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Poetry, Plastic Arts and Music in on Evening:
Adonis, Said Amin and Ahmed Mukhtar in
Geneva’s tent of dreams
Written by: Saad Haddad

Translated by: Ali Salim

The L’Association Culturelle du Muchrek Arabe (Association of the Eastern Arabic Culture) in Geneva has recently invited the poet Adonis, the plastic artist Said Amin and the musician Ahmed Mukhtar, to give an evening of poetry, art and music together. The evening left good impressions and deep meanings on the memory of the audience, that shall be remembered for a long time and I think it should not be put on the same shelf with many other evenings which we have witnessed or heard of before, because the standard of Amin’s art and Adonis’ poetry woven together by an Iraqi Oud music such as Mukhtar’s that took everything into it’s magic. Mukktar’s music drowns you in a world of oneness which recalls to mind the axiom which says that all arts are daughters of the same mother.

Ahmed Mukhtar is an artist whose name has become associated with Oud since he devoted all his brilliant talent to it and to do research on a variety of themes related to Maqams of Arabic music., which he meets during his work and which he treats with different approaches. He gave much to music and to his instrument, that he nourishes with his experimental style that proved to be technical and fruitful.

In an article published recently about Mukhtar and his music, by Mike Steward the musical critic in which he presented a fair analyses of Mukhtar’s music in general, he mentioned a number of elements characteristic to Mukhtar’s music. Here are some of them : Silence, the abundance of details (in playing) transparency and at last the high elasticity of his fingers. These are some features of Mukhtar’s music that Mike Steward thinks that Mukhtar has achieved to the point of excellency, sometimes.

We should realize that what seems bright today, might not be the same in the future, this gloomy vision often has a great impact on the feelings of poets, artists and musicians, though the latter might be more apt to that melancholic effect that the depth of impact on his feelings always evades the probe of our prediction. Mukhtar’s music which enjoyed a strong presence in the evening challenged us with such feelings, especially when a big poet like Adonis and a famous artist like Said Amin were present which caused his music to flow deeply and passionately in a way with which we should stop to re-evaluate this instrument and it’s potential energy which Mukhtar is trying to release beyond any limits.

The music of Oud became an important human and cultural creative feature since the coming of Munir Bashir who was one the prominent composers of the Iraqi school of Oud, to Ahmed Mukhtar who remained faithful to the traditions of that school though he is not the only offspring of it, but he is the most distinguished one due to what his music is capable of adding to it. His music that tempts our steps to enter into worlds never visited before, is packed with beautiful visions which beckon for us to come closer, teaching us that the present moment, and the moment to come is verily more beautiful than the one preceding it, as if he was quoting Al-Naffari the great Moslem Sufi’s saying that *The most beautiful things are not born yet *

When his high technique of playing lead us into the world of his music that tunes our feelings to a generous vision painted with harmonic colours, we feel as if our best words leave the custody of our tongues to enrich our minds with deep meanings that come to us borne on the wings of high transparency.

Adonis the contoverversial Arab poet who’s been translated to many languages and who has been playing a central role on the stage of Arabic culture and art during his literary career by creating unprecedented trends in the movement of modern Arabic poetry is beyond my praises, but once more I say that we need to stop long before Mukhtar’s music to reappreciate the Arabic music. I think that music in general is not a priority for the Arab intellectual because there is a comparatively smaller room for it in the area of his attention, though he undoubtedly has the natural feelings and taste to appreciate subtle music like other creative arts such as poetry, novel and plastic arts because they cross each other as Goethe put it.

This poor attention the Arab intellectual had paid for music made it difficult for deep, subtle music to be considered equal to other creative works, but listening today to Mukhtar’s music, and probably others, signalizes the end of this attitude.

Adonis read some of the poems he wrote in the seventies, that still embrace the present Arabic situation which excited the Arabic and Swiss audience who were eager to hear more . Works of Said Amin on the other hand needs deeper analysis of his style in dealing with colour and movement in his paintings, towards the end Mukhtar played some pieces improvised on the spur of the moment which engaged the attention of the Swiss and the Arab audience who were applauding for him very warmly.