As a part of the NAFAS program (LA RESIDENCE D’ARTISTES ET PROFESSIONNELS DE LA CULTURE LIBANAIS), I was invited to spend three weeks in the Abbaye Aux Dames in the beautiful city of Saintes – France.
During this residency period of three weeks (10 – 30 April), I was planning to work on my “Arabic Vertical Poems” for solo piano, which is a project that links measured Arabic poetry with modern contemporary Arabic music, to set a link between language and music, literature and abstraction, past and present, and to reflect an echo of the ancient musical rhythm in the classical Arabic language, as well as to develop the Arabic music through elements from the classical Arabic language and the rhythms of its poetry.
This project blends the richness of the old Arabic language and the rhythm of its poems, with the music of the modern age and its powerful tools of expression.
You can read all the details about this project here.
The residency started with a small tour through the historical site of the Abbaye, with a Sonore tour in which I learned many interesting facts and stories about the great history of this place, and how the music was from its beginning a great part of the daily life of the people living in this place.
One great phrase that stuck to my mind during this tour, and that I still remember very clearly, and that’s because it is true, is:
“Ici, les murs chantent!”
I was lucky to have Saintes’ conservatory in the same building as my room, I was living on the first floor, and the conservatory was on the third and fourth! and that was a great opportunity to meet with the professors and students of the conservatory.
And from these meetings, I mention some:
Master class with the french horn students of professor Louis Verchere, in which I listened to the student’s performances, gave my thought on their performances and explained the Arabic Maqam world and the performance techniques related. And after I exchanged some of my music for french horn with Mr. Verchere, especially the two Horn trios opus 11 for horn, piano, and violin, “A tune for Amer’s Horn” for horn, piano, and double bass, and my Horn Concerto “Wilada, Fa Kifah”, Louis decided to write an article about my music and I for the French Horn Society website, in which I answered all their questions about my music, my background, and how I write specifically for the french horn.
I was very happy to receive the recording of one of my pieces (Dabket El 2020) performed by Louis after he downloaded the score from my website!
Master class with the Saxophone students of Professor Aline Cotta, in which they performed the piece “Coucou Bab Boujloud” de jean Charles Richard and I gave my remarks including some detailed explanation of the Hijazkar Makam, on which the piece is built, and the Andalusian music, especially the “Mouwashahat” and the traditional Arabic rhythms as “Dawr Hendi”, “Sama’i Thaqil” and others.
A meeting with the Piano/Composition students of professor Remy Martin, in which I explained the importance of the composer identity, and present a brief introduction to the Arabic music for composers, then we had some improvisation exercises of specific Arabic rhythms and maqams in which the students by turn improvised on the piano with Mr. Remy and I offering the accompaniment.
At the end, we exchanged the contact information, and professor Remy presented some of his compositions/ arrangements for the piano, I presented to him my project for the solo piano pieces and gifted him a copy of my book “Arabic Folk Tunes” for solo piano to use with his students as an introduction to the Arabic music.
And I am happy to receive after one week of my residency a piece composed by one of the students that attended this master class asking for my feedback!
A workshop with the junior orchestra in the “Ici – làbà”, in which we improvised some basic Arabic rhythms and introduced the kids to the oriental music world.
A workshop with the concert band directed by Professor Ludovic Bougouin, starting with a general introduction to the Arabic Maqam world, then trying some traditional Arabic rhythms and giving some guidelines for the Arabic Taqassim, in which I explained the three steps of the Taqassim, and the importance of the musician’s creativity and imagination in the improvisation, and ending by performing a short piece composed especially for this occasion, titled “Ludovic L’Oriental”, designed to introduce the youth musicians to the oriental music world, and to give space for improvisation on the rhythm of “Wehda Kabira” and “Masmoudi Saghir”, following two Maqams titled “Hijazkar” and “Bayati”.
One of the most distinguished musicians I have met during my residency in Saintes, was the organist and organ professor in the Saintes conservatory, Cédric Burgelin.
Cédric presented me to the pipe organ of the Saint-Pierre cathedral of Saintes, explained a lot about the history of this special instrument and how it works, and offered me the access to spend some time with this beautiful instrument, which resulted in the birth of “Priere Oriental“, a piece for solo organ that I included in Opus 13, which is a series of solo pieces that introduce the western instrument to the Arabic music world. And just four days after I finished the piece, we created an audio/film recording of the piece in the Cathedral’s organ, in which Cedric performed the piece after transforming my remarks at the beginning of the piece into a very beautiful complex registration that works amazingly on Saintes’ organ!
The premiere of the piece will take place during Cedric’s upcoming concert on 28 May in the same cathedral.
Note that after I gifted him my book “Arabic Folk Tunes” for solo piano, Cedric asked me to transcribe some of the pieces in this book for organ, a project that I am very excited to work on when I have the time and fund needed to make it possible.
And I can’t be more grateful for the valuable gift from Cédric: his four organ albums recording!
one more meeting I did with the choirmaster Gilles Guenard who invited me to attend one of his rehearsals with Saintes amateurs choir, and it was an amazing experience!
And after they expressed how they’d like to try to sing in Arabic, I arranged for them a traditional Palestinian folk song titled “Yomma Mwel l Hawa” for SATB (with optional piano accompaniment), and I am excited to see how a french choir sings Arabic music!
And as an ending to those great three weeks, one more meeting with the Afghani Poet/writer “Aman Yoyamek” happened in the last days of my residence, which resulted in the birth of a collaboration project in which I will be writing the music for one of his Afghani Opera scene, a project that we hope to grow to cover a whole multi-language opera production!
Three weeks in the Abbaye Aux Dames weren’t enough to discover all the opportunities and chances hiding in this wonderful place, but for sure it was enough to have a vacation of musical creation, productivity, collaborations, and to introduce the music professors and students, and the French public, to the Arabic contemporary music, as well as a great chance to meet the wonderful staff of the Cite musicale, with whom I look forward to more future projects.
Check my residency on the Abbaye Aux Dames’s website calendar here
Check post by Conservatoire de Musique et de Danse de Saintes here
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