The Playful Muwashahat

AMAR foundation and the Sursock Museum are pleased to invite you to the listening session The Playful Muwashahat with the critic Fadi Abdallah on Friday 16 February from 18:00 to 20:00.

Recordings made in the early 20th century didn't do justice to the Muwashahat that were performed in Egypt and the Levant. This playful genre suffered from the historical weight that suppressed its distinct aesthetic features in later years. 

Fadi El Abdallah will delve into the clever games and playful techniques used in the Muwashahat with some remarkable examples from existing recordings, such as those by Darwish El Hariri and Sayed El Safti. These techniques involve language, rhythm, melody, performance, and structure, all of which contribute to making Muwashahat a true marvel of Tarab, or musical ecstasy.  

Fadi El Abdallah is a poet, lawyer, writer, and music critic. He participated in various performances and wrote several publications. In 2020, he was the editor of L'Orient Sonore, published by Actes Sud for the exhibition curated by AMAR at MUCEM. In 2024, he released On the Traces of a Fascination: On Music and Critique, a book published by Kotobkhan. 

AMAR Foundation aims to contribute to preserving musical traditions in the Arab world, especially in the Levant and Egypt. Its archive, which consists of wax cylinders, shellac records, and other recordings, is the most comprehensive collection in the world of the Renaissance period (1903 until the 1930s).