Many rumours surrounded the 49-year-old Russian composer and musician Erast Belling, who came to Damascus in 1927, fleeing persecution in the Soviet Union.
Some claimed that his wife was a Russian aristocrat whose lands and jewellery had been seized by the Bolsheviks in 1917. It is known that he worked in Russia well into the Bolshevik Revolution, giving his last concert on 25 May 1919.
Then, he travelled to Damascus via Tehran—penniless and homeless—with nothing to his name except an amazing talent for music.
There is not much about Belling in Syria’s archives, but the available detail comes from a first-hand account written by one of his students. It is also a matter of record—thanks to the Russian Cultural Centre in Syria—that he was born in 1878, and that he joined the St Petersburg Imperial Orchestra as a violin player in 1907, before rising to become its second conductor.
He served in the Imperial Army during World War I and was wounded in battle, which led to his discharge. Then came his flight from socialism and to Syria.
Belling settled in an apartment in the modern neighbourhood of al-Shaalan, which had been freshly established by the French, who had occupied Syria since 1920.
Residents felt sorry for him and would send him food to show their compassion. Pretty soon, Belling began giving private music lessons at home, in both violin playing and piano, while his daughter Tamara taught ballet to foreign girls residing in Damascus or Damascene teens with a desire to learn this “imported” dance.
Aristocratic titles
His wife Sandra, a reputed singer and dancer in pre-1917 Russia, turned to doll-making for a living. Contrary to the rumours, she was not a rich woman and had no connection to the Romanov Imperial Family that had been gunned down in 1918.
Some of her dolls, inspired by peasant women from the Russian countryside, are presently on display at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago (now called The Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa).
To market them in Syria, she adopted the title “Baroness Belling”, and pretty soon, locals began referring to her husband as “Baron Belling” despite the fact that he had never held such a royal title in his life. He did not seem to mind it, however, and it would stick to him for the rest of his life.
The people of Damascus welcomed the Russian Baron with open arms. Academic musicians were non-existent in the 1920s, and the first Syrian to study music was Mahmud Ahmad al-Hefni, a graduate of the University of Berlin in the 1930s.
Others could no go that far and had to settle either for Istanbul or for the King Fouad I Academy for Oriental Music in Cairo, which opened in 1929. Belling feared that conservative Damascene society would reject his music but was surprised to find that the homes of the city’s upper crust were opened to him—rather enthusiastically—and he was invited to teach their children, both boys and girls.
Two of his famous pupils were Salma al-Haffar, the daughter of ex-prime minister Lutfi al-Haffar, who would soon establish herself as a pioneer novelist, and Najla Issa, who worked at the Meshaka Lab in Damascus.
He taught them how to play the piano. While Haffar’s concerts were always strictly private before family and friends, Najla Issa eventually began appearing next to the baron at his public concerts in Damascus, staged at the Glass Chamber of the Orient Palace Hotel, facing the Hejaz Railway Station.
Piano playing was seen as decent, arousing no objection from traditionalists and religious zealots or conservatives.
Adnan al-Rikabi, one of Belling’s students, established a Syrian society for the encouragement of music. Belling also taught Mohammad Kamel al-Qudsi, who had learned to play the violin from a Damascus-based Turkish musician named Shawqi Bey. The Russian émigré taught him how to adapt the instrument to Oriental music.
Fantazia Dimashq
In 1942, Belling composed an opera called Fantazia Dimashq to show his appreciation for Damascus.
His dream was to stage it in a large opera house with a full orchestra, but since none of that was available in Syria, he had to settle for a humble performance at the Orient Palace with just two instruments. He played the violin while Najla Issa played the piano and his daughter, Tamara, danced to their music.
Belling then composed a second masterpiece, Fantazia Stalingrad, dedicated to the Russian city that had been mercilessly bombed by the Germans between August 1942 and February 1943. Neither of them was recorded, and the local French radio station was dedicated strictly to broadcasting news from the European war.
When Syria finally gained independence from the French Mandate in April 1946, Belling was offered a job teaching at the state-run Musical Academy for a monthly salary of 100 Syrian Pounds, worth $45.
