Sheikh Yusuf al-Manyalawi / Dawr: El Fu'ad Habbak / Gramophone Test Pressing - 1909 / الشيخ يوسف المنيلاوي - الفؤاد حبك

[AlfLeila]

Sheikh Yusuf al-Manyalawi
Dawr: El Fu'ad Habbak
Gramophone Test Pressing. Matrix 1753c/55c/56c.
Recorded 1909
alhan: Ibrahin El Qabbani
maqam rahat al arwah (at least the way manyalawi sings it on the qarar. versus everone else who sang it closer to the jawab near awj. ali abdel bari would be the only exception, always following in manyalawi's footsteps..)

Recorded on 3 single sided 12" discs. this is the 3rd sampling of El Fu'ad Habbak, following the 1907 and 1908 versions. according to ustadh Mustafa Sa'id there is 1910 test pressing as well, which currently resides at Dar Al Kutub. the date on the label marking 1913 is most likely the year the matrix was manually copied by another engineer (as Sheikh Yusuf died in 1911).

Sheikh Yusuf's performance here is predictably spectacular (minute 8:50 we nabi we nabi..), and one wonders why it didn't make it to commercial release..

[Riad]

What a stunning rendition! ... and I thought we already got all of Abu haggag's Gramophone gems, but it turned out there are more test records out there that haven't been discovered, let alone mentioned, in most references. I can't argue about the choice either as each additional rendition of the same piece takes us another step forward into discovering how live performances were handled; and this time, Sheikh Yusuf was more playful with the rhythm (especially in the Madhhab) and took a more improvisatory approach in the Win-Nabi section than the other two test records, although I might have to agree with whoever decided to keep them under the unpublished "test" category as both the sheikh and the Madhhabgiyyah had some moments of unexplained silence in this (07:32) and the 1908 version, probably for a certain disagreement with the takht or with one another as to where they have to stop and leave the instruments to play alone, not to mention the fact that the Sheikh seemed in a hurry in the 1907 rendition as if he had little to no time between learning the Dawr and recording it, leaving him unable to remember some parts in the recording session. These three recordings, although filled to the brim with tarab, leave me to think that this Dawr could have been a Dawr Musaggal that the sheikh had no right to perform (in public) outside the recording company, and I wander if the outcome of the 1910 recording could have been any different.
I have to admit, however, that I didn't like the extent to which the file was filtered, especially due to the Qanoon's metallic sound that somehow reminds me of Sama' Al-Muluk, so I hope you could kindly provide us with a raw copy. I also think the file should be slowed down by at least one and a half semitone.

[fredlag@noos.fr]

Will listen to this gem today.
Reacting to Riad's hypothesis that this is a dor musaggal: this does not work with the fact that this piece is recorded by Muhammad al-Sab‘ for Gramophone Co... I wonder if the reason is not rather linked to Gramophone's issue with rights in Manyalawi's contract, since as it is explained in the Manyalawi book they had signed him for 50 double sides and recorded more pretending some matrix were lost or broken during transfer to England...

[أبو علاء]

Like Riyadh, I am charmed by this new version and amazed at Manyalawi's capacity to reinvent the dawr each time he performed it. Unlike Riaydh, I still fail to see a valid reason for not publishing at least one of the three versions of this dawr that was obviously at least as much important for him as el-bulbul. While I confess I didn't spot the flaws enumerated by Riyadh, they seem to be nothing in comparison with the recent version of qaddak 'amiri-l-'aghsan we had from Hilmi. Was it exclusively restricted to 78 rpm recording and not allowed in live performance? I have some doubts on this for several reasons. On the one hand, 1907-09 seems to me too early for such kind of restrictions. Then, if there were any, how come it was allowed to be recorded by other singers and/or companies! I too would love to have a raw copy. It might be appropriate to slow down this one a little bit, but when comparing it with the 1908 version from our AMAR release, I have the impression that the latter was too slow.

[Riad]

Assuming Gramophone, Gramophone Co. and Zonophon are different entities in their respective rights, I believe they could all have ended up selling for the same one company to which they have been affiliated. In that regard, I do remember listening to the dawr by Safti and Abu Dawud as well, and at least one of them recorded it for Zonophon, so unless contracts prohibited the Dawr to be distributed across all branches and sub-companies I don't see why this can't be a Dawr Musaggal, although it could simply be that Manyalawi wasn't so keen on performing this very Dawr live for whatever reasons he had in mind; but no matter the case, I don't believe Gramophone will be so stupid to tell the man three times (excluding the first record of course) that same piece was lost: he simply couldn't have been satisfied enough with his performances.

[أبو علاء]

El-fu’ad habbak was also recorded by ‘ali ‘abdi-l-bari and Muhammad Silim twice for both Zonophon and Odeon.

[Riad]

I just checked my files and you're indeed right. Silim, 'Abdul-Bari and Abu Dawud all recorded it for Odeon (Silim might have recorded it for Favorite too) so I stand corrected: my point about a Dawr Musaggal is definitely invalid for Il-Fu'ad Habbak, but I still don't get why Manyalawi recorded it four times for the same company (an argument over lost disks cannot occur more than once for a single piece or so I would think) unless if he didn't like all his renditions and decided to re-record the Dawr over and over (Gramophone can't say "No" to such a request from their number one revenue-generating artist in the Middle-East at the time), which is the only scenario I could imagine for such a case.

[AlfLeila]

my apologies for a much delayed reply. life and such.. i'm hesitant to upload the raw file, for value purposes etc. apologies once more.

[أبو علاء]

my apologies for a much delayed reply. life and such.. i'm hesitant to upload the raw file, for value purposes etc. apologies once more.

No problem whatsoever Alfleil, be it for the delay or for any kind of reason that makes it inconvenient for you to upload the original take. All of us have our respective constraints and concerns that are to be understood and respected. Moreover, you have already contributed so many gems to the forum that we can only be most grateful, regardless of any particular circumstance.