Karima Skalli
Wasla, literally “that which links”, is a suite of vocal and instrumental pieces, some of which are composed, others improvised, some measured, others non-measured, but all of which are in the same mode. A Wasla begins with an instrumental overture, followed by a suite of sung pieces, alternating with instrumental and vocal improvisations.This recording brings together the talents of the singer Karima Skalli, the composer Lofti Bouchnak and the poet Adam Fethi. In keeping with tradition, the orchestra accompanying the soloist and the choir is made up of an cûd (lute), a qânûn (plucked zither), a violin and percussion. However, it has here been enlarged to include a double bass, a cello, a bouzouk and a saxophone. This approach brings a note of originality to a recording that is, thus, both rooted in tradition and open to the challenges of the present.
Tracklist
1 – Samâcî rast/Instrumental piece – 6’30
2 – Damci l’mahbûb/The Tears of the Beloved – 19’33
3 – Arrûhu bi hubbikum tafûh/My Soul Rejoices in Your Love – 5’14
4 – Longa rast/Instrumental piece – 4’37
5 – Ghannî yâ fannân/Oh Singer, Please Sing – 7’36
6 – Habbînâ/In Love Are We – 6’00
Interpreters andinstruments
Karima Skalli (singing)
Lotfi Bouchnak (singing)
Moeâz Louakdi (lute)
Yaârab (bouzouk)
Bachir Salmi (violin)
Abdelhkim Ben Hlilou (cello)
Taoufik Zghounda (kanoun)
Najib Belhadi (contrebass)
Sidi Mohammed Al Idrissi (saxophone)
Mohammed Ben Mabrouk (percussion)
About
A new album of Arab classical music is a rare event nowadays. What’s even more rare is one whose programme includes a wasla; one with a wasla thatturns out to be a piece of contemporary music is virtually unique, especially when the creators of this superb work are outstanding in their own right, in this case the singer Karima Skalli, the composer Lotfi Bouchnak and the poet Adam Fethi.
The wasla (literally, that which links) is a suite of vocal and instrumental pieces; some are composed, others improvised, some are measured, others non-measured, but they all are in the same maqâm (mode). The suite begins with an instrumental overture, followed by a suite of sung pieces, alternating with instrumental and vocal improvisations.
The orchestra accompanying the solo singer and the members of the choir, known as a takht, is a chamber ensemble traditionally made up of the following instruments: an ‘ud (lute), a qanun (zither), a violin and a riqq (a tambourine with little cymbals attached); sometimes there will also be a nay (reed flute). Lotfi Bouchnak has enlarged the concept to include a double bass, a cello, a bouzouk and a saxophone, which gives his wasla a truly original sound, both rooted in tradition yet open to the hazards and challenges of modern times.
Wasla in mode rast represents the perfect blend of words by Adam Fethi, music by Lotfi Bouchnak and the wonderful voice of Karima Skalli.
Interview with Karima Skalli
Karima Skalli, can you give us the reasons behind the choice of the wasla?
Both Lotfi Bouchnak and I are schooled in classical Arab music, and now we want to pay tribute to all forms of scholarly traditional Arab music, including the samâcî, the dawr, the mawwâl, the taqtûqa… through this work. We’re also part of the move to pass this heritage on to the next generation. Then there’s the fact that Bouchnak is one of the few Arab musicians who still composes this type of music, and for me it’s an honour to be working with him, more for what he does for Arab music than for what he’s doing for me personally.
How did this wasla come into being?
I first met Lotfi Bouchnak in 2000 at the Festival of Fès and we immediately became friends; we’ve met several times since then, but it was actually some friends we have in common who suggested we work together, and from that came the idea of the wasla, recorded in Lotfi Bouchnak’s studios in Tunis with an orchestra of important musicians from Tunisia, Morocco and Syria. Once again, our work shows how music knows no boundaries, neither in time nor in space.
Lotfi Bouchnak has made some innovations in the traditional takht accompanying the soloist and the choir. He’s added a double bass, a cello, a bouzouk and a saxophone. Why?
What we’re trying to do is revive the wasla thatdisappeared when the famous singer Saleh Abdul-Hayy died in 1962, and which only survives today thanks to a few rare artists from the Maghreb or the Middle East. We present it here in its classical form, of which all the basic rules have been respected, but with certain innovations such as Adam Fethi’s contemporary poetry and the introduction of new instruments into the takht. Our aim wasn’t really to reproduce the wasla exactly as it used to be but to compose a new, more modern-sounding form of it.
With Wasla in mode rast, would it be true to say that Karima Skalli has now moved away from the Asmahan style to create her own artistic personality?
Asmahan’s voice has been with me since my childhood. Performing her songs has always been a pleasure and a learning experience for me, just as it is with those of Oum Kalthoum, Souad Mohamed and Leïla Mourad. But when it comes down to it, I have to build up my own repertoire, and that’s why I’d already started working with Moroccan artists, and Abderrafi Al-Jawahery in particular; he’s an important poet who gave Abdelhadi Belkhayat his famous song El-Qamar El-Ahmar [Red Moon]. His poems were specially set to music for me by the famous ‘udist Saïd Chraïbi, who also composed the music for texts by some of the great Sufi masters for me to use at the Festival of Fès in 2000. Aziz Hosni, Abdelati Amanna, Nouamane Lahlou and various others have also given me their songs.
