Encounters between Jewish and Muslim Musicians throughout the Ages r 279Jewish Tunisian Musicians
In Tunisia, toward the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades
of the twentieth, about sixty known Jewish artists were active in the in-
digenous theater, music, and recording industries. Many of them were
leading figures in the movement of the prevailing artistic reform and the
stylistic modernization of traditional art music. Among these musicians
were David Hajaj, Shalom Sa ̔ada, Benin Semama, Raoul Journo, and the
Jerusalem-born cantor and composer Asher Mizrahi. A singular phe-
nomenon in this development is the unusual and impressive participa-
tion of numerous highly gifted women. They included Louisa al-Tunisia,
the Semama sisters, Fritna Darmon, and Leila Sfez, who owned a famous
coffee concert, a meeting place for Jewish, Muslim, and Christian music
lovers. Leila Sfez was the aunt and teacher of one of the most famous art-
ists of her time in the realm of theater and music, Habiba Msika, until her
murder at the hands of an obsessive admirer.^24
Jewish Musicians in Iraq
Jewish musicians played a determinant role in a traditional chamber mu-
sic ensemble called Chalgi Baghdād, which specialized in the prestigious
classical multisectional genre called Iraqi maqām.^25 This ensemble fea-
tured a solo singer called qāri’ al-maqām, who was generally a Muslim,
and four instrumentalists who played the djawza, a spike fiddle, the reso-
nator of which was made of coconut, the santūr, a trapezoidal hammered
dulcimer, the dunbuk, a single-skinned drum, and the duff, a tambourine.
Such a group headed by the composer, ̔ud player, and singer Ezra Aha-
ron, vocalist Mohammed al-Qabanjī, and six Jewish instrumentalists was
selected by the Iraqi authorities to represent Iraq at the first International
Congress of Arab Music, held in Cairo in 1932. It is noteworthy that the
participants, including composers Bela Bartok and Paul Hindemith and
musicologists Robert Lachmann, Curt Sachs, and H. G. Farmer, elected
Aharon as the best musician present, and Bartok wrote a complimentary
review of the ensemble. Aharon came to Palestine in 1934 and settled in
Jerusalem. When the first radio station was established in Jerusalem in
1936 by the British mandatory government, he was selected by composer
Karl Salomon to head a special section of Oriental Jewish music.^26