Survey / Akaber Al-Ahmadi

The poem has often been the pillar of singing throughout time, but its journey from the poets' collections to the circle of singing is full of storms of change, which raises the listener's curiosity and poses questions: Does the birth of the song mean a change in the features of the text or vice-versa? Is the melody what beautifies the poem and hides its breaks and flaws and helps its spread? Who has the power to change, the poet, the composer, or the singer?

There are many questions that this survey answers.

This is how singing began...

Researcher, composer and music author Mohammed Al-Sanan begins by saying: Through the stages of pure musical history, the word was one of the weapons that Arabs boasted about among themselves. The most effective and influential was poetry, which was known as the (Diwan of the Arabs). Poetry was used wonderfully in spinning, satire, praise, and singing poetry helped its spread among the tribes and it was repeated among the general public and thus achieved fame for its author.

This is how singing began in the Arabian Peninsula by choosing verses of lyrical poetry that are suitable for singing and have a musical tone and then formulating them into melodies to be sung.

The poem Song of Rain...

Al-Sanan emphasizes that in the opposite direction, there are famous singers and successful composers who have failed miserably in dealing with the poem, and let us take as an example: the poem (Song of Rain) by the Iraqi poet (Badr Shakir al-Sayyab), we will find that this wonderful poem has been dealt with musically in a way that does not parallel its artistic value.

The poet.. the composer.. the singer...

Al-Sanan shows that the interaction between the trio (poet + composer + singer) is very important for making any adjustment in the poem, such as replacing words or deleting some verses, and in his view he sees that any adjustment made by the singer or composer to the poem without referring to the author is considered an attack and distortion of the text even if the adjustment is more beautiful than the original...

Fine elements..

The poet Ahmed Alewi looks at the issue from another angle that was manifested in his saying that the elements of the song poem are fine elements that care about the internal music of the poem, the rhythm and the verbal suggestion in its essence and care about the emotional expression capturing influential in its form.

Alewi adds: The creativity of writing song poetry is a highly complex creativity as much as its simplicity in the ear and as much as its impact on the soul.

Alewi shows that the song poet is a photographer who captures the emotional state and expresses it, and says: I affirm that all the immortal songs in the minds throughout history have undergone many changes and updates that enriched them in the end but with the opinion, cooperation and joint consultation between the poet, composer and singer.

Honesty in presentation...

For his part, the lyricist Mohammed al-Qarni described that he is with the poem of suffering before it is a sung poem. He says: The beautiful poem is the product of suffering and a sense of the situation and before all that, honesty in the presentation... When I write a poem I do not think about whether it will be sung or not.. My only concern is to write my suffering.. After that comes the thought of presenting it as a song.. This is the reason for the success of the song with me and there are minor changes not worth mentioning.. because some words are harsh in the presentation or not musical in listening... or they are heavy in pronunciation and so on.. but the change does not violate the meaning or the context.. This applies to poetry in general whether sung or not...

Musical imagination...

Al-Qarni adds: The song is the source that is almost the only one in this age for spread in this world as the poem remains a poem and does not lose its identity (if) the composer and singer deal with it professionally and it is musically visualized as it deserves.. He emphasizes that the trio: poet, composer and singer... their big concern is the work coming out to light in its most beautiful state...

The integrated work...

On the other hand, composer Mohsen Jassar supported turning the poem into a song, pointing out how much this contributes to the spread of poetic texts and when the recipient feels the integrated work of word, melody and voice, this will inevitably contribute to its spread.

Three elements...

Poet Dr. Mohsen Al-Sheikh Al-Hassan sees that the written poem has its enthusiasts and relies on its words only and sometimes on the delivery, but the sung song relies on three elements to succeed: words.. melody.. and the singer's voice, if these elements are available for any poem, it will be successful and the most eloquent proof.. the poems of Nizar Qabbani which were sung by Abdel Halim Hafez – Najat Al Saghira, Kadim Al Sahir and others..

Certain requirements...

