Volume 23 Issue 3 - November 2017

Beat by Beat | World View
First FAMA Fall
Feast Continues
ANDREW TIMAR
So far it’s been an odd fall here. Into the third week of October,
it’s well past Thanksgiving, yet Toronto is still reaching daytime
high temperatures we typically experience in June. There hasn’t
even been a whisper of nighttime frost in town. The geraniums still
bloom vigorously and peppers continue to redden on my north-facing
balcony garden. Endless
summer? Dire climactic
implications aside, I for
one am thankful for this
cold weather reprieve,
soon to be over, I suspect.
The GTA’s first Festival
of Arabic Music and
Arts (FAMA), presented
by the Canadian Arabic
Orchestra, will be well
under way by the time
you read this. The festival’s
first concert was
held at Koerner Hall on
October 28, featuring
a double bill with
Iraqi guitarist, singer
and composer Ilham
Al-Madfai and the
Toronto world music
group Sultans of String.
Ever since its establishment in 2014 the professional CAO has sought
to connect expatriate Arabs with classical Arabic musical culture in
order to maintain this heritage in the hearts and minds of the present
community in Canada, as well as to safeguard it for future generations.
At the same time, the orchestra also seeks to engage with non-
Arab Canadian communities. FAMA shows both objectives at work.
Arabic Music in Toronto: Rob Simms and George Sawa
To gain further insight into Arabic music today, in both the Arab
world and here in Canada, I called Rob Simms, associate professor at
York University’s Department of Music, a Canadian ethnomusicologist
and multi-instrumentalist specializing in Middle Eastern and West
African traditions. Simms reminded me of the devastation to cultural
life impacting large swathes of Iraq and Syria as a consequence of the
recent invasions and sustained armed conflict in those countries. One
of the results of this upheaval has been the displacement of millions
of Iraqis and Syrians, many finding themselves as refugees in foreign
lands – including recently, Canada.
Aleppo, Syria, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities
in the world, is a prime example of this cultural devastation. It is
considered an important centre of Arabic traditional music, historically
supporting renowned practitioners of muwashshah, qudud
halabiya and maqam (religious, secular and poetic-musical genres).
Aleppo was also known for its sammi’a, a cadre of influential cultivated
music connoisseurs. This ancient web of music production,
patronage and appreciation has been tragically disrupted as a result of
the current civil war.
I then followed up on the phone with longtime Toronto resident
George Sawa, a renowned scholar, qanun (Arabic zither) player and
music educator who holds a doctorate in historical Arabic musicology
from the University of Toronto. Born in Alexandria, Egypt, the
multi-award-winning Sawa has over 50 years’ experience in Arabic
music performance, history and theory. “I arrived in Toronto in 1970
to study at U of T,” he recounted. One of the draws was the university’s
Robarts and Faculty of Music libraries, which according to Sawa
“contain one of the best Arabic music collections in the world.”
What was the Arabic music scene like in 1970 Toronto? “At the time
Arabic music was mostly encountered in cabarets and in clubs which
featured belly dancing,” Sawa told me. He immediately sought to
enrich the scene.
“In 1971 I founded a trio playing traditional Arabic music. Not long
afterward, CBC radio recorded for broadcast a concert of Christmas
carols sung by (leading contralto) Maureen Forrester, with me on
qanun. The trio increased into a quintet, appearing in concert and on
CBC over the next few decades. It became known as the Traditional
Arabic Music Ensemble.” Sawa also served as the music director of
Toronto’s Arabesque Dance Company & Orchestra from 1996 to 2005.
Today one of Sawa’s
performing projects
is Alpharabius, “an
ensemble dedicated to
exploring the musical
interactions of the
rich cultures of the
Mediterranean. The
group is named after
one of the great philosophers
of classical
Islam, al-Farabi (d. ah
339/ 950 CE), who was
renowned as both a
musical theorist and a
practicing musician… The
ensemble is a collaboration
of musicians trained
in the classical Arabic
George Sawa
and Western medieval
musical traditions.”
He concluded our
conversation by observing that the GTA’s “Arabic community has
grown considerably in the past few decades. For example, I think
it’s very significant and healthy that before securing support from
Canadian Arts Councils, the Canadian Arabic Orchestra initially
sought patronage from local Arabic businesses who believed in what
they were doing. More power to them!”
Charbel Rouhana, oudist
November 3, FAMA in co-production with Festival du Monde Arabe
de Montréal presents Charbel Rouhana, the Lebanese composer, singer
and oudist accompanied by the Canadian Arabic Orchestra at the Jane
Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre. This program will be repeated
November 5 at the Monument National in Montreal.
Possessing ancient roots, the oud – often placed into three general
groups, Arabic, Turkish and Persian – is at the core of much of the
traditional music played throughout the Middle East and in regions
influenced by its people. The oud, which has numerous morphological
variants highly dependent on region of origin, typically today has 11 or
13 strings grouped into five or six courses.
Its performance tradition has been particularly long-maintained in
Iraq, where a popular saying honours its high value to the culture: “In
the music of the oud lies the country’s soul.” The instrument was once
common in Iraqi households, something like the guitar in Canada or
the USA. Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of the
Ba’athist regime however, the increasing power of Islamist extremists
who consider secular music to be haram (sinful, forbidden) has forced
many oud players and teachers to cease playing publicly, or even
forced them into exile in order to pursue their oud-related careers.
Already a virtuoso of the instrument, several decades ago Rouhana
established a new method of playing the oud. Published in seven
32 | November 2017 thewholenote.com