodotus mentioned the aulos (ii.48) and an Egyptian song identical with the linos he knew from other parts of the Near East (ii.79; see Linus). He also described the music at annual celebrations at Bubastis (ii.60). For the Ptolemaic period and later, Strabo mentioned the licentious use of the aulos (Geography, xvii.1.17); Athenaeus (v.201–2) referred to a choir of 600 with 300 harpers in the reign of Philadelphus (285–246 bce), the outstanding musicianship of the Alexandrians (iv.176), and the effect one of the citizens made in Rome with his performance on the trigōnon. Important Alexandrian contributions to the Hellenistic heritage were the invention of the hydraulis by Ctesibius (fl c270 bce) and the treatise Harmonica by Hero of Alexandria (fl 150 ce).
To what extent Egyptian music influenced the classical world is uncertain. The vast time-span of Egyptian history made a great impression on the Greeks and Romans, whose literature often alludes to the debt they thought they owed to many branches of Egyptian learning, including music. This evidence, however, must be treated with caution: it concerns only the latest periods of ancient Egyptian history, when Pharaonic civilization was already in decline; its elements are often fanciful and bizarre; its method is unscientific; and it is based on theories that Egyptian archaeology has so far done little to corroborate.
The literature of Egypt itself also abounds in musical references: in the last of the stories concerning King Cheops and the magicians, for example, a group of goddesses appears disguised as a party of itinerant musicians; and the tribulations of Wenamun were alleviated only by the presence of a female Egyptian singer at Byblos. There is praise of the art on a stela of Wahankh Intef II (Dynasty 11, c2100 bce; New York, Metropolitan Museum); and the texts survive of many Egyptian songs, such as those concerning love (about 60), the shepherd's lot (in two Old Kingdom tombs) and workers in the field (e.g. in the tomb of Paheri at El-Kab dating from the New Kingdom), and those suitable for performance at a banquet (e.g. the Song of the Harper). Above many musical scenes are the names of the instruments played and the words sung, but there is no hint of notation.
Throughout Egyptian history the musical iconography has been rich. The significance of prehistoric dancing figures in rock drawing or on pottery (Naqada 2 period, before 3000 bce) is not easy to interpret, and the suggestion that the sticks held by two men on a contemporary pot from El-Amra are clappers can be only conjectural. However, there can be no doubt about the fox with an end-blown flute on the Ashmolean ceremonial palette from Hierakonpolis (Protodynastic, c2900 bce; fig.1). Whether the neighbouring giraffe and ibex are in fact dancing, and whether or not Mesopotamian influence may be detected, the scene is nevertheless a playful example of the music-making that was so prevalent in Egyptian life and that can be seen depicted in at least a quarter of the 450 private tombs of the Theban necropolis.
From the time of the Old Kingdom (c2575–2134 bce) the main instruments represented in the tombs are the end-blown flute played obliquely, a pipe (single or double) of the clarinet type using a single reed, and the harp; usually there are also singers and often dancers. At this period the players are mostly male, although women are sometimes seen at the harp (e.g. in the tomb of Mereruka at Saqqara, dated to Dynasty 6, c2323–2150bce, where in front of her husband the Princess Seshseshet accompanies her own song). Larger combinations include the group from the mastaba of Werirenptah (Dynasties 5–6; from Saqqara, now in the British Museum), in which two singers, apparently emphasizing the rhythm with their hands, are joined by a flautist and harpist (all male), while in a lower register four dancers face two singers (all female); and a scene in the tomb of Ibi at Deir el-Gebrawi (Dynasty 6) comprising seven male harpists. The tomb of Kagemni (Dynasties 5–6; Saqqara) may contain the earliest representation of a trumpet player, participating, perhaps, in a ritual scene.
During the Middle Kingdom (c2040–1640 bce) the chamber groups tend to be smaller and to contain more women. Sometimes a singer is accompanied only by hand-clapping or by a harp. In Ukhhotep's tomb at Meir (Dynasty 12, c1991–1783 bce) a long end-blown flute and large harp accompany a man who sings holding his left hand against his left ear (an attitude still commonly seen in Egypt). In the tomb of Amenemhat at Beni Hasan (Dynasty 12) three singers are accompanied by two harps, a sistrum and a rattle (the group is female except for one of the harpists), and the approximately contemporary tomb of Khnumhotep at the same site contains the first Egyptian scene with a lyre (fig.2).
In the New Kingdom (1550–1070 bce) new instruments of increased variety are used by the Egyptian chamber groups. The lute and lyre appear, together with a pipe of the oboe type (usually double and splayed at the distal end) with a double reed, in combination with various types of drum and tambourine and, in military scenes, the trumpet. In the tomb of Paser at Thebes, for instance (contemporary with Amenhotep II, 1427–1401 bce), are found an angular harp, an arched harp, a lyre and lute; certain rooms of the royal palace at El-Amarna apparently devoted to music are shown in the tomb of Ay (reign of Akhenaten, 1353–1335 bce), where lutes, harps and lyres of various shapes and sizes seem to have been stored, with female musicians at practice on some of them. Two banquet scenes originally from Thebes (Dynasty 18, c1550–1307 bce; British Museum) distinguish the two main types of Egyptian lute and show the double reeds with which the splayed double oboe-type pipes were sounded; in both instances the instrumentalist’s hands appear to be crossed (fig.3). A lively dance scene from a tomb at Saqqara (Dynasty 19, c1307–1196 bce; Egyptian National Museum) shows eight girls with tambourines and two others, each with two pairs of clappers or castanets (fig.4).
