External Cultural Influences on the Jewish Community of Izmir r 291Edwin Seroussi describes the Turkish maccam as an example of this
new grafting. The Turkish maccam is an elaborate musical system. Typi-
cal key elements are defined musical forms, specific modes, and rhythmic
patterns. The maccam is equivalent to the complex Persian Arab musical
systems popular with urban life since the Middle Ages. The Turkish mac-
cam is a musical arrangement containing many parts, both vocal and in-
strumental, set in a sequence known as fasil. Every part of the fasil is char-
acterized by its own structure, rhythm, and parables. The Turkish maccam
became a part of Judeo-Spanish culture almost as soon as Jews settled in
the Ottoman Empire in the early sixteenth century. Written proof that
Jewish Ottoman music was influenced by Turkish music is found in the
headings and instructions accompanying many Hebrew liturgical songs.
From the sixteenth century, headings indicate which Turkish song served
as a basis for the Hebrew song or according to which Turkish melody the
Hebrew piyyut should be sung.^25
A review of Turkish melody names listed in collections of piyyutim
from the sixteenth century makes it possible to prove how the names of
the Turkish songs became more common than names of Spanish ones
within a short time. Furthermore, it was proven that Turkish influence
was not limited to the musical field but extended to singing as well. From
the sixteenth century we find Hebrew liturgy composed by Sephardic po-
ets in the Ottoman Empire possessing structures and meters borrowed
from Turkish song.^26
Influences on Jewish Musicians
Jewish Ottoman composers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
became increasingly skilled at composing Turkish maccam. Liturgical and
para-liturgical singing became highly developed. Jewish poets and musi-
cians formed musical groups in the large urban centers of Adrianopol
(Edirne), Izmir, and Istanbul. Some of these musicians served as rabbis
and cantors, while others split their time between the Jewish community
and the aristocratic Turkish courts that employed them. The famous can-
tors and musicians of Izmir include Rabbi Yom Tov Dannon, also called
Küçük Haham (the little hakham), who was active in the seventeenth cen-
tury, and Rabbi Avraham Ariyas, known as Hace (expert teacher) by the
Turks, who lived in the early nineteenth century. Issac Barki, known as
Küçük Isak (little Issac), was one of Izmir’s most famous violinists and