{"id":322334,"date":"2022-12-13T09:42:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T12:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=322334"},"modified":"2022-12-15T17:46:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T20:46:26","slug":"the-sound-of-the-lute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/the-sound-of-the-lute\/","title":{"rendered":"The sound of the lute"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Sami Bordokan started playing the lute<\/strong> when he was six. Now that he\u2019s about to turn 50, they are still inseparable friends. It\u2019s his primary passion and tough he plays several instruments, it\u2019s the lute that Sami Bordokan<\/a> is usually seen with in photos and on the stage. It was as natural for him to learn how to play it as it was to learn Arabic. At home, where music was the resting state of his family, Arabic was the only language they spoke. \u201cMy father was a very skilled lute player and an exquisite singer, but he never worked as a professional artist,\u201d he said. \u201cMy grandfather, a priest at the Greek Melkite Church, where they speak the Byzantine language, possessed a magnificent voice. All my uncles and aunts were awarded with beautiful voices and an exceptional musical talent, and I grew up hearing them sing, but I\u2019m the first in the family to become a professional musician.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Sami Bordokan (C) in concert in 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Embora os pais tenham nascido em vilarejos a vinte minutos de carro um do outro, em Akkar, no L\u00edbano<\/strong>, eles s\u00f3 viriam se conhecer no Brasil, para onde migraram em busca de melhores condi\u00e7\u00f5es de vida. Al\u00e9m da inicia\u00e7\u00e3o precoce no ala\u00fade, um dos mais antigos instrumentos que se tem not\u00edcia, Sami estudou viol\u00e3o cl\u00e1ssico e popular<\/strong>, \u00f3rg\u00e3o cl\u00e1ssico e piano. Adolescente, partiu para uma aventura na terra dos pais onde acabou morando por nove anos. Frequentou a Universidade\u00a0Saint-Esprit de\u00a0Kaslik\u00a0(Usek), na qual foi aluno no departamento de m\u00fasica oriental. \u201cTive aulas particulares com mestres renomados e me aprofundei na teoria musical oriental (Maqamat Charquie) e no canto cl\u00e1ssico \u00e1rabe, mais especificamente o Muashah Andaluzo\u201d, explica.<\/p>\n

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Lute master<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Arab music dates back from the ancestral culture of the Middle East and at a given moment, it becomes a major pillar of erudition of society<\/strong> of that time. \u201cAs the Arab Islamic civilization progressed from the seventh century on, we saw an intense process of erudition in music,\u201d Bordokan says. \u201cNote that at that time music was part of medicine. Al-Kindi, who\u2019s considered the father of the Islamic philosophy, Avicenna and Al-Farabi, who were great names of the music in that period, were all doctors and skilled lute players.\u201d<\/p>\n

If on the one hand music was part of the classical background, on the other hand it was passed down for generations thanks to what Bordokan calls an \u201cextraordinary capacity of the Arab peoples to maintaining and perpetuating popular traditions.\u201d It\u2019s hard to talk about one Arab music only, as each region has its own cultural singularities, thus building up a rich, diverse musical mosaic. \u201cConcurrently, a giant erudite repertoire is shared by all Arab peoples, like Muashah Andaluzo for example.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bordokan goes from classical to folkloric<\/strong> and also includes Brazilian genres in his repertoire. In his website, you can see a video of him and other musicians playing a choro but with the lute instead of the cavaquinho or mandolin. \u201cBrazilian music is part of my imagery, as I\u2019m Brazilian, after all, and I really love this country and its extremely rich musical tradition. I really enjoy building musical bridges between these two cultures.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he came back from Lebanon and performed for the first time in a classical concert hall, he was surprised and delighted with the receptiveness of Brazilian ears to ancestral Eastern music. Almost thirty years later, he is preparing an album that is a synthesis of his career, with a mix of classical Arab repertoire and original songs that trace a path between the East and Brazil.<\/p>\n

Actor by accident<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Musician and actor on the play The Prophet<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The musician has also written for plays, films and television, such as the telenovela \u00d3rf\u00e3os da terra<\/em> and the miniseries Dois irm\u00e3os<\/em>, based on the novel of Brazilian writer of Lebanese descent Milton Hatoum, launched in 2017. It was then that Bordokan became an actor by accident when he was invited by director Luiz Fernando de Carvalho to play a role. \u201cI\u2019d never imagined I would act until I got the invitation,\u201d confesses Bordokan, who took a liking to the art and is now preparing to come back to the stages as the lead of The Prophet.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more: <\/em>Musical The Prophet premieres in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a><\/p>\n

Based on one of the world\u2019s most popular books, by Lebanese poet Gibran Khalil Gibran, the play directed by Luiz Ant\u00f4nio Rocha is expected to premiere again in March or April 2023, when the book turns 100. \u201cIt\u2019s an enormous responsibility, and I have devoted myself completely to be up to this challenge,\u201d says Sami Bordokan, who besides singing, playing and acting is also responsible for the musical direction of the play together with his brother Willian Bordokan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Report by D\u00e9bora Rubin, especially for ANBA.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a9Beatriz Ricco<\/div>\n
Supplied<\/div>\n
Supplied<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo-based musician Sami Bordokan is one of the best-know names when it comes to Arab music in Brazil. Besides singing, playing different instruments and writing, Bordokan is now performing as an actor in the musical The Prophet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2309,"featured_media":322281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,3066],"tags":[4601,37467,37466,37468,41153,6637,18267,11852,37470,14354,37472,37471,2762,37473,37469],"class_list":{"0":"post-322334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-society","9":"tag-arab-music","10":"tag-classical-arab-music","11":"tag-dois-irmaos-minisseries","12":"tag-folkloric-arab-music","13":"tag-imigracao-libanesa-en","14":"tag-lebanese-immigration","15":"tag-lebanon-immigration","16":"tag-lute","17":"tag-lute-musician","18":"tag-sami-bordokan","19":"tag-sami-bordokan-musician","20":"tag-sami-musician","21":"tag-the-prophet","22":"tag-the-prophet-play","23":"tag-traditional-arab-music"},"wps_subtitle":"S\u00e3o Paulo-based musician Sami Bordokan is one of the best-know names when it comes to Arab music in Brazil. Besides singing, playing different instruments and writing, Bordokan is now performing as an actor in the musical The Prophet.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2309"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}