Al-Abnoudi Telescope by Balik Hamdi

Thirty years ago, on September 12, 1993, musician Balik Hamdi died of liver disease after a life of great success, emotional turmoil, and tragic events. The mysterious death of a Moroccan woman in his home, after which he was forced to leave Egypt, for which he continued to compose and for its people, followers of the flow of his works think that he neither eats nor drinks. , or do anything but create melodies that are sung in the evening, so that Arabic speakers everywhere wake up the next morning and sing it, they enjoy it and keep it in their memories.

People know that Balik was born in the Shubra neighborhood of Cairo in 1931, but the great poet Abd al-Rahman al-Abnoudi said in a television interview that Balik Hamdi Sa’idi was originally from Sohaq. Al-Abnudi’s neighbor from Qena. He wonders about the meaning of the commentators’ talk of the “saying Egyptian Hamdi” or Egyptian hymn. Do they speculate that this is a tune to Shatia’s “O My Beloved, O Egypt” and “Umm Al-Sabreen”? ? Or was there something in the musical soul that pointed him to sources other than those from which other composers drew their melodies? Al-Abnoudi believes that Balik was directed to Egyptian sources, meaning “Nilodic,” meaning that he lived on the banks of the Nile, bathed in its waters, and climbed its palm trees. Apart from Indigo, Balik managed to dispel the Arab or Turkish stereotypes that preceded him. Al-Abnoudi takes as a practical example of his view the song “Atawiyya” written by al-Abnoudi under the influence of Upper Egypt, and wonders: how its melody is so eloquent, though it has such strange words: By God, is this image of yours worthy to be adorned with garden plants, Or flute with my hands and my heart with nails? He did not succeed in it with ordinary success, but with exceptional success, and Mohammed Rushdie became famous with it, and its strange Saidi words echoed in every tongue, throughout the Arab world. Here he mentions the advantages that Balik Hamdi has over other composers. If we look closely at the track of the song, we can see a purely Egyptian opening: “O night, O moon, the mango was sweet on the stone” and it includes vowels, divisions and dramatic dialogue, he says to the woman: ” Your name.” What is your answer to me?” She says: “Atawiya.” He concludes that Bali has the ability to express emotional feeling in an Egyptian tune. For example, in a song he composed for Najad al-Shakira, he takes the word “forgotten” from the words of Muhammad Hamza and plays it to that point. He brings out from within the listener all the feelings he knows about this word, which is a fixed nature in him, he takes any written words, begins to play its prelude, and says: I know Abdul Rahman likes such a melody. “Oh, My Brown Color” for Shadia. This brings us to the fact that it is a special pleasure to work with him because he is so close to the soul that he creates a sentence and quickly finds a simple way to do it, as he did when composing, so he keeps running and doing it over and over again. He knew he had done all this.

According to al-Abnoudi, the most important discovery is that Balik branded many singers in his character, such as Muhammad Rushdi and Abdel Halim Hafiz. No tears of sorrow,” and “Who art thou my love.” And he had a big part in Varda’s voice. In fact, he infused it with his own character, and the singers we dare say were his invention. For example, Afaf Radi, and Ali al-Hajjar, most importantly, Balik did not say throughout his life, and he was unable to say: I provided so, or I created so, one of his virtues is that he hid after the tune was successful. Why? Because, simply put, he thinks he’s become the king of the people and is looking for a different tune.