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Sacred Music of Moroccan Jews from the Paul Bowles collectio

06/25/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sacred Music of Moroccan Jews from the Paul Bowles collectionAn impressive recording which will be of interest to anyone who has a taste for or curiosity in the music of the Jews, and also of Arabs and/or North Africa. The all vocal pieces represent religious music including a Sabbath service as well as individual songs from more than one North African location. Words in Hebrew are sung to melodies whose characteristics can be traced to Arabic and North African traditions. Fluid, highly affective melodies are sung by the leading voices of cantors and answered by a chorus of those attending the service; shorter.Highly spiritual and also extremely spirited, even forceful though always in a serious tone, this already then "antique" style of material was recorded by composer/writer Paul Bowles in the late 1950s just prior to a final exodus of Jews from Morocco in the following decade, and it makes come alive the history of crosstalk and acculturation which Jewish culture underwent in the varying shifts of the Andalusian in the early and Middle Ages when first Islam conquered Spain and then when Muslim forces were forced to withdraw in the face of Christian recapturing. The Jews absorbed much from their Moorish governors in the centuries of Arabic influence and then more in the Diaspora into North Africa following Queen Isabella's final expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.Copious notes are not overly technical, but do reference multiple sources from Arabic and Andalusian forms drawn upon the in the creation of the original Jewish material, as well as recounting the context and immediate history of Bowles' project, including references to the two still-living cantors who were involved in and expert regarding the music recorded."

Authentic and Beautiful

01/25/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD presents the authentic synagogue music of Moroccan Jews as sung and performed by some of its finest exponents. Very few Jewish music recordings are as free of commercialism and at the same time as of such high musical quality as this. If you like it, I also strongly recomend the recordings (unfortunately most of them are on casette, not CD) of Rabbi Chaim Louk -- especially his three "Musika Andalusit" sessions. The latter represent a unique style of Jewish mystical music that goes back to the time of Maimonides or earlier in Spain. (Islamic Moroccans use basically the same style in their sacred music, too. This probably reflects the social harmony that existed between Jews and non-Jews through much of Morocco's history.)"