The term ‘ahwash’ covers several forms
of local varieties of a Berber village collective dance in which participants, men
and/or women sing while dancing collectively in the Atlas Mountains and around in
Morocco (v. Chottin; Rovsing-Olsen). Despite the lack of a historical concrete picture
of how the Judeo-Berber vernacular variants interfered, each time through
history, in the everyday life of those Jewish communities (v. Zafrani;
Lakhsassi) who lived for centuries in those areas (v. Schroeter), Jewish
participation in ahwash, as dancers, singers and even as lyrics
improvisers, has been witnessed in such localities as Tifnut, Tidili, Ayt-Bouwulli,
Ighil-n-Ughu, etc. (v. Azaryahu; Lakhsassi).
In fact, despite their role in initiating
and developing many musical forms of both urban learned and popular music in
Morocco, namely the popular Shaabi and the aristocratic Al-Ala genres
(v. Chetrit 1998, 2003), and aside the liturgical piyyutim (ex. David
Hassin, David Bouzaglo, Jo Amar), the Moroccan Jewry hasn’t developed
any ethnic lay musical tradition as that was the case for example with the
Hassidim in Eastern Europe or the Yemenites (cf. Shiloah: 269-275).
The point is that while many aspects of
the Moroccan urban music are commonly known to have immigrated abroad with the
Moroccan Jewry, namely to Israel (ex. Sami El-Maghribi, Emil Zrihan, Shlomo Bar) and the
USA (ex. Avi-Eilam Amzallag’s Anda-El
East-West Orchestra), it is only with
Azaryahu’s 1999 MA monograph that we learned recently that the Berber musical
genre Ahwash also had immigrated. On the basis of that comparative ethno musicological
fieldwork, conducted among certain Moroccan Berber-Jews in the localities of Aderet
and Shokeda in Israel and among their old compatriot Moslems in the
Moroccan localities they had come from (Tidili, Igloua, Ayt-Bougmmaz in
the Atlas Mountains), Azaryahu’s work explored the dimensions along which the
new socio-economic and ethno-cultural environment had enforced structural and
functional changes in the ahwash ceremony as performed nowadays in those
Israeli localities. Among those changes: a merge with another Berber musical
genre, the ‘Rways’ instrumental singing music (v. Schuyler), that become
sometimes, with artists like Barukh Ben David (Petah Tikva) or late Shalom
Swissa (Beer Sheva), a mere final episode in an Israeli ahwash
evening (v. Elmedlaoui 2005).
As in most traditional societies, there was, in this community too, a
clear cut division of functions, according to which men were the custodians of
written tradition (sacred music and texts), whereas women cultivated the oral
tradition. Customarily, the latter was considered somewhat inferior (v. Terri Brint 2003, Magrini 2003).
Aydoun,
Ahmed (1992) Musique
du Maroc. Editions EDIF 1992
Azaryahu,
Sigal (1999) :
עזריהו , סיגל 1999 תהליכי שימור ושינוי
במוסיקה של יהודי האטלס בישראל – טקס האחוואש. אוניברסיטת תל-אביב . הפקולטה
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l'ahwash. Université de Tel Aviv. Faculté des Arts. Département de Musicologie>
Azaryahu, Sigal (in preparation) The Ahwash Singing
Ceremony Shift from Morocco to Israel: Forms, Symbols, and Meaning. PhD.
Dissertation, in preparation. The Catholic University of Leuven.
Belgium.
Chetrit, Joseph
(1998) "L’œuvre poétique de Rabbi David Bozaglo et les traditions
musicales judéo-marocaines". Pp 67- in Assaraf, Robert et Michel
Abitbol éd. Perceptions et Réalités au Maroc. Relations Judéo-Musulmanes.
Actes du Congrès Marrakech-Paris 14-22 octobre 1995. C.R.J.M. Maroc
Chetrit, Joseph (2003) "Les pratiques
poético-musicales juives au Maroc et leurs rapports avec les traditions
andalouso-marocaines" ; in L'élargissement de l'Europe vu du Sud (Dossier préparé par Jean-Paul
Chagnollaud). Confluence Méditerranée ;
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Chottin,
Alexis (1933) Corpus de la musique marocaine ; fasc. II « musique
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Mohamed (1995):
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"Changement et continuité dans l’ahwash des juifs berbères" Le
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الله –فاس. سلسلة: مؤتمرات وندوات.
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Lysette (2000) Le Piyyut de David Hassine. Maisonneuve & Larose.
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and Gender: Perspectives from the Mediterranean. Chicago Studies in
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Abderrahman (2006) "Pourquoi la langue première
des juifs berbères n’est pas
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Mediterranean. Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology.
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Endnotes:
(ii) See namely: Lorta Jacob 1980, Aydoun 1992, Rovsing Olson 1997, Hoffman 2002.
(iii) In fact, the Berber singing among Berber-Jewish communities immigrated to
Israel is not limited to the collective danced singing genre called 'Ahwash'.
The genre 'Rways' (See Chottin 1933, Schuyler 1979, Aydoun 1992,
Elmedlaoui 2006 and (in press)) is also
performed occasionally in a non formal way at the end of some ahwash ceremony
cessions by certain amateur 'rays' like Barukh Ben David, from Petah
Tikva locality who plays the Souss
Berber kind of hurdy-gurdy called 'Rebab' or late Shalom Swissa from Ber-Sheva, great singer and player of the Souss
Berber tetracord called 'Lutar' (see Elmedlaoui 2005).
(iv) On the conflicting aspects that
characterize the Moroccan Jews feeling and sense of identity, see Elmedlaoui
(1995) and (1999).