oa and eee : Connelly4 fUSICAL IMPROVISATION A\ Mgt ORAL-FORMULAIC Ole ving to the performances of three EF; : In tae eMilad Aba Zayd” (Birth of Abit Zaya), the opeene rernode of Sirat Bani Hilal as it is told in Egypt, the ae ender quickly becomes aware of the generic decorum, of which tye Mazin spoke, and the rhetorical dynamic of prior expecta- Vetipat shapes performed version of the tradition. Although peyptians speak of the sira as recited (gala), and often objected to my referring tO the poets as singers or musicians, a performance y feagir alerababa communicates itself as sung story." The medium for the story is the interaction of the poet’s singing voice ind the rabab accompaniment. ‘As one listens to different performers sing the same episode, certain patterns of sameness are immediately apparent. Yet from within these traditional, inherited similar components, there emerge certain individual features that mark the re-creation of the “text.” Three rabab poets I listened to in Cairo with an Egyptian audience (and have subsequently listened to again and again in their tape-recorded oral texts of “The Birth of Abi Zayd”) all tell essentially the same story. In its larger story pattern and its cast of characters, the different versions of the tale are one and the same, The tale follows in large measure the hero pattern delineated by Raglan,? Rank,’ Campbell,* and Dundes; its language and diction are formulaic, full of the repeated phrases and fixed lines described by Parry and Lord.° It follows the epic laws of narration defined by Olrik and the epic “Departure-Devastation-Return” pattern outlined variously by Campbell, Nagler, Lord, and Con- nelly” Its musical and prosodic form follow an identical pattern in the three renditions. 69id moaned no clever boy 1 my house chere nk are In chis oral poetry, ide ed the other coor y rather than hyperac rement occurs between e's end, axrapos however, does occur ina few Tlook with my eyes right and left for a boy to have to babble to me Here, the verse line itself constitutes a sentence or a se amplifes this thought by addin |, adding style—o, thought, bur the next ver den. The narrative thus proceeds in a se vemnent is added to another cumulacively Sa inolecular building stvle 1s typical of Jabir', and Fisua’s poetic technique. C18 also one of the earmarks o ope Kise and of oral composition as delineated by Parry ‘i Sey Quhers in the study’ of oral epic poetry around the world. 2 eoun the parallelism and pleonasm that generally: mark ora acdioon, Oe Po jent selisne feature in the Poet’ of thee The poet states an idea and then repeats Egyptian rabab poets. sith only a slight variation or elaboration. In the ‘ed above, Jabir sings “I became old,” then adds a sand my back was bent.” jing of the second I our the line 1¢ takes up the metaphoric meani lamely, the speaker's troubles; it works in xd for my troubles” is immediately reiter- The next of the preceding line, n: a similar fashion: “I crie fe) of Jabir’s fourth ated, “and I moaned.” In the opening gasida (monorhymed od session of the “Birth” episode, he summarizes the tale for the new che paral member of his id audience. This qasida illustrates struction oral poets typically use to recapitulate, £0 set 4 mor thf have stabbed an ed are gentlemen keep it jeseription of the childless Khadra before she wri igo. demonstrates how the Fayptan me she concne aie qin with variation to construct the story: cr this story happened ays afte Ee fe of the Lord of Creation was sitting in misery and pa ‘the order of the story/the Ninety day’ afrer this story happened ‘of the Book of Right Gi udance fe Ehadra was drinking colocynth She saw the girls of F She saw the 90 girls Procey ones the Master formed thers Prem ney are going up fo the Lake ofthe Birds ‘ech their Master. They bese Is walking Master formed them ‘up to the Lake of the Birds behind them. She saw the girl Precey ones the ‘And they are going Sada and Khadra went Up hich are repeated in their entire jon, These rere noted wl Certain lines may be crea rat are repeated with only slight va coy and variations represent the “form jas” of che oFal poe the paradigms on which he builds his nprovise vises must flexible parterns or rmance—much as he impr story-song during his perio