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My favorite singer/musician:
Marcel Khalifé, the Lebanese musician and writer, was named UNESCO Artist for Peace on June 7 by UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, at a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters. Born in 1950 in Amchit, Mount Lebanon, Khalife first studied, then taught, the oud, or Arabic lute, at the Beirut National Conservatory. He began his career as a soloist and went on, in 1972, to create “Al Mayadine”, a group in his home village, to preserve the Arabic musical heritage with the oud. At the vanguard of innovative Middle-Eastern music, Khalifé’s original music makes him an ambassador of his culture.
His challenges, however, are not only musical in character. Interpreter of music and oud performer, he is also a composer who is deeply attached to the text on which he relies. In his association with great contemporary Arab poets, particularly Palestinian poet par excellence, Mahmoud Darwish, he seeks to renew the character of the Arabic song, to break its stereotypes, and to advance the culture of the society that surrounds it.
Khalifé joins other UNESCO Artists for Peace, which includes Russian conductor, Valery Gergiev, the Gypsy composer and singer Chico Bouchikhi, Japanese ballet dancer Miyako Yoshida, U.S. writer and painter N. Scott Momaday, Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil and Nigerian painter and sculptor Prince Twins Seven-Seven.
My favorite song of Marcel is "To My Mother:"
My mother's coffee
Her touch..
Childhood memories grow up in me
Day after day
I must be worth my life
At the hour of my death,
Worth the tears of my Mother!
And if I come back one day
Take me as a veil to your eyelashes
Cover my bones with the grass Blessed by your footsteps
Bind us together..
With a lock of your hair..
With a thread that trails from the back of your dress..
I might become immortal
Become a god..
If I touch the depths of your heart!
My Mother…
(… by Mahmoud Darwish)
And my favorite poem by Mahmoud Darwish is "State of siege:"
Brimming with fertility, be a tree,
If you are not a tree, my love… Be a stone
Brimming with water, be a stone,
If you are not a stone, my love… Be the moon
In the dream of your loved one, be the moon
(The words of a mother to her son, as she buried him).
{ 4 } Comments
Haitham, i long to my mother's bread is one of my favoite as well… it is very tender…
It saddens me, that people who represent our culture in a sweet manner like him are not appreciated across all society levels…
I mean all the critisim he got few years ago was trully haarsh… I think he felt misunderstood at that point.
I just bought the Khalife album "promises of the storm"… what an amazing album. I studied some of Darwish's poetry in my arabic class as well, both are great artists. What criticism did Khalife recieve?
I'm not sure if Madas is referring to the Blasphemy charges which the Lebanese court found him innocent of. But that was in December 1999. Khalife always spoke for the progressive camp and has sought to elaborate a cultural basis upon which to overcome Lebanon's religio-ethnic divides.
Khalife's 1995 Arab Coffeepot album contained a song, entitled "Oh Father, I Am Yusuf," based on a poem by Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish. The song compares the oppression of Palestinians in Arab lands to the biblical Joseph's mistreatment at the hands of his brothers, a story that also appears in the Koran. The song's vague citation of a Koranic verse drew hostile attention from the Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon's highest Sunni authority. They charged that citation of the Koran, or even a poet's interpretation of a Koranic text, represented disrespect to a religious text and blasphemy. Given that Sunni authorities are often viewed as relative cultural moderates, this is surprising and indicative of internal shifts. Ironically, leading Shiite clerics, usually thought more conservative, have come to Khalife's defense.
Blasphemy proceedings brought against Khalife in 1996 halted after intervention by then-late Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. The case brought an outpouring of support for the singer, one that emphasized Beirut's renaissance as a cultural center.
In his statement from the courthouse steps, Khalife spoke words of accommodation. "The accusation against me stems merely from relating passionately to a Koranic verse which opened my soul to vast horizons in ways no other text is capable of doing. I stand accused because I believed that the spirit of religion is more broad and tolerant than the interpretations by those who appoint themselves as guardians of our faith and morality. I also believed that inquisition courts were things of the past."
Marcel Khalife is one of my favorite artists too !! they said "Lebanese musician and writer" only but Marcel is also composer, and singer … and maybe more things that we don't know yet …
Anyway I love "Ritta", "To My Mother" and "Jadal" … Specially "Jadal" that's when I discovered Marcel the composer.
{ 3 } Trackbacks
Marcel Khalif named UNESCO Artist for Peace
Marcel Khalif, the Lebanese musician and writer, was named UNESCO Artist for Peace on June 7 by UNESCO Director-General, Kochiro Matsuura, at a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters. Born in 1950 in Amchit, Mount Lebanon, Mr Khalife first studied, then taug…
Marcel Khalifé named UNESCO Artist for Peace
My favorite singer/musician: Marcel Khalifé, the Lebanese musician and writer, was named UNESCO Artist for Peace on June 7 by UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, at a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters. Born in 1950 in Amchit, Mount Lebanon, Kh…
Marcel Khalife named UNESCO Artist for Peace
Sabbah tips us: Marcel Khalife named UNESCO Artist for Peace. …the Lebanese musician and writer was named UNESCO Artist for Peace on June 7 by UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, at a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters. Born in 1950 in Amchit,