Habib Hassan Touma

Habib Hassan Touma (12 December 1934 – 10 August 1998) was a Palestinian composer and ethnomusicologist who lived and worked for many years in Berlin, Germany.

Life and career Touma was born in Nazareth, Mandatory Palestine, on 12 December 1934. After graduating from Nazareth High School, he worked as a teacher in Arab communities in both Galilee and Nazareth. He then pursued further studies in music at the Rubin Conservatory of Music in Haifa and in pedagogy at the Oranim Academic College. He went on to do graduate studies in music composition with Alexander Uriah Boskovich at the Israel Conservatory of Music and then the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at the University of Tel Aviv.

After completing his studies in Tel Aviv, Touma returned to teaching; working in the Ramatayim region at the French Mission School and the American Baptist Children's Village. He then left Israel for Berlin to pursue further studies at the Free University of Berlin. As a composer he was known for his blending of traditional Arabic music with Western classical music. He was also a book review editor for the ethnomusicological journal The World of Music, published by the International Institute for Traditional Music in Berlin. Among other studies based on his field work in Arab countries, he published a description and photographs of the Work Songs of the Gulf Pearl Divers of Bahrain. Another of his studies treated the Arabic musical influence on the Iberian Peninsula during the period of Al-Andalus.

He died on 10 August 1998.

Selected bibliography The Music of the Arabs, trans. Laurie Schwartz. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. (1996). The Maqam Phenomenon: An Improvisational Technique in the Music of the Middle East (1971)

Compositions Maqam Bayati, Israel Music Publications. Rhapsodie Orientale, Israel Music Publications. Study #1 (For Flute), Israel Music Publications. Study #2 Combinations (For Flute), Israel Music Publications. Taqsim for solo piano, Israel Music Publications Suite Arabe for solo piano, Israel Music Publications