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Karima Sequilli Sings
Dour Imta Elhawa

Musical Composition 

Al-Dour

       There is another Musical form that came to prominence in the last century, and became popular with an improved artistic standard.  This form is called “Al-Dour” in the Middle East.  Some of its early pioneers were; Abdul-Raheem Al-Masloob and Muhammad Al-Muqaddam, who trained one of the most popular composers and singers of “Al-Adwaar” (plural of Al-Dour). This musician is Abdu Al-Hamooly, who lived until the early part of the 20^th century.  Abdu Al-Hamooly is credited with infusing the Arabic Egyptian music with Turkish music which gave Al-Dour a finer form.  This was due to his travels to Turkey, and his participation with the Royal musical group of the Sultan of Turkey.  A colleague of Mr. Al-Hamooly, Muhammad Usman, has also contributed greatly to the evolution of this musical form to its present state.  

       We have come to know that the Muwashah is performed by a vocal singing group.  However, Al-Dour is considered an artistic Dialogue between the Primary singer and the Vocal group.  Where by, the Singer performs a rhythmic improvised singing, where he shows his artistic competence and knowledge of Maqamat and rhythm.  The Dour is ended with a high continuous voice, followed by descending down the scale to complete the ending.  It’s possible that Mr. Muhammad Usman had created this dialogue due to his illness, and it became hard for him to carry on with singing extended phrases, because of shortness of breath.  This way, the audience was not aware of his condition.  However, this style became very popular and much loved as well. 

       The artists mentioned above have collaborated in establishing the “Egyptian School of Adwaar”, which has helped in proliferating this style and musical form through out the Arab World.  Through them and their albums, many renowned musicians have become well known as graduates of this School.  In passing, we mention some of these musicians, such as: Ibraheem Al-Qabbani, Kamil Al Khalii and Seyyid Darweech of Egypt, Ibraheem Al-Samman of the Arabian Peninsula, Saleem Al-Hilow of Lebanon, Shakir Al-Murabit of Libya and Muhammad Al-Aqrabi of Tunisia.  Seyyid Darweech was born in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, which had a sizable European community, that brought many Western musical groups for occasional performances, and that may explain how the Egyptian Music, and particularly Seyid Darweech’s music, was infused with Western music.  Here is one of Seyyid Darweech’s Adwaar which was popular in the first half of the 20^th century. The Dour is in Maqam Hijaz Kar (). 

       We have noticed that Muhammad Usman was the one to introduce the singing dialogue to the Muwashah, which was solely done by the musical group.  To illustrate this, a Muwashah in Rast, called “Mala Al-kasaat wa-saqani”, by Mr. Usman, will be introduced. This is one Muwashah that is still quite popular in our times. (Mala Al-kasaat )