04/07/2002

In the midst of the violence wracking the Middle East, the music of Lebanese composer, singer and oud player Marcel Khalife has stood as a spiritual oasis. It has provided his war torn nation with hope and comfort ever since he and his ensemble, Al-Mayadine, became musical heroes in the 1970s. It also created a controversy that nearly landed him in prison.

In 1996, one of his songs, "Oh My Father, I am Yusif" was cited by a prosecutor in Beirut as being blasphemous because it contained a passage from the Koran. The charges were dismissed two days later following a round of protests from artists and intellectuals in the Arab world, who pointed out that the charges violated freedom of expression and that the verse in question was actually taken from a poem written four years earlier by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.

The case resurfaced in 1999, and Khalife faced possible imprisonment of up to three years. Again supported by public and legal opinion, a Lebanese judge issued a ruling of not guilty.

Khalife believes the matter has finally been laid to rest and the judicial system exonerated. "The events were very painful," he recalled through a translator last week by phone from Paris. "They had a tremendous impact on the people and culture in Lebanon. However, the Lebanese judicial system has been able to go beyond this and actually prove that it is for freedom and for art and music. By acquitting me, the judicial system acquitted itself of the accusation of being a suppresser of freedom."

Never far removed from the politics of music, Khalife has been compared to Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger because of the social impact of his lyrics. "Since I was born, I've felt I had a rebel's soul within me," he said in a 1995 interview.

He returned briefly to the political spotlight in 2001 after he withdrew from an Australian world music festival because an Israeli singer's appearance was funded and sponsored by the Israeli government.

With a solid academic background in music from the National Conservatory of Music in Beirut, Khalife's lifelong goal has been to liberate Arabic music from the bonds of tradition.

The 52-year-old musician has been playing the oud, a six course, 11-stringed lute with a short neck and rounded body, since he was a youth. The instrument's origins can be traced to 9th-century Baghdad. It was later introduced to Europe by way of Arab migrations to Andalusia and eventually evolved to the lute of Renaissance Europe, which became an early music relic. The oud continues to thrive in Middle Eastern conservatories, and it was this classical tradition that Khalife learned and taught in the 1970s.

A desire to bring folk songs together with the Christian and Islamic music he learned as a youth turned into a new musical idiom designed to offer respite from the confusion and chaos. But by setting certain modern poetry to music, he earned a reputation as a musical advocate for peace and calm in the Middle East.

More recently, Khalife's revolutionary spirit has turned toward the purely musical, and by taking on projects such as film scores, music for dance and a concerto for oud and orchestra, he is gearing his style to be more widely approachable. "There's a return, in my music, to childhood memories, the memories of beautiful things, and a clear reaction against the mediocrity of the world," he said. "When I write music, I come back to the hope of a collective dream."

Still, he has not abandoned classical Arabic music. "My music is a blend of traditional rhythms and harmonies with an attempt at greater creativity. It is essentially academic and researched, but it has transcended that through its popularity and reached to the nostalgic memory of the people."

A winner of several awards relating to world culture given by governments as far flung as Tunisia, Yemen, Germany and Cuba, Khalife has nine CDs to his credit and is releasing a tenth, called "Concert al Andalus," this month. It features a suite for oud and orchestra and several Andalusian songs. For his Birmingham appearance, he'll play a variety of instrumental and vocal works, both old and new. His six-member ensemble consists of oud, Arabic and western percussion, piano, bass and singers.

When asked about the Sept. 11 tragedies, Khalife bowed "to the innocent victims who are falling because of the bitter conflicts going on in the world." His thoughts also turned to the continuing terrorism in his homeland. "I was in Lebanon in 1982 when Beirut - its streets, homes and buildings - was destroyed. We have been suffering for a long time due to war and all forms of terrorism. I feel really sad that the leaders of the world have taken the cause of war rather than the cause of peace."