Iraqi composer Naseer Shamma is such a master of the traditional Arab stringed instrument called the oud that he has taught himself to play one-handed.
He was motivated not by showmanship but by friendship. He developed the technique to help a former student who returned from the Iran-Iraq war without his right arm.
Shamma, one of Iraq’s most famous oud players, is often moved by his country’s tragic recent history, from the war with Iran in the 1980s to the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and the plight of Iraqi refugees driven from home in the violence after his ouster. He donates concert proceeds to pay for medical care and schooling for refugees and lobbies Arab governments to offer aid.
PHOTO: AP
The soft-spoken, 45-year-old composer says he was compelled to act after he met poor refugees last year on a visit to Syria.
Destitute Iraqis now flock to his Cairo office for help, and Shamma is distraught he cannot do more.
That’s why his music grows darker, he says, as Iraq’s strife and the hardships of its scattered people come crashing into his unusual compositions for the ancient Arab lute, much loved by Iraqis for the nostalgia it stirs.
“You know it’s more deep, my music, and more strong now, because always there is pain everywhere ... and in my heart. And of course all that is very clear in my music,” he says on a recent night at the oud school he runs.
Beit al-Oud, or the House of the Oud, sits in Cairo’s Islamic quarter in one of the medieval inns that served traveling merchants.
The building’s narrow, beautifully carved stone passageways lead to an inner courtyard where Shamma gives classes for dozens of students. It’s one of five centers he has set up around the Arab world, helping the Iraqi oud to flourish outside the land where it was born.
Drawn to the oud as a child, Shamma became part of a school of Iraqi musicians that transformed it into a solo instrument, freeing it from its traditional role in the classical Arab orchestra or accompanying singers. He went on to develop a style that blends East and West, modern and traditional.
His most stunning innovation came about because of the 1980 to 1988 Iran-Iraq war, which left thousands of people missing limbs.
One was a friend and student. A sobbing Ahmed Fayaq, his right arm lost in battle, greeted Shamma after a 1986 concert. In the emotion of the moment, Shamma sought to give him hope with what seemed an impossible promise: The next time Fayaq saw him performing, he would be playing with his left hand only.
“I stayed in my house four months without giving any concerts,” Shamma said. Every day I practiced, practiced, practiced. At the end of a month, I thought, ‘This is impossible.’ But in the end I did it ... I kept my promise.”
Since then, Shamma has taught the technique to disabled musicians. The fingers of his left hand vigorously tap at the strings along the instrument’s neck, producing an exciting percussive effect that reverberates through the oud’s belly, transforming it into both drum and stringed instrument.
Close your eyes and you can’t imagine the sound is generated by just one hand.
Another innovation was Shamma’s redesign of the oud, based on a ninth-century drawing. Most ouds have five identical pairings of strings known as courses, plus a single string. Shamma’s revised oud has eight courses.
Matthias Wagner, who crafts European lutes and ouds in Badenweiler, Germany, says Shamma’s unusual openness to such experimentation helps ensure the survival of an instrument with roots going back to 2350BC in Mesopotamia.
He believes that instruments and music that don’t change with the times may end up forgotten.
It is the troubled history of Shamma’s homeland that has most influenced his playing. Two million Iraqi refugees are stranded on the outskirts of Arab capitals surviving on menial jobs and dwindling savings, and Egypt is home to as many as 120,000, according to government estimates.
Shamma and five friends spent US$51,000 this year to send more than 200 students to school. He raised another US$24,000 for a UN refugee agency with a concert in Damascus, Syria, in June.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
RSS