Muhammad al-Muji…full descriptions on his centenary

After two years as agricultural supervisor, Muhammad al-Muji (1923 – 1995) resigned. He was driven by a desire to become a singer, so he left for Cairo. There, he worked in nightclubs for three years, during which he was selected more than once as a singer on Egyptian radio. But the concerned committee changed course and accepted him as a composer. From that moment, Mohammed al-Moghi’s career began as one of the most important Egyptian and Arab musicians of the twentieth century.

Through his father and his uncle’s gramophone, he was introduced to music. On the school stage, he practiced singing and composing for the first time, until his surroundings recognized his talent and he was invited to sing on various occasions in his town. After leaving his governorate of Kafr el-Sheikh for Cairo, al-Moji worked as an oud player in the bands of Safiya Helmi and Badiya Mazabni.

From those casinos to radio, the popular songs section handed him over and with the encouragement of the famous radio official Muhammad Hassan al-Shujai, he composed al-Muji tunes for the most important singers of the time. Fathiya Ahmed, Najad Ali, Muhammad Abdul-Muttalib, Abdo Al-Suruji, Muhammad Qandil, Kareem Mahmood and Faiza Ahmed. With the latter’s voice singing “My heart goes out to you” and “The moon is at the door”, he gained widespread fame, which boosted his confidence and qualified him for the next entrance.

The limit came when he accidentally heard the voice of Abdel Halim Hafiz over the radio. The next day he went to the radio and asked its leader, Hafiz Abdel Wahhab, to cooperate with Nightingale. Abdel Halim’s adoptive father Abdel Wahhab disagreed, except because of his faith in Al-Muji’s talent.

The young composer found in Nightingale the voice he wanted; So he stopped singing in nightclubs and devoted himself fully to music and devoted Haleem to his numerous melodies, the first of which was the famous song “Safini Marra”. The July 1953 Revolution, its great success, began an artistic relationship that spanned nearly 90 works. Lyrically, it straddles sentimentality, patriotism and religion, prominent among which are: “Jabbar”, “O Sweet, O Asmar”, “Kamil al-Awsaf”, “The Fire of Your Love”, “Cup Reader” and “From Under the Water message”.

Al-Muji did not study music and had great difficulty in his repeated attempts to learn musical notes. In one of his television interviews regarding the matter, he mentioned that he had no knowledge of Music Mahamath at the beginning. When the string players in the band asked him about Maham to play the instruments, he dodged the question and little by little he started learning about Maham.

This deficiency was compensated for by a wealth of talent, which was evident in the diversity of styles he handled, regardless of the singers’ and singers’ singing styles. He composed compositions such as “Hanat Al-Akhtar” and “Patience Has Limits” as well as songs such as “Ya Hello Soap”, “Ama Barawa” and “Our Window is a Silk Screen”. This diversity is united by musical phrases, which are characterized by brevity, simplicity and depth. Like his teacher Abdel Wahhab, al-Muji worked to blend Eastern and Western styles, although in most of his melodies he tended to focus on the dramatic structure of the melody and prioritized the melody.

With his appearance, al-Muji, with another name, Kamal al-Tawil, pushed Egyptian singing far from the composition that prevailed before their appearance, and the new artistic trend was expressed by voices such as Faiza Ahmed. Shadia, Sabah, Mahr al-Attar and Muharram Fuad.

This tendency to innovation did not prevent the young composer from producing important works for Umm Kulthum. The first came with the hymn al-Jala, and despite al-Mujiyal’s fear that her first work with the Qawqab al-Sharq would be a poem. , he wanted the beginning to be a sentimental song, but Umm Kulthum insisted, and it continued. The success of the song led to his collaboration with al-Moji on other patriotic works such as “We Love Peace,” “Mahalak Ya Masri, “Oh, Peace Be Upon the Nation” and “ O voice of our country”

These patriotic creations were followed by more famous collaborations on “Patience Has Limits” and later “Listen to Your Soul”. Although two songs were hits, they differed from most of the works of the innovative composer, as he chose to be traditional in two songs, especially the second one. Umm Kulthum’s departure prevented the completion of Ahmad Rami’s final work, “If I Were Hard for You”.

Along with Abdel Halim and Umm Kulthum, Al-Muji contributed many of Shadiya’s hits. Oh my heart, forget you.” And “Who Said You Live Near Us?” And “Oh My Dear One” And “Faithful Pact” And “Shall I Say It Or Not?” “Disagree With You And Reconcile” And “I Will You He composed works for the singer Scheherazade, such as “Why do you swear to love me?” For Saba, many remember songs such as “By God, we are gathered together”, “Where is the sweet” and “Who is the lover of the heart?” composed by Al-Muji.

Al-Mawji has many names and generations dedicated to his creativity, he has also composed music for Houria Hassan, Sharifa Fadel, Laila Murad, Malak, Saud Muhammad, Saud Makkawi, Garem Mahmoud, Suzanne Attia, Kamal Hosni, Abdel-Ghani al. -Sayed, Aziza Jalal, Najad Ali, Fayda Kamel and Naja. Peace and salvation. Yasmin Al-Qayam, Latifah, Sherihan, Anushka, Samira Tawfiq, Asala Nasri, Mona Abdel-Ghani and Nadia Mustafa have also sung his works.

Al-Muji’s contributions to these names include nearly two thousand choral works. These works include musical plays including “Al-Shater Hasan,” “Angel’s Cooking,” “Hamdan and Bahana” and “Forbidden, Caravan.” As for television, al-Muji composed music for it, and after its launch, his first video song was “A Cup of Tea”, followed by several works: “This Man Made Me Made” by Saba and Fuad Al-Muhandis, “Adam Al-Sharqawi,” Songs from the TV series “NASA and the Last Ship” and “Customs and Traditions”. In addition to the songs “Zahrat Al-Sur Al-Hai”, “I Dream One More Day” and “The Holy Kaaba”, the TV movie “The Girl and the Hour”, songs from Fawazir Ramadan (1976) starring Nelly and One Thousand and One Nights ( 1985-1989) songs from the series. Also, Al-Moghi collaborated with Mohamed Fawzi on the songs for the films “Tamar Henna” and “Laila Bint Al-Shadi”. He also contributed soundtracks for films such as “The Dancer and the Drummer” and “The Gang”.

Among al-Muji’s wishes was the School of Voices, which he actually founded in 1962, and many names graduated who became stars: Sharifa Fatal, Maha Sabri, Maher al-Attar, Aida al-Shere, Abdel Latif al-Delfani, Ahmed Sami. and Laila Kamal. But the school did not fulfill its role for long, as al-Muji did not receive any support from the government as he expected, and was therefore forced to close it two years after its establishment.