From Ocean to Gulf: Heritage Music of the Arab World - Sāmī al-Shawwā (1889-1965) - Heritage special

Al-Ahram Weekly

14-02-2025

'From Ocean to Gulf: Heritage Music of the Arab World' is a new series by Ahram Online, in partnership with the AMAR Foundation (Foundation For Arab Music Archiving and Research).
Music is a powerful force for healing and reconnecting us with our roots and shared humanity in a world of numerous challenges.
Focusing on the early years of recording in our region, which reflected a modern cosmopolitan repertoire and coincided with the Renaissance era that flourished in Egypt between the mid-19th century and the 30s of the twentieth century, this initiative aims to introduce our audience to the iconic figures of Arab music whose contributions have enriched our intangible cultural heritage and inspired generations worldwide.
A star is born!
Sāmī al-Shawwā's (1889-1965) star shone from the beginning of the 20th century until he passed away in 1965. Unlike all other music celebrities in the Arab World, al-Shawwā was the only one who earned his place among the most famous musicians thanks to his distinctive violin playing.
With his violin, he accompanied several of the most excellent musicians, including Sheikh Yūsuf al-Manyalāwī at the beginning of the 20th century, Umm Kulthūm, and Muḥammad 'Abd al-Wahāb. He performed in the authentic Iraqi style with major Iraqi musicians and in the true Kuwaiti style with major Kuwaiti musicians.
Listen to al-Shawwā
Prince of Arabic Violin!
The title amīr al-kamān –– Prince of the Arabic Violin –– bestowed upon al-Shawwā is far more than a pleasing nickname. The noble musical lineage of this pan-Arab cultural figure traces back to mid-18th century Aleppo, where his great-great-uncle Anṭūn al-Shawwā adapted the European violin to the Alepine learned music tradition. His great-grandfather Joseph was a violinist at the beginning of the eighteenth century and founded a takht he called the 'noubat Shawwā' takht (Troupe) with his brothers Anṭūn (violin), Abboud (oud), Habib (tabla), and his son Elias (qanun) who was Sami's grandfather.
In 1867, al-Shawwā's father, also named Anṭūn al-Shawwā, introduced the instrument to the court of Khedive Ismā'īl Pāshā to replace the rababa, a traditional bowed instrument. Thus, the violin became a vital element of the takht (the chamber music ensemble of expert soloists –– typical of the Egyptian art music tradition, whose endogenous revival was led by 'Abduh al-Ḥāmūlī (1843- 1901)).
Sāmī al-Shawwā was born in Cairo. At 14, his father sent him to Egypt, where he mesmerized audiences supported by senior musicians who were his father's friends. He met Mansour Awad, his father's friend and one of the most prominent oud players who contracted with 'Gramophone' in Cairo. Awad supported him in accompanying the leading singers at the beginning of the twentieth century. al-Shawwā often replaced famed violinists, such as Ibrahim Sahloun, the most important musician in the Takhet of Youssef Al-Manyalawi and Abdul Hayy Helmi.
Music unites us!
Driven by Arab nationalist fervour, Anṭūn al-Shawwā carried out a project to blend Alpine and Egyptian singing, later expressed in his son's memoirs through a motto summarizing at once the life project of both father and son: 'The unity of feelings among Arabs does exist. I am only expressing it through music.'
Faithful to these convictions, Anṭūn al-Shawwā supported his son's position to refrain from studying European music: 'We are Arabs. European [ifranjiyya] music neither represents our life, nor our milieu.' With equal pride, young Sami challenged the principle of allegiance to vocalists, raising the status of instrumentalist to that of the singer.
A daring feat!
'I raised the sound of the violin to express through the melody the meanings of the words sung by Sheikh Yūsuf [al-Manyalāwī],' stated al-Shawwā in one of his interviews. Within the same spirit, one should apprehend this violinist's recordings of instrumental paraphrases of famous pieces, such as Kādnī el-hawa and Sallimti rōḥak, where his violin improvises and sings the responsorial hank parts with the mastery of a Yūsuf al-Manyalāwī or of an 'Abd al-Ḥayy Ḥilmī, a daring feat no instrumentalist had ever attempted before.
This outstanding musician took instrumental emancipation as far as recording traditional songs in which singers formed the chorus to accompany the violin's improvisations, thus inverting the usual hierarchical conventions among singers and instrumentalists (example of Raqṣ al-farfūra).
Music school
In 1906, al-Shawwā established a school in partnership with Mansour Awad to teach music following the European notation approach. In this context, he wrote several educational exercises, such as a book entitled 'The Eastern Oud Method' (1921) and in 1946, he published an article about the Arab and Western music theories. Al-Shawwā became the leading musician associated with prominent singers, especially after the First World War and the death of Ibrahim Sahloun in 1920, and maintained this status in the music scene until the mid-thirties of the last century.
Arab Music Conference (1932)
Al-Shawwā's advanced knowledge of Arabic and Iraqi music allowed him to play an important role in planning and preparing for the Arab Music Conference in Cairo in 1932. Specifically, he participated in the committee of the musical scale, which began its preparatory work in 1929, and contributed significantly to the conference's activities and theoretical discussions.
