Saturday, 2 August 2014

1er Festival Algérien de la Musique Andalouse 1967 - Vol. 1 - LP published in Algeria


Here we post the 6 Volumes of the first Algerian Festival of Arabo-Andalusian music, which took place in Algiers in 1967. In May 2012 we had posted already volumes 7 to 12 of the "2ème Festival Algérien de la Musique Andalouse 1969" and in September 2011 three volumes of the "3ème festival de musique Andalouse - Alger 1972".

Side A:
1. Ben Tobbal & l'Orchestre de Constantine:
Extraits d'une Nouba du mode Rasd
2. L'Orchestre de Lybie - Direction: Hassan El Aribi:
Malouf - extraits d'une Nouba


Side B:
1. Mohamed Khaznadji & l'Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire d'Alger:
Extraits Sika & Dil
2. Mohamed El Ghomeiri & l'Orchestre de la Socièté "El Muwahiddia" de Nedroma:
Extraits d'une Nouba du mode Sika




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On Ben Tobbal see:
http://musique.arabe.over-blog.com/article-16945176.html
On Mohamed Khaznadji see:

On Hassan El Aribi and the Malouf in Libya:


Hassan Uraibi (1933 - 2009; also spelled Arabi, Araibi, Araiby, or Oraibi) was a Libyan composer and one of the pioneers of Libyan music, performing Andalusian music known as Malouf. During his lifetime he has received many prestigious medals and awards, as well as chairing various positions in Libya and the Arab world, such as the Arabic Music Board and Libyan Music Festival.
He was born in 1933 in the Sough El Guima area of Tripoli. At a young age he moved to Benghazi and worked as an employee at Ministry of Transportation. He was soon discovered as a singer by Mohamed Sudagi who gave him an opportunity which he did not waste and joined the Music Department at Benghazi's radio station as an advisor. During this time Uraibi composed many songs for a number of Libyan and Arab singers, including: Mohsen Attia, and Egyptologists Suad Mohammed and Hoda Sultan. After returning to Tripoli, Uraibi founded his Malouf ensemble in 1964 with many well-known names at that time in Libya. He was named the first president of the Libyan music board in 1974.
Hassan Uraibi died in April 18, 2009 in Tripoli. His funeral was attended by a number of artists and cultural officials in the country. His death came as a shock to many Libyans who loved his timeless work.
Malouf (Arabic: مالوف‎ Ma'lūf) is a genre of music in the Andalusian classical tradition of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia after the Conquest of Spain in the 15th century. It was revived in the 1920s by the French musicologist Baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger. Though in its modern form, malouf is likely very dissimilar to any music played more than four centuries ago, it does have its roots in Spain and Portugal, and is closely related to genres with a similar history throughout North Africa, including malouf's Libyan cousin, Algerian gharnati and Moroccan ala or Andalusi. During the Ottoman era, malouf was highly influenced from Turkish music. Even now most of malouf examples are very similar to Turkish classical music. Malouf is played by small orchestras, consisting of violins, drums, sitars and flutes. Modern malouf has some elements of Berber music in the rhythms, but is seen as a successor to the cultural heights reached by Muslim Andalusia. Malouf has been called "an emblem of (Tunisian) national identity." Nevertheless, malouf can not compete commercially with popular music, much of it Egyptian, and it has only survived because of the efforts of the Tunisian government and a number of private individuals. Malouf is still performed in public, especially at weddings and circumcision ceremonies, though recordings are relatively rare. The term malouf translates as familiar or customary.
from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSO6wfBwtU8

11 comments:

AmbroseBierce said...

Wonderful - thanks a lot!

Anonymous said...

" …sitars and flutes" ? Sitars? In Libya?

Tawfiq said...

The text is not mine. Flutes (Ney, Fahl)exist in the music of the Malouf (in Tunisia, Algeria and probably also in Libya), but what hides behind the word Sitar I really don't know. The paragraph about Malouf seams to be copied from a Tunesian source.
As an example of the confusion which in these articles often reigns: In an andalusian ensemble there is used very often a small frame drum called tar. I found a couple of times instances where an author confuses this Tar with the Iranian longnecked lute by the same name. Perhaps they went a step further in their confusion by supposing that this lute (which in andalusian music in reality is the name of a drum) is not the Tar but rather the Iranian Setar, which is the origin of the name for the Indian longnecked lute Sitar. Just a supposition. No idea how they came to the Sitar.

