Tuesday 13 January 2009
Lebanese composer Mansour Rahbani dies

We cannot but remember the famous song for Old Jerusalem he wrote for Fayruz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVcsVhxbTg

as fayruz say: "may be their conscience will wake up!" (Belki biyu´a al-damir)

AFP - Lebanese composer and musician Mansour Rahbani, 83, a well-known figure in the Arab world, died on Tuesday following a bout of pneumonia, a hospital official told AFP.
  
Rahbani was the brother of Assi Rahbani, who was married to Lebanese singing diva Fairuz, for whom the two men composed many poems and songs.
  
The pair, who became known as the Rahbani Brothers, also wrote several widely-acclaimed musicals including "Petra" and "Biyaa el Khawatem" (The Ring Seller), which was adapted on screen by Egyptian film director Youssef Chahine.
  
Following Assi Rahbani´s death in 1986, Mansour composed several plays on his own, the latest of which, "The Return of the Phoenix", is currently playing in Lebanon.
  
The Rahbani Brothers focused on themes about village life, growing up, love and patriotism.
  
Renowned in the Arab world, the brothers were also known to a wider audience, including in the United States where they performed at a sell-out concert at New York´s Carnegie Hall in 1971.

http://www.france24.com/en/20090113-mansour-rahbani-dies-pneumonia-composer-lebanon-fairuz 

Hi Cedars,

Thank you so much for sharing this article.  Although I´m not Lebanese, I´ve greatly enjoyed Arabic music for years, and Fayruz is one of my favorite singers.  Didn´t the Rahbani brothers also compose the play "Mai Serrin" wýth such beautýful songs as Ya Mukhtar il Makhatir, "Mai Serrin"  and others?  I´m sure that he and his music will long be remembered. 

My condolence cedars,great lose indeed.

 yes they did compose the play "mayss elreem" among other other plays.

here is a link to the song "mukhtar el makhatir"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLFs-D67Itc

They also did one a movie called "safarbarlek" about lebanon under the ottoman rule, about resistance and how the empire took lebanese as slaves to work for free;

I wonder what the word "safarbarlek" means in turkish!