Re: Sephardic shul

[Mark Kirschbaum <mkirschb...>]

On Sun, 10 Jan 1993, Matthew Fields wrote:

> But I don't know of any cantus firmus shabbat services (---but for
> a proper fee I'd make one up!).
> -Matt

     I can refer you to a number of Yemenite and Cochini synagogues in
Israel, and you can judge for yourself... As far as recordings go, there
are none that I know of of the Cochini community (aside from some
recordings I myself made), and frequently in commercial recordings the
Yemenites will not sing in harmony, knowing by now that "white folks"
don't understand them. However, interestingly enough, in the bit of
Tehillim that Ofra Haza used on the "Kaddish" track of one of her albums,
you can hear it. A pleasant recording which does a few tracks in fourths
is that of the Amranim from Israel, which amy be available from Hataklit
or the equivalent.
     I'm sorry about any confusion I may have caused our readers by
confusing plainchant and polyphany. Joel Cohen and others believe that
some of the tunes may come from Jewish sources, and some
ethnomusicologists believe that Yemenite and Cochini music may also
represent an ancient substratum of Jewish music, preserved in their
isolation form the surrounding cultures. Be that as it may, I only studied
medieval instrumental music (I play the recorders), so sorry about the
inexact terminology.
     If you wish to compose using some of these motifs, you can reach me
over e-mail and then perhaps I can play some of my field recordings, etc,
over the phone....
                                                      mark
P.S. I'm glad this list is geting into some serious material- perhaps we
can all learn some things from each other. The world of Jewish
ethnomusicology literally encompasses most of the world's music in one way
or another (although I don't yet know of any Hebrew Gamelan compositions...)

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