Assi and Mansour Rahbani, the greatest guarantee for the revival of Lebanese folklore

amateurs — students of the secondary schools and uni-versities, two hundred in number... But... the inclina-tion of the amateur is not the zeal of the professional!!

The "two Jarrars" are supported by Mrs. Chamoun's concern and her constant assistance, especially in what concerns the choice of fitting and suitable costumes; the committee's adviser in this regard is Ustad Youssef Yazbek, one of the trustees of Lebanese history...

Nor does the eye of Ustad Michel Touma, the patron of the troupe's work, ever leave it... He it is who says that folklore is a link in our life that must not be lost or neglected... he it is who believes in the revival of popular art...

And music remains the life of dance and song. Ustad Sabri Sharif says that what encourages our activity is that Lebanon's musicians, few though they be, hold fast to the Lebanese folklore that the villagers

The discerning director Sabri Sharif

hum and that passes on from ear to ear; he singles out here the Ustads Nicolas al-Mani, Philemon Wehbe, and the Rahbani brothers.

The Lebanese musicians of today, like the nimble director, hold fast to the beautiful passages of folklore — say rather the fixed, concentrated shots — refine them, and make of them the pivot or, at times, the point of departure.

Ustad Sharif holds that Lebanon has an authentic folklore with a character that keeps pace with the Lebanese temperament in general and brings out for us shadows of that Lebanese life. In his eye is a tomorrow in which folklore will be concentrated in a harmonious orchestral structure.

"The two Jarrars" — Marwan and Wadia — the two buds of folk dance in Lebanon

For folklore is a naive lyric rapture that must be clarified, that must be adorned. As for the word, the time has come for it to disobey no longer. Some of our poets have managed to widen its domains and bring it close to the intimate popular tune — among them Said Akl and Michel Trad.

All this is bold, many-branched attempts, waiting... and they will meet in a single embrace to look out upon us, on two evenings of the nights of the Baalbek Festivals, in dance and song and melody and pictures: in the dance of the sword and shield, the dance of the gypsy girl and the knives, the pitcher, the harvest, and the grape-gathering... all of them phantoms of the past and of a shrinking present — a sin that they should be scattered!

These phantoms are symbols, keys to riddles... or to legends and tales we may know and may not know... they may at times be the spice of local history, and at times its salt.

I heard yesterday that popular art is buffoon's goods, not worth stopping for. Would that I had known then the answer to what I heard!!

Folklore, I say today in a tone far removed from modest whispering, is a wine-jar... and bread... and a lyre of glory!!