elrabee3 - 3-4-2005 at 03:39 PM
i posted the full interviews before in Farido forum, i will post here the parts of the 2 interviews where he is talking about the oud.
elrabee3 - 3-4-2005 at 03:40 PM
the 2nd interview 
samzayed - 3-4-2005 at 06:23 PM
Thanks for these. Some of the native arab speakers out there, correct me if I'm worng, but I think he acknowledges that pearl inlay (sadaf) actually
hinders the sound of an oud. However, in his oud's case, (according to Farid) the oud maker was well skilled in that he made it sound great.
From the King, Himself . . .
Jameel - 3-4-2005 at 06:25 PM
I wish I could understand arabic. 
khaled - 3-5-2005 at 02:14 PM
He is really the 
KING OF OUD..Fareed is something rare.
chaldo - 3-5-2005 at 04:32 PM
is it possible to download the first parts somewhere? can anyone tell please
Elie Riachi - 3-5-2005 at 06:38 PM
Okay Jameel, here is my attempt at translating the first interview in the thread:
-------------------> Interview 1 <-----------------------------------
Interviewer: Ustaz (Mr.) Farid… about the Oud?
Farid: I tell you about the… this is the mate of all of my life…
Interviewer: Your life mate, how many life mates do you have?
Farid: I have… actually the ones dearest at this time, are two only…one… presented to me by an artist…he is a maker of ouds from Aleppo in
1943…about 30 years ago, this oud is inlaid with mother of pearl…eh…he worked on it, as he told me, for two years… and he heard the I will be
make a trip to Aleppo to sing… he made this oud and had it ready until I got there, he came and met me and presented me with it as a gift…And I
listened to its voice and found it to be actually and practically a great piece of art…Firstly, mother of pearl cause the voice of the oud to be
lost…it mutes it. I found it first to be attractively inlaid with shell and very beautiful and very accurate workmanship and has a very sweet
voice. I mean it is rare to find an oud inlaid with this much shell, engravings and decorations and still has a sweet voice. Because the wood has
too be a special kind of wood so that it can ring, but the shell mutes the voice, so the artisan maker of this oud instrument was able to overcome the
muting problem associated with shell inlays and made this oud to have such a sweet ringing voice like the piano and I hold this oud dear to me and I
always play it at general parties and in front of all the people. [End of interview]
Elie Riachi - 3-5-2005 at 09:26 PM
And here is the translation of the second interview:
---------------->Interview 2 <-----------------
Interviewer: Fraid al-Atrash…the being is amazed when the being asks Farid al-Atrash about the oud…Did Farid al-Atrash’s tunes come first or did
Farid al-Atrash’s distinct oud which is the signature in his tunes and music playing, which one comes first; the tunes or the oud? And did the oud
have a history in the life of Farid al-Atrash?
Farid: There was an oud at home…My mother had a hobby in the oud and used to play it a little. So the oud was there at home… I would take the oud
and play around on it and make tunes…meaning without an instructor…I was taught by life and the gift that our Lord gave me…I found myself
playing without an instructor… by by ear, which our Lord filled it with art and inspiration helped me with creating musical tunes, because I have a
good ear, and I was able to start playing without any instructor…just my mother starts playing in front of me and I would imitate her and started
learning. But when I went to the institute I started practicing and rapidly improving until the year1934 which became a very big turning point in my
life that I to the degree of performing on the oud, with all modesty, that no one was near my level of skill at that time—the interviewer: event to
this day, the interviewer adds — Farid continues, I am humbled, I am humbled…and I was young and probably was stronger than now, look I mean I was
a genie of the oud, something strange. They used to sit when I practiced at the institute… the crowds used to gather around me and listen to me
while I practiced and studied the oud. They would listen and ponder what a wonder this person this young of an age and knows how to play oud in such
unique way. So when I first worked at the radio station, they brought me as an oudist because they didn't used to know that I also sing. They heard
about me apparently from the “ustaz” who was the appointed manager of hiring back then, the great master “ustaz” Mitthat Assem, I owe him many
graditudes; he is the one that discovered me. He was the one that one day was entering the institute and heard someone playing the oud and he stood
at the door outside and saw how I strummed and played the oud, so the first thing he thought of after they announced him the manager of the radio
station was to invite me to the station and hire me for a position at the station as an oudist (he hasn’t heard me sing yet) and paid a salary of a
Ginneh and a half [translator’s note: Ginneh is an Egyptian dollar], a Ginneh and half from the radio station for me at that time was a lot of
money—interviewer comments that was the day—Farid continues that was a very happy day it impossible for me to forget because after I played oud
and I was walking in the street I was met with crowds of people came to congratulate me, in the street standing in admiration…they left their houses
to see who is this boy that is coming (see I was a boy I was only 20 years of age…or less 17, 16, 15 years…so they didn’t know whose playing
oud…they would come and see me and I am holding an oud (the oud was bigger than me.) So…This was a very big turning point in my life. [End of
interview]
elrabee3 - 3-6-2005 at 08:30 AM
great job Elie Riachi 
thats exqctly what farido said
he said. i was "Afreet fe el ouud" 
Elie Riachi - 3-6-2005 at 09:07 AM
Hello Jaber,
Thanks for sharing the interview, very interesting. I didn't know that Farid was that old. He tells some cool stories.
I have heard in the past that Farid is from Lebanese Druze origin (which he never seemed to want known) and was just proud to be Egyptian. Can anyone
shed some light on this, not that it matters but just out of curiosity?