One of my favourite pieces written by Fareed El-Atrash – a Syrian/Egyptian singer, composer and actor. His musical contributions will live on for a long time so as his exceptional temperament/decency as a human being if you get to know his story. Below are 2 clips; first is a brilliant modern interpretation to the composition, and the second is the original song sung during a very popular Egyptian film Ressalah min emraa maghoula (translates to: letter from an anonymous woman) in 1963. Here is some brief info from Wikipedia.
Early Life
Al-Atrash was born in Al-Qurayya,in southern Syria to the Druze princely al-Atrash family who fought the French colonial army.[6] His father was Syrian and his mother was Lebanese.
As a young child, al-Atrash emigrated with his mother and siblings to Egypt, escaping the French occupation. Later, they were naturalized by the Egyptian government as citizens. Farid’s mother sang and played the Oud, which spurred his musical interest at an early age.
As a child and young adult, al-Atrash sang within school events. He studied at Egypt’s music conservatory and became an apprentice of the famous Egyptian composer Riad Al Sunbati. In the 1930s, al-Atrash began his professional singing career by working for privately owned Egyptian radio stations. Eventually, he was hired as an oud player for the national radio station and later as a singer. His sister, Asmahan, was also a talented singer, and for a while they worked together. In 1941, they starred in their first successful movie Intisar al-Shabab (انتصار الشباب – The Triumph of Youth, 1941), in which Farid himself composed all the music.