Amina Goodyear Her Songs Dance in our Hearts
"Ya Habibi, el leila, we sama, we negum wel amaru..."
Oh my darling, the night, and the sky and the stars and the moon....
These are the opening words for the song entitled "Alf Leila wa Leila", which was written for Om Kalthoum in 1969.
Om, meaning mother in Arabic, was to me, the mother of my "all-time favorite" songs of all time. Songs that floated in my head while awake, songs that danced in my head while sleeping and songs whose emotions and passions I was compelled to reenact while dancing, performing and seducing my audiences at the Bagdad Cabaret during San Francisco's golden age of belly dance which was from the 1960's - 1980's.
Although we associate Mohamed Abdel Wahab and Om Kalthoum as collaborators because of that great song Enta Omri and other important songs we now use for belly dance, Abdel Wahab really only wrote for her in the last ten years of her musical and real life (Om Kalthoum died in her seventies in the 1970's). She had been singing and performing in lower Egypt's country villages since the early 1900's dressed as a boy (because girls did not perform publicly) almost as soon as she learned to walk and talk. According to Om, she used to sing for sweets and mahalabeyya pudding while her father would collect and keep her money. Later her father took her to Cairo where, as a young and talented girl/woman, people quickly discovered her abilities and she was soon on the road to realizing her dreams. Her voice, her being, and her passionate drive also attracted young composers and writers to her side. She discovered that they, too, desired and needed to be heard. And by her calculated friendships choosing and manipulation of young men - suitors, musicians, composers, and poets - she created musical marriages that made her the powerful, hypnotic and ecstatic voice of Egypt. She found, inspired, bewitched and hired many talented young composers.such as Mohamed el Qasabji, Zakaria Ahmad, Riad al Sunbati and Baligh Hamdi and the lovesick poet Ahmad Ramy who wrote words of love to many Habibis.
"Ya Habibi, el leila, we sama, we negum wel amaru...."
Oh my darling, the night, and the sky and the stars and the moon....
This song, "Alf Leila wa Leila" was composed by the oh so prolific, legendary and somewhat wild and scandalous Baligh Hamdi with the lyrics, the poetry, written by Morsi Gamil Aziz. By the time this song was written, Om had already established herself as the voice of Egypt for Nasser in 1964 because of Abdel Wahab's and her collaborative efforts with the song Enta Omri. By 1969, the sixty something year old Om had already commissioned and performed hundreds of songs and was the reigning singer of the Arab world. She had already won, captivated and broken many hearts and she didn't even have to marry Baligh Hamdi to get her music.
"Ya Habibi" - Any belly dancer worth her salt, any belly dancer involved in this dance knows that "Ya Habibi" means oh my darling, oh my beloved, oh my sweetheart. But what about "leila?" Is it just a girl's name? Does it only mean night? In Arab "song talk" maybe it really means "oh sleepless night, I'm staying awake all night thinking, dreaming, talking to the night and reminiscing about you, my love, my love, you're the love of my life..." In reality it means even more. And "sama" becomes the sky...the heavens...the ultimate paradise...And what about the word "negum?" It can't just refer to stars as in Safaa Farid's "Camp Negum." It can also mean forever, infinity, a million, million stars and more. And "amar." What is "'amar?" Is it just a girls' name? Well, actually, it's that and more. It's also the moon and refers to "the her" the most beautiful and, of course, it's also important to cry out to the moon and speak of love. Yes, Arabic is a vague language and I've been studying it and trying to decipher it for decades.
"Ya Habibi, el leila, we sama, we negum, wel amaru...."
I've always loved the words to this song and the melody of the song itself ever since I first heard the LP when it was first released in the early 1970's. I especially loved that it was a live recording as the recording would transport me to a Thursday night concert in Cairo where I could be one of many in the audience loving, dreaming and ecstatic with joy and memories.
