One of Egypt's best-known traditional musicians, Mohamed El-Shennawi has long made the semsemiya, a magical, harp-like instrument, his own, writes Osama Kamal Mohamed El-Shennawi, once a long-time partner of the Tanboura Band of Port Said, has long been interested in collecting and preserving Egyptian folk music, including music played on one of the most characteristic instruments, the harp-like semsemiya. Tanboura, founded by Zakaria Ibrahim in 1988, is one of Egypt's best-loved folk music groups, and it has toured various parts of the world, including most of the European countries, as well as countries in Africa and the Arab world. Music has always been a major component of the culture of the cities of the Suez Canal, helping them to endure the dark times after the 1967 war. For this reason, it was only natural Tanboura should have found its roots in Port Said, the group thus far having produced three albums -- Semsemiet Bor Said (Semsemiya Tales from Port Said) in 1999, Ahwa Qamar (Loving Moon) in 2003, and Bein Al-Bahr wal-Sahraa (Between Sea and Desert) in 2006. However, though once considered the band's top performer and personally committed to its programme, Mohamed El-Shennawi left the group some years ago to form a rival band called Sohbat Welad Al-Bahr (Sons of the Sea). There was a quarrel between El-Shennawi and Tanboura's founder, Zakaria Ibrahim, but more than that perhaps there was also a need on El-Shennawi's part to strike out on his own. He seems to have wanted to explore new shores, being nobody's employee and with no manager to tell him what to do. In his new band, when El-Shennawi looks at the water's surface he sees his own reflection. Born in 1947 in a musical family, El-Shennawi's love of music is inherited from his father, who used to be a singer in the Al-Manakh district of Port Said in the 1930s. Occupied by the British at the time, the Canal Zone was full of bars and cabarets, each with its own complement of musicians, including the pianola players seen in the films of the time, men who walked the streets with piano-like instruments shaped like boxes. From childhood on, El-Shennawi has loved the tabla, a traditional drum, and he used to play it in groups called Damma (band or gathering). These would gather at night to play old songs, often replacing the original lyrics with new ones of their own. According to El-Shennawi, the Damma groups were introduced to Port Said from Damietta. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the Mediterranean port city of Damietta lost part of its former glory, and many Damietta residents went to work in Port Said, bringing their musical heritage with them. Some of the songs they brought were of Syrian origin, and El-Shennawi remembers one that goes as follows: O travellers to Aleppo, My love went away with you. O bearers of grapes, Under your grapes Apples are hiding. Damietta, a great city even in ancient Egyptian times, was once a primary destination for ships coming from Syria, and shakhatir -type ships (a type of sailboat) long travelled to Syrian shores. Coming back from Syria, the sailors would sing Syrian songs as well as Egyptian ones. In talking to Al-Ahram Weekly, El-Shennawi describes the Damma concerts he saw as a child. "The Damma would be held in certain streets. The sohbagia (literally "companions", but the word is only used for Damma singers) would bring coal, light it, and then bring it to the centre of the concert area, which was covered with carpets." "Four drums would be placed at the corners of the area. Two tambourines called sada (empty -- meaning without their small metal cymbals) and a triangle would be used for percussion." Then the Dammma would begin, and the sohbagia would sing. Concerts would last until the early hours of the morning. As his own musical skills developed, El-Shennawi transferred his love from the tabla to his favourite instrument, the semsemiya, a five-string harp-like instrument made all the more popular by the songs written for it by poet Kamel Eid. The songs Eid wrote for the semsemiya call this instrument the origin of all things, the purveyor of dreams, and the muse of cities, seas and lovers. One of Eid's songs goes as follows: True to the end, o semsemiya, In your three sides of wood, In your sounding board too, You carry the pains of an entire people In hard times. You pass around, On days of happiness, Sweet cups of sherbet El-Shennawi learned to play the instrument from the greatest masters, especially Ibrahim Khalaf, a man who El-Shennawi considers to be the greatest player of all time. He calls Khalaf as qassis, or "priest", a word used by people in the past to show their reverence for a great artist. Qassis was the high priest of the semsemiya. Glow now, dawn of return. Recede, tears of the eye. Light of the morning, Shine away Across the branches. Bring light to the beloved country, Expel the darkness From the sun, From the light of the moon. After the 1967 war, and when the refugees were at last able to return to their homes, the last great semsemiya players went back too. This was in 1974, a time when El-Shennawi had also honed his skills to perfection, with some starting to refer to him as the "devil of the semsemiya ". In following years many of the older players passed away, and El-Shennawi found himself recognised as the last acknowledged master. He formed a band to accompany songs written for the semsemiya, calling it Layali (Nights), and performed in every street of Port Said. Later, El-Shennawi joined other bands, including that of Hassan El-Ashri, which in the 1970s and 80s was a fixture of wedding parties throughout the Canal Zone. El-Ashri's band became famous across Egypt, and El-Shennawi claims some of the credit, though he also has ambiguous memories of the time. The leader of the band used to take money home in sacks, while paying El-Shennawi a meagre LE3 a day. This he used to spend on shisha at his favourite coffeehouses in Port Said. Yet, El-Shennawi did not ask for much. No one asked for much in those days. Even the leader of the band, the late Hassan El-Ashri, didn't know what to do with the money he earned, aside from spend it on having a good time. Indeed, despite his fame El-Ashri died a poor man since money was never his goal. Both seamen at heart, El-Shennawi and El-Ashri were hungry for life, not money. Following these generally happy years, El-Shennawi joined the Gazara (Carrot) Band run by Saber Selim. For a while, this band shared in the glory of the traditional songs, but it shared the fate of most traditional music ensembles when folk arts were pushed from the scene by more modern forms of music and the flashier entertainment offered by television. Yet, El-Shennawi refused to admit defeat and began to perform in rooms owned by the Tagammu, a political party, in Port Said. Invited by the well-known Port Said parliamentarian El-Badri Farghali, El-Shennawi and his sohbagia often played for free. It was under these circumstances that the Tanboura emerged, the band becoming a second home for El-Shennawi for 10 years. Yet, a son of the sea until the end, El-Shennawi had to go it alone, and in his own group he has found an ensemble in which he can play the semsemiya to his dying day and express the songs in his heart. photo: Walid Montasser
