Rev. Paul Hage (Boulous El Hage Boutrous): Continuing the Legacy of Recorded Maronite Hymnody at 78 RPM

 


Rev. Paul Hage (Boulous El Hage Boutrous): Continuing the Legacy of Recorded Maronite Hymnody at 78 RPM

 


Rev. Paul Hage, c. 1955 From Church Hymns album. Courtesy of Richard M. Breaux collection.


Coming off our most recent post featuring Sami el Shawwa we are returning to our topical origins. When we encountered our first set of 78-rpm Arabic records, we knew virtually nothing about most of the musicians and singers who performed on shellac during the 78-rpm era. Extending from 1912 to approximately 1961, Arab American musicians launched their recording careers on Victor and Columbia before changing course down a self-created path of Arab American music labels including Maloof, A.J. Macksoud, Alamphon, Arabphon, Al-Chark, Morad, Cleopatra, Wardatone, and a plethora productively independent local, regional, national, and international labels. Most of the singers, composers, musicians, record sellers, and record labels featured on Midwest Mahjar enjoyed popularity in Arab and Arab American communities across the local communities, the United States, and the globe.

 

Priests, ministers, pastors, and religious figures held an especially important position in the history of recorded Arab American music. Maronite priest Rev. George Aziz cut the first and earliest records on Columbia and Maloof Phonograph Records in 1914 and 1922. Then there were the many Syrian Orthodox priests on shellac – Rev. Agapios Golam, Metropolitan Germanos Shehadi, Rev. Samuel David, and Rev. Ilyas T. Kurban. Finally, the Presbyterian minister Kahlil Bishara, too, preserved his voice on 78 rpm in the 1920s. All told, the story of Rev.  Paul Peter Hage most resembles that of fellow Maronite Rev. George Aziz, geographically, and Ilyas T. Kurban, generationally.


Photo from The New Castle News. 14 October 1972. Courtesy of Newspapers.com 

The Village of Jouar el-Haouz sits 36 kilometers or 22 miles east of Beirut. Here on 12 February 1910, Lucy Khoury Hage and her husband Peter Tanios Hage had the youngest of their seven sons including Camil Boutros Hage or Boulous El Hage Boutrous. Most of the village's residents religiously belonged to the Maronite Catholic Church and historically labored as tobacco farmers or mulberry tree farmers. With the collapse of the Lebanese silk industry and the creation of the government-owned Lebanese Regie of Tobacco in 1935, those farmers in Jouar el-Haouz who converted their farms to cherry and apple orchards. After he received his early education locally, Hage entered the seminary in 1925 and nine years later was ordained by Bishop Paul Awad. Camil adopted the name Boulous or Paul and became more commonly known as Rev.  Paul Peter Hage by 1934. It remains unclear whether he is on any relation to violin player and oudist Antoine Hage.

 

Rev. Hage advocated for education strongly and he soon assumed a teaching position at the College of Zahle in 1935. One year later, he filled an assignment as priest at Our Lady of Help in Bikfaya. Ironically, Hage’s family traced their ancestry to this area. Through Lebanese independence and much of World War II, Hage remained in his post at Bikfaya, then in 1945, Hage transferred back to Zahle’s Saint Joseph Parish at the Mission Order of Priests of Sanit Anthony. By 1947, Rev. Hage’s work brought in full circle - he returned to his childhood home of Jouar el-Haouz. After seven years back in his hometown, Pope Pius XII granted Rev. Hage special permission to travel 5700 miles or 9200 km to Buffalo, New York.