For her part, the poet Saadia Mufreh explained that there are some poems suitable for turning into songs and some are not, and certainly many successful songs were basically written as songs and not as poems.. Music sometimes has certain requirements that the song writer can meet in advance and take them into account while writing the lyrics of the song.. As for the poet, he writes his poem freely from any pre-considerations, neither musical nor otherwise, and therefore there are very many poems that are not suitable for turning into songs or adjustments must be made to them before they turn into songs and the poem before turning into a song is an independent creativity, but if it turns into a song it is in this case a side of three sides that form the song in its initial form, and for this reason its importance decreases. The changes that occur to the poem are certainly many, the most important of which is the type of feeling for this poem during receiving it as a song, as there are changes at the level of words sometimes the singer or the composer asks the poet to change them himself or they both change them, and there is no harm in this matter sometimes as some words are not suitable for the atmosphere of songs, and Umm Kulthum used to do that always either by herself or with the help of the poet Ahmed Rami, and the poem Al-Atlal by Ibrahim Nagi is a great model for such interference...

The poet Diaa Khoja reveals his opinion in the context of his speech, stressing the difficulty of converting the poem into a song, and he sees that the lyrical poem is detailed in order to be composed and sung, so the lyrical poem is considered smoother than other types of poems and Khoja supports the change in some cases in the lyrical poem but provided that the modification is carried out by its writer, whether the modification was in a word or in one of the verses.

The poem is a language...

The poet Lina Abu Bakr has another philosophy if she considers the poem a language and the language is the first rhythm, and she says: Poetry began through the musical sense of the language being a rhythmic formation in a weighted system, it kidnaps the soul, to a middle zone between melody and word, from here poetry came.... There is what makes poetry an open space for extension towards musical worlds emanating from the heart of the poem and the poem that can be a regular template in the form of a vertical rhythmic building or be a muwashshah or a taff'ila or prose poem that does not escape from the control of poetry as long as it remains clinging to the rhythm... Always the poem triumphed for the taste first and for the language second.

Lina wonders: What does the Arab nation present as a civilizational face for the art of singing in front of other nations and peoples? To what extent was poetry able to save the song? In fact, to save the nation? When reading is the onset of awareness, knowledge and the first heavenly message that God sent to His prophets, in the beginning was the word, so how does the word turn from a symbol for communication, understanding and awareness into a chaotic ambiguous field, not suitable even as an expressive behavior with madmen or the deaf.

Poetry is the singing of the soul...

The poet Muidh participates with his saying: At the beginning we have to understand that poetry is the singing of the soul and that the meters of poetry or the poetic sentences in the modern text are a rhythm for the pulse of the souls, it transcends and delights the souls of the poet and the recipient together and Muidh sees that the poems of Nizar Qabbani because they are written in a middle language between the eloquent and the popular and with this the beautiful poem whose style is dominated by the simple and unattainable remains for all composers.

Negative changes

As for the poet Dr. Abdullah Al-Fifi, he says that Arabic poetry is lyrical by its nature, however, the problem arises in the performance of eloquent poetry through singing, as the singer often breaks the meter and makes mistakes in the language, but if the performance is good and safe from linguistic and prosodic flaws, it is okay and there are negative changes sometimes that offend the poetry committed by the singer out of ignorance or contempt for the poetry and the original is that the singer has no right to change except with the permission of the poet because poetry is an art that has its rules just as singing and music have their rules and Dr. Al-Fifi shows that music originated historically under the shadow of the poetic word, then music separated, becoming a vocal art standing on its own.

As for the composer and singer Jamil Mahmoud, he says there is no poem that is not sung unless its words are strong and difficult to compose and the melody beautifies the poem and guarantees for it an eternity of spread and the best proof of that is what was sung by Umm Kulthum, Najat and Fayrouz and remained firmly in our minds. As for the modification that occurs to the poem, this is possible provided that it does not affect its original meaning and the composer plays a big role in that if he is conscious and cultured he will preserve the general structure of the poem.

Loss of identity

While the poet Ahmed Ibrahim stressed that weighted Arabic poetry wears the atmosphere and the lyrical poetic, ghazal, and romantic climate and also personifies the intellectual and philosophical poetic poem and even the national and military!

The poet Dr. Saleh Al-Shadi believes that regarding the conversion of the poem into a song or vice-versa, there is no difference in that, in both cases we can provide a good work especially if there is a message and artistic perfection. As for the changes that the poem undergoes during its journey to the world of tune, every listener has his own style in understanding and his way in receiving and the matter varies from one taste to another, and from one awareness to another and without a doubt.. the song has a great impact in spreading the good text and delivering it to the recipient. As for the singer's intervention in the melody, there must be concerted efforts for the work to arrive in a good way that satisfies all tastes.