Unfortunately, during the mid-thirties of the twentieth century, al-Shawwā could no longer maintain his previous musical position and influence due to the shift of music in Egypt towards modernization and Westernization, a movement led by Abdel Wahhab, among others. However, he maintained a good relationship with 'Gramophone' and resumed his educational role. He also conducted several tours to Europe and South and North America, where he made many recordings of supreme beauty and excellence.
Travels
Along with his recordings and concerts, al-Shawwā was among the Arab musicians who travelled the most across countries and cities to perform and make records. He took his first major trip to Istanbul accompanied by muṭrib 'Abd al-Ḥayy Ḥilmī (d. 1912) and poet Aḥmad Shawqī in 1910. There, he met with 'Āṣim Bēh (d. 1929), the author of the bashraf rāst that al-Shawwā had recorded many times. They performed it together, since 'Āṣim Bēh admired al-Shawwā's violin playing.
In 1927, he went to the USA, returning in 1933, and recorded a collection of discs with the Syrian National Record Company and the American Record Company USCO. During his last trip to the USA in 1953, he recorded many musical pieces for several American radio stations, including the New York Radio. In 1931, al-Shawwā visited Baghdad where he formed a takht with different instrumentalists, including Yūsuf Za'rūr al-Ṣaghīr (d. 1977) (qānūn) and 'Ezrā Ahārōn (d. 1995) ('ūd) to accompany several Iraqi muṭrib in their recordings with His Master's Voice and Odeon, including Sadīqa al-Mulāya (d. 1969), Munīra al-Hawazwaz, and Sa'īd 'Akkār.
Al-Shawwā visited most European countries, giving numerous concerts and meeting with many Western researchers and instrumentalists. He also visited Argentina in 1937, giving many concerts accompanied by several immigrant Arab muṭrib, including Salīm Zaytūnah (d. 1998).
Al-Shawwā recorded many musical pieces and most oriental musical forms known at the time, such as the taqsīm, the bashraf, the samā'ī, and the longa, as well as the raqṣ, the taḥmīla, and others. These recordings also comprise a large number of musical pieces composed by al-Shawwā himself including the bashraf rāst and the samā'ī bayyātī, as well as 'Badawī bi-l-ṣaḥrā' yunājī rabbahu' (A Bedouin in the desert soliloquizing with God), march 'Nār al-'ishq,' and 'Al-fāls al-sharqī' (Oriental Waltz). Al-Shawwā also composed some chanted hymns, including 'Ayyuhā al-arz al-mufadda' and 'Turkiyā al-fatāh.'
Pedagogy
Al-Shawwā contributed significantly to the theoretical aspect of violin playing. In 1921, he published what is thought to be the first oriental violin teaching method. In 1946, he presented his major book 'The Technical Rules of Oriental and Western Music.' He expounded on the widespread musical maqām and those that were less often used or completely discarded and described how he used each.
The kamān
As mentioned, al-Shawwā's family were violinists, including his grandfather and his great-grandfather during Ibrāhīm Pāshā's era. In his book 'Waṣf Maṣr' (the Description of Egypt), published in 1798, Villoteau assumed and wrote that the violin may have entered Egypt from Greece. Egypt had many Italian and Greek communities so that the violin may have reached it from its motherland, Italy. As such, although Ibrāhīm Sahlūn was the first to record in 1903, he was the first to play the violin in Cairo. His predecessors had not witnessed the recording era and thus did not have the opportunity to record discs.
Western vs. Oriental violin
Today, most violinists play in large orchestras that produce a unified sound, opposite to the concept of improvisation and the individual's creativity and mastery manifested in the takht, which constitutes an essence of Arab music. Large orchestras work on unifying the notes, the playing, and even the bows, aiming at producing one unified musical sound. So, changing the tuning distinguishes a player from another, placing him outside the band. This problem concerns playing as well as the goals of playing.
As such, when contemporary violinists apply the ready-made and clear Western methodology for the large music band to produce a unified sound comparable to Western music practices, they do so at the expense of the techniques and sounds of traditional Arab music, which are two distinct musical systems.
Practice makes perfect!
Such a high-standard performance proves that he practised regularly. Indeed, when asked at age 70 in a press interview about the secret of his musical distinction, unlike most musicians who usually answer 'talent,' al-Shawwā said: "Continuous practice. I practise a lot.' This implies that his violin playing level resulted from long practice hours, in addition to talent, of course.
Buried with his violin!
Al-Shawwā died at the age of 76 on Thursday, 23 December 1965, in his apartment facing the Kūbrī al-Laymūn station in Cairo. His solemn funeral procession left the Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in al-'Abbāsiyya. His coffin was wrapped in a black fabric, on top of which a cushion supported one of his violins, meant to accompany him to his grave in al-'Abbāsiyya's Orthodox cemetery.
*For more about al-Shawwā, please check the al-Shawwā Podcast series by AMAR.
*Podcasts on violin
089 – The kamān 1, Duroub « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research
090 – The kamān 2, Duroub « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research
*Artist and music
Sāmī al-Shawwā (1889 – 1965) « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research
*CD release
CD – Sami al Shawwa « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research
*Book
Book – Sami al Shawwa « AMAR Foundation for Arab Music Archiving & Research
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