في ذكرى رحيلها - ربا الجمال - الاولة في الغرام

[Kamal Kassar]

عندما زارني مؤخرا الفريد في دبي اريته حفلة مصورة للمطربة المرحومة ربا الجمال كانت فيها غاية في التالق ساحرة متمكنة سيدة. وعلى الاثر طلب الي ان ارفع في منتدانا اغنية ام كلثوم "الاولة في الغرام" التى ادتها في هذه الحفلة.

واليوم تصادف ذكرى غياب هذه الفنانة الشابة الواعدة بظروف ماساوية حزينة، فاغتنم الفرصة لرفع هذا التسجيل لها تحية لذكراها.

ارجو الاستمتاع

[الفارابي]

تغمّد الله ربى الجمال بواسع رحمته وأسكنها فسيح جنانه . لقد مُني فنّ الغناء بفادحة إذ رحلت .

[zbader]

ربا الجمال مطربة حلبية الولادة و المنشأ
اعتبرها أخي الفارابي كمحمد خيري عندما يغني الأدوار المصرية
هل استكثرت على قسمنا أن يضاف فيه اسم ربا الجمال؟

سلمت يداك أخي كمال على هذا الملف الجميل

[kabh01]

شكرا أبو ماهر على هذا التسجيل. أول مرة شاهدت فيها ربى الجمال كانت في سنة 1994 من على تلفزيون "ال أم بي سي" ونقلت الحفل على فيديو (إختفى أثره وقصته يعرفها أبو ماهر جيدا) حيث كانت تغني أغنية "أنت عمري" لأم كلثوم وأذكر تماما تفاريدها و ارتجالاتها في الأغنية واستغربت يومها بأنها كانت تنقل إحدى رجليها من الأمام إلى الخلف كما كانت تفعل أم كلثوم نفسها و لا أعتقد بأنها كانت تقلدها لا في الأغنية ولا في الحركات فهي فنانة قديرة. للأسف الشديد لم يلاق صوتها النجاح الكبير إلا بعد موتها كما وصفته الصحف والمجلات بالمأساوي والقصة فعلا لا تصدق. وللأسف ايضا بأنها جارت العصر عندما ذهبت إلى مصر و أنتجت ألبوم يحتوي على أغان تجارية سريعة لكي تتماشى مع موضة العصر ومع السوق الغنائي التجاري. فالحقيقة تقال بأن فنها وهنا أعني صوتها و أداءها معا كانا أكبر بكثير من هذه الأغاني التي أنتجتها.

الشكر الجزيل لأبي ماهر في الذي أنعش ذاكرتنا بذكرى وفاة هذه الفنانة.

أبو كرم.

[luay]

Thank you Kamal.
Ruba definitely possesses a very beautiful and capable voice; I had some of OK's songs sung be her over 15 years ago. In my opinion, it's also courageous for a singer to take on El Awwela Fi-l-Gharam, of all of the Lady's songs. Having been listening almost exclusively to Om Kulthoum for the last 25 years, I always choose this song as Om Kulthoum's trademark of greatness --- her non-stop improvisations, her vocal capabilities, and above all, the voice flexibility that she exhibited in this song, are all beyond expression.
So, for anyone to take on this song is really a risky adventure. Now, despite the beauty and capabilities of her voice, it is impossible to me to listen to her (or anyone for that matter) singing this song and not make the comparison to the origin --- that is, Om Kulthoum. And in my humble opinion, she didn't fare very well in the performance (in comparison).
The musicians did not know the song well, with the exception of the qanun probably. Second, I hate hearing an accordion or anything like that in a song like El Awwela. And of all instruments present, they decided to give him the honor of taqasim while Ruba was singing! That makes no sense.
Pronunciation again: I know Ruba is Syrian, but when she's singing an Egyptian song, it sounds "alien" when she says "Wi-kan Wisalu" instead of "Wu-kan Wusalu". I'm very sensitive to pronunciation, and something like this takes the pleasure away from my listening. This wasn't the only place where her pronunciation "failed". And I'm not commenting here on a Syrian/Lebanese singing Egyptian; I'd have the same comment if an Egyptian singer was singing a song of Wadeea' or Fairouz.
Also, she did not come close at all to the lady's performance in most places. For example, take the ahat that she does starting at 20' 45", and listen to these ahat the way Om Kulthoum does them in the commercial version!!!

I know some will wonder: do we always have to make the comparison?
Unfortunately, for me I can't but make the comparison, particularly in a song like El Awwela, because with all due respect to Zakariya's genius, El Awwela = Om Kulthoum;
Zakariyya's part was really minimal. This is a song that loses so much of its charm if/when sung by anyone other than the lady.

