"The Voice of Egypt": Umm Kulthum, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)
This scholarly analysis of the phenomenon of Egypt's Umm Kulthum, a renowned singer and one of the most famous women in "world music," is an accessible combination of biography, sociology, and musicology. With over 40 years of weekly radio broadcasts and a still-thriving presence on recordings, Kulthum was a major force in Egypt and throughout the Arab world. Keeper of the Isham Memorial Library at Harvard University, Danielson examines the traditional religious musical culture into which Kulthum was born and the popular, cosmopolitan musical culture she affected, consciously and deeply, until her death in 1975. Quotations from interviews, contemporary reviews, and some of Umm Kulthum's own published statements reveal a strong-minded, savvy, talented woman with a prima donna's sense of her public. Recommended for large music libraries.?Bonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Lib., College ParkCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.