Françoise Atlan, Aïcha Redouane and the Al Adwar Ensemble, accompanied by the Fès Orchestra (Directed by Mohamed Briouel) - (Morocco, France)Arabo-Andalusian Jewish Tradition and Art of maqamThis concert is a symbol of the encounter between two traditions. The Sephardic songs have their origin in the Jewish communities of medieval Andalusian Spain. After the fall of Grenada in 1492, beleaguered by the Catholic kings, the Reconquista and the end of Muslim Spain, part of the Jewish community emigrated to the Maghreb, mainly to Morocco to settle principally in Tangier, Fes and in western Algeria in the region of Tlemcen and Constantine. The musical styles of the Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities already strongly influenced each other, emphasising their cohabitation. Very often Muslim and Jewish musicians and singers found themselves side by side in orchestras. Sometimes only the words of the songs allowed one to differentiate between the origins of the ensembles. Françoise Atlan has already performed with the Orchestra of Mohamed Briouel in the Fes Festival, in this ancient and beautiful tradition of Sepharidic songs of which she is the most brilliant of interpreters, bearing witness through the exemplary work with Mohamed Briouel that this beautiful Andalusian heritage is still alive in our days in Morocco. It seemed interesting to us to put this Andalusian-Judeo style in conjunction with the oriental pole of Arab music as it is practised in the Machreq, in the Middle East. (Egypt, Iraq, Syria). In this age of confrontation and tension, to put together these two voices, the Jewish and Muslim in an encounter of styles at once different but also similar in many respects, derives from a certain cultural desire but also of a certain musical curiosity, of a desire for discovery. In fact, it is uncommon, surprising as this may seem, that the Judeo-Andalusian traditions should come together in the difficult art of oriental Maqam the rules and stylistics of which are so different. This experiment will therefore be undertaken with Françoise Atlan, Aïcha Redouane, and Mohamed Briouel all musicians who know and appreciate one another and prove themselves in their respective careers through extraordinary openness.
Françoise Atlan (song) and the Arab-Andalusian Orchestra of Fes, directed by Mohamed Briouel: "Sephardic Songs"
Her versatile soprano voice and solid background in classical music studies thus permits her to work on a contemporary register with the Musicatreize Ensemble of R. Hairabedian. Besides her usual orchestra, "Andalussiyat" where Persian, Arab and Jewish musicians play together, Françoise Atlan performs in a variety of registers with the Flamenco guitarist Juan Carmona, Dominique Vellard and the Gilles Binchois Ensemble of medieval music, and more recently in the Arab-Andalusian repertoire with the Orchestra of Fes directed by Mohamed Briouel. In 1998 she obtained the Prix de la Villa Médicis Hors les Murs for her research into the Judeo-Moroccan musical and poetic tradition. During her long stay in Fes, she met the last elderly guardians of the musical treasures of the Jews of Morocco, absorbing the influences of the particular spirit of this community deeply rooted in its spiritual history. Françoise Atlan will perform in the Fes Festival the profane and sacred songs of this historical lineage still rooted in the secular tradition, accompanied by the Orchestra of Fes, and directed by Mohamed Briouel. Mohamed Briouel Just as one cannot disassociate the name of Hadj Abdelkrim Raïss from his master Lebrihi, the name of Abdelkrim Raïss cannot be separated from that of his favourite disciple, Mohamed Briouel. Born in 1954 in the region of Fes, Mohamed Briouel began studying music in 1963 at the side of Hadj Abdelkrim Raïss, one of the undisputed masters of Andalusian music in the Maghreb. Mohamed Briouel was the first Moroccan to receive the first prize for music notation and the prize of honour for Andalusian music. He is director of the Music Conservatory of Fes where he also teaches music notation. (sol-fa). Along with Tlemcen, Tangier and Oujda, the city of Fes is one of the places where Arab-Andalusian music has been most preserved since the fall of Granada and the end of the Kingdom of Al Andalous in 1492. Mohamed Briouel, a violist by training and a great specialist in Arab-Andalusian music, is the direct heir to the late Hadj Abdelkrim Raïss. Mohamed Briouel participated in the recording of the anthology "Al Ala" the purest form of Arab-Andalusian music with Quaddam Bouaquir Al Maya and Quaddam Ejjadid. In 1986 he received the Prix du Maroc for the publication of his work entitled "Moroccan Andalusian Music: Nouba Gharibat al Husayn" in which the eleven Andalusian noubas are retranscribed into Western music notation for the first time. In 1991 the Ministry of Culture of Morocco entrusted him to set up a new ensemble of Andalusian music called "Al Ala" placed under the administrative authority of the Ministry, and with whom he has given numerous concerts all over the world. During these past years Mohamed Briouel has performed in Morocco and abroad with his own orchestra "The Arab-Andalusian Orchestra of Fes" in the double context of Arab-Muslim music and also of Sephardic music, accompanied by musicians of Jewish traditions such as Albert Bouhadana, Emil Zrihan or again Françoise Atlan, faithful to this ancient Moroccan tradition of openness and tolerance. M. Briouel has brought together during the past few years a number of young singers of Fes into a choir that has already performed with success in past seasons of the Festival.
AICHA REDOUANE AND THE AL ADWAR ENSEMBLE: "THE ART OF MAQAM"
Al Adwar Ensemble A Berber born in Ait Attab in the Middle Atlas of Morocco, Aicha Redouane has been singing since her earliest childhood. Beginning with repertoires for festive evenings,
she began to learn the music of Oum Kulthum at the age of six.
She moved with her family when she was still very young to southern
France and eventually began to study architecture. To interpret this repertoire, which requires a takght (a small traditional ensemble) she founded the Al Adwar Ensemble with Habib Yammine, a Lebanese percussionist and musicologist. The repertoire of the Al Adwar Ensemble is based on wasla, a suite of composed and improvised instrumental and vocal pieces. In these delicate suites, all the subtle virtuosity of the orchestra backs up the superb voice of Aicha Redouane, in a tone filled with emotion and intensity. These great debuts began in 1993, with her first appearance in the famous "Théatre de la Ville" in Paris, followed by a first CD which was awarded a "Diapason d'Or and a "Choc du Monde de la Musique." The public discovered in her a new great voice in Arab classical music. Since then, she has given many concerts all over the world and the Théatre de la Ville welcomed her again in 2003 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of her first appearance, with a performance inspired by the famous mystical text of the Egyptian poet Ibn El Farid: Al Khamriyya or the Wine Song, a metaphor for spiritual rapture. Having appeared in the Festival in 1997, Aicha Redouane will
perform this year in Fes in with Françoise Atlan, a unique
encounter of the traditions of Sephardic songs, the origins of
which are in Andalusia and in the Maghreb. The encounter will
also feature the art of Maqam, which comes from the Machreq, the
East of the Arab Muslim world. |
