FIlm Music in Egypt

Film soundtracks, as this encyclopaedia article shows, may tell us important things about the history of Egyptian music, reflecting over time the changing status in Egypt of Arab musical heritage – in particular, the wasla suite (the centuries-old musical tradition bringing together songs and instrumental numbers based on the same mode/maqam), the muwashshahat song form (central to the wasla) and the accompanying takht ensemble (traditionally comprising instruments such as lute/‘ud, violin, zither/qanun, and tambourine/riqq). They may have something to tell us, too, about globalized musical fashions (tangos, foxtrots, rock, pop and jazz) and, in the ways in which they represent – and attribute meaning to – the sounds of trains, bicycles, cars, bells, horns, calls to prayer, street cries, telephones and so forth, about the soundscapes of everyday life in Egypt (Fahmy 2019). Sound in Egyptian film, then, we argue, merits reflection on both musical and social-historical grounds.