MAALA 1

MUSC 2200

June 6th, 2021

Spring’ 2021

Music Concert 1: Mosaic Quintet “Selected Works by Egyptian

Pioneers in Arab Music”

On March 22nd, a mosaic Quintet took place in Malak Gabr Hall in the American

University in Cairo. Unfortunately, I did not attend the concert myself; however, I have

watched it online through YouTube platform due to the pandemic circumstances. The concert

started at 20:00. Since the concert is a Quintet, there were five performers who performed

diverse families of the musical instruments. To begin with, the percussion family performed

by Hisham Kamal on the percussion, on the Piano Mohamed Essam. Then, the woodwind

family is performed by Dr. Amr Abulnaga on the French Horn. Also, he was the concert

director too. And on the Nay was Hany Al-Badry. On the Double Bass Ahmed Osman.

The concert was composed of nine programs. First played was Al- Aragouz by

Mohamed Saad basha, Longa Reyad by Reyad Al Sonbati, Yamama Baidah by Dawood

Hosny, Eih El Ebara by Sayyed Darwish, Balad El-Mahboob by Mohamed Abdel Wahab,

Zikrayati by Mohamed Al Qasabgui, Ha-Ya-Tee by Mohamed Abdel Wahab, Dew Drops by

Omar Khairat, and finally the Mosaic by Mohamed Saad Basha.

Things I have noticed while watching the concert the percussion performer had

different instruments such as, Cajon, the Tambourine, the Chimes, the Bongo drum and the

Drums. Another thing is the Nay performers he had different sized of the Nays he switched

through the concert between them.

In the beginning, “Al-Aragouz” was charmingly played. I loved how the Nay was

beautifully performed. Honestly, I was amazed by the Nay solo, which was played so

stunningly and how it was the main instrument and others were backing it. Then how the
 MAALA 2

“Longa Reyad” which I felt was more festive, I believe this is because of the tempo it was

much faster than Al-Aragouz. Besides, I really liked how the Piano took part of it.

On the other hand, I really liked “Eh El Ebra”, because it was not so fast, the tempo

was slow, and I was chill while listening to it. Like “Tel’t ya Mahla Norha” by Sayed

Darwish. Another piece that caught my attention was “Zikrayati” how they performed two

scales.