Egyptian insights

The presence of Egyptian traditional musicians at The Palace Courtyard in the first half of this month was another valuable contribution to the Summer Arts Festival.

After all, in the first half of the 20th century, Egyptian or Egyptian-styled music dominated the Arab world and also left its mark in the Western world. The Egyptian style often referred to as oriental music (musiqqa sharqiyyah) has spread not just throughout the Arab countries but also around Europe and has fascinated artistes as diverse as Robert Plant and Jimmy Page. Orchestras such as Oum Khaltoum are very popular and the classic oriental sound, consisting of a male or female performing long, drawn-out melodramatic ballads with beautiful instrumental introductions, and substantial orchestras featuring guitars, bass and percussion and, of course, Arab instruments such as the oud, riqq (tambourine) and nay (flute).

The presence of a 12-piece orchestra, which performed at the ruins of the Royal Opera House, and the presence of Hazem Shahin on oud and vocals and violin player Ayman Asfour, helped to generate a very good impression of Egypt's diverse, wide-angled, and highly rich sounds. Hazem Shahin, a leading oud player and a graduate from the Arabic Music Institute Bejt el Aud, presented the middle-eastern lute in its full majesty, and gave a very good insight of its qualities over the years. The moods, textures and lyrical warmth that he exuded in the first half was enough to captivate any newcomer, let alone persons, who like myself, have been fond of world music and ethnical styles for quite some time.

Hazem Shahin graduated from the Arabic Music Institute, Bejt el Aud and studied with the famous Iraqi oud player and composer Nasir Shamma. Shahin is now teaching oud in Bejt el Aud. He performs solo and with a local classical Egyptian band called Masar, whose first album, L-Ghix u l-Melh was released last year in Cairo. On that Saturday night, such influences well and truly came to the fore.

The great thing about oud playing is the way one can vary the tones and notes according to the size of the instrument, in this case, a medium-sized oud. The musical mix can be concentrated, complex and can even draw on various other influences and genres as was indeed his collaboration with violinist Ayman Asfour in the second half of the programme.

Asfour plays in the Opera Oriental Band in Alexandria as a soloist and teaches violin in the Faculty of Music at Alexandria University. The excellent arrangement that was featured in a traditional 1940s arrangement, and the equally brilliant ughniyah arrangement featured in the last song of that enchanting evening saw how the oud and the violin could complement each other in mood variations and at the same time remain accessible to the public. This may also explain why this type of music has remained hugely popular among young Egyptians, and exponents like the late artiste Oum Khaltoum still remain much respected by all and sundry even though she died many years ago.

The use of percussion further added more stylistic tempos and on the whole this colourful musical sojourn, accomplished by at most, three musicians showed how experience, a wonderful cultural and historical background and also a quest to retain - and regenerate - traditional vernacular Egyptian styles can also win local audiences. I just hope we can get more such musicians, and even more interaction with our local musicians as I believe that here, we can learn, and share a lot in terms of artistic and technical flair. One must congratulate the Malta Council For Culture and The Arts as well as The Egyptian Embassy for providing this and similar cultural events, as they were more than just value for money. They simply enhanced one's culture awareness as well as respecting one's intelligence.