Many Egyptian instruments were closely associated with animals, but a papyrus in Turin (Dynasty 19) is clearly satirical in intent. On it an ass plays a large harp of the kind made familiar from ‘Bruce’s Tomb’ (that of Ramesses III, c1194–1163 bce, at Thebes); a double oboe-type pipe is in the hands of a monkey; a crocodile strums the lute, and a lion the lyre (fig.5). Of equal vivacity is a scene on a steatite bowl in the British Museum (Persian period, 525–404bce): five performers (three male) approach a kiosk of the goddess Hathor, one with a large round tambourine, the second with a lyre, the third with a pair of clappers, the fourth with the lower part of her dress wound round one arm, while with the other she slaps her buttocks, and the fifth with a double pipe of the clarinet type (fig.6). Herodotus's description (ii.60) of licence at Bubastis is aptly recalled.
For further illustration, see Cheironomy, fig.1; Clappers, fig.2; Harp, fig.2; Lute, fig.4b; and Trumpet, fig.1.
Many ancient Egyptian musical instruments still exist. Among the earliest idiophones are clappers in the Egyptian National Museum, mostly decorated with animal heads and dating from Dynasty 1 (c2920–2770 bce); bearded human heads also appear in the Protodynastic period. But the commonest type of clapper (mostly of bone or wood) is in the form of a human hand with the head of the goddess Hathor below, and with the handle shaped as a forearm, an animal's body or a plant-derived architectural feature. Pairs of clappers mounted on a handle are also found, as are castanets, though only from the Late period (the 1st millennium bce). Bronze cymbals of three main kinds (large, plate type; medium-size, cup type; small, clapper type) and crotala (small cymbals mounted on wooden or metal handles) date mainly from the Greco-Roman or Coptic (Christian) periods. Bells, used mainly for ritual or apotropaic purposes, also came late to Egypt; they are mostly of bronze, although more precious metals are sometimes used. The body of the bell is often ornamented with a head of the god Bes or a mythological animal. Jingles and rattles (of plaited straw, for instance, or terracotta) are found rarely, but the latter date back to the prehistoric period. In the arched sistrum (usually of metal) and the sistrum in the form of a naos or shrine (mostly of faience), the central feature is a Hathor head. Decoration often includes a cat (sacred to the goddess Bastet) and the uraeus (the snake associated with Edjo, Hathor and Sekhmet). The ends of the metal rods used for the mounting of the sounding-plates may be shaped to represent the uraeus or a bird’s head. There is a model alabaster sistrum inscribed with the titles of King Teti (c2323–2291 bce) in the Metropolitan Museum (fig.7).
The earliest Egyptian membranophone is a palm-wood drum from Beni Hasan, cylindrical in shape (Dynasty 12; Egyptian National Museum); other examples are barrel-shaped and of bronze. The tambourine or frame drum has two main forms: it is either round, or rectangular with concave sides. The former type varies considerably in size and is often associated with the god Bes (e.g. a New Kingdom statuette in the British Museum) or outdoor ceremonies; a pair of richly decorated covering skins, inscribed with the name of the goddess Isis and dating from the Late period, is in the Egyptian National Museum. The rectangular kind was much used at New Kingdom banquets and was always played by women.
Less common aerophones include the terracotta rhytons characteristic of the Greco-Roman period, the two trumpets (one bronze or copper, one silver) from the tomb of Tutankhamun (1333–1323 bce; Egyptian National Museum) with richly decorated bells, and toy instruments such as an ocarina in terracotta (Egyptian National Museum) moulded into the shape of a monkey. Surviving end-blown flutes date back to the Middle Kingdom; a damaged example from Beni Hasan (Egyptian National Museum) is 91 cm long. Larger instruments have been found, and some less than half the size. The number of playing holes is usually four to six (with three to eight as the extremes). The classification of pipes requiring either a single or double reed is more difficult, if only because the reeds rarely survive. Fewer instruments of the clarinet type (attested from the Old Kingdom) appear in collections than of the oboe type introduced in the New Kingdom. The Egyptian National Museum possesses a wooden box of the New Kingdom that once contained, according to the Journal d'entrée, four ‘flûtes’, two ‘roseaux’ (reed pipes) without holes, and a pair of straws possibly intended for the fashioning of reeds.
Of the main chordophones, the Egyptian lyre appears to date from the New Kingdom and to have been an Asiatic import. There are two types, symmetrical and asymmetrical, both with a rectangular soundbox. An example of the latter type, with fragments of the original stringing, was found at Deir el-Medina (Dynasty 18; Egyptian National Museum). The history of the Egyptian lute is similar. Of the two distinct sizes, the longer has a soundbox of wood (the earliest soundbox of this type, perhaps Dynasty 17, c1640–1550 bce, is in the Metropolitan Museum), the shorter of tortoiseshell. The slender neck was usually fretted and appears to have acted both as a fingerboard and as a basis for the attachment of the strings (two or three in number and normally played with a plectrum), which were raised above the soundbox by a tailpiece. The lute of the singer Harmose, found near the rock tomb of Senmut, is characteristic of the smaller type (Dynasty 18; Egyptian National Museum).
