The Yemenite Jews

Various Artists

View Cart

Buy Custom CD $16.98

View Cart

Download $9.99

After the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE, a group of Jews settled in Yemen. They remained in exile, sometimes prosperous but frequently persecuted, until the 19th century. They then began to return to what is now Israel, first in small numbers and later in an organized wave with the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. They brought with them a rich heritage of religious, secular, and devotional (diwan) music, the last of which includes both religious and secular subjects. Every Jewish community in Yemen had its own diwan, consisting of works from the renowned medieval Spanish poets of the Golden Age of Hebrew poetry, as well as original writings from community members. These poems, in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic languages, were intended to be sung or chanted. According to the album’s compiler Avner Bahat of the Jewish Music Research Centre, the Yemenite diwan is “the richest and most valuable of all.” Eleven poems are presented in this 1976–77 recording. Structurally, the diwan is divided into three sections: nashid(an improvisational response sung without music or dance accompaniment), shira(the primary singing section featuring dance and rhythmic accompaniment on tin cans or copper plates), and hallel(a song of praise restricted to two or three notes around the tonic).

Track Listing

101	Shadai Emor Na Daile-Galuteinu	Tsadoq Tsubeiri, Joseph Ozeiri	2:34
102	Tsur Menati	Tsadoq Tsubeiri	3:46
103	Ayumati Te'orer Ha-Yesheinim	Qiryat Ono Troupe: Menahem Arussi, Haïm Ozeiri, Aharon Cohen, Shalom Qeissar, Yehiel Tsabari, Shlomo Yemini	4:05
104	Yashqef Elohim Mi-Me'on Qodsho / Yom Ezkera Het'i / Hallel	Aharon Amram, Menahem Arussi, Aharon Habshush, Israel Habshush	8:04
105	Sar Ha-Memuneh	Tsadoq Tsubeiri	2:14
106	Ahuv Yevarech Ha-Hatan	Menahem Arussi	1:37
107	Ahuv Mei-Har Ha-Mor Natan Li Morasha	Aharon Amram, Menahem Arussi, Aharon Habshush, Israel Habshush	2:56
108	Adon Hakol Mehayyeh Kol Neshamah	Tsadoq Tsubeiri, Joseph Ozeiri	4:37
109	Adon Hakol Mehayyeh Kol Neshamah	Aharon Habshush, Israel Habshush	4:09
110	Yeda'atani Be-Terem Titsreini / 'Ayin Ve-Lev Yahad Merivim / Hallel	Zecharia Yitshaq, Joseph Ozeiri	9:18
111	Ayyahu Al-Husn El-Musamma	Qiryat Ono Troupe: Menahem Arussi, Haïm Ozeiri, Aharon Cohen, Shalom Qeissar, Yehiel Tsabari, Shlomo Yemini	5:33

Shop

The Yemenite Jews

Track Listing

Album Info

Catalog Number

Year(s) Released

Label/Collection

Genre(s)

Country(s)

Culture Group(s)

Language(s)

Credit(s)

Folkways Suggests