Wadia Sabra


Wadia Sabra was a Lebanese composer and founder of the Conservatoire Libanais. Married Miss Adèle Misk in 1921. No children. He's buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Sodeco Beirut.

Life

Wadia Sabra was Lebanese composer and founder of the Conservatoire Libanais. He married Miss Adèle Misk in 1921 but had no children. He's buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Sodeco Beirut.
He was born in Ain el Jdideh and died in Beirut. As a composer, his music is characterized as a blend of Western and Eastern musical languages, incorporating the strengths and charms of both traditions. He is best known today as the composer of the Lebanese National Anthem, popularly known as , which was officially adopted by the Lebanese Government through a presidential decree on 12 July 1927.
He's considered the founding father of classical music in Lebanon.
After studying at the American University of Beirut, he left for Paris in 1892, with a scholarship from the French Embassy to study at the Conservatoire de Paris. He stayed for 7 years where he studied with the musicologist Albert Lavignac. He took a job as the principal organist of the Evangelical Church of the Holy Spirit. He then returned to Beirut, where he founded, in 1910, the first School of Music. Despite having a great interest in the study of Western disciplines, Wadia Sabra was, during his first stay in Paris, the initiator of a new style in oriental music, particularly Lebanese. His conspicuous taste for research made him return to Paris, where he worked with the Pleyel studios to develop a "new unit of measurement", the "universal range", which he was going to present to the specialists in music during a Congress planned in Beirut, when death came by surprise on April 11, 1952.
Sabra who was the founder-administrator of "Dar ul Musica" had the satisfaction of seeing this School become “National"on 10/31/1925, which, in 1929, also grew to became the " National Conservatory ", which he was called to direct. Not only does his legacy include a keyboard with quarter-tone intervals, but also an appreciated - and discussed - work on "Arab music, basis of Western art", as well as a certain number of various works, including the Lebanese National Anthem. The National School of Music has been endowed with a Monthly Review, a sort of permanent link between this Institution, its students, and the first music lovers of Lebanon.
Most of Sabra's music was considered lost, and only a few examples of his work remained in the performance repertoire; however, since 2016, all his works have been found and archived at the .
Wadia Sabra was in ruins after spending all his money on his work; hence, after many unsuccessful requests of grants and retirement pension to the Lebanese government, his wife, Mrs. Adèle Misk, went to live with her nephew Dr. Robert Misk, where she hid all her husband's works in a big blue trunk,” La Malle Bleue".
He had an oriental piano manufactured by Pleyel in Paris in 1920.

Selected works

Operas

  1. Ahwal-Ghazal
  2. Ouaskinir-Rah
  3. Kaddoukal Mayyass
  4. Raieh feine
  5. Antal Moumannah
  6. Marche Orientale
  7. Kom Ouastameh
  8. Ya Gazâli
  9. Padishahem
  10. Al Djazayer
  11. Polka Orientale
  12. Ya Safal Azman
  13. Binteche Chalabyya
  14. Owmi Tkhaddari
  15. Tafta Hindi
  16. Madad-Madad
  17. La Constitutionnelle
  18. Hymne Constitutionnel
  19. 2e Marche Orientale
  20. 3e Marche Orientale

    Biography in the Grove's

Grove's DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
VOLUME VII R-So Fifth Edition
Edited by ERIC BLOM
PAGE 346
SABRA, Wadi
Lebanese composer, organist and author, Director of the Lebanese National Conservatory of Music. After studying at the Syrian Protestant College, Beirut, now the American University, he entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1893 and studied under Lavignac, Widor and Guilmant, Bourgault-Ducoudray and others. He became organist of several churches in Paris and then accepted a similar post at that of Saint-Esprit. In the latter year he left for Istanbul to present his Turkish national hymn to the Sultan. The same year he returned to Beirut where he founded the DAR-AL-MUSIQUA or School of Music. After the first world war he went to Paris, where he collaborated with Gustave Lyon on the question of the Arabic scale, with the ultimate aim of having a pianoforte constructed according to their plans. This instrument he introduced into Lebanon in 1922, and the firm of Pleyel constructed an electric model of the new instrument. After residing in Egypt for some time he was recalled to the Lebanon as director of the National Conservatory of Music. He received from the French Government the “Palmes académiques” and “Rosette d’Officier de l’Instruction Publique”, and in 1948 made “Chevalier of the Legion of Honour”.
By reforming the scale, not only the Arabian, but that of the Occidental also, Wadi SABRA would unite the eastern homophonic and the western harmonic systems. In 1936 he published an account of his universal scale explaining his unit of measurement, and in 1944 he convened a Universal Musical Congress at Beirut, at which he demonstrated the value of his system which, he claimed, “Opens a new era in musical science”.
Among the writings of Wadi SABRA which deal with this important question are:
“Congrès de musique arabe du Caire: considérations et conclusions”
“Le Procès de la gamme mineur”
“Nouvelle unité de mesure des intervalles musicaux : gamme universelle »
“Exposé d’un nouveau système perfectionné de partage des 12 demi-tons de l’octave”
“La Musique Arabe : base de l’art occidental »
“Tonalités en usage sous la dynastie abbasside et recherches des orientalistes sur la matière »
Wadi SABRA was a prolific composer. Among his compositions are the Lebanese National anthem, and the following:
“Opera “The Shepards of Canaan” The first opera in Turkish libretto by Halide Edib Hanum”
“Opera “The Two Kings”. The first opera in Arabic libretto by Père Maroun Ghosn”
“Operetta “L’Émigré”, in French”
“Oratorio le Chant de Moise”
“Cantata “Les Voix de Noel”
“20 Lebanese folksongs”

Decorations