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Music Talks > 2021 Winter and Spring
Music Talk: Monday 22 November 2021
Meeting open for joining at 6:45 pm Beirut Time (GMT+2 or UCT+2)
Talk starts at 7:00 pm and until 8:30

The Magic of the 3 Minute Song (30's and 40's)
12 Great Songwriters, Different Songs from Last Week's Talk
Akram Najjar (English)


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The Profile of the Talk
The second talk will present the above with a few changes . . . and different songs.
The independent 3 minute song saw the light in Vienna with the able pen of Schubert. Before that, songs were always part of larger works: operas, oratorios, etc. (Of course, this does not include folk and traditional songs). With the popularization of Opera in the 19th century, arias started having a life of their own as stand-alone songs. For many reasons to be discussed in the talk, song writing crossed the Atlantic and became part of cultural life in the USA.

This talk will briefly present 12 great songwriters and play 1 song from each. One song from each of these greats will be presented: Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, George/Ira Gershwin, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers and Hart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer and . . . Antonio Carlos Jobim, the only non-(North) American amongst them. The selection is strictly subjective, only based on Akram's love for that song.

Akram Najjar is a graduate of AUB in Physics and Mathematics (1966). By 1969, he completed a degree in Electronic Engineering in University of Hertfordshire, UK. His professional life was spent in Information Technology and organizational management. He spent a lot of time on reengineering business and public sector processes.
When Akram was 14, he chanced upon an evening program that presented one Jazz great at a time. He was hooked in Jazz in parallel with his love for Classical music. In our earlier Season 3 and 4, he gave 2 workshops: "For the Love of Jazz" and "Ten Great Jazz Songs".

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