Cairo Congress Of Arab Music
The Congrès du Caire (Congress of Arab Music; Arabic: مؤتمر الموسيقى العربية الأول; Mu'tamar al'mūsiqā al-'arabiyya) was a large international symposium and festival convened in Cairo from March 14 to April 3, 1932 by King Fuad I. It was suggested to Fuad by baron Rodolphe d'Erlanger, and intended as the first large-scale forum to present, discuss, document, and record the many musical traditions of the Arabic world, from North Africa and the Middle East (and also including Turkey).
By a royal decree made on January 20, 1932, a commission was appointed to organize the congress. It was headed by Minister of Public Education Muhammad Hilmi Isa Pacha, with d'Erlanger serving as vice-chairman and Mahmud Ahmed El-Hefni in charge of the General Secretariat.
The festival was held at the National Academy of Music, at 22 Malika Nazly Street (now Ramses Street) in the Azbakeya district of downtown Cairo. It drew scholars and performers from throughout the Arabic-speaking world (including Muhammad Fathi, Ali Al-Darwish, Kamil Al-Khulai, Mahmud Hefni, Tawfiq Al-Sabbagh, Raouf Yekta Bey, Mohammed Gnanem, Mohammed Ben Hassan, Mohammed Cherif, and Mesut Cemil) as well as European scholars, composers, and musicologists such as Henry George Farmer, Rodolphe d'Erlanger, Béla Bartók, Paul Hindemith, Alexis Chottin (the head of the National Conservatory for Arab Music in Rabat), Father M. Collangettes, and Robert Lachmann. Nations sending delegations of musicians included Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey.
The Congress's sections focused on the past, present, and future of Arabic music, and, believing such music in decline, made recommendations for its revitalization and preservation. 360 performances of Arabic music by the visiting groups were recorded, and most of these recordings survive in the Phonotèque of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. 162 of these records were released by the HMV company, and a collection of those records was given to the Guimet Museum in Paris by King Fuad I.
In addition, proposals for the modernization and standardization of Arabic music were presented, including a proposal to standardize the Arabic tuning system to 24 equal steps per octave, substituting an equal-tempered system for the earlier non-tempered system. The Egyptian delegate Muhammad Fathi recommended that Western instruments be integrated into Arabic ensembles, due to what he believed to be their superior expressive qualities.
Three similar congresses were held in subsequent years, but none of the scale and influence of the one held in 1932.
Read more about Cairo Congress Of Arab Music: Discography
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