Marcel Khalife
(Arabic: ?????? ?????
; b. 1950, Amchit, Mount Lebanon) is a Lebanese composer, singer and oud (an Arabic lute) player, considered a Palestinian among the Palestinians, a Southerner among the South Lebanese and most commonly an Arab musician
. From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the conservatory in Beirut. In 1976, he created Al Mayadeen Ensemble
and became famous all over the world for songs like Ummi
(My Mother
), Rita w'al-Bundaqiya
(Rita and the Rifle
) and Jawaz al-Safr
(Passport
), based on Mahmoud Darwish's poetry. [1],
In 1999 he was granted the Palestine Award for Music. In turn, he contributed the financial portion of the award to the National Conservatory of Music at Birzeit University in Palestine. In 2005, Khalife was named UNESCO Artist for Peace. He lives in Paris, France.
One son, Bachar Khalife, is also an accomplished oud player and percussionist; the other, Rami Khalife , is a virtuoso pianist who graduated from the Juilliard School.
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MARCEL KHALIFE TICKETS
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Biography
The beginnings
Marcel Khalife was born in 1950 in
Amchit, a small village on the coast in the North of
Beirut where
Ernest Renan used to live. His grandfather was a
flutist and a fisherman. He lived among fishermen, peasants and
Gypsies, and confesses a double influence :
"Then I used to go to church and listen to Christian music, and also to Islamic recitations of the Qur'an. In Lebanon we have a marriage of Islamic and Christian culture. That really helped to form my musical awareness."
His first lessons in music was with a retired military man, a teacher in his village, Hanna Karam, who advised the parents of the young boy to let him continue learning music. His mother died of cancer when he was 16 years old. He studied the
Oud (Near Eastern Lute) at the National Academy of Music in
Beirut. An instrument with strict technical rules, Marcel Khalife expanded the rules and the possibilities of the
oud.
From 1970 to 1975, he taught at the conservatory in
Beirut and other local institutions and toured the
Middle East,
North Africa,
Europe and the
United States giving solo performances on the
oud. In Beirut, he discovered the situation of the Palestinians:
"When I used to attend the conservatory in Beirut, I used to pass by the Palestinian refugee camps. I wondered why these people were living in these houses made of zinc, and what the circumstances were which found them living in this kind of poverty. Some Lebanese families used to live there, too, mind you. I decided I wanted to learn more about the Palestinians, and learn how they lost their lands, lost their homes and their rights in Palestine. I became a supporter since their cause was a just one. Until now, I never hesitate to do anything at all in order to show my support for this great cause."
In 1972, Marcel Khalife created a musical group in his native village with the goal of reviving its musical heritage and the Arabic chorale. The first performances took place in Lebanon during the
Lebanese civil war in 1975. During the war, he risked his life in bombed out concert halls.
"Since I was born, I’ve felt I had a rebel’s soul within me. I rejected things that might be inherited, but that were wrong."
"I connected my artistic project with the fatherland, with life, society, and the people,"
"My music is for the service of humanity, and is intended to present a serious and sincere work for those tormented in this destructive war. My music was a sort of balm for those wounds."
In 1983, Paredon Records, now
Smithsonian Folkways, released
Promises of the Storm,
a small collection of protest songs and political ballads.
[2]
Al Mayadeen ensemble
His work combines traditional
Arabic music with Western elements like the
piano. Mainly, Marcel Khalife uses modern Arab poetry (like
Mahmoud Darwish) and muwashahat (music of
Al-Andalus). He composes and sings the poetry of Palestinian poet
Mahmoud Darwish, songs on
nationalism and
revolution.
1976 saw the birth of Al Mayadeen Ensemble.
Al-mayadeen
is the plural of
maydan
, which can mean both
battlefield
and
village square
, the site of festive events, weddings, song and dance. Enriched by the previous ensemble’s musical experiences, Al Mayadeen’s notoriety went well beyond
Lebanon, performing the songs
Umi
(
My Mother
),
Rita w'al-Bundaqiya
(
Rita and the Rifle
) and
Jawaz al-Safr
(
Passport
), based on Darwish's poetry. The band performed in
Arab countries,
Europe, the
United States,
Canada,
South America,
Australia, and
Japan.
