musifying

More Egyptian artists:

Abdel Wahab

The great composer and singer, arguably the greatest in the twentieth century, has composed and performed a lot. The necessary listening list should reflect a variety of his works. Some were already mentioned: the songs he composed for Umm Kulthoum, of which five were recommended. His vocal works written for other singers (for example Abdel-Halim Hafez) will be listed under the sections for those artists.

Instrumental works:

The belley dance music of Abdel-Wahab

Other works that are included on some of the vocal albums, especially the CDs of the Integrale Series most interestingly: Fantasia Nahwantd and Hubbi.

Vocal works:

1- The Integrale series “Les Archive De La Musique Arabe: Mohamed [sic.] Abdelwahab [sic.]” My favorites are disks III, IV, V, VII, and VIII. The series includes virtually all of the early works of Abdel-Wahab (jewels every one of them).

A very short list of some of the most memorable later works performed by him include:

2- Al-Nahr Al-Khaled

3- Min Gheir Leh

4- Fakkarouni

A masterful rendition (mostly instrumental but in some cases choral) of Abdel Wahab’s works is Simon Shaheen’s “The Music of Mohamed Abdel Wahab”

Sayyed Darwish

The composer who had changed Egyptian (and possibly music of many other Arab countries) around and after him, has few of his works recorded in his own voice. But they do exist and are available. They include songs like:

Ana Haweit,

Ana ‘Ishiqt

Dayya’t Mustaqbal Hayati

Shidd El-Hizam

and a few others.

In addition, the orchestra and chorus Firqat Al-Mousiqa Al-Arabiyyah issued very high quality interpretations of his works sung with chorus and soloists. All of those songs are a must for the musician specializing in Arabic music.

More Egyptian music to come. Suggestions, as always, are welcome.