Tawfīq al-Bāshā

Biography

Toufic Basha studied cello, theory and composition at AUB’s music institute in 1941–1944, then composition with Bertrand Robillard until 1949.

He taught theory and muwashshahat at the National Conservatoire, and Arabic music at USEK. Therese Mansour describes radio studio improvements, recruiting notation-literate players, enlarging the choir and supervising performances. Asaad Makhoul recalls playing Basha’s short composition in an oud examination, then interviewing him while preparing a book about Nur al-Huda. In a reproduced interview, Basha recalls practical Arabic music study in a quartet: Khalil Mkenni on violin, Mahmud Siblini on qanun, Mustafa Sherif on oud and himself on cello. Their bashraf, samai, longa and muwashshah practice complemented his Western theory studies: a personal recollection. AFP’s obituary links his broadcasting career to musical settings of Arabic poetry from the pre-Islamic through Abbasid periods. Named programmes include Majalis al-tarab, Layali Shahrazad and Ashab wa-al-Kindi. These composition credits establish music for poems, rather than authorship of their verses.