Marcel Khalife has been invited several times to festivals of international fame such as: Baalbeck, Beit Eddine (
Lebanon),Antakya(
Antakia), Carthage, El Hammamat (
Tunisia), Timgad (
Algeria), Jarash (
Jordan), Arles (
France), Krems, Linz (
Austria), Bremen (
Germany), ReOrient (
Sweden), Pavia (
Italy), World Music Festival in
San Francisco,
New York,
Cleveland (
U.S.). He performed in many prestigious halls at the
Place des Arts
in
Montreal,
Symphony Space
and
Merkin Concert
in
New York,
Berklee Theatre
and
New England Conservatory
in
Boston,
Royal Festival Hall
, and
Queen Elizabeth Hall
in
London,
UNESCO Palace
of
Beirut,
Cairo Opera House (Egypt).
Instrumental works
His recent works consist mainly of instrumental works like
Arabian concerto
,
The Symphony of Return, Chants of the East
,
Concerto Al-Andalus Suite for Oud and Orchestra
,
Sharq the word means (Orient),it is a musical case-history or a musical memoir of the Arabic musical legacy written by Khalife for 100 choral singers and 100 players in a great orchestral shape
,
Mouda'aba
(
Caress
),
Diwan Al Oud
,
Jadal
Oud duo,
Oud Quartet,
Al Samaa
in the traditional Arabic forms and
Taqasim
, duo for
oud and
double bass. Marcel Khalife’s compositions has been performed by several orchestras, notably the
Kiev Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of Boulogne Billancourt Orchestra, The
San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of the city of
Tunis, the
Qatar Philarmonic Orchestra and the
Absolute Ensemble
. Among the conductors that recently directed Khalife's
symphonic works, we mention
Lorin Maazel.
"I realize myself more in music than in singing. This tendency is evident in several of my works, the last of which was the 'Oud Concerto,'"
"When the text is absent, I find myself more comfortable in composing music, although this need not suggest that I am ignoring the song, which is essential to me. Rather, my real interest lies in musical composition. This was present in early compositions like Rita
, Aaras
(Weddings
) and Tusbahouna ala Watan
(Ode to Homeland
). Each of these was a musical composition and not just music written for songs. In these works, whenever the lyrics stop the music continues; and whenever I feel the lyrics are incomplete, they are completed by music."
Banishment from Tunisia
In 2005, Marcel Khalife told the media that his music and songs have been banned in
Tunisia by the state-controlled radio and TV stations. He might have angered the Tunisian authorities during a concert in
Carthage in August when he dedicated one of his songs to
Arabs imprisoned in
Israel and
Arab countries. He also expressed support for the rights of political activists who went on
hunger strike before and during the
World Summit on Information Society in
Tunis in November 2005.
In July 2009, Khalife returned to Tunisia to perform on the stage of the
Roman amphitheatre to a full house, as part of the 45th International Festival of Carthage. Speaking to the audience, Khalifa opened the concert by stating:
"ref">[3]
Khalife later dedicated a song to the "revolutionary leader
Che Guevara".
[4]
The Ana Yousef, ya Abi
case
Three times (1996, 1999 and 2003), he faced criminal prosecution for his song
I am Joseph, O Father
, written by the Palestinian poet
Mahmoud Darwish.
[5] Khalife was accused of
insulting religious values
by including a two-line verse from a chapter of the
Qur'an.
Khalifa recorded the song in his 1995 album "The Arabic Coffee Pot" that was based on a 1992 poem of the prominent Palestinian poet, Mahmoud Darwish. The poem adapted this verse from the story of Yousef (
Joseph) in the
Qur'an : "O my father, I saw eleven stars and the sun and the moon bowing before me in homage." It tells the story of how Joseph's brothers were jealous of him because he was handsome and kind, his brothers don't like him. The story reflected the suffering of the Palestinian people.
In 1999, the case was brought to a court by the newly appointed investigating judge, Abdel Rahman Shihab, who reproached Marcel of "insulting religious values by using a verse from the chapter of Joseph from the
Qur'an in a song." Marcel faced six months to three years imprisonment for publicly insulting
religion (article 474 of the Lebanon's penal code, six months to three years in
prison) and
blasphemy (article 473 of the penal code, one month to one year in
prison).