Thanks Kamal.
Luay

[fredlag@noos.fr]

@ Luay
1/ we-kan wesalo / wu-kan wusalo : you're probably right on this one concerning UK's prononciation, /we-/ is the article, since /e/ is the default epenthetic vowel in Cairene Arabic, but assimilation with the /w/ is frequent and turns we- into wu-. This needs more investigating,though, and comparison with a sung corpus and usual speech corpus.
2/ The performance :
I'm not as hard as you on this performance, or rather we don't spot a problem on the same parts.
I am convinced it is impossible for a professional singer not to imitate blindly Umm Kulthum in this song unless he posesses what we *now* have, i.e. 3 different renditions of this song. Only those 3 recordings enable us to understand the extent of UK's creativity in this song and the shifting limits of Zakariyya's composition.
I was very favorably impressed by Ruba's rendition in the first part (+, in the video document, her impeccable scenic presence and classy posture), in which, although she doesnt go as far as creative impro, she still proposes ornamental impro that is not UK's, and that is convincing.
In the second part and sqq, that is beginning with "hattet 3ala l-qalb-e 'idi" she becomes an imitator of the commercial version, and imitation of improvised sections and ornaments as if it were a standard line can only bring to disaster, a sense of a schoolgirl reciting her lesson in front of the first-grade teacher. Ruba *should* have sensed, as a professional singer she was, that this couldn't possibly be the "line" of the song, and thus that there was no point imitating it. Her mistake. But also her ignorance of documents we have very lately come accross, which is not her fault.
As for the orchestra, I liked both the qanun and the riqq very much. The accordion, is, as you pointed out, an absurdity.

[luay]

I think we're almost in agreement here, Fred.
Just for the record: I've always *loved* Ruba's voice and performance, but it's just that El Awwela is way too tall a mountain to climb, not just for her, but pretty much all singers I know of.
Have you heard Sofia Sadeq singing El Awwela? She tried to be a carbon copy of Om Kulthoum's commercial version of the song, which is really strange to me: if someone wants to be a carbon copy of Om Kulthoum, why should I listen to them and not to Om Kulthoum herself???
Ruba tried not to be a copy, but as you pointed out, she clearly remembered some of the original lines at various positions and went back to them, so she was restrained somehow.

Luay

[luay]

We can delete this post later, since it has a link to a video on YouTube, but I think this bit between Ruba and Wadi3 Essafi shows what a wonderful voice this lady had. Please listen to her voice here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcGelhU-qqc

Luay

[Hattouma]

We can delete this post later, since it has a link to a video on YouTube, but I think this bit between Ruba and Wadi3 Essafi shows what a wonderful voice this lady had. Please listen to her voice here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcGelhU-qqc

Luay

Thanks Luay ,there's no problem at all with youtube links . it is a pity that el-awela fil gharam is not there ,Fred's remarks made us curious :)

[Kamal Kassar]

شكرا يا لؤي انا اشاهد الان ربا و وديع و الدمعة ترغرغ في عيني فرحا و حزنا ثم فرح
ما هذان الصوتان الجارحان بالحنان
الله يرحم الحبيبة ربا ويديم وديع العظيم لنا

اما فيديو الاولة في الغرام فهو عندي وسارل لك يا حاتم نسخة عنه بطريقة او اخرى هذا وعد

[Najib]

Hi,

Sorry to disappoint with my opinions.

I am sure she’s got a fantastic “khamah” but I think the range of this song and the duzan aren’t suiting her at all.

She is struggling on most of the gawabat. You don’t feel her gawabs are natural and relaxed. Don’t get me wrong there is no nashaz but there is no suppleness at the rendition of these high notes, and this is where the Sett excels!

I mean listen to wenta ya rouhy she's probably higher (notes wise) than UK, but is she producing any Tarab? I don't think so.

I'm sure an opera singer could even go higher, but Tarab is our bread and butter here not high notes and acrobacy.

Thank you dear Kamal for introducing us to her voice.

[Kamal Kassar]

هذا المقال كتبه اليوم الصديق بشير صفير عن ربا الجمال في جريدة الاخبار اللبنانية
فاحببت ان اشرككم في قراءته

[Najib]

صوتها في الفيديو اجمل بكثير مما ادته في الاوله

[luay]

صوتها في الفيديو اجمل بكثير مما ادته في الاوله

Her voice in the video, particularly at the very beginning, when she sings "Ma Waraa'a Abi" so calmly, sounds very similar to Asmahan's. And listen to when she says "Hataba"; even Wadeea' puts his hand on her shoulder, because of the great job she did.

Luay

[kabh01]

شكرا على المقال أيها الصديق الصدوق ولكم تمنيت بأن يذكر من كان المحفز الأول أو ربما السبب المباشر في كتابته
;)

أبو كرم


هذا المقال كتبه اليوم الصديق بشير صفير عن ربا الجمال في جريدة الاخبار اللبنانية
فاحببت ان اشرككم في قراءته