Harps may be divided into two groups, the arched or bow harp and the angular. The latter seems to have been another New Kingdom Asiatic import and appears less frequently in collections (there is a large example of uncertain date in the Egyptian National Museum); originally a right-angled triangle in shape, the instrument later tended to have three acute angles. The arched harp is attested from Dynasty 4 (c2575–2465 bce) onwards and is most easily classified by the shape of its soundbox. During the Old Kingdom a soundbox resembling a shallow spoon or spade was preferred; during the Middle Kingdom a deeper, oval type like a ladle developed; and a smaller boat-shaped type is characteristic of the New Kingdom. These shapes did not supplant one another. The harps vary considerably in size and in number of strings. Museum collections provide representative examples of each type; a particularly fine model harp, perhaps from the tomb of Ani at Thebes and elaborately decorated, closely resembles the instruments illustrated in votive scenes (Dynasty 18; British Museum; fig.8).
Experiments have been carried out on the spacing of holes in Egyptian aerophones, and attempts have been made to reconstruct the stringing of the chordophones; but only in the case of the Tutankhamun trumpets and certain idiophones can there be any sure knowledge of how an ancient Egyptian instrument sounded. Many theories have been put forward, but so far they are without adequate foundation.
See also Anatolia; Mesopotamia; Rome, §I.
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3. New music in the 20th century.
Egypt, §II: Classical & popular traditions
In 20th-century Egyptian conceptualizations of music, its domains and styles and the terms used to designate them are multifarious, reflecting individual perspectives, social status, political conjuncture, religious convictions, commercial interests, changing musical referents and academic concerns. Egyptian music historians and theorists and some urban musicians use the term mūsīqā both as a generic designation for a wide range of musical domains and as a specific term referring to Arab instrumental music, as distinct from ghinā’(vocal music). However, not all domains of expressive culture in which words and organized ‘music sounds’ are central are conceptualized as ‘music’.
For most Egyptian Muslims, Qur'anic recitation (a highly elaborate vocal rendition of the holy text) lies outside the sphere of music. The Qur'an is the word of God as it was revealed in Arabic, and the ideal recitation should involve both reciter and listener in the contemplation of God's revelation. Qur'anic recitation occupies a central place in Egyptians' thoughts and daily lives, and the Egyptian style of Qur'anic recitation enjoys prestige, popularity and authority throughout the Muslim world. It is termed qirā'a (reading) or tilāwa (recitation) and is conceptualized as a unique and separate art, although it shares several of the expressive features of Arab secular music, including melodic modes, improvisation and vocal artistry. This perception is attributed by religious authorities and most Muslims to the divine nature of the Qur'anic text and the religious intent of its performance. It is maintained through the reciter's respect for the primacy of the holy text performed according to the rules of tajwīd (a system that governs proper recitation by regulating phonetics, timbre, rhythm, tempo, beginning and pause), and his avoidance of fixed melodies or rhythmic patterns. Many musicians began their careers as Qur'an reciters and regard Qur'anic recitation as a haven for the preservation of the essential characteristics of Arab music.
Musicians and audiences make broad distinctions between Western and Arab musics, rural and urban styles, and religious and secular vocal expressions; but the Western paradigms of art, popular and folk music are not applicable to Egyptian musical production, and there are no local terms analogous to ‘art music’ or ‘popular music’. In Cairo indigenous musics can be conceptualized as a central sphere of overlapping and interrelated musical styles characterized by the fluidity of their musical and conceptual boundaries and by constant changes in musical content, behaviour, discourse and meaning.
Since the 1930s the phrase al-mūsīqā al-‘arabiyya (Arab music) has been used as a generic term to designate musical idioms that are composed and performed by Arabs and that adhere to the norms of Arab music style as perceived by musicians and audiences. It replaced the term al-mūsīqā al-sharqiyya (oriental music). Within Arab music a number of styles, repertories and performance practices are distinguished. From the mid-19th century until World War I the terms maghna (singing) and tarab (a state of heightened emotion that results from an effective performance) were used to refer to a repertory, style and performance practice influenced by Turkish music and patronized by the Egyptian aristocracy and the urban upper class. After World War I, the demise of this repertory and some of the performance practices associated with it catalyzed revival efforts and engendered new conceptions and terms. In the 1930s musicians and journalists referred to the maghna repertory as al-qadīm (‘old’); during the 1930s and 1940s al-qadīm was contrasted with al-jadīd (‘new’), a term generally associated with a repertory and style created by muhammad ‘Abd al-wahhāb, who consciously embraced the influence of Western music. Various musical styles intended for the entertainment of large audiences were created in urban areas and disseminated through several media, including the musical theatre (1870s–1920s), sound recordings (c1904–c1950), musical films (1930s–1950s), radio (1934–c1980) and music cassettes (from the 1980s). Largely shaped by these media, many urban styles are syncretic, drawing upon elements of maghna, Islamic hymnody, rural styles and Western music.
