7/30/2019 Music in Israel | Listening Guide | Week 2 (2013)

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MUSIC 74&139: MUSIC IN ISRAEL WEEKLY LISTENING ASSIGNMENTS

Note: All required sound files and CD booklets available on bSpace.

Week 2

Musical Traditions in Israel: Treasures of the National Sound Archives

This compilation ofethnomusicological field recordings highlights the collection of the National Sound

Archives (NSA), established in 1964 at the National Library of Israel(http://web.nli.org.il/en/music/Pages/default.aspx). The collection houses hundreds of thousands ofrecorded items, documenting a host of Jewish, Muslim, Christian and other musical traditionsrepresented in modern Israel. This compilation (originally issued on audio cassette, then on CD, andnow available online: http://web.nli.org.il/en/Music/Compilations/Pages/compilation005.aspx) constitutesa veritable audio tour of Israel, presenting an intensely diverse traditional musical landscape through

the performances of original culture bearers (or informants). Most recordings were collected in Israel.Some were collected by Israeli researchers who conducted theirfieldworkabroad.

The booklet that accompanied the publication (available on bSpace) gives specific details about thefollowing traits:

Title orincipit(beginning words of a song) of the piece recorded

Typology and occasion of the performance (i.e., vocal, instrumental, for the liturgy, for weddings,

etc.)

Informants names and other biographical information

Name of the researcher/s who conducted the fieldwork, date and place of recording

NSA Call number

a) Tracks 4, 5 and 6 highlight the role of music in the transmission of traditional lore in Judaism: fromfather to son, from teacher to pupils, as well as in individual study.

b) Tracks 2, 3, 8, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22 offer the diverse sounds of liturgical music from thesynagogue traditions of Europe, Asia and Africa. They represent Ashkenazi (center and east Europe),Sephardic (originally from the Iberian peninsula) and other Jewish musical traditions.

c) Tracks 1, 7 and 23 are Jewish wedding tunes (from Morocco, Yemen and Eastern Europe).

d) Tracks 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 19 represent some of the most important non-Jewish musical traditions

that are rooted in the region of modern Israel (Bedouin, Greek-Orthodox, Palestinian-Arab andSamaritan).

While listening to these tracks (choose at least one from each group), you may want to focus ondifferent aspects:

1. Soundscape: what kind of musical world (European, Asian, African, etc.) does the musicrepresent?

2. Performance style: solo or group singing, instrumental accompaniment, etc.3. Language: Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, a Jewish language (Judeo-Spanish, Yiddish, etc.), other.4. Context: What occasion is the music destined to? Who is/was the audience? Why was it recorded?

It may well be that the only common cultural characteristic to all these musical examples is that they are

all transmitted by oral tradition. In terms of sound, they indeed are extremely diverse

Who would want to define this mosaic of diverse sounds as Jewish Music? (Ideas about these issuesare found in this weeks readings: in the Grove Dictionary of Music Online, Jewish Music Part I; and inBohlmans or Seroussis article, which you had the option of reading last week).

Who would want to define these sounds as Musical Traditions in Israel (as in the title of theanthology)? How does the cultural establishment of Modern Israel manage such a variety of traditions?

In next weeks readings, we will begin to answer these crucial questions.

Use this compilation again and again during the Semester, as a source of inspiration when you need tolook for the traditional sounds of Israel.

Also, note that this compilation and the one assigned for next week are essential companions for thetwo field trips planned this semester.