Re: from yesterday's Yediot Ahronot

[Sandra Layman <sandralayman...>]

A somewhat related topic: it's my understanding that performers of
traditional Iraqi music used to include many Jewish musicians.


----- Original Message -----
From: <NESKATAN (at) aol(dot)com>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2002 8:09 AM
Subject: from yesterday's Yediot Ahronot


> Ovadia Orders Shas Pupils to Study Arab Music
>
> Acting under the express instructions of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi
Ovadia Yosef, teachers in Shas&#8217;s El Hamaayan schools have begun giving
pupils lessons on the subject of Arab musicology. Ovadia Yosef is known to
be an avid fan of Arabic music, and many prayers in Sephardi synagogues are
sung in Arabic tunes. The change occurred in the wake of a report that
appeared in the Shas newspaper, Yom Leyom, that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled:
&#8220;One should give preference to Arab melodies over secular Israeli
tunes... in the quiet Arab melodies, the soul sits better with the melody.
That is not the case with the secular melodies and all the more so in the
foreign material, where the rhythm and the tonal jumps are relatively
wild.&#8221;

---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+