Beppo said...

Thank you for these magnificent six volumes!!

Anonymous said...

Dear Tawfiq,

Now I have downloaded your whole blog (!) and I am starting to «early» tasting it.

I have decided to start by this First Algerian Festival of Andalusian Music. In the scans I have read this music comes or is supposed to come from the ancient Arab Spanish Al-Andalus.

This regards me, because I come from Andalusia. What a pity that Muslims, Christians and Jews were not able to live in peace and understanding in my native Spain… This I needed to say wholeheartedly to someone.

Nevertheless, as this is my first dealing with Andalusian music, and since you usually add to your posts some more than interesting links on the artist you are posting, or on the style of music or its tradition, would you take as a discourtesy from me if I request from you something to read on Andalusian music, something slightly deeper than Wikipedia?

I mean just a link, or a title of a book.

I would thank you so much for this…!

Have a nice day, Tawfiq, this music is so beautiful…

Tawfiq said...

Sorry, I have only read 2 books on Arabo-Andalusian music. The one by Christian Poché I find extremely unsatisfying. The other book - which I haven't finished yet is more like a personal memoir concerning the tradition of Tlemcen: Voyage sentimental en musique arabo-andalouse. I started being interested in this music in the early 1970s and collected since then whatever seemed interesting to me. I guess that most of my information about this music came from linernotes of LPs and CDs. In Spain there is a wonderful label: Pneuma which has an excellent collection of Arabo-Andalusian CDs with excellent booklets.
Perhaps you listen first to all those recordings on my blog: Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian, also the Sufi and religious recordings, as they are very closely related to this music, and even the Qu'an recitations, especially of Abd er-Rahman ben Mousa. With all this listening experience and reading the information given there there might come up an understanding of this tradition. In the internet you can also find - if you google Arabo Anadlusian music or the same in French - a lot of information and also some complete websites devoted to this music.
The French Wikipedia article seems quite good and detailed.
This also is good: http://musique.arabe.over-blog.com/article-18248391.html and further articles there.
Good luck and have a nice expedition through a little known world. In effect, it took me decades to discover and understand and appreciate this world.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Tawfiq

"Malouf is played by small orchestras, consisting of violins, drums, sitars and flutes"...

If this text has been copied from a Tunisian source, it is probable it was written in French, or in Arab shortly after translated into French: look at the word "Malouf": in English we should transcript "Maluf" or "Maloof", because "OU" is just the French writing for the sound /u/ (like in English "foot", "balloon"...)

So... concerning sitars, perhaps they are just a lapsus calami, but perhaps the French text was saying "Cithare", which sounds almost like in English "Sitar" ( /ˈsɪtɑːr/ )

Just for pleasure: in ancient Greek, there was un instrument called "Kithara", the word was taken by the Arabs as "qīṯārah", the medieval Spaniards made out of this word our "Guitarra", which was adopted by European people as "Guitarre", "Guitar", "Guitarre"... It should be possible to find the link between the Greek "Kithara" and Sanskrit "Saptatantri veena" > "Saat taar" and/or Persian "Seh tar", but I will not dare swimming such a tempestuous sea...

Tawfiq said...

Thank you for your observations. Only via your hint I now understand that the "sitar" comes very probably from the word "cithare" meaning the Arab instrument Qanun. In German this family of instruments is called "Zitter".
The Qanun in effect is very often part of an Arabo Andalusian ensemble.

Tawfiq said...

You know probably that in Persian the word Tar just means string and Setar means three strings. There is also a dotar meaning two strings. The Indian name Sitar comes directly from the Iranian Setar and it is quite clear that the origin of the Sitar is the Setar, as one can see on older miniatures.

Anonymous said...

Indeed! Thanks Tawfiq. I'm listening your last post on balinese music but I'm mostly concentrating myself in this "1st Festival of Algerian...". What a world of music so fascinating you have uploaded week by week to the internet... One could spend years enjoying this music...

: )

Psikofobi said...

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