While working as policemen in Lebanon, they studied both Eastern and Western music during their time off. After beginning work at the Lebanese Radio Station, they shared some of their musical compositions with members of the station’s staff. As a result of this effort, their musical talents were recognized and sought after at the station.

The brothers were introduced to Nouhad Haddad—later known as Fairuz—at the radio station in 1951. The meeting led to years of artistic collaboration between the three, in which Fairuz sang the songs that were written and composed by the Rahbani Brothers. Over the next 3 decades, the trio produced numerous songs together and enjoyed a great deal of success as artists in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world. Their body of work is marked by innovative approaches to music-making such as the incorporation of rumba, foxtrot, and bossa nova elements into traditional Arab music-based compositions and the manipulation of traditional Arab poetic forms into a style resonating more with the Arab society in which they lived.

In addition to producing hundreds of songs, the Rahbani Brothers also wrote more than twenty musical-theatrical works, many of which depicted Lebanese village life and portrayed historical Arab characters. Several of the theatrical works were critically acclaimed, and one—The Ring Seller—was adapted to screen by Egyptian film director, Youssef Chahine.

Assi Rahbani died in 1986 and Mansour Rahbani died in 2009.

In “Nassam Alayna-l Hawa,” the lyrics play on the double-meaning in the Arabic language of “hawa,” which translates to “love” or “breeze of air” and has been interpreted as an expression of the longing of diasporic Arab communities for their homelands. The following verse reflects well such nostalgic sentiment:

يا هوا يا هوا يللي طاير بالهوا

Oh breeze,

Blowing in the expanse,

في منتورة طاقة و صورة خدني لعندن يا هوا

There is a wallflower, a small window, and a picture frame,

Take me to them, oh breeze

فزعانة يا قلبي أكبر بهالغربة ما تعرفني بلادي

My heart is scared

That you might age in this far away place

And my home would no longer recognize me

خدني خدني خدني على بلادي

Take me home

Take me to my country

Certain features of the musical composition play a role in constructing meaning throughout the song. The use at the beginning of the song of the maqsum beat (a fast-paced, rhythmic pattern) and the buzuq (a stringed, long-necked instrument used typically in Arab folk music) serves, for example, to create an upbeat, happy mood as the image of a place with blowing breezes, valleys, and flowers is described. Further along in the song, however, the slower rhythmic patterns and lower tonal registers complement a verse of lyrics expressing fear and anxiety and create a dark musical space around the words. In particular, the use of the quarter tone—an intermediary scale between flat and sharp notes and a characteristic element of Arab music—adds to the dark mood in the middle and ending parts of the song by working in tandem with the lines, “khidni, khidni khidni ‘ala bladi” (“Take me home, Take me to my country”) to convey a sense of sad, nostalgic longing. The employment of tonal registers and rhythmic patterns to shape the meaning of a song has been argued to characterize much of the musical compositions of the Rahbani Brothers.

Assi’s marriage to Fairuz and subsequent musical collaborations led to the Rabhani’s Brothers’ fame around the Arab world, appealing to listeners from a wide variety of social and national backgrounds. Dubbed “The Soul of Lebanon” in the 1970’s, Fairuz became a preeminent superstar and a cultural and political icon, a symbol of a people, a heritage, and a voice for peace.

This lesson is designed to explore a universal human experience, homesickness, through the lens of a famous Lebanese song, “Nassam Alaya-l Hawa.” This lesson can be taught in conjunction with students’ study of immigration, particularly the Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 under the Johnson Administration, or as a way to introduce new insights into Arab art and culture into your music or social studies classroom. This lesson is meant to prompt students to draw connections between their own lives and the lives of Lebanese people, or more broadly, diasporic or immigrant peoples, as depicted through song. It is also meant to use music to bolster students’ understanding of key terms related to immigration: Homesickness; Displacement; Diaspora; and Solidarity. As a launching point for this exploration, the lesson makes use of the famous Arabic-language song “Nassam Alaya-l Hawa” or “Blowing Breeze” which has become something of an anthem for Arabicspeaking immigrants displaced from or who have left their homes.

Nassam Alaya-l Hawa Lesson Plan-1