Abboud Zeitoune finds “Assyrian Pearls”

in Diglat and Furat Rivers

by Helen Talia - Chicago/USA

The astounding sound of music is the heartbeat in every facet of life. Just like spring brings hope and promises that no winter can keep, music creates “stillness” in a moment, and “passion” for lovers. It turns our “silence” into a dance with God.

Introduction

Already well known for his charismatic personality and national activism in his hometown of Wiesbaden, Abboud Zeitoune entered the Assyrian consciousness with his book, “Music Pearls of Beth-Nahrin,” a clever research and sequential presentation of modern Assyrian music.

The Book

It is not hard to imagine what Abboud Zeitoune was thinking when he endeavored to compile a book about the music of a nation which remains stateless, yet its language and culture continue to have a heartbeat, mainly due to resistance, however scattered its people may be. It is a “timely” book that gives hope to the Assyrians as they continue to face some of the harshest waves of uncertainties in the Middle-East. In “The Pearls,” all Assyrian dialects are united, from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Iran to the Americas, Europe and Australia.

The book, published in three languages ~ English, German and Syriac (Western dialect), contains a tactful introduction and six sections ~ modern Assyrian music history, modern Assyrian music database and statistics, Assyrian music records, children albums, church hymns and Assyrians music books. The author traces music back to pre-Christianity Sumer, Babylon and Ashur, later preserved through Christian church hymns. It offers consistent biographies, vinyl covers, and a clear timeline of modern Assyrian music. It is

the sum of all Assyrian music parts captured in a single breath, making the book an almanac.

During his research, the author met many challenges, from displaced material to unavailable and disorganized work of artists themselves, mainly due to a dispersed people. The challenge then became how to collect misplaced information from a people with no particular genealogy database and very little historical statistics, with much of its art and music lost to history. As he began his research, he became more surprised each time it grew to include more material. Finally, his work had to branch out to accompany other musical enthusiasts worldwide, who came to his assistance in this solemn project.

For generations to come, when the Assyrian culture will have exhausted in the Western

continents and only fragments of it will remain, the “Pearls of Beth-Nahrin” will become a sought after documentary because of its preservation of historical facts about a globally divided nation who persevered through its art, for as long as it could, despite its seed being sown in a foreign soil.

Author

Abboud Zeitoune was born in the ancient city of Qamishli, Syria, and educated in Lebanon and Germany, majoring in Economics. So what is an Economics major doing in music café’? Simple! Music as an art has been the “yeast” of our cultural survival, be it a church hymn, a song in a wedding, or a tune to our endless “Shaikhani” line dance that has stretched for generations.

Review

Is Everything Pearl? “Yes,” declares the author, simply because of the invaluable Assyrian language in which these artists have contributed their talents to preserve the modern Assyrian sound. This proves that we are survivors, and that no borders “tikhoubeh, Assyrian” will keep us from reaching our brethren in other countries.

Final Thoughts

Finally, something enlightening about modern Assyria! An important part of our history, that is neither political, nor draining, written by one of our own.

An unbiased book, containing the work of artists in every Assyrian dialect. This book is a hand-down from one generation to the other. The author’s plans for a runner-up volume to follow. Chebo!

~ Helen Talia

Chicago

June 16, 2008

A compilation of Assyrian music in a unique book

By Hanibal Romanos, Sweden

Who was Evlin Dawud? What’s the name of Ogin Bet-Samos third album? Who sang the original Hate Rhamli? Who wrote the lyrics of Shamo Mar? When were the first ever Assyrian recordings released? Who created the first Assyrian musical epos? By who and when was the first Assyrian song in modern times composed? The answers to the above questions are to be found in the newly released book “Music Pearls of Beth-Nahrin” – a grand catalogue of all Assyrian albums of all times.

“Music Pearls of Beth-Nahrin: An Assyrian/Syriac Discography”. That is the title of the new book which each Assyrian with a feeling for Assyrian music and culture will embrace. A book of this kind about our Assyrian music has never before been published. The author and publisher is Abboud Zeitoune, an active person within the Assyrian movement residing with his family in Wiesbaden in Germany. The book, comprising 571 pages, is divided into several parts of which the catalogue constitutes the main part. The catalogue documents around 1300 Assyrian music albums (most of them with a picture of the album cover), which were released in the 78, 45 and 33.3 RPM gramophone record format, cassettes and CDs. About 12 000 Assyrian song titles (including church hymns) are presented along with some 500 singers (west- and east-Assyrians). You find each artist under the initial letter of his/her first name. One can even see in which order the artist has released his/her albums, which years they were released and the names of the albums etc.

