Re: Nusach Sepharard vs. Nusach Edot HaMizrach

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Thanks for the interesting response. 

Are you saying that the music of the Sephardim of North Africa and Turkey
cannot be usefully distinguished/separated from that of the (non-Sephardi)
Jews in the wider Arabic world? Do others that know more about this than I
agree?

Best, Joel

At 10:07 AM 2/16/98 -0800, you wrote:
>Joel Bresler writes:
>
>>Could someone on the list elucidate for me (and all interested others) the
>>difference between Nusach Sepharad and Nusach Edot HaMizrach (custom of the
>>Eastern Congregations). I am told the former is actually (and confusingly)
>>a variant on Ashkenazic chant. 
>>
>>Sometimes various recordings that I am trying to identify liberally mix and
>>match the terms, such as one from Renanot in Jerusalem. The front says (in
>>Hebrew) "Shirah uPiyut b'Nusach Sepharad" while the cassette itself says
>>"Pirkei Tfilah uPiyut bNusach Edot haMizrach." 
>>
>>My interests lay with the truly Sephardic music, not the Ashkenaz variants.
>
>
>Nusach Sepharad may denote two separate things - one, the organization of
>the liturgical texts for prayer, and second, the musical modes of prayer.
>
>In Israel, there is an Ashkenazi Rabbinate and a Sephardi one, but there is
>no official Mizrachi Rabbinate. The Renanot reference to 'Edot Hamizrach'
>refers to Near and Middle Eastern modes for sure - if you have the same
>materials I do, you may see above each Piyut a reference to the 'tune' or
>'makam' (Arabic for mode) that the Piyut is sung to. This places the music
>definitely in the Eastern or Mizrachi camp.
>
>I am not completely certain whether this designation of Mizrachi is used to
>refer to the makams of the North African communities as well (Morocco,
>Tunisia, etc.), but I would strongly suggest that musically the makams of
>North Africa, being part of the larger Turko-Arabic-Persian musical
>tradition, are indeed, for our purposes, incorporated in what we refer to as
>Mizrachi.
>
>The confusion between the designations of Mizrachi and Sephardi clears up
>somewhat if we begin to speak of the *music* as Mizrachi and the liturgical
>forms - the preeminent authors of Piyutim were from Sepharad (Spain) - as
>Sephardi. 
>
>A further curve may be thrown into the mix when dealing with Ladino and
>Spanish forms of Jewish music making, but insofar as the *Synagogue prayer
>modes* are concerned, we can safely begin with just the two designations,
>Mizrachi and Ashkenazi, imho.
>
>I hope this sheds some light on the matter.
>
>Moshe Denburg
>
>
>


Joel Bresler
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