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Assi Rahbani (4 May 1923 – 21 June 1986) and Mansour Rahbani (1925 – 13 January 2009), known as the Rahbani brothers (), were Lebanese sibling
musicians A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...
,
composers A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and defi ...
, songwriters,
authors In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
, and playwrights/dramatists, best known for their work with the singer Fairuz, Assi's wife. Their younger brother Elias Rahbani (1938 – 4 January 2021) was also a famous
lyricist A lyricist is a writer who writes lyrics (the spoken words), as opposed to a composer, who writes the song's music which may include but not limited to the melody, harmony, arrangement and accompaniment. Royalties A lyricist's income derives ...
and
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
.


Family tree


History


Early career

Coming originally from Rahbeh, a small town in the north of Lebanon, the Rahbani Brothers were not involved in music aside from the reading that their parents made sure they had. Though Assi and Mansour occasionally helped the local priest in arranging the vocals and instrumentation of their
Antiochian Orthodox The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (), also known as the Antiochian Orthodox Church and legally as the Rūm Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East (), is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox church within the wider communion of E ...
liturgies Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a community, communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, ...
, their musical career began when Assi obtained a job at the Near East Radio channel. While working as police officers in
Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...
, Mansour and Assi started at the radio channel as paperboys, dealing with the music sheets and lyrical editing. They eventually composed their own jingle and suggested it to the supervisor at the channel, Halim El Roumi, the father of singer
Majida El Roumi Majida El Roumi Baradhy (; born 13 December 1956) is a Lebanese-Egyptian soprano singer and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. Early life Majida El Roumi Al Baradhy was born on 13 December 1956 in Kfarshima. Her father, Halim El Roumi, ...
. He encouraged them by paying them for their work and broadcasting it on the channel airwaves. In 1951, Nouhad Haddad (later known as Fairuz), one of the singers in the channel's chorus, came to the attention of Halim El Roumi. Assi composed her first song, "Itab" ("Blame"). Halim el-Roumi attended the recording session and asked Assi to compose additional songs for her. Assi and Mansour Rahbani and Fairuz soon became one of the most prominent groups on the Lebanese music scene. The trio released about 50 songs in the following three years and found it more convenient to split from the channel and work on their own without the employment restrictions. The Rahbani Brothers and Fairuz became a musical team. Both of the Rahbani Brothers composed and both of them wrote lyrics as they always clarified in interviews and as attested by their family members as well as by artists who collaborated and worked with them. In 1953, Assi proposed to Fairuz and the couple was married in 1954. In 1957, the trio performed for the first time at the
Baalbeck International Festival The Baalbeck International Festival (; ) is a cultural event in Lebanon. Since 1955, people from around the world have gone to the city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon to attend the annual festival. Classical music, dance, theater, opera, ...
; it was the first time that local Lebanese artists had appeared in the festival.


The 1960s

Fairuz and the Rahbani Bros started building their career based on the songs they recorded and released. Radio and TV became the primary media through which their music was spread. Assi and Mansour also began writing musicals, plays with musical dialogs, and interpretations of patriotic themes that appealed to the Lebanese public. The musicals mostly focused on village life, the innocence of growing up, the problems of love, parental care, and the mischief of youth.


The 1970s

The Rahbani Brothers also launched the careers of artists who first worked as backup singers for Fairuz or acted in their musicals; many of them became forces in the Arab music industry. Georgette Sayegh,
Najat Al Saghira Nagat El-Sagheera (; born Nagat Hosni Elbaba on 11 August 1938; alternative spelling: El Saghirah) is an Egyptian singer and actress. She retired from filming in 1976 and from singing in 2002. Nagat began her career at the age of five and retir ...
,
Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...
, Wadih El Safi, Ronza, Fadia Tanb El-Hage, and Huda, Fairuz's younger sister were the most prominent of the Rahbani Brothers' proteges. Fairuz, Assi, and Mansour were introduced to the Western world during their 1971 tour of the United States. Initially, managers and event-organizers in the US doubted the popularity and drawing power of Fairuz and the Rahbani Brothers. However, after a concert of June 6, 1971 at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...
, Fairuz proved that she could be a viable artist abroad. After four months of touring the US, Canada, and Mexico, the trio returned to Beirut where Assi and Mansour started working on the musical ''Al Mahatta'' (''The Station''), and a TV show called ''Al Mawasem'' (''Seasons'') starring Huda. On September 22, 1972 Assi suffered a brain hemorrhage and was rushed to the hospital. After three surgeries, Assi's brain hemorrhage was halted.
Ziad Rahbani Ziad Rahbani (, born 1956) is a Lebanese composer, pianist, playwright, and political commentator. He is the son of Fairouz, one of Lebanon and the Arab world's most famous singers, and Assi Rahbani, one of the founders of modern Arabic music ...
, the eldest son of Fairuz and Assi, at age 16, ''composed music for the song Saaloui n'Nass'' (''The People Asked Me''), which pays homage to Assi and talks about his absence and the song was included in the musical Al Mahatta ''(المحطة)'', which was being prepped at the time. Within a year, Assi had returned to composing and writing with his brother. They continued to produce musicals, which became increasingly political in nature. After the
Lebanese Civil War The Lebanese Civil War ( ) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 150,000 fatalities and led to the exodus of almost one million people from Lebanon. The religious diversity of the ...
erupted, the brothers continued to use political satire and sharp criticism in their plays. In 1978, the trio toured Europe and the Gulf nations. Assi's medical and mental health began to deteriorate. Fairuz and the brothers agreed to end their professional and personal relationship in 1979.


