Adel Kamel (1942–2003) عادل كامل was a

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He was one of the writers in ''Watani'' newspaper, the founder of “Panorama” section, a lecturer in Universities in Egypt and abroad, a member of the jury in international choir competitions, a member of many international organizations, and also had several publications. He felt that there is something deep in the

Coptic music Coptic music is the music sung and played in the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Coptic Catholic Church. It has some roots in ancient Egyptian music and many elements of ancient Egyptian music continue to survive in Coptic liturgical music, with add ...

and he was fascinated by many Coptic hymns, besides his studies and appreciation of the classical music. In 1991 he was thinking very strongly in both classical and Coptic music.

Works

*In 1993 he started thinking about his project, which was dealing with Coptic themes arranged in Classical Music forms with 20th-century compositional techniques. *In 1996 he composed “Fugue on a Coptic theme” followed by “Agios”; these two were not only music compositions but they were also a research, in which he had earned a PhD in from the Zoltan Kodaly Pedagogical Institute of Music (Kesckemet, Hungary), and Coptic institute in Cairo. *"Fugue on a Coptic theme" is dealing with the Coptic theme "Golgotha" presented in a 17th-century baroque three-voice polyphonic texture with 20th-century compositional techniques. *“Agios” presents the Coptic theme "Agios the prolonged" in "18th-century" Classical Period style, melody with accompaniment and harmonic three voice texture with 20th-century compositional techniques. These two works were written originally for trio, but in 2001 a piano transcription was made by Dr. Adel Kamel and Nabil K. Agaiby. *In 2002 he composed “Al el Orbana”, as a prelude to the Fugue, and its dealing with the theme “Al El Orbana" arranged in 20th-century composition style, was written for Piano solo. *In October 2002 he wrote his last composition “Melodie Copte", a monophonic theme in a Dorian mode. *Dr. Adel by his works connected two periods which are 2000 years apart, and presented features of several civilizations in just one piece of music; also these works could be the first classical compositions dealing with materials related to the first centuries AD.

References

Tribute to a modern-day pharaohWatani, 50 years on
1942 births 2003 deaths Music critics Egyptian musicologists Egyptian composers Musicians from Cairo Egyptian people of Coptic descent Coptic music 20th-century musicologists {{Egypt-bio-stub

Works

See also

References