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Let Jasmine Rain Down

Song and Remembrance among Syrian Jews

Kay Kaufman Shelemay author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:14th Jan '99

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Let Jasmine Rain Down cover

When Jews left Aleppo, Syria, in the early-20th century and established communities abroad, they carried with them a repertory of songs (pizmonim) with sacred Hebrew texts set to melodies borrrowed from the popular Middle Eastern Arab musical tradition. This text tells the story of the "pizmonim" as they have continued to be composed, performed and transformed through the present day; it is thus an ethnography of an important Judeo-Arabic musical tradition that contributes to studies of the link between collective memory and popular culture. Kay Kaufman Shelemay views the intersection of music, individual remembrances and collective memory through the "pizmonim". Reconstructing a century of "pizmonim" history in America based on research in New York, Mexico and Israel, she explains how verbal and musical memories are embedded in individual songs and how these songs perform both what has been remembered and what otherwise would have been forgotten. In confronting issues of identity and meaning in a postmodern world, Shelemay moves ethnomusicology in to the domain of memory studies.

ISBN: 9780226752129

Dimensions: 23mm x 15mm x 2mm

Weight: 482g

310 pages