Al-Oyoin Group
Naseer Shamma established Al-Oyoin Group in Cairo in 1999 based on the workshop system which gives the musician a high value in the musical field and in his relationship with the instrument he plays. With our use of musical instruments for which the traditional Arabic orchestra (Al-Takht) was known, we introduced other instruments that were added to the traditional Takht. As we know the Takht is a form of a band consisted of more or less than five musicians not more than seven which was favored at the Abbasid era, and specifically during the days of Haroun Al-Rasheed and subsequent eras. The Takht was always present and changed commensurate with to the type of music and the prevailing cultural atmosphere.
Adopting this system, I started to work almost daily for long hours with Al-Oyoin Group which is intended to provide a gateway to the enchantment of the Orient and eyes that catch the beauty Arabic classical music not for the purpose of re-performing it but to have a new start form the point where our most abundant experiences had stopped. On such basis we introduced unprecedented shows as a part of the Arabic classical music, classical here means the value and the type of the music even if it was composed recently.
The Takht depends on the dexterity of the players and their ability to make the music full of life so the group needs long lasting effort to have the expected results.
Al-Oyoin Group has played and recorded series of works in different places. Because our work with (Shahrazad - Korsakof) was a real skillfulness I spent a long time studying it so as to penetrate to the composer's spirit in a way not to forsake my musical environment and the spirit stands behind it and in the same time not to contradict him instead of that Shahrazad won different points of view in culture, in instrumentality in approaching and in times. Al-Oyoin did very well in presenting my conception and imagination of Shahrazad, which I hope will inspire new vision in any time and place.
All that the group is presenting is the group's own ,new composition which is an attempt to have invented forms of music to fortify the instrumental type of the music starting from our own societies to the faraway lands so the group does not presenting only famous and well known types of music but it went deeper to the real concerns of the Arabic music so its experience came together with other experiences trying to reach the same goal.
When Al-Oyoin Group presented a concert at the opening day of Halk Alwadi Festival there were five western singers who sang songs written by Arabic poets. All that was presented was new and invented and it was an attempt to introduce the practical alternative that we speculate about. The group also had other experiences in Cairo Arabic Music Festival.
It is not so difficult for the audience to discover the new musical fashion that appear in the skills of the players and the new ideas appear in the composition and the music form.
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Al-Oyoin Group has participated in:
- Arabic Music Festival, 1999, Cairo
- Halk Alwadi Festival, 1999, Tunisia
- Number of shows on the small theatre at the Egyptian Opera House
- Recording of the music of the religious recitals in Ramadan for the Voice of Arabs radio, 1999
- The opening of "Ramadan Nights " in " Biet Al-Hrawy " 1999, Cairo
- The music of Shahrazad with the Modern Theatrical Dancing Group, 2000
- Show Fak Al-Fawariq - Ravina ITALY