Senior
Sunni Muslim clerics in
Lebanon ruled that singing verses from the Qur'an was "absolutely banned and not accepted." The highest
Sunni Muslim religious authority in Lebanon, Grand Mufti Sheikh Muhamed Rashid Qabbani, has maintained repeatedly that Khalifa is guilty of blasphemy for singing a verse from the
Qur'an. Sheikh Qabbani said : "There is a limit to
freedom of expression. One limit is that it should not infringe on people's religious beliefs."
Demonstrations of solidarity came from many sides,
intellectuals,
human rights organisations and ordinary people. A meeting were held in
Beirut where 2000 people sang altogether the song in trial. Marcel Khalife even received the support of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a Shi'ite
theologist. The famous Lebanese writer
Elias Khoury harshly criticized the trial, as did
Mahmoud Darwish, who said :
"Fundamentalism is in the process of stifling culture and creation in the Arab world, I say it is shameful. I am ashamed. We should all be ashamed. If Marcel Khalife is found guilty, it will be an insult to culture."
Ghada Abu Karrum, the judge, rejected the demand of the prosecutor, and found him innocent of the charge of degrading
Islam. As stated in the judgment :
"[...] Although, in the first place, it is not for this court in any circumstance to indulge in discussing whether the action of the defendant mentioned above constitutes a deviation from Islamic tradition and its prohibitions, it is necessary to note that human societies have always known - since the advent of religions until this day - forms of behavior that touched the various aspects of life while not always observing all religious rules or abiding by them without that necessarily forming a desecration of the religious sanctity of the texts from which these rules have emerged."
"[...] Hence, it is clear from listening to the tape and CD at hand that the defendant has chanted the poem in gravity and composure that reveal a deep perception of the humanism expressed in the poem ornamented with the holy phrase. [He is] committed in his expression - in form and content - to a performance that bears no infringement on the holiness of the Qur'anic text, or offense to it or its content, nor reveal any intent to incite disparagement of it explicitly or implicitly, neither by words, meaning, nor music. "
Works
Books
The composer wrote in 1982 a six-part
Anthology of Studying the Oud
. The purpose of his writing works is to rationalize musical traditions, an attempt to develop Arabic musical traditions.
"We Arabs have no history of our music. In my judgment, we have linked music to singing, and it is time to write down the history of music, not just song."
His further writing will be
Jadal Oud Duo
, which is :
"an attempt to find new methods of expressing the deeply-rooted spontaneity in Arabic music. It is at a level of artistry that departs from the past, presenting a new challenge to the composer and the musician. Jadal brings forth a unique richness in Arabic music through the search for a new law of aesthetics to replace the old. It is an openness toward an uncharted territory emanating from the familiar."
He also wrote
Samaa
.
Performances
2005.11.14: Washington DC USA
2004.01.12: Washington DC USA
2008.10.10: Borgerhout, Antwerp, BELGIUM
Films
Marcel Khalife has composed soundtracks for films, documentaries and fictions, produced by
Maroun Baghdadi,
Oussama Mohammed,
Sophi Sayhf Eddin and
Sami Zikra. His music is also featured in the documentary Occupied Minds produced by
Jamal Dajani and David Michaelis, As well his music featured in the documentary film
Sons of Eilaboun by Hisham Zreiq.
In 2002, European television networks broadcast a documentary on Marcel Khalife. The documentary, entitled
Voyageur
, presents 33 selections from Khalifé’s repertoire, which ranges from compositions for solo oud and vocal settings of Arabic poetry to orchestral compositions, films cores and ballets.
Le Luth Sacrilège
is another documentary, directed by Pierre Dupouey, produced by Ognon Pictures and Mezzo. The documentary tells the story of the second trial Marcel Khalife faced in 1998 for his song
Ana Yussef
(
I am Joseph
).
Quotations
"Every serious and sincere musical work reflects revolution, the artist is by nature a rebel ; one must be rebellious with his writing and creative projects."
"Freedom, democracy and bread are the things we lack in our region"
References
- My Mother's Bread
- Khalife at Smithsonian Folkways
- Committed Marcel Khalifa Re-visits Fans in Tunisia by Iman Zayat, ''Alarab Online'', July 29 2009
- I am Yusuf, oh my father