From: oueichek@ngulu (Ibaa Oueichek)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon
Subject: Re: Symphonies in Rahbani's music!
Date: 12 Aug 92 10:37:28 GMT
Organization: IMAG, University of Grenoble, France
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL4

alami@McRCIM.McGill.EDU (Wassim Alami) writes:
: 
: 
: The late Assi rahbani is a very important musician in arabic, lebanese, 
: and middle-eastern musical history, I am not denying that. I have two
: points against Rahbani Bros. First they integrated some of the international
: music in their works where they don't fit sometimes, and without exerting much
: effort in making them fit the context of our culture. Second, they were
: very idealistic and represented a fake image of Lebanon. They didn't express
: the real problems and concerns of the Lebanese layman and the Lebanese society.

  I disagree with the first point, but it's a matter of taste (i still insist
that Assi is the greatest Arab musician of this century, we may discuss that
later if you want).

  The second point is really unfair, because Assi was "un homme de coeur".
All the Rahbanis works reflected a great love to their country, and a big
affection to their neighbours also (rumours say they were pro-Syrian 
Nationalists, but this has nothing to do with my admiration). I think their
approach to "social problems" was to avoid being direct, there are two ways
to fight the injustice :

  - Denounce it directly, and you risk to fall in the trap of being too much
  direct, sometimes superficial. Marcel Khalifeh is a perfect illustration,
  he is a great artist, a 100% militant, his talent is clear and can't be
  denied. BUT, he has some songs that seem too much violent for my taste,
  and sometimes repetetive. If ever he can get rid of being too direct 
  (which is not easy, given the popularity he enjoys among the youth, and
  it's this same youth who like this direct accusation, ca fait courageux
  et militant, quoi). 

  - Trying to take the long, difficult way of pearching love and tolerance.
  I consider songs like "A esmak sallait" and "Assalat" or "Bhebbak Ya Lebnan"
  to be more militant than most of the garbage songs of Marcel's clones (the
  guy is a real phenomena, unfortunately those clones lake the talent). Their
  theatre pieces are a perfect illustration of this approach : Yaeesh Yaeesh,
  Halah ouel Malek, El mahattah,..etc. All of them are 100% militant because
  they support an idea, an intelligent critic directed against an unjust
  society. Remember the dialog between Barhoum and Haifa in Yaeesh Yaeesh,
  when Barhoum wants to make un coup d'etat and reconquer his place. Their
  theatre was a social one, it's not an "for entertainment only" theatre.

  Maybe i'm an idealist like them, but i definitly prefer the second approach.
     

: I think we should separate the works of Assi and Elias Rahbani. The late Assi
: was much more original in his work.

  It was Assi and Mansour, you have confused Mansour with Elias. They always
refused to work separately, but "rumours" say that Assi wrote almost all the
music, while Mansour wrote poetry. Those rumours seem to be realistic given
that after Assi's death, most of Fairuz songs are signed ZIAD, who seems
to be even more crazy (thus more genius) than his father.
: 
: |> THis is one of the Rahbani's forte!
: |> 
: 
: After all, Music is an art and it is very subjective!
: I wonder if politics is considered an art in Lebanon-).

 ALARM, ALARM, EXPLOSIVE SUBJECT, KEEP AWAY PLEASE.
: 
: |> elie wardini
: 
: Wassim Alami

--
Sham(u) ya tha (s)seif(u) lam yaghib(i) | Ibaa Oueichek. oueichek@imag.imag.fr
    Ya jamal(al) majd(i) fi(l) kutub(i) | LABORATOIRE 	BULL-IMAG
Kablak(i) (t)tareekh(u) fi thulmaten    | Grenoble. 
    Baadak(i) staula ala (sh)shuhub(i)  |
					
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon