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Well I just came from dining out at a Morrocan restaruant with a few of my Arab friends from Syria and Lebanon. It happened to be Arab night and they had a belly dance and all. The music and entertainment was great. They played songs from around the Arab world including Egypt. I was surprised when certain songs came on. I asked my friend, "which country is this song from?" and he said Egypt. I picked up on the soca like beats that differentiated the Egyptian music from other Arab music. I was able to pick out all of the Egyptian songs. My synopsis of the modern egyptian music that I heard was that its sounded like a mix between the arab, african and Caribbean soca beats and I enjoyed them the most. My girlfriend noticed it too and told me that its sounds similar to soca (music played in the caribbean). Do any of you listen to modern Egyptian music? What is your opinion of it?
ausar Member # 1797
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Depends on the class of the people in Egypt. Once you get outside of Cairo the music played sounds more like a synchreniation between Arabic and African type music. Both styles of music relay upon improvisional instead of notation and musical theory.
The popular forms in Egypt are folk music[probabaly the more African based rhytumns],Sha'bi[actually this music form came about from chanting to spirts by rural Egyptians],Taarab[popular Arabic music form],and other types as well. Most Egyptian folk music is call and responce type that include songs that rural Egyptians sing while they work in the fields.
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Shaabi is not the only form of Egyptian folk music. I was reffering to music played by villagers in Upper Egypt. This is typical Fellaheen and Balady music.
Shaabi is the most popular but by no means the only form.
ausar Member # 1797
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Hakim is from El Minya.
Ayazid Member # 2768
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quote:Originally posted by ausar: Shaabi is not the only form of Egyptian folk music. I was reffering to music played by villagers in Upper Egypt. This is typical Fellaheen and Balady music.
Shaabi is the most popular but by no means the only form.
I don´t say that shaabi is only form of egyptian folk music, because´it´s not folk music at all, but a form of indigenous egyptian pop-music or folk-pop.And I don´t know why did you point out that Hakim is from El Minya (by the way: he is from Maghagha,it´s closer to Beni Suef,it´s only in Minya governorate). Because he is light-skinned and it´s necessary emphasize that he is from Middle Egypt and so he is probably "half-Greek" or "half-Syrian" or "half-Arab"??? Or .. ???
Ayazid Member # 2768
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People from Minya governorate have various features:
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No,I was just pointing out that Hakim was from El Minya. It has nothing to do with his phenotype. In Egypt,like in antiquity, it is important to which village you may originate or what governate. This is all.
ausar Member # 1797
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Let me also point out that many people in Bahriya,Frafra,and other areas have admixture with Libyans[ancient Berbers],bedouins,and other ethnic groups. Most Cairene Egyptians come from the rural Delta or other parts of Egypt. Although enclaves of Sa3eadi Egyptians exist mostly in Bulaq Abu Ala. Don't confuse the Abu Ala with the other sections of Bulaq. The other neighboorhoods are most Fellaheen from the Delta. Balady refers to both the people of the rural Delta[where most Fellaheen are] and to the Saeed[Southern Egypt].
In ancient Egypt,much like modern Egypt,there has been a gradient between Med types in the North to more African types in the south. Mixture with Libyans in the Eastern Delta,Greeks in different parts of Egypt,and even Arabs in the Delta has sculptued much of the people you see in the photos. Christain Arabs also migrated to Egypt and intermixed with people in Cairo. We also see a mass influx of Circussian slaves brought to the markets in Cairo during the Middle Ages.[Wellard, James Lost_World_of_Africa 1967]
During the First Intermediate Period people from Syrio-Palestine also flooded the Delta.[Frank JosephYurco via usernet] Some Greco-Roman writers during the Late Antique Period desribed the herdsmen of the Delta as blackish or half-caste Aethiopies[Achilles Tatius of Alexandria[450 AD]
In later periods in Greco-Roman Egypt you had lots of intermarriage between Greeks and Egyptians[see Alan K.Bowman Egypt After the Pharoahs 1986]. In the cities like Alexzandria or Naucratis Egyptian and Greek unions were forbidden[see also Alan K. Bowman,Egypt After the Pharoahs 1986] Everywhere else in Egypt these unions were permitted except for the regions where Greeks regulary went back and forth to Greece. So much mixing went on that you had to prove thorough your mother and father's line linked with the Hellenistic aristocrat to gain membership into the gymnasia[Alan K. Bowman Egypt After the Pharoahs 1986].
[This message has been edited by ausar (edited 20 April 2004).]
Kem-Au Member # 1820
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Keino,
Please check this out. You can preview an Egyptian CD. I thought some of the songs that have the flute had an Arab feel mixed in, but this is probably just me being brainwashed. Kemet glyphs show them using flute like instruments, so this sound has probably always been around even before the Arabs.
But if you heard the song Rejoicing in Upper Egypt mixed in with other African folk music, you probably wouldn't be able to tell it was Egyptian. It sounds just like music you've probably always known. http://ubl.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,136334,00.html
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The modern Egyptian music is basically developed by Sayed Darwish (1892-1923), and Mohamed Abdel Wahab (1907? – 1991)
The current trend of music, the so-called “youth songs” or “Aghani shababiyya,” emerged in the 1980s.
While, I think both Darwish and Abdel Wahhab depended on long history of Egyptian music but with additions and western instruments used, I think the modern Egyptian songs are just a speedy version of what was already achieved by the earlier musicians.
And of course you will find similarities, which does not indicate direct influence. I heard from a Japanese man who listened to modern Nubian music that it is very similar to sort of traditional music in Japan.
Please check this out. You can preview an Egyptian CD. I thought some of the songs that have the flute had an Arab feel mixed in, but this is probably just me being brainwashed. Kemet glyphs show them using flute like instruments, so this sound has probably always been around even before the Arabs.
But if you heard the song Rejoicing in Upper Egypt mixed in with other African folk music, you probably wouldn't be able to tell it was Egyptian. It sounds just like music you've probably always known. http://ubl.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,136334,00.html
There are native African flutes all over the continent. Fula flute is very popular. Also a multitude of string instruments...
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Egypt is basically Arab African when it comes to everything about it music language culture period. It matters were u at and with what Qomiya very similar to Sudanese who i think have just about the best bands better than Egypt even most Masri musicians have african Sudanese players of instruments. Masri has nothing unique about its music just falls right in Arab/African
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