zalzal - 1-6-2006 at 11:36 AM
Just found this paper, old, 2003 may bo some of you already know, hereafter you have the link and firsts paragraphes in case you do not want to read
the whole article
In the picture you will see the "oldest oud of all times".....
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/651/chrncls.htm
The Oriental Music Conference, held in Cairo from 28 March to 3 April 1932, proved occasion for music enthusiasts of all shades to write to the press
on the history, current state and future of this art. The first to contribute to the debate on the pages of Al-Ahram was an expert on musical
composition, Rizqallah Shehata, reputed for his seminal Plaintive Strains in Arab and Western Music. His article appeared several months before the
conference began and offered an insightful and stimulating survey of the history of music.
Citing the Western musicologist Noland Smith, Shehata argued that Western music had its origins in Egypt. Credit for this went to the Greeks who
borrowed the rules and principles of music from the Ancient Egyptians and developed them into a fine art, "because they regarded it as the cornerstone
of their rites of worship and the first pillar in glorifying their gods".
Click to view caption
Three female musicians playing the harp, the lute and a wind instrument at the funeral banquet of Nakht, a scribe and astronomer in the reigns of
Tuthmosis IV and Amenophis II. The 1932 music conference spurred discussions on the Ancient Egyptian origins of music
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The Persians, too, adopted the art of music from the Greeks and developed it further. Indeed, it was from Persian that many of the Arabic terms used
in Oriental music, such as the various modes girka, sika and higaz, came. However, Shehata frowned on continuing in this tradition and advised,
instead, looking to Western music as "the only way to elevate Egyptian music so that it can attain its natural grandeur and prestige". He explained
that "Oriental [i.e. Egyptian] music is a beautiful maiden, but dressed in tattered rags, covered in filth and so ill as to be at risk of death. Those
who love Egyptian music and fear for its health must cast away that shabby garb and dress it in a new glimmering gown appropriate to our contemporary
era and the demands it places on us for advancement, thereby enabling our music to embrace all hearts with lofty lyrics and heavenly melodies."
zalzal - 1-11-2006 at 02:38 PM
Another old article of El Ahram, 2001, this time on an oud maker, Fathi Amin, with many photos fm his oud shop.
Just copying you a small exerpt in case you do not whish to open the whole article.
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2001/558/feature.htm
............."Fathi Amin is one of Egypt's few remaining master oud craftsmen. When I phoned him, he told me his address was easy: "Just turn right
from Sayeda Aisha Square and when you hit Zalouma restaurant, turn left and you will find me." Not exactly. On the afternoon I went to search him out
I found myself winding deeper into the narrow alleyways of Sayeda Aisha than I had expected. When I had all but given up hope of finding him, a woman
sitting in the doorway of her house told me that "the man who makes the oud" was in fact right behind me.
So small is Amin's shop, so obscure, that it is easily missed. In the midst of the ruckus of women getting their homes in order, children playing in
the streets, and goats and chickens roaming in between, a small man sits bent over a finely curved piece of wood -- an oud in the making. His glasses
are thick, his clothes immaculate -- brown pants and brick-red shirt. A neat black work apron is tied around his waist.
Many ouds but what of the soul
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"It takes me six months to make, but let me show you what I do," he tells me before opening up a large hard leather case that takes up a third of his
workspace. He pulls out a beautiful dark wooden oud inlaid with intricate floral designs in mother of pearl. "It is quite something," he almost
whispers as his dark hands trace the contours of the instrument. "