Gabriel Asaad (March 18, 1907, Midyat

Midyat

Midyat is an originally Assyrian/Syriac town in Mardin Province of Turkey. The ancient city is the epicenter of a centuries-old Assyrian/Syriac enclave in Southeast-Turkey, widely familiar under its Syriac name Tur Abdin. A cognate of the name Midyat is first encountered in an inscription of the...

 – July 6, 1997 Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

) was an Assyrian

Assyrian people

The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...

 composer and musician. Among the classical songs of Gabriel Asaad there are Ho Donho Shemsho (ܗܐ ܕܢܚܐ ܫܡܫܐ The sun is shining), Motho Rhimto (ܡܬܐ ܪܚܝܡܬܐ Beloved nation) and Moth Beth-Nahrin (ܡܬܝ ܒܝܬܢܗܪܝܢ Mesopotamia my nation). Gabriel Asaad was the pioneer of Assyrian music and composed the first Assyrian song in the Syriac language

Syriac language

Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...

in modern time, Othuroye Ho Mtoth Elfan l-Metba‘ (1926, ܐܬܘܪܝܶܐ ܗܐ ܡܛܬ ܐܠܦܢ ܠܡܛܒܥ Assyrians, Our ship is on the way to sink).