Muhammad al-Qubanchi (), born Muhammad Abd al-Razzaq al-Ta’i (), is an artist and singer from
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
. He is one of the creative pioneers in the field of
Iraqi maqam
Iraqi Maqam ( ar, المقام العراقي) is a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq. The roots of modern Iraqi maqam can be traced as far back as the Abbasid Caliphate, when that large empire was controlled from Baghdad. The ensemble of ...
who also modernized it, and he is considered one of the most famous maqam reciters in Iraq.
Early life
Muhammad Abd al-Razzaq al-Ta’i was born in Baghdad in 1904, and he worked with his father in the
Shorja market as a crafter with his father. He was nicknamed "al-Qubanchi", a title given to someone who is skilled in weighing agricultural crops with a scale which was also his father's profession. At a young age, he was introduced to Iraqi maqam and its origins which is where his love for the genre began. He would also meet with many
Maqam
MAQAM is a US-based production company specializing in Arabic and Middle Eastern media. The company was established by a small group of Arabic music and culture lovers, later becoming a division of 3B Media Inc. "MAQAM" is an Arabic word meaning a ...
lovers at the market and the Kadouri Café. At age 12, he excelled in singing maqam and other genres and also practiced theatrical acting.
Career
Al-Qubanchi first considered becoming a grain merchant but decided to depend on singing for his livelihood, and in order to maintain his social position and financial sufficiency. by his 20s, he mastered the Iraqi Maqam and attended the
Cairo Congress of Arab Music The Congrès du Caire (First Congress of Arab Music; ar, مؤتمر الموسيقى العربية الأول; ''Mu'tamar al'mūsiqā al-'arabiyya al-awwal'') was a large international symposium and music festival that was convened by King Fuad ...
in 1932 as the leader of the Iraqi delegation in the presence of
King Fuad I
Fuad I ( ar, فؤاد الأول ''Fu’ād al-Awwal''; tr, I. Fuad or ; 26 March 1868 – 28 April 1936) was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and the Sudan. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali dynasty, he became Sulta ...
of
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
. He competed with the artist
Umm Kulthum
Umm Kulthum ( ar, أم كلثوم, , also spelled ''Oum Kalthoum'' in English; born Fatima Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi, ar, فاطمة إبراهيم السيد البلتاجي, Fāṭima ʾIbrāhīm es-Sayyid el-Beltāǧī, link=no; 31 Dece ...
and the artist
Mohammed Abdel Wahab
''Mohamed Abdel Wahab'' ( ar, محمد عبد الوهاب), also transliterated ''Mohamed Abd El-Wahhab'' (March 13, 1902 – May 4, 1991), was a prominent 20th-century Egyptian singer, actor, and composer. He is best known for his Romantic ...
.
[https://www.arabicmagazine.net/Arabic/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=8455] Reportedly,
Ahmed Shawqi
Ahmed Shawqi (also written Chawki; ar, أحمد شوقي, , ; ; 1868–1932), nicknamed the Prince of Poets ( ar, أمير الشعراء ''Amīr al-Shu‘arā’''), was an Arabic poet laureate, to the Arabic literary tradition.
Life
Raised ...
met with al-Qubanchi and told him "This is a great heritage, and you are a great Iraqi artist."
Al-Qubanchi's renewal of the performance of the Iraqi Maqam is considered a major shift in the course of Iraqi music, and he was able, despite his opponents from the supporters of the older styles, to create a school of maqam with clear features, and his students were able to preserve it until it became his ideal method for readers. His teachings became dominant in the performance of the maqam and among his students were the artists
Yousuf Omar,
Nazem al-Ghazali
Nazem al-Ghazali ( ar, ناظم الغزالي, given name also spelled ''Nazim'', ''Nadhim'', ''Nadhem'' or ''Nathem'') (1921 – 23 October 1963) was one of the most popular singers in the history of Iraq and his songs are still heard by man ...
and
Abd al-Rahman Khader.
Among his most important achievements is his employment of Arab lyrical colors, such as
Muwashahat,
Groans,
Mawwal
In Arabic Music, the ''mawwāl'' ( ar, موال; plural: ''mawāwīl'', ) is a traditional and popular Arabic genre of vocal music that is very slow in beat and sentimental in nature, and is characterised by prolonging vowel syllables, emotional ...
, and the
Egyptian Dawr, and their combination with the Iraqi Maqam with the aim of making the Maqam familiar in the Arab countries.
Later life
On May 28, 1969, al-Qubanchi announced his retirement and moved to
al-Karkh district where he used his money to build a mosque, he had seen in a dream. He also became its first preacher in 1977. On the evening of April 2, 1989, he passed away in Ibn al-Bitar Hospital and was buried in the mosque he built.
Al-Qubanchi Mosque
Al-Qubanchi Mosque () is a mosque built by Muhammad al-Qubanchi with his own money, located in the Karkh District. Al-Qubanchi had originally commissioned a designer to design him a special house for him after retirement but, reportedly, one night he heard "O' Muhammad, this is a place for prayer, not for sleep" in his sleep. He then woke up and scrapped his ideas for his house and converted them into a mosque. The mosque built at his own expense and opened it in 1977 in the presence of the Minister of Awqaf at the time. He was also its first preacher and
muezzin
The muezzin ( ar, مُؤَذِّن) is the person who proclaims the call to the daily prayer ( ṣalāt) five times a day ( Fajr prayer, Zuhr prayer, Asr prayer, Maghrib prayer and Isha prayer) at a mosque. The muezzin plays an important r ...
and care of the mosque himself, and he used to pray in it every Friday.
Legacy
The Hungarian composer and pianist
Béla Bartók wrote about al-Qubanchi when he visited the Cairo Congress of Arab Music "No Arab artist, other than the rural colors or the color of the city, presented a great performance filled with all the elements of drama, and I can even say that the Iraqi performer rose to the peak level in musical performance."
See also
*
Iraqi maqam
Iraqi Maqam ( ar, المقام العراقي) is a genre of Arabic maqam music found in Iraq. The roots of modern Iraqi maqam can be traced as far back as the Abbasid Caliphate, when that large empire was controlled from Baghdad. The ensemble of ...
References
{{reflist
1904 births
1989 deaths
20th-century Iraqi male singers
Musicians from Baghdad