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Les Mille et un trésors de la musique arabe:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Edition : Le Grand Souffle - 2013
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> available @:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Back cover:
Traditional music, art music, popular music, contemporary music ... What is striking when one begins to take an interest in Arab musics is their extreme diversity. What difference between the sobriety and fascinating simplicity of some of them and the multiple modulations and dizzying changes that can be heard in others... However, all reveal the intricacies of their formal articulations closely related to Arabic languages, as well as the beauty and precision of the implementation of sound. These are all resources that Daniel Caux wanted us to discover in his early chronicles, published from 1974 to 1976, in Charlie Mensuel – that he signed with the pretty name of Ali Charlie - until some of more recent time. It is his intact enthusiasm that we can found in each of the texts published in this book.
Traditional music, art music, popular music, contemporary music ... What is striking when one begins to take an interest in Arab musics is their extreme diversity. What difference between the sobriety and fascinating simplicity of some of them and the multiple modulations and dizzying changes that can be heard in others... However, all reveal the intricacies of their formal articulations closely related to Arabic languages, as well as the beauty and precision of the implementation of sound. These are all resources that Daniel Caux wanted us to discover in his early chronicles, published from 1974 to 1976, in Charlie Mensuel – that he signed with the pretty name of Ali Charlie - until some of more recent time. It is his intact enthusiasm that we can found in each of the texts published in this book.
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I want to thank Delfeil de Ton and Wolinski for their encouragement to the publication of these texts, most of which were published in Charlie Mensuel from January 1974 to June 1976. Early 1974, in fact, Delfeil de Ton and Wolinski - see the design, dedicated to Daniel, on the first page of this book - opens to Daniel Caux, alias Ali Charlie, the columns of their papers for regular columns on Arab musics.
I think we need to remember that in what we later called "Les Trente Glorieuses" - whose pomp economic development has come to an end with the 1973 oil crisis - held, wanted by French authorities, a massive influx of migrant workers. Yet no newspaper, no radio, no television, of course, had previously considered anything that could affect much less value or simply recognize the cultures of our ex colonies or ex protectorates. The end of the war in Algeria is still a raw wound and, talk "differently" of these cultures of these liberated countries is therefore a political act. Only Charlie Mensuel propose this "openness" and chronic to Daniel to discover the richness, the complexity and the diversity of Arab musics, but also expose the ignorance or the rejection, in which they are required, similar to the ignorance and rejection of these emigrants. These are two aspects that this book helps to find: passionate and easy to read as Daniel was always, who has never been a didactic musicologist but a lover… But he give an access to musicological aspects ... and to sociological aspects too. Some texts allows us to find the atmosphere that reigned in France in those days. Some of these aspects may seem strange and distant to young readers, but they seem to me historically important to remember, especially as some of the attitudes reported by Daniel have not really gone.
A word is heard as: cultural discrimination, unless the problem has been most societal than musical? Unless the recognition of the richness of Arab musics, other than a few words to get rid of quickly, have led to questioning too many prejudices? And if we say that Arab musics are in no way inferior to ours, where we would go ... Since it is true - we have been told again recently - that the African is not part of history! ...
Some things have obviously changed: it is much easier now to find records of various Arabic musics which appear under many labels. The Institut du Monde Arabe, the House of World Cultures, the Théâtre de la Ville, the Cité de la Musique - to name a few - regularly have concerts of Arab musics. For that they can go to "turners" that did not exist in the mid-eighties, as demand was so low (I'm talking, of course, of music with real cultural value. Commercial sectors representing a different area, having for a long time, very efficient circuits ...). When Daniel was organized, in 1984 and 1985, twenty-five concerts "Days of Arab Musics" at the Theatre des Amandiers de Nanterre, then directed by Patrice Chéreau, is himself - usually accompanied by Alain Crombecque - who had to meet, on-site, each guest musicians.