During the 1960s government-sponsored revival and modernization efforts brought about another new conception and term, al-turāth (‘heritage’). This incorporated repertory composed and recorded at least 50 years earlier from al-maghna or al-qadīm, now fixed and performed by large choral and instrumental ensembles using Western notation. With the founding of the Arab Music Ensemble in 1967, the generic term al-mūsīqā al-‘arabiyya (first used to designate the 1932 Arab Music Conference in Cairo) acquired a specific sense synonymous with al-turāth. During the 1980s and 1990s the temporal boundaries and stylistic requirements of the repertory of the ensembles that revived and disseminated al-turāth were extended, incorporating a selection of popular vocal compositions (aghānī) from the 1950s and 1960s, which drew upon Western music.
Islamic hymnody (al-inshād al-dīnī) comprises several genres of intoned or sung religious poetry and is a vital domain of expressive culture that is intended as a form of worship. It features several characteristics common to Qur'anic recitation and Arab music, including the central role of the solo vocalist, melodic creativity, melodic modes (maqāms) and the precise enunciation of texts. The qasīda is the central poetic genre; the religious muwashshah (metric song), ibtihāl (supplication), madīh (praise for the Prophet Muhammad) and qissa (story) are also part of the inshād repertory. There are also colloquial styles that use popular forms such as the mawwāl and zajal. Regarded as a form of worship, inshād is performed on numerous occasions, including annual religious holidays (notably the birthday of the Prophet), the holy month of Ramadan, saints' festivals, weddings, circumcisions and memorials. The inshād sūfī also includes choral inshād and is a sub-category of inshād dīnī, which may incorporate explicitly Sufi themes or occur in Sufi contexts. Since the early 1970s Firqat Al-Inshād Al-Dīnī, a government-sponsored group modelled on the Arab Music Ensemble, has regularly performed modernized versions of inshād dīnī repertory in Cairo concert halls.
Non-Muslim minorities have distinct religious musical expressions. The Coptic community is the largest minority group and has preserved a self-contained chant repertory stylistically related to Arab music. Greek, Syrian, Armenian and other Eastern Orthodox communities have also maintained distinct religious chant traditions, and Jewish chant and other genres of religious music also flourished until the departure of the Egyptian Jewish community during the 1950s.
Many musical styles and repertories rooted in or evocative of rural life have been created and disseminated in rural and urban areas. Often termed baladī (‘country’) or sha‘bī (‘folk’), this domain includes vocal genres such as the mawwāl and epic songs, as well as song and dance repertories central to rural social life and ritual. The term sha‘bī has also been used by the media to identify urban popular musics that use elements of rural music styles and textual themes that focus on the daily lives of their target audiences, the Egyptian rural and urban working classes. The ‘folklorized’ repertories performed by formally structured groups representing particular regions or the entire country are also incorporated in a broad domain which local researchers and cultural politicians have designated fann sha‘bī (‘folk art’). This term is also applied to handicrafts and oral poetry.
Within urban areas, especially in Cairo and Alexandria, Western art music has maintained a presence since the early 19th century. Its impact on Arab music theory and practice has been particularly apparent since the early 20th century. The conceptualization of Western art music by cultural politicians and Western-trained Egyptian musicians as a ‘world music’ (mūsīqā ‘ālamiyya) and the association of Western culture with modernity has legitimated a steady investment in the institutionalization of Western music since the 1930s. It has also fostered the development by Egyptian composers of contemporary Egyptian musical idioms modelled on selected 19th- and 20th-century Western styles (see §4 below).
Various Western popular music styles have won a following among sections of the Egyptian urban youth and have influenced developments within the more modernizing trends of Arab music.
Egypt, §II: Classical & popular traditions
(v) Ensembles and performance practice.
(vi) Learning and musical transmission.
(ix) Composers and performers.
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Arab music is prominent in urban areas, especially Cairo. Urban musicians and informed audiences consider it a source of theoretical knowledge and indigenous musical creativity. Vocal genres predominate; monophony enhanced by heterophonic accompaniment, which may include unisons and parallel octaves, is especially popular. The compositional process starts with the selection or commissioning of a text by a composer or solo vocalist who works closely with the poet; the composer is expected to use melodic invention within the appropriate maqām (see (ii) below) to bring out the meaning of the text.
In performance the solo vocalist (mutrib; fem. mutribah) is supported by an accompanying ensemble. In response to an audience of connoisseurs (samī‘), the mutrib interprets both text and melody through appropriate elaboration of the maqām; use of modulation, ornamentation, melodic improvisation and cadences (qafla); and manipulation of the text through the repetition and segmentation of words and phrases. While the basic outline of the melody, text and rhythmic pattern remain unaltered, all other aspects of the musical composition are modified in performance, depending upon the performer's mood and understanding of the text and the verbal and gestural feedback that he receives from the samī‘. An effective interpretation, which results partly from the close interactive communication between the mutrib and his samī‘, can induce tarab, a state of heightened emotion or ecstasy felt by musicians and audience that is central to Arab music performance. Within tarab culture, performer and audience are bound by a common emotional experience to which both contribute.
In Arab music the tarab aesthetic thrived in the performances of certain artists until the late 20th century. Western influences, the advent of the media and the modernization of the heritage of Arab music fostered the development of new styles and performance practices, but tarab remained a central feature of the performance of inshād dīnī and certain baladī genres.
