Osama Kamal enjoys the pleasant sound of the harp on the brink of the waves It was a lovely autumn night when I was invited to go to a concert given by Fatemah El-Morsi, also known as Bint El-Morsi ("the daughter of El-Morsi"). The person who issued the invitation was none other than the artist Zakaria Ibrahim, founder and director of the famous Tanboura Band. Ibrahim told me about Bint El-Morsi and her exceptional gifts as a performer and singer. Born into the Abul Morsi family, whose members are well known for their virtuosity with the semsemia (Egyptian harp). Fatemah herself has been singing along to her semsemia since childhood. On 27 October I went to the Casino Al-Negma on the Port Fouad coast, where Tanbura gives regular performances. Casino Al-Negma stands right on the sea and draws from its salty air a musical magic that is unparalleled in its forcefulness and the intimacy of its near-ritual enchantment. At 10pm sharp Ibrahim came to stage to introduce Bint El-Morsi, telling the audience that she was the "one and only" semsemia player in the world. Along with her on the stage were three of her brothers: Gaber, Hamam and Ibrahim, all of them accomplished singers and semsemia players in their own right. Fatemah began the concert with a succession of solo pieces, the traditional way of ecouraging the audience to get into the swing of the music. In her solo playing she played old semsemia songs such as "Betghanni Lemin, ya Hamam?" ("Who Are You Singiing For, Pigeons ?", "Taza We Al Ya Om al-Kholul" ("Fresh and Lovely Mussels"), and "Zarni al-Mahbub" ("The Beloved Came to Visit"). After Fatemeh had played and sung for half an hour the other instrumentalists joined in and the audience began singing and dancing. The intimacy that developed within minutes between the band and the audience was astounding, and beyond a certain point in the night it was hard to differentiate between the two. The dancing, interestingly enough, is still done in the same old way although most of those dancing were young. The old, dramatised dances are still popular, most featuring the routines that the old " sohbagia " ( semsemia enthusiasts) developed by mimicking their various trades. The fishermen routines feature movements approximating the casting of the net, the gathering of mussels, and the throwing of ropes to passing ships. The audience danced with unaffected passion, stepping into a mood of festivity, ritualised joy and pure fun. Fatemah sang two songs with her brothers: "Ana Gebt Gawabi Beyetlabat" ("I Brought a Live Fish") and "Awez Arusa Tamam Awi" ("I Want a Bride So Perfect"), both from the popular repertoire without which a concert cannot be complete. Then she sang the melodic "Salma Ya Salama" ("Safe and Sound") and "Esheqt al-Raml Wal Mayya Ala Shattak" ("I Love the Sand and Water of Your Coast"). She sings in a lively style. Her presence is soft and friendly; engaging without conforming to the usual common standards of beautiful singing. Like most semsemia singers Fatemah is not trying to impress the audience with her virtuosity, but to entrap them with a down-to-earth performance that maintains their interest and keeps them part of the ritual. Semsemia artists take their audience into a parallel world, away from the monotony and drudgery of daily life and into a rarefied existence of song and dance. For enthusiasts semsemia is a world in and out of itself in which the tunes bring a promise of freedom and joy. It is a world that beckons with peace and clarity and the communality of reunion. Fatemah's father Ibrahim Hashem Morse, better known as Abul Morsi, was an iconic singer and composer for the semsemia. He studied under Ibrahim Khalaf, who is considered the father of the semsemia in Port Said. Khalaf, in turn, was tutored by Abdallah Kaberbar, the travelling Nubian artist who brought the semsemia to the Suez Canal in the 1930s. Morsi's coffeehouse in the neighbourhood of Nasser was a Mecca for semsemia lovers. After the 1967 war, when residents of the Suez Canal cities were evacuated to other parts of the country, Abul Morsi went to Al-Mahalla Al-Kobra where he continued to write and perform. He even made a semsemia instrument for himself, fashioning its chords and box from camel leather bought in the gypsy sections of Al-Mahalla Al-Kobra. He made the three frames of the instrument from bamboo. This was the same instrument to which Fatemah sang in the third Mediterranean Festival for Folk Songs in Tunisia, where she won a bronze medal. Abul Morsi was so iconic that the vernacular poet Mohamed Abdel-Qader wrote a poem about him: My father was known As Abul Morsi He was, alone, a school Without chairs or blackboard He strung five chords That, in the darkness, glowed For art was a sailor Setting for our shores After Abul Morsi died the family did not abandon his art. With his father and his coffeehouse as sources of inspiration the eldest son, Abdel-Qader, kept the flame alive. The family supported Abdel-Qader in his artistic endeavours, and Fatemah performed, sang, and acted in plays written by her brother. When Abdel-Qader Morsi passed away three years ago he was already a legend. A writer, director, and stage actor, he also wrote plays and songs and designed stage sets. Blessed with boundless energy, he performed in the theatres of Al-Thaqafa Al-Gamahiriya (Popular Culture) all over the country from Port Said to the north to Aswan in the south. In all Abdel-Qader wrote more than 40 stage plays, the most famous of which are Al- Ghorbal (The Sieve), Al-Batahish (Rough and Tumble), Hekayat Debel (Debel Tales), Moulid Sidi Tanash (Festival of St Tanash), Talaqat Men al-Hegara (Shots of Stone), Eadam Far (Execution of a Mouse). His limited resources did not discourage him from pursuing a full-fledged theatre career. He made creative set designs from Styrofoam and took his family on tours where they performed in his plays. Abdel-Qader Morsi won numerous awards from the Ministry of Culture and the General Authority for Palaces of Culture, in fact he won so many awards that he was lovingly dubbed the "reaper of awards". An activist by nature, Abdel-Qader volunteered for Fatah during the siege of its fighters in Lebanon in the early 1980s. He left the resistance group because of differences of opinion, and afterwards chose to live in Rafah in North Sinai. There he was close to the barbed wire and the scene of national struggle to which he was dedicated to the end of his days. Fatemah and her three other brothers took up the cause where Abdel-Qader left off. Fatemah became the lead singer and performer. Her brother Hamam, who also sings and performs, has a main occupation as a wood sculptor and keeps a permanent exhibition called Al-Alam Al-Yawm (The World Today) in Rafah. He recently started writing songs for the semsemia. Both the other brothers, Gaber and Ibrahim, are accomplished singers and semsemia players. There are other families famous for their semsemia playing, among them the families of Hassan El-Ashri, Soliman Abul Naga and Abu Ragab. What makes the Morsi family different is that they sing with a sense of patriotic flare and see their art as homage to their country.
