2023-07-04 12:49:18
Birth Anniversary: Zaki Nassif.. Multiple roots of different music
This corner restores an Arab or international cultural figure on the occasion of her birthday, in an attempt to illuminate other aspects of her personality or her creative worlds. Today, July 4, marks the birthday of the Lebanese composer Zaki Nassif (1918-2004).
In his book “Zaki Nassif, the Gifted World” (2016), researcher Victor Sahab refers to the multiplicity of influences that enriched the experience of the Lebanese composer, whose birthday is celebrated today, Monday. Byzantine and Christian hymns.
He explains that Nassif caught the attention of one of the teachers of the “Saviour’s School”, called Habib al-Shammas, when he started singing and playing the oud at the annual concerts, at the end of the school year, and then participated in a band founded by musician Najib al-Shalfoun, as the band toured Lebanese regions Several for two months in the summer of 1933.
In addition to his acquaintance at an early age with the voices of Salama Hijazi, Abu Al-Ala Muhammad and Sayed Al-Safti, who switched from religious chanting to worldly singing, according to the book, but the main turning point in his life was with his enrollment in the Institute of Music at the American University of Beirut in 1936, where he met a teacher. French mathematician and organist Bertrand Robard, and he began learning Beethoven sonnets from a Czech schoolteacher. Despite his work in commerce during this stage, it did not distract him from continuing his main project in music and singing.
However, the official launch of Nassif, who was interviewed by Sahab in the book, was through the “Near East Radio” in 1953, with the encouragement of Sabri Al-Sharif, and there he accompanied the Rahbani brothers, Tawfiq Al-Basha and Philemon, to establish what was later known as “The League of Five”, and he began to compose a group of Light dance songs that were widely popular. After the Near East Radio stopped, he participated with the members of the League in the “Baalbek Festival” in 1957, only to break up after about two years to become “Asbatin”; Mansour and Assi Al-Rahbani with Fayrouz and Sabry Al-Sharif, and “The Lights Band”, which included Saeed Freiha, Zaki Nassif, Tawfiq Al-Basha and Wadih Al-Safi.
Nassif’s separation from the Rahbani brothers not only reflects the competitive spirit that governed their relationship, but also fundamentally expresses a difference in vision and musical project, as the first wanted to sing for a real homeland other than the imagined one drawn by Asi and Mansour, so Zaki’s songs were the embodiment of the idea of building and working for the homeland, as in “Bora”. Al-Ard” and “Hello, Sanabel”, while Al-Rahbanah went to “My Homeland, O Mountain of the Blue Clouds” or “From the Gold of the Lost Time”.
Nassif did not want to stylize Lebanon. Rather, he devoted his simple melodic phrase, which he sees as a development to the singing of peasants and shepherds in his hometown, the town of Mashghara. Lebanese musical academic Walid Gholmieh describes his melodies as “seems easy and when implemented, its difficulties become clear”; The melodies belong, from the author’s point of view, to the heritage of his country, the Levant, believing that “there is no pure Lebanese music”, which he will develop through his political affiliation with the “Social Nationalist Party”, which also composed its anthem.
The owner of the song “Ya Ashikat al-Ward” was able to achieve for himself that different position during the establishment of Lebanese singing, and to leave an indelible mark, as in his songs that he composed for himself, such as “Rajee Ya’mar Liban” and “Sing me in the Quiet Night,” or in those that he composed for others. Among them are “And Your Life, O Path of the Eye” by Nasri Shams El-Din, and “Tale Our Loved Ones, Tale” by Wadih Al-Safi.
Zaki Nassif left more than five hundred melodies, which are the conclusion of his musical research. Theoretical and practical, mainly in the heritage, and his attempt to add through his work on harmony, color harmony and vibrant rhythms, as well as presenting songs written mostly in the plural form “we”, to express that “singular” in his creativity and music, but without giving up for a moment about “ congregation” for which he wrote and sang.
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