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Maqām (pl. maqāmāt) is the fundamental principle for pitch organization in Arab music and related musical domains. Literally meaning ‘place’ or ‘position’, the term designates a modal entity found throughout a vast geographical area stretching from North Africa to West and Central Asia. In contemporary Egyptian music theory maqām is presented as a scale divided into two tetrachords (agnās; sing. gins) and duplicated at the octave. A scale of 24 equal tempered quarter-tones forms a collection of pitches from which many maqāmāt may be derived. Until the early 20th century each of these pitches was named, but subsequently European note names and European notation with some modifications were gradually adopted.
At the beginning of the 21st century maqām is a melody type, the characteristics of which include a hierarchy of pitches, variant intonation and specific melodic shapes that largely determine the melodic contours of improvisation and composition. Tetrachords are often used as a basic framework for melodic elaboration. Typically the lower tetrachord is developed, followed by the upper tetrachord; the melody may modulate to other maqāmāt before returning to the lower tetrachord of the original maqām. Prominence is usually given to the tonic and its octave (daragat al-rukūz), on which a maqām often begins and ends; there is at least one other dominant note (ghammāz), which is often the fifth degree of the scale. Characteristic melodic motifs are associated with some maqāmāt, especially in cadential formulae (qaflāt), and are used to highlight important notes. While some maqām degrees are fixed, others are variable; variability is designated by the generic term sika, which some musicians regard as a distinctive feature of specific maqāmāt, by regional or personal styles, tonal focus, melodic direction or aesthetic impulse during performance. A maqām is also distinguished by its place in the maqām system; when an intervallic structure is transposed, it is perceived as another maqām and is given another name.
Modulation plays a central role in maqām practice and helps to define the structure of many compositional genres. Composers and performers display their technical mastery and understanding of maqām aesthetics through appropriate use of modulation, which proceeds on the basis of an established system of relationships between maqāmāt, in which they are grouped according to their common tonics and tetrachords. Most modulations occur between maqāmāt with a common tonic or tetrachords; alternatively, a composer may use a common note as a pivot to move from one maqām to another.
In recent decades changes in maqām theory and practice in Egypt have reflected the influence of Western models. There has been a move towards equal temperament, and the number of maqāmāt in use has decreased from the 52 documented by the 1932 conference to less than 20 in the 1980s and 1990s.
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Most pre-composed genres are set to rhythmic cycles (īqā‘, pl. īqā‘āt) that alternate strong and weak beats and silences. Each beat is represented by one of two types of drum strokes that vary in intensity; dum designates the deep sound produced by hitting the centre of the drum and tek the clear high-pitched sound produced by hitting the edge of the drum with the fingertips. In live performances percussionists add rhythmic ornamentation to the īqā‘. Egyptian music theorists generally classify īqā‘āt as simple (basīta; those divisible into binary units ) or compound (murakkaba; those which have ternary or assymetric rhythmic cycles). In pre-composed vocal genres the choice of īqā‘ is influenced by the metrical structure of the song text; in turn, the īqā‘ may influence melodic structure. The number of īqā‘āt in use has decreased from the 19 documented by the 1932 conference to less than 10 in the 1980s and 1990s.
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Until the 1930s the maghna consisted of a wasla (literally ‘extension’), a multi-sectional ‘compound form’ comprising several vocal and instrumental compositions and improvisations in the same maqām and concluding with a climactic vocal composition, the dawr or qasīda. The performance of a wasla usually lasted one hour; an evening (sahra) might include up to three waslāt.
The wasla was performed by a solo vocalist accompanied by a small instrumental ensemble (takht) and began with a taqsīm on the ‘ūd (fretless short-necked lute), a rhythmically free solo instrumental improvisation introducing the maqām and displaying the instrumentalist's musicality and technical skills. This was followed by the samā'ī, an instrumental composition in cyclical form (ABCBDB etc.) played by the takht. A second taqsīm on the violin or nay (end-blown cane flute) followed, providing a transition to the muwashshah, a metric vocal composition in strophic form setting a classical Arabic poem; this was performed by the chorus and accompanied by the takht. A taqsīm on the qānūn (trapezoid plucked zither) was immediately followed by the layālī, a rhythmically free vocal improvisation on the words yā layl yā ‘ain (‘oh night, oh eye’), and the mawwāl, a love poem in colloquial Arabic often associated with rural culture. The wasla culminated with a vocal composition, usually a dawr, a vocal genre developed by ‘Abd al-Hamūlī (1855–1901) and Muhammad ‘Uthmān (1855–1900), which disappeared by the 1930s. It opened with a metric pre-composed section (madhhab), which was usually sung by the chorus and was followed by the dawr, a solo section in which the vocalist improvised. Sometimes the dawr included a hank, in which the solo improvisation was punctuated by responses from the chorus drawn from the pre-composed melody. Occasionally a wasla might end with a qasīda (pl. qasā'id), a quintessentially Arab poetic genre; its literary texts in classical Arabic featured hemistiches with a single poetic meter and rhyme and were through-composed. The themes of the qasīda included religious or historical topics, nature and love. The composition of qasā'id continued until the late 20th century.
The multi-sectional wasla structure using a single maqām was well suited to the development of saltana (the performers' total involvement in the atmosphere of the maqām) and the subsequent inducement of tarab in performers and audience. The wasla was shortened in the 1930s as a result of time limitations imposed by the recording industry and radio, and disappeared altogether by the 1940s; but its basic structure and aesthetic continued in prominent artists' live performances of vocal genres such as the ughniyya. Characterized by a flexible structure, internal repetition and colloquial language, the ughniyya incorporated many elements of the wasla; it included pre-composed instrumental introductions and interludes as well as instrumental and vocal improvisation, and provided solo vocalists with an opportunity to display their virtuosity.
Two other vocal genres developed in the 1920s and 1930s, partly shaped by the music media. The taqtūqa, a strophic song opening with a refrain, was set to a short melody that was easy to memorize; its texts were in colloquial Arabic and focussed on love, marriage, feminine beauty and political issues such as women's rights and national freedom. The through-composed monologue evolved from the vocal pieces of the music theatre; it used colloquial Arabic, expressing emotions such as love and sadness.
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
A takht (pl. takhut, ensemble; Persian ‘stand’ or ‘platform’) accompanied solo vocalists in maghna from the late 19th century until the 1930s. A takht consisted of from two to five male instrumentalists and a chorus of four or five vocalists known as sannīda (‘supporters’) or tabī‘ (followers). Takht instruments included a qānūn, an ‘ūd, a nay, a Western violin called kamān or kamanja, and a riqq (frame drum); leadership was usually provided by the qānūn player.
The solo vocalist (mutrib) was the central figure in takht performances, which featured much solo vocal improvisation, both within composed pieces and as separate items (layālī). With the exception of the riqq that performed the basic rhythmic cycle (īqā‘), takht instrumentalists provided a heterophonic accompaniment, an ornamented version of the melody that was termed tarjama (literally ‘translation’). In addition the takht performed instrumental introductions and interludes within vocal compositions, instrumental compositions such as the samā'ī and the bashraf, and instrumental improvisation (taqsīm). The sannīda (chorus) sang refrains and other fixed sections in vocal compositions. Many qānūn players formed ensembles named after them, which could be hired to accompany solo vocalists, and some famous singers had their own takhts. Typical settings for performances by mutrib and takht included weddings, festive occasions and other social gatherings in the homes of the wealthy. Live performances were characterized by the tarab aesthetic.
A female ensemble (takht al-‘awālim) existed concurrently with the takht; in the the 19th century the takht al-‘awālim performed exclusively for women and differed from its male counterpart in both style and instrumentation.
The size and composition of takht ensembles changed during the first quarter of the 20th century, influenced by the use in musical theatre of larger ensembles featuring western instruments. The small takht with its relatively limited timbral range was considered inadequate to illustrate musically the events and emotions represented on stage. Music media also supported the development of larger ensembles; during the 1930s the Egyptian State Radio Broadcast Station sponsored large ensembles as part of its policy of promoting instrumental music. Large ensembles were also used in musical films.
By the mid-1930s a new kind of ensemble named firqa (pl. firaq) had been established. The solo vocalist continued to play a central role; larger numbers of takht instruments (except the riqq) were used, and new instruments were added. In the 1930s a firqa typically included three or four violins, and this number increased to about 15 by the 1960s; the qānūn, the ‘ūd and the nay were doubled, and new instruments were introduced, including the tabl (drum), the cello and the double bass. Occasionally the accordion, the clarinet, the flute, the saxophone, the electric guitar and various percussion instruments might be used. A male, female or mixed chorus that might exceed 15 singers was also added to the firqa. In some firqa the qānūn player continued to lead, while others had a Western-style conductor.
Despite its large size the firqa maintained the norms of performance practice of the takht. The soloist played a central role; instrumentalists generally doubled the solo vocalist and a small core of them performed tarjama, especially during long improvised passages (istirsāl). Tarab remained an essential feature of performance practice.
In 1967 the Egyptian Ministry of Culture founded Firqat Al-Mūsīqā Al-‘Arabiyya (Arab Music Ensemble; AME), which was dedicated to the revival and performance of turāth, the heritage of Arab music. The concept of turāth was central to the changes engendered by the AME; rather than a fixed corpus of practices, it is an ongoing creative reinterpretation of the past, in which former cultural products and practices are reconfigured and new ones are added, resulting in an essentially new form of cultural production.
The AME introduced radical changes in performance practice, establishing new aesthetic values for Arab music. Its goals and the model that it created for the performance of Arab music represented the implementation of a national cultural policy that emphasized the revival and preservation of the nation's cultural heritage and the modernization of cultural life through the emulation of Western models. ‘Abd al-Halīm Nuwayra (1916–85), a composer trained in Arab and Western music, conducted the AME from 1967 until 1985 and played a decisive role in constructing a model for its turāth performances. A chorus of up to 12 men and 12 women replaced the solo vocalist, and improvisation was eliminated. (During the 1990s the solo vocalist was reinstated in certain performances, with limited or no opportunities for improvisation). The instrumental section maintained the structure of the firqa, comprising about 12 violins, two cellos, a double bass, a qānūn, an ‘ūd, a nay, a riqq and a tabla, and the conductor was established as its leader. Using Western notation, turāth was transcribed from performances by older musicians and occasionally from early recordings; the instrumentalists and the conductor used the resulting ‘scores’, while vocalists learnt the repertory directly from older musicians or conductors and performed from memory. Instrumentalists played the melody in unison, doubling the vocalist; only the riqq and other percussion instruments were allowed to add ornamentation to the basic īqā‘. The concert hall became established as the performance setting, and the norms of Western orchestral performances were observed, including fixed and printed programmes, silent listening and formalized applause. Like the wasla, programmes began with an instrumental piece and ended with a large-scale vocal composition such as a dawr or qasīda; in between, a variety of shorter vocal compositions such as the muwashshah and taqtūqa were included.