 

Both long before and after, Rev. Paul Hage immigrated to, settled in, and departed Saint John’s Maronite Church in Buffalo, New York, Arabic-speaking immigrants and refugees put down roots in Buffalo.  In her carefully documented book Strangers No More: Syrians in the United States, 1880-1900, historian Linda Jacobs suggests some “twenty Maronites” and fifty total Syrians already lived in Buffalo in 1891. Jacobs reminds us that the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo directed boosted the number of Syrians in Buffalo; many of the performers, merchants, and other fair participants remained in Buffalo or moved onto other parts of upstate New York and Canada after the fair closed. Dr. Nagib Abdou estimated approximately 350 Syrians in Buffalo in 1908. An equal number of Syrians lived in Niagara Falls and nearly as many, 300, resided in Utica. Syrian immigrants established Buffalo’s Saint John Maron Catholic Church in 1904. Saint Maron’s first priest, Rev. George Aziz, became the first Syrian minister of any faith to record music on Columbia Records in 1914. In the same year Rev. Aziz made his recording, nine Syrian immigrants united to form Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Catholic Church in Niagara Falls. During Rev. Hage’s tenure in Buffalo he served as an administrator and assistant to the pastor. He and Rev. Peter Sfeir oversaw Saint John Maron’s move from Buffalo to Amherst/Williamsville in 1960. The new church sat on a lush 12-acre plot of land that formed an entire complex of buildings to serve the church. Since the 1950s immigrants from Yemen came to Buffalo. Noticeable waves of Yemeni Muslim immigrants arrived in the 1970s, in 1995, and 2005. 


Catholic Union & Echo, 3 August 1962. Courtesy of Newspapers.com 

 

An especially unique collaboration between Rev. Boulos Hage, Fred Alam of Alamphon Records, Najdeh Khoury, and Sami Shawwa emerged packaged as a rare five-disc, 10 side, 78 rpm set simply titled Church Hymns-Maronite Rite in 1955. Hage traveled the country signing in Buffalo, Utica, Brooklyn, Olean, Danbury, Lawrence, and Detroit, mostly before other Maronite parishes. He recorded with Sami Shawwa on 1 December 1954 and a few months later Fred Alam released Church Hymns – Maronite Rite set on a custom label.



Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 202 "Sabbehou Lelrrab," https://youtu.be/K_OX7DQmhjc
Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 203 " Ha Monz Ela," https://youtu.be/dj1Z9PF1zBE

Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 204 "Ayababb Rahmak," https://youtu.be/XCdHEJ8mvgQ

Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 205 "Kodous Kodous," https://youtu.be/W3TucqkEYKo

Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 206 "Bsir Kiyamet," https://youtu.be/04Tmil11Z8o

Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 207 "Sabbehou Lillah," https://youtu.be/Hzp8-oyoftY

Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 208 "Obareko Elrabb," https://youtu.be/jnl0wvkRPDU

Rev. Boulos Hage & Sami Shawwa P. 209 "Almagdo Lilah," https://youtu.be/MDnl_eKHGQc

 

Whether Rev. Hage possessed the magic touch or developed a formula for parish growth, the move and expansion of Saint John Maron attracted the attention of other Maronite churches looking to grow their congregations. This vision led Saint John the Baptist Maronite Catholic Church (est. 1926) in New Castle, Pennsylvania, to call upon Rev. Hage to administer its parish on 2 September 1963. Hage had recently become a naturalized citizen of the United States in February, 1963. He continued his tireless pace of expansion efforts. This time he guided the church in New Castle through its mortgage pay-off period and mortgage burning, and the remodeling of several church structures including its church hall and rectory. In New Castle, Rev. Hage officiated his share of weddings, funerals, baptisms, and other ceremonies. He also organized his share of hafla, picnics, groundbreakings, and other events through his tenure.


The Scantonian. 30 March 1980. Courtesy of Newspapers.com 

Following years at Saint John the Baptist Maronite Catholic Church in New Castle, Pennsylvania, Rev. Hage hinted at retirement in 1977. Ultimately, he did not retire and within two years he led Saint Ann’s Maronite Church in West Scranton, Pennsylvania, for a year and officially retired in 1980 to a family member’s home in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Within eight years, Rev. Paul Hage reposed 12 November 1988. His last place of residence was in New Jersey where he retired previously. We are uncertain as to whether he ever cut any other records or albums in his lifetime. His 1955 set, however, cements his position in Arab American 78 rpm history.


Special Thanks to Daniel N.

 

Richard M. Breaux

 

© Midwest Mahjar

 

 

Location: La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA La Crosse, WI, USA

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