I've loved this song in all its various permutations with and without lyrics, sung and played live at the Bagdad where I had worked as a dancer. I also loved the various versions I found on records, on cassettes and later, on CDs that were recorded on "belly dance" albums. But most of all, I love all the versions recorded by various young up and coming Egyptian and Arab singers such as the little blind boy, Taher Mustafa, the child star George Wasoof and popular singers of "cover songs" such as Nur Mhana. Amal Maher and Mai Farouk.
Although I've always loved what I consider "the original" version of "Alf Leila wa Leila", which was the LP record, in a purple album cover displaying a photo of a passionate Om emotionally and vigorously singing, I was eventually made aware of how fortunate I was to know "the original" version of the song. Most of my young local Arab musicians and friends had never even heard the original arrangement on LP. They were too young to have heard the music from the LP albums; they only knew of the song from stories by their parents or grandparents telling of listening to the radio broadcasts of first Thursday concerts. Some may have learned about the song from older local musicians but they may not have heard a cassette or even a CD of Om singing. Of course, this was all before the Internet and you tube, which has now become our greatest music and dance resource.
Oftentimes, in performance, the song would morph into an oddly arranged version of different portions of the original song. It could become shorter or longer in order to accommodate a homesick Arab audience in a club or maybe just shorter to be part of a belly dance routine. Sometimes the song would be sung by a "cover singer" who had used one of Om's songs to show off his or her voice in a "star search" type competition or festival. If this is how the new generation of Arabs learned their music, how about the new generations of dancers who would later discover this music? This crop of dancers has the advantage of having the most danceable sections become available for dance in digital and MP3 formats edited down to adhere to appropriate festival/performance time requirements.
As a band member I've many times witnessed what could happen if one is not prepared. I have seen dancers cry, saying that they did not get their requested song, when in actuality, they did not recognize the portion that the musicians chose to play. Some dancers don't even know that "Alf Leila wa Leila" has singing. They may only know what they find on You Tube or what is chosen for them on music channels like Spotify. Often this is only the first instrumental section. That's only the first seven minutes of a sixty-minute song. Yes, that's why it is so important to listen to and study the entire song. from the original source, Om Kalthoum.
So, why should learning a song in its original arrangement matter to dancers? Why bother to learn/memorize a complete hour-long song when most belly dance versions of the same song are only 5 to 7 minutes long? Well, it's because I've found that as a dancer, dance teacher, musician, it is important to do research and learn the original version. This is so easy to do these days, thanks to the internet. One then is able to know, to understand and be able to jump easily from one section to another and perform the song with the correct feeling without awkward surprises. Live bands often decide on the spot which section to play, or delete, and if they feel like singing or not.
Besides "Alf Leila wa Leila," most of Om's songs are quite long and divided into sections. Usually they start with a long instrumental introduction followed by the first verse of poetry. This may be alternated by another but shorter instrumental theme, another verse, more instrumental interludes, then more poetry and so on. Often the poetry is so repetitious that the entire song, which can sometimes last over an hour, is in realit y, usually one page long. Om was known for her repetitions - repeating sections or words, including singing one word or even one syllable repeatedly until she was satisfied that her audience understood her emotional intention.
If you choose to dance to such a piece, do your homework. Take the time to know how many musical themes; sections and verses are in the song. When choosing the song, notice if it's the first instrumental section, notice if an instrument such as the violin or accordion or saxophone is playing/singing (the part of) the voice; take the time to differentiate between the voice and the instrumental melodic sections. If dancing to live music, take the time to speak to the musicians and request a section. Be clear - such as, ask for the first instrumental section (commonly called the introduction) the first singing part and the last instrumental section. Don't leave too much to chance. If dancing to live music, let your musicians know that you know your music. You'll dance better and your musicians will want to play better when they know that you care enough to know the song.
"Ya Habibi, el leila, we sama, we negum wel amaru..."
Oh my darling, the night, and the sky and the stars and the moon....
by Amina Goodyear, San Francisco, California
Please do no copy or reprint without crediting the author
Biography
Amina Goodyear is best known as an Egyptian dancer and dance teacher turned percussioist, active since the mid 1960's. Since the 1980's she founded many musical groups such as the Cairo Cats, a percussionn ensemble led by her daughter Susu Pampanin.
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