The 1980s

Assi and Mansour Rahbani continued to compose musicals for Ronza and Fadia Tanb El-Hage (Ronza's sister). They re-made their musical ''Al Sha'khs'' (''The Person'') which they had first performed with Fairuz in the early-1970s. On June 26, 1986 Assi Rahbani died after spending several weeks in a coma.


The 1990s

In the summer of 1998, Fairouz, Mansour Rahbani, Elias Rahbani, and Ziad Rahbani re-staged a number of their old musicals at the
Baalbeck International Festival The Baalbeck International Festival (; ) is a cultural event in Lebanon. Since 1955, people from around the world have gone to the city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon to attend the annual festival. Classical music, dance, theater, opera, ...
.


Critical interpretation – links to critical articles

A dearth of artistic-literary criticism exists on the works of the Rahbani Brothers, Ziad Rahbani, and Fairouz. One of the main reasons being their works are seen from a Nationalistic point of view. Proper literary criticism remains to be created most probably in later years. However, one of the most important literary interpretations are found in Nizar Mroueh's "In Lebanese Arabic Music and the Rahbani Musical Theatre".في الموسيقى اللبنانية العربية والمسرح الغنائي الرحباني"، نزار مروة Articles with a critical interpretation: In Arabic:


Works


Musical plays

*''Ayyam al Hassaad'' (''Days of Harvest'' – 1957) *''Al 'Urs fi l'Qarya'' (''The Wedding in the Village'' – 1959) *''Al Ba'albakiya'' (''The Girl from Baalbek'' – 1961) *''Jisr el Amar'' (''Bridge of the Moon'' – 1962) *'' 'Awdet el 'Askar'' (''The Return of the Soldiers'' – 1962) *''Al Layl wal Qandil'' (''The Night and the Lantern'' – 1963) *''Biyya'el Khawatem'' (''Rings for Sale'' – 1964) *''Ayyam Fakhreddine'' (''The Days of Fakhreddine'' – 1966) *''Hala wal Malik'' (''Hala and the King'' – 1967) *''Ach Chakhs'' (''The Person'' – 1968–1969) *''Jibal Al Sawwan'' (''Sawwan Mountains'' – 1969) *''Ya'ich Ya'ich'' (''Long Live, Long Live'' – 1970) *''Sah Ennawm'' (''Did you sleep well?'' – 1970–1971 – 2007–2008) *''Nass min Wara' '' (''People Made out of Paper'' – 1971–1972) *''Natourit al Mafatih'' (''The Guardian of the Keys'' – 1972) *''Al Mahatta'' (''The Station'' – 1973) *''Loulou'' – 1974 *''Mais el Reem'' (''The Deer's Meadow'' – 1975) *''Petra'' – 1977–1978 *''Elissa'' – 1979 (Never performed due to the separation of Fairuz and Assi) *''Habayeb Zaman'' – 1979 (Never performed due to the separation of Fairuz and Assi) *''Ar-rabih Assabeh'' (''the seventh spring'' – 1984) *''Al Faris'' (2016)


Films

*(1965) ''Biyya' el Khawatem'' (" The wedding Rings Seller" ) *(1967) '' Safar Barlek'' (''The Exile'') *(1968) ''Bint El-Hares'' (''The Guardian's Daughter'')


See also

* Assi Rahbani * Mansour Rahbani * Fairuz *
Ziad Rahbani Ziad Rahbani (, born 1956) is a Lebanese composer, pianist, playwright, and political commentator. He is the son of Fairouz, one of Lebanon and the Arab world's most famous singers, and Assi Rahbani, one of the founders of modern Arabic music ...


References


External links


Elias Rahbani
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rahbani Lebanese musicians Lebanese writers Lebanese songwriters + + 20th-century Lebanese male writers