The audience at the American University in Cairo’s newly dedicated Tahrir Cultural Center moved from passive listening to meditative, reflective swaying as Nesma Mahgoub sang the aggrieved melody “This Is What Has Come To Be,” its words urging the powerless to join for a different future for Egypt. The song is one of the best known of the more than 100 “taqtuqas” composed by Sayed Darwish (1892-1923), music that functioned as the collective soundtrack for the 1919 revolution, whose centennial is celebrated this year.
Taqtuqa is a genre of light music accompanied by politics-infused lyrics sang in colloquial Egyptian. Alaa-Eldin Adris, associate dean for research, innovation and creativity at the American University in Cairo (AUC), headed an interdisciplinary team that compiled and organized the most influential songs of the genre written amid the 1919 revolution.