APPENDIX A:

Umm Kulthum's Repertory

Listed in Approximate Chronological Order

[from the Ph. D on UK by Virginia.Danielsson]

Ansh = Anshudah
Dial = Dialog
Maw = Mawwal
Mon = Monolog
Muw = Muwashshah
Nash = Nashid
Qas = Qasidah
QasW = Nationalistic qasidah
Taq = Taqtuqah
Ubr = Ubrit (Opera)
Ughn = Ughniyah
UghnW= Nationalistic ughniyah
A = Ayidah
D = Dananir
F = Fatmah
N = Nashid al-Amal
R = Rabi ah al-Adawiyah
S = Salamah
W = Widad

X = Not in a maqama

The following list is based on al-Masri and Kamil's work augmented by my own findings in Egyptian periodicals, archival documents and private record collections. The list is presented in approximate chronological order; however, the dates themselves are in many cases approximate and, within a single year, the order of release of the songs is not specified. The dating of the songs, particularly the earlier ones, is problematic.


In most cases, the dates assigned to each song are those of first performance. These usually correspond to the dates of the release of the commercial recording, although there are a few important exceptions: Umm Kulthum performed the songs composed by al-Shaykh Abu al-Ila years before she recorded then (ca. 1927-1930); during the 1930s, owing to difficulties in the recording industry caused by radio broadcasting, songs by all artists were only released as recordings after they had been proven to be popular through films or broadcasting.


Because of shortages of materials during World War II, songs from the 1940s were not released as records until years after initial performance. A number of the less popular songs were never recorded at all. Hence the dates for Abu al-Ila's songs are those of recording, while the date of first performance have been listed for the songs from the 1930s and 1940s as these are the most reliable and correspond to contemporary public perceptions of "new" songs in Umm Kulthum's repertory.


Most songs are commonly known by the incipit of the first line. In cases where a song is known by a title other than the first line, that title is included in parentheses under the first line.

[This is slightly different in the web-version, as alternate names just follows the first lines. I have also made an alphabetic index with crossreference from alternate titles that I will soon be upload.LF-980330]


1. al-Masri and Mahmud Kamil al-Nusus al-Kamilah li-Jami Aghani Kawkab al-Sharq Umm Kulthum, [474-495]. An earlier form of this work was Hasan Mahir and Abd al- Aziz Anani's "Qawa'im Bibliyughrafiyah: al-Sayyidah Umm Kulthum."