Fady Matar, journalist
The recordings
1- Samâcî rast/Instrumental piece in the Rast mode – 6’30
The instrumental piece Samâcî is of Turkish origin. It is composed on a 10-time rhythmic cycle.
2- Damci l’mahbûb/The Tears of the Beloved – 19’33
The Mawwâl is a popular poem sung in a non measured style with vocal improvisations. Here it is followed by a Dawr, a popular form of singing mostly of Egyptian origin.
Yâ cAynî*, there exists such beauty that it wipes away tears
It nourishes the trees when the source runs dry
And my beloved is so beautiful, he embodies every being and every source
When I saw him, I closed my eyes and sang “yâ layl yâ cayn”
He is so beautiful, I fear for my eyes; and for him, I fear the evil eye
The tears of my beloved have guided
My eyes to the light of his beauty
Is sorrow the essence of beauty?
Sorrow there is, yet nourished by joy
My love for you was like a curlew
Taking me under its wing, it swept me away
Your love is my fate, oh beloved
Written on the door of my soul
It asks whether we realize
That lovers never know peace
Is sorrow the essence of beauty?
Sorrow there is, yet nourished by joy
* litterally : source or eye. The term refers to the beloved.
3- Arrûhu bi hubbikum tafûh/My Soul Rejoices in Your Love – 5’14
This piece called Muwashshah is a sung poem with a complex structure.
My soul rejoices in your love and like flowers
My heart reveals its secrets to all eyes
The flaming cheeks of love stolen by you, from the garden
Like luxuriant flowers the fire of passion stirs
You live in blissful ignorance you do not know love
Lost in pleasure the key to my soul is not misplaced
Oh, tell me that the judge of love has handed down his verdict and follow me
Give me the blessing of your kiss or leave me
Wipe my cheeks with roses ask, and my tears will tell you
If I am friend to myself or my own enemy
Oh let love rock me like a boat
And if it conquers my heart I will surrender with little resistance
4- Longa rast/Instrumental piece in the Rast mode –4’37
TheLonga is an instrumental piece. It is of Ottoman origin and still conserved in the Near-East. It is played in a lively and agile way.
5- Ghannî yâ fannân/Oh Singer, Please Sing – 7’36
Vocal Duetto between Karima Skalli and Lotfi Bouchnak
Oh Singer, please sing with the passing years, sing
Let the star of happiness light up the violin and the lute
I have sung all my life but no one has sung for me
I hardly know what eludes me nor what carries me away
The night has plagued me so but will it comfort and bless me?
Will the stars keep me awake obscuring the past?
The night and the stars will not forget you
The candle and the lamp may go out but your songs will last forever
You are witness to the past the dream that brightens pain
In the very last garden, you will be the keeper of the very last flower
Oh Singer, please sing with the passing years, sing
Let the star of happiness light up the violin and the lute
I awoke, dying of thirst a cup in my hands
My inner voice cried, oh Singer when will you reach the source?
All your life, you were a summer breeze dreaming of bread and flowers
You were a guest passing through knocking on doors
We are guests in this world knocking on the doors of time
Dying of thirst, desperate to know what the future holds
Life has been thus since the dawn of time win its favour through your song
Like a vessel that will take us to safer shores
Oh Singer, please sing with the passing years sing
Let the star of happiness light up the violin and the lute
Lost am I in my song what use are words?
Will the seed of my song bear fruit? Or is the earth made of marble?
I comfort others but my own heart weeps my lips smile and my soul cries
Should I be silent or should I tell my stories until dawn?
Tell us your stories, oh Singer, cover the withered branches with green growth
The soul of the world will lose its voice if the singer falls silent
Tell us your misfortunes your dreams and your joys
Tell what time would say to travellers such as ourselves
Oh Singer, please sing with the passing years, sing
Let the star of happiness light up the violin and the lute
6- Habbînâ/In Love Are We – 6’00
This piece called Taqtûqa, is a popular poem sung in vernacular Arabic. It is played in a rhythmic and lively way.Usually it is the last piece in a Wasla.
In love are we
And how much in love only god knows
We have left sleep far behind
And have waited nights on end
For a star to light our way
Such a star as would make us love life
A star glimpsed in a dream, from which we awoke
I did not know you, I had not seen you
Oh star, but I was bewitched by you
You were my dream and I kept you
Buried in my heart for an age
When sleep left me
And I couldn’t see you
I pretended to forget you
You lived in my imagination for an age
And through long nights I waited for you
My heart quivered like a reed,
In hollow resistance to the wind
My heart lived far from you, a featherless wing
Unable to rise to the heavens
In love are we
And how much in love only god knows
We have left sleep far behind
And have waited nights on end
For a star to light our way
Such a star as would make us love life
A star glimpsed in a dream, from which we awoke
- Reference : 321.077
- Ean : 794 881 795 321
- Main artist : Karima Skalli
- Year of recording : 2005
- Year of publishing : 2006
- Music style : Wasla
- Country : Morocco
- Town of recording : Paris
- Main language : Arabic
- Composers : Lofti Bouchnak ; Traditional
- Lyricists : Lofti Bouchnak ; Traditinal
- Copyright : Institut du Monde Arabe
Available in CD : buy here