Were the decades between World War II and the start of the Lebanese Civil War (1975) the Golden Age of Lebanese pop music, or was it the Golden Age of Traditional Lebanese Music Sometimes Updated to Embrace Western Song Structures While Still Featuring Ancient Arabic Instruments Like the Oud (a Middle Eastern/Asian guitar-like lute0, the Mijwiz (a double-pipe, single-reed clarinet), the Durbakke (a goblet drum), the Riq (a tambourine-like frame drum) and especially the Buzaq (a long-necked lute). Carla Fleyhan of Brazil’s “Jornal Jovem” characterizes (and surely idealizes) post-World War II, pre-Civil War Lebanon, as, “Friendship, love, peace, safety, charity, life on the pond, joy, and happiness, but above all this the arts: this is how life was in Lebanon.” Good? (In this video watch beloved Lebanese vocalist Fairuz, known for her popular modern music, perform a traditional tune with Nasri Shamsedine.)
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