Aleph & Ensemble
Arabic Music Days
Musical Performance Ensemble & Orchestra / Arab and Persian Music 0The origins of the Arabic takht reach back all the way to the 8th century. Originally designating the wooden platform that used to serve as the stage for the musicians, the term has come to refer to the classical ensemble of Arabic music—consisting of singer, oud, flute, qanun, and various percussion instruments—that has been adopted and developed over the centuries in multiple musical traditions across the Middle East and Northern Africa. This combination of musicians, which has inspired creative exchange to this day, is at the center of the 2022–23 season’s Arabic Music Days curated by Naseer Shamma. In four concerts, artists from Syria, Lebanon, and Morocco present traditional and contemporary takes on the concept of the takht.
Lebanese pianist and composer Fady Abi Saad, better known under his stage name Aleph, and his ensemble combine the classical genre with the diatonic piano and various musical currents of the present.
Aleph (Fady Abi Saad) Piano
Raed Bou Kamel Ney, Percussion
Jihad Assaad Qanun
Ruslan Plamadeala Trombone
Fouad Afra Percussion
Philippe Dib Bass
The program was announced from the stage.
Photo credit: Jakob Tillmann
During intermission poet Basim Alansar performed two of his poems. Watch a full poetry reading with him.
A Life Surrounded by Trees
Here it is, your time, rolling over the snow-capped mountain,
And here I am, watching you stroll inside the safe times.
Here they are, your desires painted with honey onto the caves,
And here I am, watching you sleep with the old pain.
You first wanted to cry over the past,
And then you wanted to weep about the future.
If you could have, you would have embraced autumn and
eternity together.
You never cared for poets’ wagons,
And the only time you ran was to chase dead stories.
I told you to walk with me toward ephemeral dreams,
But instead you walked alone toward immortal wishes.
And I told you to pack the grass’s green into the suitcases,
But instead you brought the sky’s color into the room.
Remember that you and pleasure are twins.
Remember that the sky doesn’t sleep just when you want it to.
And remember that your life is surrounded by trees.
I hoped you would make war against the taboos,
But you went and chucked such theories over my head.
And I hoped you would remonstrate in the face of immortality,
But instead you wounded my soul with your ancient tunes.
I saw you opening the red gate to enter the insurgency,
After you promised me to enter it through its white gate.
Why did you bid farewell to the coming dawn?
And why did you welcome the dusk?
And after you were away from me for so long,
I knocked on your door so hard
That the knocking left my heart hanging on a nail, bewildered.
And when I saw how the mailman passes
Without turning toward your life,
The trees surrounded me quietly.
Breezes
Whenever I move toward life,
The drums of war stop me.
Whenever I grasp the fringes of truth,
The swords of history knife me.
Whenever I embrace freedom’s body,
The tyrants shout in my face.
And whenever I listen to the sounds of exile,
I’m slapped by memories of my mother country.
I have repeatedly declared
That I’m not seeking glory,
Or even trying to be reputable.
All I’ve wished for in my life
Has been to comprehend the breezes that
Blow away the sorrows, implanted in my heart
Since childhood.
Translated from the Arabic by Henry Holland and Hazem Shekho
Arabic Music Days
Music, Visual Arts, Poetry and Film