Abu –El Musiqa in Palestine
)Father of Music(
Augustine Lama
The man was not so tall, a little well built in body, and dressed in western suit and tie. However he wore a fez (red Tarbush) on his big head. He greeted the king politely. The king smiled and asked him: “Why you are wearing this fez, Augustine? Surely this is not yours? It is too small for your head!”. The young man smiled politely and embarrassingly and said, “No your majesty… It is not mine. I had to borrow it from a friend, as I could not visit you without wearing one”. After sipping a good cup of coffee with the king, the latter asked him about Beethoven and how much the composer was fond of nature and forests. Shortly, the young man put off his (or for that matter his friend’s fez) and started playing the adagio sostenuto of Beethoven‘s Moonlight sonata to end up with its inspiring forceful presto agitato.
This image sounds a modern version of how composers and musicians of the 18th and 19th centuries used to perform in courts of kings and emperors. Indeed it is. The friendship that developed between King Abdullah I of Jordan and Augustine Lama in many ways resembles such friendship of Bach for example and the Margrave Ludwig of Brandenburg.
In 1902, August 28, In the city of Ramleh, the young Augustine was born in a family which is originally from Bethlehem. His parents and uncles left Palestine and migrated to South America. There, the family name changed from Al-‘Ama to Lama. At the end the 19th century, some of them decided to come back to Palestine, notably the brothers Ibrahim and Bader Lama who left then to Alexandria, Egypt where they acted in and produced the first Arab cinema film called “Kiss in eth desert in 1928. Augustine’s father, decided to stay in Jerusalem, so he moved from Ramleh.
As the child grew and attended the St. Savior Franciscan School, he was all for music. He used to skip sports and everything else in his childhood in order to stay behind in the class room and play the piano alone with no interruptions. The Franciscan priest there was his teacher and mentor. As the First World War started, the Italian priest decided to go back to his country. And as such, the young Augustine was asked to become the organist of the church. As he turned 20, he became the chief organist in all catholic churches in the Holy Land. He mastered several languages fluently such as English, French, Spanish, and Italian in addition to his mastery to the Arabic language. It is then he fell in eternal love: love for music, and especially for scared music.
Augustine Lama was a true gentleman. In addition to his warm character, always smiling,. Willing to listen to everybody, even children, and try to help as much as he could, he dedicated his life to serve God, the church, family and his society.
In addition to his exceptional skills in playing organ, as he was considered among the most professional virtuosi in his life time in the world, he excelled in choral conducting, organized the choir, founded a music ensemble, and placed a lot of effort in encouraging choral and voice performance of Arab music, He was versatile in this sense, but classical music was his main specialty.
Many people as they realized that Augustine was becoming in his eighties, hardly able to walk, and ill, kept wandering: “What then after Augustine? From where could we get another Augustine?” In fact, some years passed after the death of Augustine, churches in Jerusalem prayed and had services with no organ music. In fact he retired at age 83! He was often heard saying then” If I could get another leg, I would have played organ for many more years to come”.
No one could ever forget how caring Augustine was to the young generation of his time. He helped even those who were almost his age, not only the more junior ones, to stride confidently in the world of music, so they could become among the celebrated composers of Palestine. Among them of course are the most important two: Yousef Khasho and Salvador Arnita. In addition he taught and encouraged many other younger composers like Patrick Lama (his son), Francois Nicodeme and others.
We can not claim that Lama’s music is versatile in structure. He set for his professional career a trend of music and kept faithful to it. He believed that he could excel in that field and so he did. He wrote chorales, and many keyboard music mostly for organ. He wrote fugues as well. However his harmony was indeed versatile and the musicologist could find easily examples of the colorful mastery of having different harmonies and not simply counterpoint in the traditional sense.
One could detect music styles of the 18th century, yet in other works he could see late romanticism clearly. In this sense, his music was colorful and versatile.
Augustine passed away on July 19, 1988.
His works included chorale music of organ, choral works, masses with two and four voices, sacred music and chants for different occasions, variations and adaptations, organ instrumental music and other works. Some of his works are published in Europe.
One of his remarkable compositions is an organ music called Post Laudio. He wrote it in November 1948, after he realized that his country Palestine has been torn by war, and that his Jerusalem has been shattered, he expressed the deep despair and sorrow in this piece.
Cognoverunt Discipuli (Emmaus) chorale is a wonderful example of his fugal technique in a liberated structure. If Bach was alive in the 20th century he would not have done it otherwise. Velum Templi chorale is another structure that is exceptionally vivid.
The Vatican ordained him an honorary member of the Franciscan order, an honor given at that time to four people only in the world. In 1934 King Abdullah I of Jordan visited the Terra Sancta College in Jerusalem and awarded him the Independence medal.
I remember in 1977, then a young amateur of music, I was visiting the St. Joseph School in Bethlehem, when I heard the wonderful music of Beethoven’s Pathetique sonata from one of the halls. I grew excited. I noticed an old fat man sitting with glasses and hardly moving, a Christian de LaSalle brother was flipping pages of an old book of music score. I could not believe wonderful sound of piano coming from such an old man, who hardly moved and showed no sign of life except for his fingers. That was the only time that I saw Augustine.
This is how I would cherish the memory of this great man: a modest kind gentleman, hardly moving or making a pompous appearance, understanding and caring, and yet a great musician and composer. He played music from the depth of his heart, even when his heart stopped the funereal was full of his music…
He truly was the father of Palestinian music.
Saleem Zougbi
Bethlehem Academy of Music
2007