This model for the performance of Arab music had notable success in Egypt and throughout the Arab world, in which it was widely emulated (fig.9). For its supporters and audiences the AME symbolized modernity rooted in tradition, one of the pillars of Egyptian national ideology since the 1952 revolution. The AME and similar ensembles also contributed to the legitimation of cultural institutions and state authority and created a new arena for the performance of Arab music of high social status.
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Until the beginning of the 20th century, Arab music was learned informally through listening, emulation and participation. For many musicians, participation in Qur'anic recitation and inshād provided an opportunity to master maqām and develop skill in melodic improvisation. A few prominent musicians provided private instruction for young apprentices. The importance of attentive listening was emphasized; oral transmission prevailed both in the training of apprentices and the introduction of new compositions to more accomplished musicians. Many musicians favoured the ‘ūd as a pedagogical instrument and the ideal tool for a composer.
During the early decades of the 20th century the teaching of Arab music was institutionalized. This process also involved the integration of Western music as part of the training of Arab musicians and a gradual shift towards the use of a slightly adapted form of Western notation. By the 1960s institutional training and the mastery of Western notation became necessary conditions for the acceptance of young Arab musicians in the professional arena.
The prominent musicians Mansūr ‘Awād and Sāmī al-Shawā (1889–1965) founded the first school for the teaching of Arab and European music in 1906. In 1914 a group of aristocrats and musicians, including the qānūn virtuoso Mustafā Ridā (1890–c1950), founded the Oriental Music Club (Nādī Al-Mūsīqā Al-Sharqī), providing training for young musicians and a forum for older musicians who wished to preserve the qadīm (‘old’ tradition). In 1929 the same group obtained the patronage of King Fu'ād in order to found the Arab Music Institute (AMI; Ma‘had Al- Mūsīqā Al-‘Arabiyya). Since then the AMI, the Higher Institute for Music Teachers (founded in 1935, presently the Faculty of Music Education of Helwan University) and the short-lived Higher Institute of Musical Theatre (1944–50) offered training in Arab and Western music, producing several generations of musicians conversant in both Arab and Western styles. Western music has also been taught at the Cairo National Conservatory (see §4(i) below).
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Musical life in 19th-century urban Egypt was compartmentalized along social, ethnic and gender lines. Ottoman influence prevailed; Western music was introduced; a tradition of court music was created; and a local tradition of musical theatre developed, largely catalyzed by Syrian artists. As was the case in Ottoman Turkey, musicians belonged to guilds (tawā'if), each of which was led by a shaykh who licensed musicians to practise their profession and protected them from the competition of amateurs. The most important guilds were the alatiyya (male professional instrumentalists forming takht ensembles) and the ‘awālīm (female entertainers whose ensembles comprised a solo vocalist, a dancer, an ‘ūd player and percussion instrumentalists). The alatiyya entertained men, while the ‘awālīm performed for women or men from behind a screen in the homes of the wealthy at weddings and other social occasions. Other guilds included the sahbagiyya (muwashshah singers), the darāwīsh (Sufi singers) and the qassāsīn (epic poets).
Different ethnic groups used different musical instruments. The tunbūr turkī kabīr (large Turkish long-necked lute), for instance, was played by Turks, Jews, Greeks and sometimes Armenians, while the santūr (hammered dulcimer) was played by Jews and Christians.
Ottoman musical influences came to Egypt through various sources, including the Turkish military bands known as mehter, the Mevlevi mystical order of Dervishes, which valued music and dance highly, and the visits of several prominent Turkish musicians to Egypt and Egyptian musicians to Turkey.
During the second half of the 19th century a court music tradition developed under the patronage of the Khedive Ismā‘īl (ruled 1863–79), who hired the composer and singer ‘Abd al-Hamūlī (b 1855) as his court musician and sent him to Istanbul to study Turkish music. During the last quarter of the 19th century al-Hamūlī and Muhammad ‘Uthmān created a musical style that synthesized Egyptian, Turkish and Syrian elements; they explored the full potential of the dawr and helped to popularize it. During the same period several Sufi munshidīn became takht singers, notably al-Shaykh Yūsuf al-Manyalāwi (1847–1911), and this trend continued throughout the first quarter of the 20th century.
In the 1870s a number of Syrian artists, including Salim Khalīl al-Naqqāsh, Adīb Ishāq, Yūsuf Al-Khayyāt and Ahmad Abū Khalīl al-Qabbānī introduced Western-inspired theatre to Egypt. Music was used to adapt European plays to Egyptian taste; during the intervals famous Egyptian singers performed songs, the themes of which were often unrelated to the play's subject. Salāma Hijāzī (1852–1917), a munshid and mua'dhdhin from Alexandria, transferred the tarab tradition to the stage and paved the way for the development, during the first three decades of the 20th century, of an Egyptian musical theatre tradition to which several composers contributed, notably Sayyid Darwīsh, Kāmil al-Khulā‘ī (1880–1938), Da'rūd Husnī (1871–1937) and Zakariyyā Ahmad (1896–1961).
