{"id":3010,"date":"2021-05-06T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/?p=3010"},"modified":"2021-05-11T14:30:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-11T18:30:41","slug":"hudeidi-the-somali-king-of-oud-another-sad-casualty-of-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/loebmusic\/2021\/05\/06\/hudeidi-the-somali-king-of-oud-another-sad-casualty-of-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Hudeidi, the Somali “King of Oud”: Celebrating a Musical Life Claimed by COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring 2021 marks the one year anniversary of Ahmed Ismail Hussein Hudeidi’s death as a result of complications from COVID-19. Since that time, the world has lost over three million people to the virus.\u00a0 Hudeidi can be heard throughout the Archive of World Music’s\u00a0Somali Songs Collection<\/a> of approximately 500 audiocassettes comprising a range of popular music from the 1950s-1990s.<\/p>\n

Who was Hudeidi?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"A

Ahmed Ismail Hussein Hudeidi (1928-2020).\u00a0Image courtesy BBC World Africa, 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

Born in Somalia in 1928, Hudeidi spent a significant portion of his childhood in Yemen. It was here that he learned to play the Arab lute known as the\u00a0oud<\/em>, or kaman\/<\/em>kaban<\/em> in Somali,\u00a0a type of short-necked plucked chordophone that is ubiquitous in music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey (MENAT). Although symbolically tied to the MENAT, the oud<\/em>\u00a0is an important instrument in myriad genres and styles throughout the world, especially in Muslim societies such as Somalia.<\/p>\n

When Hudeidi came of age, he moved back to Somalia and also spent time in Djibouti where he sometimes clashed with authorities for singing political songs. He made significant contributions to genres of\u00a0hees<\/em>, or Somali sung poetry.\u00a0His boldness and virtuosity made him well-known amongst Somali musicians and audiences. Throughout his career, he accompanied some of Somalia’s most famous vocalists, such as Magool<\/a>\u00a0and Sara Ahmed<\/a>, and worked alongside other lauded\u00a0oud\u00a0<\/em>players, such as Omar Dhule<\/a>, and\u00a0composers such as\u00a0Abdullahi Qarshe.\u00a0 Here is a video of Hudeidi and Qarshe together in a Somali television interview, which concludes with a performance by the\u00a0oud<\/em> master:<\/p>\n