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Egyptian composers and Zagreb musical life in the era of the non-aligned movement: A missed opportunity

This short paper in honour of Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco was meant to be a commentary on performances of Egyptian composers’ works on concert stages in Zagreb, including the works of her father, Aziz El-Shawan (1916–1993), a prominent composer who developed a distinct national style within Western music in Egypt. However, on the basis of quite an extensive inquiry into relevant local publications, databases of concert organizers and archival material, as well as through contacts with knowledgeable individuals, it has appeared that not a single work by an Egyptian composer of Western-inspired music have been performed at a concert in Zagreb during the Yugoslav period. The great ideas of non-alignment created in the political sphere had very meager implications in the cultural sphere. Speaking of music and dance, the actual projects, in this case between Egypt and Yugoslavia, were limited to one or two exchanges of ensembles per year, and these were usually folk song and dance ensembles. Further on, judging from some notes on the process leading to the agreed-upon programme of cooperation between Yugoslavia and Egypt in 1970–1971, it seems that the exchanges were mostly limited to the capitals, Belgrade and Cairo, although the Yugoslav delegation was, in principle, in favour of a more de-centralized arrangement. On the other hand, the realization of programmes depended on the engagement of specific institutions and individuals. This was the case, for instance, with the Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts (est. in 1955), but a comparable musical project did not exist. Therefore, the supposed emancipatory potential of the Non-Aligned Movement in the cultural sphere could more accurately be called a missed opportunity.

musical life, Zagreb, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Non-Aligned Movement

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