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
Egypt, §II, 2: Classical & popular traditions: Arab music
The composer Sayyid Darwīsh traced a new course for Arab music in Egypt. In his 26 operettas he created a new musical style rooted in Egyptian tradition and free from Turkish influence; many of the songs in his operettas addressed contemporary social and political issues. His music reached a broad urban audience and expressed the concerns of common Egyptians; one of his patriotic tunes, Bilādī bilādī (‘My Country, My Country’), has been used as the Egyptian National Anthem since the 1970s. Following his example, the composer and singer muhammad ‘Abd al-wahhāb was dedicated to the modernization of Arab music through the creation of a synthesis of Arab and Western elements. Other composers who made significant contributions to the development of Arab music in the 20th century included Muhammad al-Qasabjī (1892–1955), who introduced innovations in melodic shape; Zakariyyā Ahmad, who developed a distinct style rooted in Egyptian tradition; and Riyād al-Sunbatī (1906–81), who modernized the traditional qasīda while preserving its essential characteristics.
The solo vocalist Umm Kulthum was the most prominent performer of modern Arab music and the best known Arab musician throughout the Arab world and in the West. Throughout her 50–year career her performances epitomized the essential characteristics of traditional Arab music.
Egypt, §II: Classical & popular traditions
Egyptian 19th- and 20th-century music is often syncretic and defies simple categorization as ‘classical’ or ‘folk’, ‘religious’ or ‘secular’, ‘art’ or ‘popular’. Historic genres that are highly valued as ‘art’, such as the sung qasīda, often have distinctly religious themes; genres such as the mawwāl, associated by the end of the 20th century with the performances of the rural and urban lower classes, have roots in the court music of previous centuries. Mediated ‘popular’ music such as the songs of Umm Kulthum and muhammad ‘Abd al-wahhāb, appeared in performances of inshād dīnī in the late 20th century.
One of the prominent successors to Salāma Hijāzī in the domain of musical theatre at the beginning of the 20th century was Sayyid Darwīsh, who set standards for ‘modern’ Egyptian music. Working with historic forms such as the muwashshah and the dawr and with the new European-derived genre of musical play, Darwīsh drew colloquial Egyptian lyrics, characters and music into the domain of public and mediated performance and became widely viewed as ‘the father of modern Egyptian music’. His songs typically portrayed the lives of working-class Egyptians, often using local dialects, or replicated the genres of saints' days and holidays; the popularity of his lyrics and melodies spread rapidly, and his songs remain an important feature of Arab musical life at the beginning of the 21st century as models of locally inspired composition.
Two Druze immigrants to Cairo enjoyed spectacular film careers, namely the ‘ūd virtuoso Farīd al-Atrash (1905–74) and his sister Asmahān, who was noted for the beauty of her singing in both European and Arab styles.
Egypt, §II: Classical & popular traditions
Three generations of Egyptian composers created repertories of Western-inspired musical idioms. The first generation of composers included yūsuf Greiss, Hasan Rashīd and abū-bakr Khayrāt. All three composers completed their formal education in fields outside music (law, agronomy and architecture respectively) and received private musical training locally in the performance and composition of both Arab and Western music. Greiss was trained exclusively by European teachers in Cairo, while Rashīd and Khayrāt started their musical training in Cairo and completed it in European institutions (Rashīd at the RCM and Khayrāt at the Paris Conservatoire). All three composers attempted to develop an individual style inspired by Egyptian traditional music, and their work was permeated with locally inspired melodies; they used formal structures and a simple harmonic language largely derived from 18th- and 19th-century Western models.
The second generation included ‘Azīz Al-Shawān (fig.10), gamāl ‘Abdal-rahīm and Rif‘at Garrāna (b 1924), all three of whom completed their education and part of their musical training with private teachers in Cairo. Al-Shawān and ‘Abdal-Rahīm completed their formal education in economics and history respectively, but Garrāna studied music from the outset, training at the Higher Institute of Musical Theatre in Cairo. Al-Shawān worked with Aram Khachaturian at the Moscow Conservatory, while ‘Abdal-Rahīm studied with Harald Genzmer at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg. These composers were inspired by the traditional music and ancient history of Egypt and wove local melodies or modal features into their compositions; Al-Shawān used a predominantly tonal harmonic language, ‘Abdal-Rahīm used a dissonant harmonic vocabulary and contrapuntal textures within a modal framework, and Garrāna's music featured Egyptian melodies set in Western tonal language.
A third generation of composers studied with ‘Abdal-Rahīm in the composition department of the Cairo Conservatory and continued their studies abroad. Composers such as Rageh Daoud and Mauna Ghoneim, both of whom studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, and Gamāl Salāma (b 1945) attempted to develop a new modal language inspired by local maqāmāt woven into contrapuntal textures.
Egypt, §II: Classical & popular traditions
Grove6 (H. Powers, ‘Mode’)
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