Colloquium in Algiers in Preparation for the National Encounter on Algerian Classical Music

The challenges of preserving, transmitting, and promoting Algerian classical music were at the heart of a colloquium organized on Monday in Algiers, in preparation for the "National Encounter on Algerian Classical Music," scheduled "before the end of the current year," according to the organizers.

Hosted at the Moufdi-Zakaria Palace of Culture in Algiers, under the high patronage of the Minister of Culture and Arts, Malika Bendouda, this colloquium, designed and directed by author, musician, and heritage researcher Abdelkader Bendamache, takes place within the framework of the 12th National Cultural Festival of Andalusian Music "Sanâa".

Led by academics, researchers, masters of Andalusian music, and heritage specialists, this symposium aims to "lay the foundations for a strategy to safeguard and promote Algerian musical heritage," they unanimously stated.

In his opening address, the commissioner of the 12th National Cultural Festival of Andalusian Music "Sanâa," Ahcène Ghida, recalled that the proceedings of this colloquium aimed to "feed a collective reflection on the mechanisms for safeguarding this ancestral musical heritage, its transmission to new generations, and the development of scientific reference tools capable of promoting this learned music and ensuring its sustainability."

Opening the proceedings of the first panel, researcher, musicologist, and former member of the "El Mossiliya" cultural association, Fazilet Diff, addressed the "foundations of the transmission of musical heritage, examining the challenges of moving from an oral tradition to a codified heritage."

Dr. Mohamed Saadaoui from Algiers then focused on the "challenges of musical education and the creation of instrument learning workshops within cultural associations," leaving the conclusion of this first part to Master Trainer Salah Boukli Hacène from Tlemcen, who provided an "overview of the terminology specific to the Tlemcen musical school."

The second panel, moderated by musician and musicologist Mohamed Belarbi from Blida, doctor and lecturer Salim El Hassar from Tlemcen, and researcher Youcef Touaïbia from Algiers, was dedicated to the "relationship with science" and the "mechanisms for conserving and structuring the Algerian classical musical heritage."

The speakers respectively highlighted the "role of the masters in safeguarding and developing this legacy," "the conditions for developing a unified scientific reference dedicated to Andalusian musical heritage," as well as the "place of studying other Maghrebian noubas in a comprehensive approach to preserving Algerian classical music."

Dedicated to the "contemporary challenges facing the heritage of Algerian classical music," the third panel, led by musician and composer Talal Chaker Kacimi El Hassani from Algiers, and heritage researchers Hafid Mouats from Skikda and Mohamed Said Zerouala from Constantine, focused on the "analysis of the mutations of sung poems, their transmission, and their adaptation."

The lecturers supported their remarks with proposals aimed at "revitalizing the Algerian classical musical heritage," along with the study and examination of "strategies capable of countering the risks of disappearance of this ancestral cultural legacy."

Mr. Bendamache recalled that this colloquium was part of the preparation for the "National Encounter on Algerian Classical Music," scheduled "before the end of the current year," he specified.

"Through this colloquium," he added, the organizers aim to "lay the foundations for a sustainable national reflection on the safeguarding, documentation, transmission, and promotion of Algerian classical music," which is considered, he concluded, as "one of the major expressions of Algeria's intangible cultural heritage."