kagablog

Mick Raubenheimer interviews Halim El-Dabh:

*It seems to me that you experience music, and
music-making, on a spiritual level.. is this
accurate? What does music mean to you?

Yes, my music expressions are spiritual. I feel like
I’m connected to the universe when I compose. Music,
to me, is like self-realization. It gives me a
self-awareness, a way to know myself in a deeper
sense. It is a form of self-discovery, and keeps me
in touch with the various pulses and rhythms that
people experience in daily life.

*Your and Pops Mohammed’s performance on Friday
evening was very mutually sympathetic – had you
performed together previously?

No, we did not. We met for the first time on the same
day as the performance. We did meet briefly to
rehearse. There was an immediate connection in the
sense that I felt that I had known him before.
Working with him was so normal and natural, as though
we’ve always performed together, especially when he
asked me, in the middle of his own solo performance,
to come to the stage and read a poem and sing with
him. I was very impressed by his incredible diversity
in performing on a wide array of traditional African
instruments. I was also impressed by his dedication
to preserve African musical instruments as part of the
creative scene of contemporary music.

*What were your highlights of the festival?

I guess I have several. One is the huge energy that I
sensed when I arrived in Johannesburg. During the
festival I felt a new sense of energy that I had not
experienced before, coming from the collective
activities of the participants and audiences.

I was amazed by Dimitri Voudouris, that he not only
organized such an undertaking, but also that he’s a
fine creative composer as well.

My other highlight, of course, was collaborating with
Pops Mohamed and George Lewis, and getting to know
Pauline Oliveros, none of whom I had met before.

*How do you feel about music today, in terms of its
possibilities, compared to, say, fifty years ago?

I think 50 years ago the seeds of contemporary thought
were already planted by many important composers of
that period. Then, somehow, the contemporary energy
and approach to music got dissipated and forgotten
into some kind of neo-post-Romantic style, probably
due to the successive wars that have beset the planet
since that time.
But now I feel that in the 21st century there is a new
awareness dawning on us, with new ideas and new directions
to bring music back to its full potential.

*Are there any specific artists/composers that had a
powerful impact on the shaping of your compositional development?

I studied privately with Aaron Copland, whom I admired
very much. I enjoy the music of Johann Sebastian
Bach, whose music I feel has a closeness to the music
of North Africa, specifically the suites called
“Nawba.” However, some of the most incredible influences
came from the music I heard while I was living in the Congo
among the Ekonda people; the polyphony of the Dorze people
of southern Ethiopia; and the Pygmies of the forest region of the Congo.