About The Arabic Music Heritage
Background
The musical heritage is one of the greatest treasures nations have, as it represents great works that have and shall affect peoples' spirits it also mood of each nation during various time periods. The richness of the Arabic music has contributed to the greatness of its people, comprising more than 500 different "Maqam" or scales, it could vary and develop very quickly and could invade the hearts of the surrounding peoples whether arabs or western countries.
The Arabic music has gone through several stages. Early
Islamic studies by El Kandy and El Faraby have left a wealth of documents
containing important scientific theories which took from early civilizations
(Greek and Persian) and developed them into what is considered as the
basis of the arabic music. At the beginning of the 19th century with the
arrival of the French expedition, the scientists accumulated in "La
description de l'Egypte" some of the music which, at the time, was
recorded without scores.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the writing of music began through
musicians such as Mohamed Osman and Salama Hegazy, this was followed by
a new era during the thirties when the first musical congress took place
and the appearance of contemporary musicians such as Mohamed Abd El Wahab
and Reyad El Sonbaty.
About the program
The Egyptian music heritage is of special importance in Egypt, the Arab world and the entire world. Its conservation is of special national importance and contributes to the cultural development of the society. It was only natural that the "national center for documentation of cultural and national heritage" to undertake a national project for the conservation of Arabic music in collaboration with various institutions. There are two main aspects for the project: musical and information technology. While the Center provides the technical know-how in database and multimedia, the musical information is provided by: the Ministry of Culture (the Opera House), the Arts Academy, the Ministry of Media (the Egyptian Radio), the Faculty of musical education (Helwan University) and a number of scholars who take part in the documentation under the leadership of Dr. Isis Fathalla, Vice Dean of the faculty of musical education (Helwan University).
Purpose
Aiming at documenting the Egyptian Heritage of Arabic music, the project
focuses on the collection, documentation and research of Egyptian songs
and musical compositions, through the diversified use of Multimedia to
support both audio and visual documentation.
Objectives
To contribute to the conservation of the Arabic music heritage through
documenting it.
To provide a better understanding of Arabic music heritage components
through applying scientific analysis methodologies to it.
To assist the musical education in institutes and musical establishments.
To provide a source of edutainment and fun to the layman.
Output
The expected products of this system are : a CD-Rom that the user can
browse freely for the information. It could also be available on the Internet
for a wider distribution. The center also aims at producing an "Encyclopaedia
of the Arabic Music" which will include all musical works of the
pioneer musicians.
Work plan
The plan involves the creation of a database for all documented musical
works during the period from mid 19th century to the end of the 20th century
during which the Arabic music flourished.
The technology depends on database creation making use of multimedia (sound,
picture, video) whereby the user could request all music composed by for
example: "El Kassabgy" for Om Kalthoum of a certain scale, a
list is obtained from which we could choose a song, once chosen details
of the song are shown on the screen such as title, year, composer etc…,
the lyrics could also be seen as well as the partition of the song and
the user would be able to listen or see a video recording of it.
The project involves three phases of documentation:
Phase I :
The composers of the period 1920-1970
Including the musical piece name (title, the opening sentence), singers,
composers and lyricists information, modes names' and patterns (i.e. Arabic
scales), forms names', rhythms, dates and songs from: musical plays, Arabic
movies, TV programs or broadcast programs etc..)
Phase II:
An upgrade for the above by adding lyrics and scores of the musical pieces saved in the database.
Phase III :
The multimedia upgrade for the above including multimedia data in addition to the basic information. The scores of the musical piece stored in midi format, video and audio clips from the musical piece. In addition, an indicator to the musical piece and where could be found physically.
A search engine has already been developed which allows the user to find the songs collected by title, date, composer, lyricist, mode, form, and other relevant data. While the ability to browse the database is currently limited to the Center, plans are going on to produce interactive CD-ROMs that incorporate the database and search engine.
Sources of data
1. Documented information (tapes, records, books) for
musicians, singers, and composers in Egypt.
2. Books & research papers published in Egypt and around the world.
3. Search in libraries of the Opera house, Arts academies, Higher Institute
of Arabic music, the Egyptian radio, faculty of musical education (Helwan
University), in addition to private libraries.
Through this project, CULTNAT hopes to contribute to the
efforts carried out for the conservation of the cultural heritage, through
the documentation and the dissemination of the musical heritage through
publications (Books or CD-ROMs) and on the internet to be available to
individuals as well as institutions.