Re: Judeo Arabic/North African music

[Francesco Spagnolo <yuval...>]

>Francesco,
>
>Thanks for that wonderful insight on the relative freedom of
>Judeo-Arabic interpretation of songs.
>
>Are most of the songs of the series indeed in Hebrew, or are they in
>Arabic (or other languages)?
>
>Bob

All songs are in Arabic. No Hebrew involved -- I wrote the word "Hebrew"
instead of "Arabic" in my posting by mistake: sorry! These songs are
(were?) part - as far as I can understand such things - of the local,
non-Jewish, culture, and at the same time are somehow perceived as
"Jewish". Pretty much like, I don't know, Jerry Lewis in the US (can this
compare?)...
Of course, French language plays a big role in this picture, since the
Jewish singers were all speaking French as well, and were able to adjust to
living in France more easily that the Arabs. In fact, what distinguished
the Jews in those countries was their direct access to European education
via the school system established all over North Africa and the Middle East
by the Alliance Israelite Universelle.
Many among these Jews also spoke Italian -- like in Libia and Tunisia, but
also in Egipt and Syria -- and sometimes had an Italian passport. They were
all connected to the Italian-Sephardi (mainly from Livorno/Leghorn)
diaspora.
A good aural documentation about this mixture of different cultures can be
found in Gerineldo's version of "Uskudara" - a suite of different poetical
compositions on the same Turkish melody, which carries on from Turkey to
Morocco. One of the songs is a mixture of Arabic, French, Italian and
English.
I am actually curious to know more about this particular multilingual song,
its origins, where it was collected, etc.; and I'm sure that Judith Cohen
can say a lot about this. Judith?

Hag sameah,
Francesco
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