AN ARAB MELBA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

AN ARAB MELBA

SINGS IN BAGDAD The Melba of the Arabic world, Miss Um Kalthum, has recently been singing in Bagdad, says an exchange. She brought her own band and " chorus" of eight musicians, and received a fee of £l5O for each night. Her programme with intervals lasted about three hours. Her voice is under marvellous control, although she sings in a Ftyle quite different from that taught in European schools. She does not " produce," but sings from the throat and chest. Her whole performance, as well as that of the orchestra, appears to lack the dynamic force of "Western musjc, but there are subtle nuances arid changes of mood which are pregnant with emotion. It is difficult for a European not conversant with Eastern music to understand it, but the first impression it made was by its queer rhythms. It seems a very free music, five, seven and nine rhythnis follow one another, in quick succession. There is very little harmony as we understand it, and it certainly does not fall into the diatonip scale. Her gramophone records have a great vogue from Morocco to -as far as Central Asia, and her first appearance in person was received with great acclamation. She is a strikingly handsome woman of about 26 years. Sno wears a simple black dress, trimmed with sequins and a black band around her hair, and her personal-1 ity dominates her audience. Her audiences have been extremelv appreciative. They have embraced all ranks of society from Cabinet Ministers and the Lord Mayor downwards, and whether Effendi in European dress or desert Arab in flowing robes, all hsive responded immediately to her dramatic singing.