Re: Nusach Sepharard vs. Nusach Edot HaMizrach

[Moshe Denburg <denburg...>]

Joel Bresler writes:

>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?

Sephardim are, strictly speaking, Jews who come from Spain (Sepharad). If we
are talking of the music of the Sephardim I believe we must include the
Ladino repertoire and all those musical forms that have their origin with
the Jews of Spain. To the best of my knowledge, this Ladino repertoire is
quite clearly Spanish in origin and easily differentiated from the music of
the Jews in the wider Arabic world. Also, after the expulsion in 1492, the
original 'Sephardim' (=Jews from Spain), went to live all around the
Mediterranean, to North Africa, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, and beyond. Some of
them went to Holland and some to England. But Jews had already been living
for many centuries in many of these countries, so the web of cross cultural
influences within the Jewish world is not at all easily untwined.

You raise a very good point, imo, and it is a question I have been
struggling with for some time. I am quite certain that, even though the
music of Morocco, Tunisia and other Arabic speaking North African states has
a lot in common with Arabic music in a wide sense, there are strong variants
in these forms. But the Oud, for example, which is an Arabic musical
instrument par excellence, is very much a part of the music of the
aforementioned North African states, as well as other Arabic instruments. 

In my essay, 'Jewish Music - An Overview' (to be found on the Tzimmes
website at: <http://www2.portal.ca/~jsiegel/tzimmes.html>), I have tried to
differentiate the categories 'Sephardi' and 'Mizrahi'. There are, imo, many
longstanding musical correspondences and cross fertilizations between the
musics of Spain and North Africa, and Jewish Musicians have always played a
role in the music making of these regions.

This said, I do not feel well enough informed to make cogent statements
clearly differentiating the musics of North African Jews and those of their
counterparts in the more Easterly areas (i.e. - Mizrahim). It would make an
interesting study though.

All the Best,

Moshe Denburg