Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

Tarek Abdallah

Tarek Abdallah
Tark Abdallah improvising at Pierre Cormon's place in Geneva, Switzerland, 29.6.2006
Tark Abdallah improvising at Pierre Cormon's place in Geneva, Switzerland, 29.6.2006
Background information
Born1975 (age 48–49)
OriginAlexandria, Egypt
GenresEgyptian classical music
Occupation(s)musician, composer, musicologist
Instrumentoud
Websitetarekabdallah.com

Tarek Abdallah is an Egyptian oud player, composer and musicologist who lives in France.

Biography

Tarek Abdallah was born in Alexandria in 1975. [1] He had been attracted to the oud since his childhood, after having seen a comedian playing the instrument on TV, but due to the opposition of his family, he had to wait until he was 19 to touch one for the first time in his life. [2] Studying with the Alexandrian master Hazem Shaheen, he practiced 10 hours a day in order to enter The Arabic Oud House, an oud school created in Cairo by the Iraqi master Naseer Shamma.[2] He graduated from there with an excellence award. [1] He lives in Marseille since 2001 and conducts musicology research at the Lumière University Lyon 2, about the notion of virtuosity in Egypt between 1904 and 1932. He analyses the evolution of the style, of the ornament and of the instrumental technique. [1][2] He has been invited in several Arabic countries in order to give master classes. [1] He released his first album, Wasla, with the percussion player Adel Shams El-Din, in 2015.

Style

The album Wasla draws from music of the Nahda (Renaissance) era (1910 – 1930). [3] [4] It is based on the waslah form, which is a musical suite in one mode with varying rhythms.[3] But contrary to the music of the Nahda era, his music is purely instrumental. [5] Some of the rhythms used in the album are very complex, some of them were used only once in the tradition, some of hem were invented.[3] The French magazine Les Inrockuptibles praised Abdalla's “sober and refined way of playing, with a naked and very pure melody, indifferent to frivolity, of irreproachable ethics“.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Khouri-Dagher, Nadia (8 February 2015). "EGYPTE : TAREK ABDALLAH, Dans la grande tradition du 'oud égyptien". Le Monde. Groupe Le Monde. Archived from the original on 22 May 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "A l'autre bout du casque - Tarek Abdallah et son disque Wasla". France Musique. Radio France. 23 February 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Hird, Alison (1 February 2015). "Tarek Abdallah's Egyptian musical suites". Radio France Internationale. Radio France. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  4. ^ a b Nicolaou, Louis-Julien (19 January 2015). "10 albums de musique du monde pour janvier". Les Inrockuptibles. Les éditions indépendantes. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  5. ^ Berthod, Anne (January 2015). "World Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El-Din". Télérama. Groupe Le Monde. Retrieved 1 June 2016.