However, even if these changes have taken place, ask, even today, at random, to people in the street, to mention you the names of the greatest musicians, singers and Arab musicians they know, it's artists from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iraq, of any country in the Arab world. Most of the times it is a total ignorance ... May be Oum Kalthoum! But it is the only one! Maybe some artists of Raï? Same, with some nuances, in a large number of "musicologists". Certainly, they know some important names from the past - Ziryab, it tells them something, and also "the great book of music of Al Farabi "- but things go wrong from Sayed Darwishes, the great" Egyptian musicien " at the turn of the century, and finally, with regard to live Arabic modern musics, they also do not know much. Such ignorance is too radical for not telling us something ! Others invoke the famous concept of impure musics - even that the great merits of this music lies in the fact that there is no real border separating the "scholar" of the "popular". Of course, as in all musics, everything is obviously not an equal interest in modern Arabic musics, but would still have to listen... This is what Daniel invites us in this book.
Jacqueline Caux
I think we need to remember that in what we later called "Les Trente Glorieuses" - whose pomp economic development has come to an end with the 1973 oil crisis - held, wanted by French authorities, a massive influx of migrant workers. Yet no newspaper, no radio, no television, of course, had previously considered anything that could affect much less value or simply recognize the cultures of our ex colonies or ex protectorates. The end of the war in Algeria is still a raw wound and, talk "differently" of these cultures of these liberated countries is therefore a political act. Only Charlie Mensuel propose this "openness" and chronic to Daniel to discover the richness, the complexity and the diversity of Arab musics, but also expose the ignorance or the rejection, in which they are required, similar to the ignorance and rejection of these emigrants. These are two aspects that this book helps to find: passionate and easy to read as Daniel was always, who has never been a didactic musicologist but a lover… But he give an access to musicological aspects ... and to sociological aspects too. Some texts allows us to find the atmosphere that reigned in France in those days. Some of these aspects may seem strange and distant to young readers, but they seem to me historically important to remember, especially as some of the attitudes reported by Daniel have not really gone.
A word is heard as: cultural discrimination, unless the problem has been most societal than musical? Unless the recognition of the richness of Arab musics, other than a few words to get rid of quickly, have led to questioning too many prejudices? And if we say that Arab musics are in no way inferior to ours, where we would go ... Since it is true - we have been told again recently - that the African is not part of history! ...
Some things have obviously changed: it is much easier now to find records of various Arabic musics which appear under many labels. The Institut du Monde Arabe, the House of World Cultures, the Théâtre de la Ville, the Cité de la Musique - to name a few - regularly have concerts of Arab musics. For that they can go to "turners" that did not exist in the mid-eighties, as demand was so low (I'm talking, of course, of music with real cultural value. Commercial sectors representing a different area, having for a long time, very efficient circuits ...). When Daniel was organized, in 1984 and 1985, twenty-five concerts "Days of Arab Musics" at the Theatre des Amandiers de Nanterre, then directed by Patrice Chéreau, is himself - usually accompanied by Alain Crombecque - who had to meet, on-site, each guest musicians.
However, even if these changes have taken place, ask, even today, at random, to people in the street, to mention you the names of the greatest musicians, singers and Arab musicians they know, it's artists from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Iraq, of any country in the Arab world. Most of the times it is a total ignorance ... May be Oum Kalthoum! But it is the only one! Maybe some artists of Raï? Same, with some nuances, in a large number of "musicologists". Certainly, they know some important names from the past - Ziryab, it tells them something, and also "the great book of music of Al Farabi "- but things go wrong from Sayed Darwishes, the great" Egyptian musicien " at the turn of the century, and finally, with regard to live Arabic modern musics, they also do not know much. Such ignorance is too radical for not telling us something ! Others invoke the famous concept of impure musics - even that the great merits of this music lies in the fact that there is no real border separating the "scholar" of the "popular". Of course, as in all musics, everything is obviously not an equal interest in modern Arabic musics, but would still have to listen... This is what Daniel invites us in this book.
Jacqueline Caux
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Press :
> Les Mille et un trésor des Musiques Arabes par Bernard Loupias - Nouvel Obs - July 4/10 2013
> Les Mille et un trésor des Musiques Arabes par Tewfik Hakem - Artpress - N°404 - October 2013
> Les Mille et un trésor des Musiques Arabes par Bernard Loupias - Nouvel Obs - July 4/10 2013
> Les Mille et un trésor des Musiques Arabes par Tewfik Hakem - Artpress - N°404 - October 2013
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