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Ethiopian Jewish music
- From: Judith Cohen <judithc...>
- Subject: Ethiopian Jewish music
- Date: Fri 13 Dec 2002 14.43 (GMT)
hi, I couldn't seem to find the "music" part of the messages headed "Falasha"
music. The first recording I know of , of Beta Israel music, was on a Folkways
LP. Then in the 70s Kay Shelemay did intensive on-the-spot research with them,
and published two books: first a version of her very technical dissertation,
and then a lovely short book called "A Song of Longing", which I highly
recommend (nothing wrong with the first one either, but they're two veru
different approaches). Kay did her work with the men's music, the liturgical
and para-liturgical traditions: women are barely mentioned. A couple of women -
very young women - sing , as I remember, at least one improvised song about how
they left Ethiopia without family, on an Ocora LP recorded in Israel in the
80s. I've done a little fieldwork with the small community in Montreal, on
song, dance and instruments. I don't know about any studies which have focused
on Beta Israel WOMEN.
There's also a childrens Beta Israel choir in Israel, or was at some point, and
they may have issued a recoridng. I'm out of town, so haven't access to my
files. Judith
---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+
- Ethiopian Jewish music,
Judith Cohen