Wadia Sabra

Cover of the French biography of Wadi' Sabra by Mrs Zeina Saleh Kayali published by Geuthner in 2018

Wadia Sabra with Miss Badiha Achkar, Mrs Adèle Misk Sabra and Baron Belling after a concert at the AUB Assembly Hall in 1950

Wadi' Sabra was born in 1876 in the village of Ain el Jdideh and died in Beirut in 1952. He married Adèle Misk in 1921 and had no children. He was buried in the Evangelical Cemetery in Sodeco 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,[2] popularly known as Kulluna lil Watan (words by Rashid Nakhle), which was officially adopted by the Lebanese Government through a presidential decree on 12 July 1927.

He is 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.[3] He stayed for 7 years where he studied with the musicologist Albert Lavignac.[4] 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 (Dar ul Musica). Despite having a great interest in the study of Western disciplines, 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, had he not died on the 11th of April 1952.

Sabra, the founder-administrator of "Dar ul Musica" saw his School become “national" on 31 October 1925, which, in 1929, also grew to become the "National Conservatory ", which he was called to direct. Not only does his legacy include a keyboard with quarter-tone intervals, but also 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 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, as of 2016, all his works have been found and archived at the Centre du patrimoine musical libanais (CMPL).

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, Adèle Misk, went to live with her nephew Dr. Robert Misk. Moreover, the atmosphere between Adèle and their adoptive daughter Badiha Ashkar had arrived to a point of no return, she decided to hide all her husband's works in a box, where they remained until 2016, when the Misk family gave it to the CPML for safekeeping.

Because of these archives, Zeina Saleh Kayali was able to write a biography on Wadi' Sabra in 2018 in the collection "Figures musicales du Liban"[5] (Musical Figures of Lebanon). (ISBN 978-2-7053-4002-5)

Sabra had an oriental piano manufactured by Pleyel in Paris in 1920.[6]

• Academic palms, officer rank (France)
• Medal of Officer of the Order of Public Instruction (France)
• Cross of Merit (Lebanon)
• Knight of the Legion of Honor (France)
• Gold Medal of Lebanese Merit (posthumously)

• CMPL