The composer Bushra El-Turk on Oum – A Son’s Quest for his Mother
“Everyone needs to feel a connection with their background”
“When I’m asked what Oum Kalthoum means to me, ‘home’ is really the one word that springs to mind,” says Bushra El-Turk, the composer of Oum – A Son’s Quest for his Mother. “My father always listened to her music, almost as if he was in a trance. Her songs take me back to my childhood, with that feeling of security.”
With Oum, El-Turk pays homage to the legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kalthoum (1898-1975), an icon in the Arab world and far beyond. However, El-Turk sees Oum Kalthoum as more than just an exceptional voice or an intriguing figure. Her music evokes images of lost worlds, of places that continue to exist deep within the soul.
Lebanon
Bushra El-Turk was born and raised in London but has Lebanese roots. “Oum Kalthoum’s music was always playing on old cassette tapes in my father’s apartment in Beirut. That apartment had survived the bombings during the civil war. After the war ended in Lebanon, we used to visit the country every summer. I remember the ruined buildings and the endless checkpoints on the way to my grandmother’s house in Zahle. A lot of my family never left Lebanon.”
Kenza Koutchoukali
El-Turk explains how the Oum project started with a meeting with the director Kenza Koutchoukali: “Kenza invited me for a chat to discuss it and we clicked at once. We felt a real affinity. We both have bicultural backgrounds and we both work in the world of music and opera. That creates a bond. What also made it very interesting for me was that the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra (AAO) was keen to work with Kenza, and vice versa. Some of the musicians I regularly work with also perform regularly with the AAO. In short, there were a lot of similarities and connections, loads of things that felt familiar. Sometimes you have a project like that where everything seems to fall into place. I just knew I had to do it.”
Looking for a home
El-Turk developed the concept for the production together with Kenza Koutchoukali and the artistic team. “We were agreed from the start that we didn’t want to create a biographical portrait of Oum Kalthoum, a story of her life with its highs and lows; we wanted to create something new about what she means to people – to us – at the deepest level.” El-Turk and Koutchoukali both have bicultural roots: Kenza Koutchoukali’s father was from Algeria, Bushra El-Turk’s parents from Lebanon. In their discussions, they arrived at the idea that the production should essentially be about searching for a home. “Everyone needs to feel a connection with their background, their culture. That is both particularly important and more complicated for people with bicultural roots.”
Wajdi Mouawad
Koutchoukali had come across the work of the Lebanese-Canadian author and theatre maker Wajdi Mouawad, in particular his debut novel Visage retrouvé (2002). They both saw the potential of the story. “It is about Wahab, a boy aged fourteen who suddenly becomes unable to recognise his mother’s face. This triggers a quest not only to regain the relationship with his mother but also find out the cause of the trauma he incurred when he had to flee with his family. He lost something that was connected with the country of his birth, his childhood, that tenderness. I can relate to that: the pain of this loss and the search for a voice deep inside.”
Al-Atlal
El-Turk and Koutchoukali decided to use one of Oum Kalthoum’s best-known songs, ‘Al-Atlal’ (‘The ruins’), as the main theme for Oum. “That gave the work a clear structure. The song ‘Al-Atlal’ really appealed to us on both a conceptual and a musical level. It is a song about loss. Loss in love, loss of your country, of happiness in life.”
The basic theme of ‘Al-Atlal’ recurs throughout the composition, interwoven with music of a very different kind. The music of El-Turk mixes the Western classical voice with voices from the Middle East and North Africa. “What is perhaps most important for me as a composer is to give others a voice,” says El-Turk. “One way I do that is by creating room for improvisation in my music. How can the musicians embellish my music, colour it or adapt it idiomatically? That’s both enriching and — sometimes — challenging.”
The composition process
As part of the composition process, Bushra El-Turk had various sessions working with members of the Amsterdam Andalusian Orchestra in small groups. “It was a pleasure working with them. For me it felt like a homecoming. I work a lot in London with the wonderful Zar ensemble, which has a similar approach. They are amazing musicians who play a wide variety of instruments that I’m very familiar with and like to use, not just because of the sound but also because of the image they help project. An essential aspect for me when getting to know a new orchestra is being able to laugh together. That’s the secret of a good relationship. I was also able to reassure them that it’s my job to make the orchestra sound good. This orchestra consists of bowed and plucked string instruments, percussion, pre-recorded electronic music, brass and woodwind and an accordion. The accordion has so much power.”
Big themes
El-Turk had previously worked with the director Kanako Abe for El-Turk’s opera Woman at Point Zero. “She is fantastic and the orchestra is really keen to work with her.” The story in Oum is narrated by the Dutch actress Nadia Amin. She shares the stage with three singers: a soprano, a mezzo-soprano and an alto. They represent the different facets of Oum Kalthoum: maternal, supportive and confrontational. “It will be a special production. It covers all the big themes of the present times: Oum is a coming-of-age story about dealing with traumas, discovering and rediscovering your roots, and reconciliation with a mother you thought you had lost.”
Text: Margriet Prinssen
Bushra El-Turk
The British-Lebanese composer Bushra El-Turk (1982) has written more than sixty works for concert halls, the stage and art installations. She collaborates with musicians from diverse traditions and orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra and BBC Symphony Orchestra. She studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and obtained a doctorate in 2017 for her study of the relationship between Middle Eastern and Western classical music. She has won various prizes, including an Ivor Novello Award for her opera Woman at Point Zero (2022).
OUM - a Son's Quest for his Mother, will be performed at Dutch National Opera & Ballet from 16 March to 21 March, 2025
