A Deconstruction of Jewish Music

To help deconstruct Jewish music, it can be separated into three main streams. These include: Ashkenazi, Mizrahi and Sephardi. These categories are geographically influenced and thus the music of each are founded upon the same roots, however, are distinctly contrasting. 

(https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/music.html)

Ashkenazi Music

Ashkenazi music is commonly recognized as the “Western stream” of Jewish Music and includes the well-known Klezmer repertoire. Ashkenazi music originates from Eastern Europe in the Balkans, Romania and surrounding regions. It then travelled westward and reached as far as North America.

This music belongs to the Ashkenazi tradition and once referred to the Jews of the 9^th century who inhabited the regions surrounding the Rhine. Today, however, it is associated with the Jewish people of Western cultures.

Ashkenazi Music uses two main languages, these include: Hebrew, the language of the bible; and Yiddish, a hybrid language of mediaeval Germany stemming from approximately the 10^th century, and combines influences from Hebrew, German, Slavic and Polish languages. In addition to these two languages, English is used today as well.

Ashkenazi music is considered the most identifiable form of Jewish music as it includes the highly recognised Klezmer music. Klezmer stems from the Hebrew words “Klei zemer” meaning “instruments of song”. This repertoire will be studied further on.

Mizrahi

Mizrahi translates to mean “eastern” and refers to the music that was performed by Jews who resided in Arabic cultures. This branch of Jewish music stretches from Eastern Europe to Western Asia. Therefore, the music of this genre was heavily influenced by the cultures of Israel, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq and India.  

To this day, there are many similarities between Mizrahi music and the folk music of these countries, with a recognizable resemblance of cantillation and the use of quartertones.

There are two main languages used in this genre, Hebrew and Arabic.

Sephardi:

Sephardi means “Spanish” and the music is derived from the cultures of the Mediterranean. This includes Spain, North Africa, Greece, Turkey and Portugal.

In 1492, Jewish people settled in countries such as Morocco, Egypt and Turkey when they were expelled from Spain due to their non-Christians practices. Until this time, a healthy Jewish culture once existed in Spain. The displaced Jews continued to speak their language of Landino, which was a variant of Spanish in the 15^th century. For this reason, a large portion of Sephardi music is sung in Landino.

The Similarities Between Mizrahi and Sephardi

The terms Mizrahi and Sephardi can be used to refer to the same people and music despite their differences. This is because the members of Sephardi and Mizrahi communities included non-Ashkenazim people. The history of Sephardi and Mizrahi communities together exhibit more intimate relations than experienced with the communities of Ashkenazi people.

A simple way of thinking about this is to consider Sephardi musical traditions as a platform connecting Mizrahi and Ashkenazi music.  Mizrahi music strictly refers to Eastern music and hence uses non-Western modes and instruments, and utilises musical expressions that demonstrate no resemblance to Western realm, whereas the Ashkenazi genre is specifically defined as the Western stream of Jewish music. Sephardi links the two genres as it is influenced by both Western and Eastern cultures.