The book includes also an article about modern Assyrian music history and biographies on some singers, songwriters and composers in English and German. There is also, for the first time ever, statistics on the entire song releases until this day as well as a list of the twenty most productive singers. There is an informative list of Assyrian music books with a picture of each book’s cover in the end of the book. The last part of the book contains the lyrics of four songs which are among the oldest Assyrian songs in modern time.

- My love for Assyrian music was the drive which made me begin to collect the albums. The music represents our roots and it gives makes me feel as if I was in Assyria. There are many Assyrian associations in Wiesbaden where I live and the Assyrians there come from every corner of Assyria; the Turkish part, Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian. It was through the collections of the associations I was able to collect all kinds of Assyrian music, explains Abboud.

How did the book project began?

- It began with the digitalizing of my cassettes in 2003, e.g. converting them into mp3 files on the computer. Later I witnessed the way a friend was working on creating a database for video films in Microsoft Access. I copied his database and changed it so it would suit my music collection, that’s how my own music database was born. As time went by my music collection grew bigger. I took contact with other collectors through the net who provided me with information and albums I lacked. I updated the database continuously. It’s thanks to the database I was later able to create the statistics in the book. The idea of making a book of the database was born autumn 2006, he reveals.

Several persons were consulted for information about different albums, both artists and non artists living in different parts of the world. Sometimes even the artists themselves couldn’t remember which year their songs were recorded, who had written the lyrics etc. The number of found albums increased with the number of persons consulted.

- Still after having collected well more than 1000 albums I was surprised to find new singers all the time who were not known to me. That’s why my book doesn’t claim to contain all Assyrian music albums. It is though the first step on the way, he says.

Abboud says also the book wouldn’t have become what it is if not for the help of different people. For example the singer and painter Sardanapal Asaad (Stockholm) corrected the article on the history part, painted some portraits of singers and provided other pictures for the book. Malke Romanus and Ninos Kando (both lives in Wiesbaden) helped write all song titles in Assyrian script.

Also I, the writer of this text, have taken part in the making of the book and I am also co-author to some parts of the book and have helped Abboud with information. Other persons who deserve to be mentioned in this context are the music collectors Yilmaz Beth-Saroke from Holland and Aslan Akbas from Sweden. These persons have together with Abboud Zeitoune, I and others constituted a sort of network the last years in order to preserve the Assyrian music in a digital format and thus immortalize it. This network has collected music with great devotion and spent thousands of hours on this work which has affected the book in a positive way. Other persons who helped with the book project are mentioned in a thank you list in the beginning of the book.

- There were some attempts before to tell the story about the modern Assyrian music but they weren’t sufficient. This is the first time this history can be read in one single and extensive book. Much of the information had never been written before and that’s why one had to ask around a lot, he explains.

“Music Pearls of Beth-Nahrin” is a milestone in Assyrian history in many ways, but of course there’s no such thing as a perfect book...

- We would need more biographies of singers who have shaped Assyrian music to what it is today, there’s a list of these singers in the foreword. Another shortcoming is the lack of information about many albums as we couldn’t find out who wrote the lyrics, composed the music or when they were released. These are things to think about if there will be a second edition. Even if we would have postponed the publishing of the book it would not become perfect. It will become “perfect” when the second edition is out as it will probably have been completed with new information gathered from readers. That’s why it’s better it was published now instead of in a couple of years, says Abboud.

All of this makes it probable that a second edition will be published in couple of years. That’s why Abboud maintains it’s important that people interested in music forward information that they might have in order to make everything more complete.

- I’m hoping for a second edition so the incorrect stuff and the gaps will be dealt with and also to include recent albums. But before we can think of a second edition all 1500 books must be sold, he says.

In the meantime Abboud is maintaining the updating of the music database where the book’s catalogue of the albums takes its base from.

The book was released on 31 August this year in Sweden during the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Assyrian Democratic Organization. Abboud held a lecture in connection with the release about the work with writing the book and about the history of Assyrian music. One week later the book was released in Germany in the city of Wiesbaden.

Abboud is now planning to tour Assyrian communities in different countries of Europe.

Facts about the book:

Author: Abboud Zeitoune

Language: English, German, Syriac

Bandtyp: Hardbound

Number of pages: 571

Year of publication: 2007, Wiesbaden/Germany

This article was first published in Hujådå issue 10 October 2007 in Swedish.