The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century

283 Pages·1998·5.56 MB·English

by  Virginia Danielson

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO 60637
THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO PRESS
© 1997 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 1997
Printed in the United States of America 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 4 5 6 7 8
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-13608-0 (e-book) ISBN-10: 0-226-13612-4 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-
in-Publication Data Danielson, Virginia
The voice of Egypt : Umm Kulthūm, Arabic song, and Egyptian society in the twentieth century /
Virginia Danielson.
p. cm.—(Chicago studies in ethnomusicology) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-226-13611-6.—ISBN 0-226-13612-4 (pbk.) 1. Umm Kulthūm, 1898-1975. 2. Singers—Egypt—
Biography.
3. Songs, Arabic—Egypt—History and criticism. 4. Popular music—Egypt—History and criticism. 5.
Music and society—Egypt.
I. Title. II. Series.
ML420.U46D36 1997
782.42163’092—dc21
96-45394
[B]
CIP
MN
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.
VIRGINIA DANIELSON
The Voice of Egypt
UMM KULTHŪM,
ARABIC SONG,
AND
EGYPTIAN SOCIETY
IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
CHICAGO STUDIES IN ETHNOMUSICOLOGY
Edited by Philip V. Bohlman & Bruno Nettl
EDITORIAL BOARD
Margaret J. Kartomi
Hiromi Lorraine Sakata
Anthony Seeger
Kay Kaufman Shelemay
Bonnie C. Wade
For Jim
Contents
PREFACE
TECHNICAL NOTE
1 “THE VOICE AND FACE OF EGYPT”
Some Questions
Speech about Music
Listening
Performing
“Popular” Music
The Individual
Social Issues
2 CHILDHOOD IN THE EGYPTIAN DELTA
“Min al-Mashāyikh”
Performing Experience
The Audiences
3 BEGINNING IN CAIRO
Music in Cairo
The “Bedouin” Singer
An Education in Music and Performance
A Turning Point
1926 and Beyond
4 MEDIA, STYLE, AND IDIOM
Taking a Direction in Style
Producing Concerts
Negotiating the Public
Recordings and Radio
Making Films
Developing an Idiom
5 “THE GOLDEN AGE OF UMM KULTHŪM” AND TWO CULTURAL FORMATIONS
The 1940s
Musical Populism
New Films
Neoclassicism
The Impact of the New Qaṣāʾid and the Populist Songs
6 “THE VOICE OF EGYPT”: THE ARTISTS’ WORK AND SHARED AESTHETICS
Building the Model of the Song
The Concerts
“Her Voice … !”
“But Can You Understand the Words?”
“She Was Good Because She Could Read the Quʾrān”
“She Gave Us Back the Qaṣīda”
“She Never Sang a Line the Same Way Twice”.
7 UMM KULTHŪM AND A NEW GENERATION
The National Songs and “Rābiʿa ʾl-ʿAdawiyya”
“A New Stage”
Collaboration with ʿAbd al-Wahhāb
The Resilience of al-Sunbāṭī’s Songs
The Ughniyya
The Widening Market
The Concerts for Egypt
“The Fallaḥiin Are My Self”
The Repertory Not Sung
LEGACIES OF A PERFORMER
GLOSSARY
NOTES
REFERENCES
SOURCES FOR THE ILLUSTRATIONS
INDEX
Galleries of photographs
Preface
This book addresses the issue of agency in society, particularly the role
of the exceptional individual in expressive culture. Theoretically, it rests on the
rather large literature that has become known as practice theory as well as the
literature associated with cultural studies. I am particularly indebted to the work
of Raymond Williams, whose Culture and Society accounts successfully in
broad social terms for a good number of English literary “stars.”
My book draws from more than five years of fieldwork in several places in
Egypt coupled with a reading of a substantial portion of the copious discourse on
music and musicians in Egypt. Information has been readily available; however,
answers to my questions are scattered throughout many sources and have been
pieced together from literally hundreds of tiny announcements, short reviews,
and interviews collected and evaluated over a period of years. I am grateful to
the Fulbright-Hayes programs in Egypt, to a postdoctoral fellowship sponsored
by the Rockefeller Foundation at the Institute for the Study of Religion,
Literature, and Society in the Contemporary Middle East, University of Texas at
Austin, and to the College Library at Harvard University for the years of support
these institutions provided. The Douglas W. Bryant Fellowship at Harvard
University underwrote the costs for obtaining rights and preparing illustrations.
While in Egypt, I worked among musicians, “culture brokers,” and listeners
from many walks of life in Cairo, Alexandria, and al-Minyā. I was particularly
fortunate to have lived for two years in al-Minyā, for there I was led into more
ordinary social circles than those in the cosmopolitan environment of Cairo and
in the rather extraordinary world of musicians. My social role and obligations in
al-Minyā were perhaps as normal as a foreigner can hope to have. In this
environment I learned a great deal about Egyptian attitudes and values
concerning expressive culture.
Most academics benefit from the support of their colleagues, and I am
particularly rich in this regard. Jihad Racy of the University of California-Los
Angeles and Dr. Buthayna Farīd of the Institute for Music Education at Helwan
University in Egypt helped me launch my research in Egypt and have remained