Mohamed Iguerbouchène

In 1957, Iguerbouchène returned to Algeria, where he worked for Algerian radio, and composed and conducted for the orchestra of the Opera of Algiers. However, following the Algerian War of Independence, and the subsequent official policy of arabisation, as someone strongly identified with France, and also as a Kabyle, he found himself marginalised. Ignored and embittered, he died of diabetes in Algiers in obscurity. Recent years have witnessed attempts to rehabilitate and revive his works, and forge him into a national icon.

In early 1945, Iguerbouchène composed about 100 songs based on poems in Thousands Nights by Rabindranath Tagore. In 1946, he composed music for Les plongeurs du désert by Tahar Hannache. Iguerbouchène also composed for the 1962 French short Le songe de chevaux sauvages, directed by Albert Lamorisse about wild horses in France.

Following Iguerbouchène's approach to the BBC, in 1939 it broadcast one of his orchestral works, a 'Moorish Rhapsody', which was conducted by Charles Brill.

In 1934, Iguerbouchène was introduced to the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique (SACEM) as a songwriter, and in that same year he was also introduced as a member of the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD). In France, at the école normale des langues orientales de Paris, he studied Tamahaq, Tachawit and Tashelhit.

In the early 1930s, Iguerbouchène composed the music for a number of Algerian documentaries and a short film (Dzair). This led to Julien Duvivier asking him to collaborate with Vincent Scottoon the soundtrack of the 1937 feature film Pépé le Moko starring Jean Gabin. He was credited as "Mohamed Ygerbuchen". The film was remade in 1938 in Hollywood as Algiers, and again used his music: this time he was credited as ‘Mohammed Igarbouchen’.

In the 1930s also Iguerbouchène became the co-proprietor of a bar-restaurant and cabaret, ‘El Djazaïr’ (‘Algiers’ in Arabic), on the rue de la Huchette in the Latin Quarter of Paris. In 1938, he met the singer Salim Halali in Paris (who was originally from Annaba), with whom he composed approximately fifty songs, mainly in an Arabic Flamenco style. The collaboration was successful in Parisian clubs, and they also toured the rest of Europe. They were in particularly popular in North Africa.

With the death of Fraser Ross in 1929, Iguerbouchène inherited all his property in Algeria. The will also specified a conditional bequest of 1,500 pounds on him not marrying a girl of European birth. Iguerbouchéne met Fraser Ross's wish half-way, marrying a French citizen of Algeria, Louise Gomez. The marriage failed, although they did not divorce.

Mohamed Iguerbouchène; also Georges M. Iguerbouchen (Francophile name), Mohamed Ygerbuchen (as screen credited), Mohamed Ben Saïd Iquerbouchen, Kabyle: Muḥand Igerbucen; (13 November 1907 – 23 August 1966) was an Algerian composer.