Defining A Musical Culture — The Case of Musica Mizrakhit1 

Music is a reflection of the deepest emotions of its composers. Every composer is a part of a historical reality that helps to shape and color his compositions. Therefore, in order to understand any type of music it is essential not only to examine its musical content but also its historical context. Musica mizrakhit (Middle Eastern Music, literally "Eastern Music") is a style of music in Israel that has evolved from its community of Oriental Jews. In terms of sound, it blends both Western and Eastern motifs. The majority of Jews in Israel, during the time musica mizrakhit was developing in its early stages, were of European origin. Despite the fact that both communities were Jewish, the European Jews considered the Oriental Jewish community primitive, low-class, and unsophisticated because of its different, unfamiliar, and exotic cultural and religious traditions. This distinction created conflicts between the two communities that effected the Oriental Jewish community’s musical culture.

Composers of musica mizrakhit tried to make their music sound appealing to their Western audience in order to more easily assimilate and gain some sort of equal cultural status. One musician took this act of acculturation to another extreme, he changed his name: Zohar Orkabi (a characteristically Oriental Jewish family name) became Zohar Argov (a characteristically European Jewish family name). Overall, musica mizrakhit is not only a musical genre, but also must be thought of as a musical culture because its musical style is defined by its historical background and future. A musical culture is a distinct entity enclosed within the context of the past, present, and future. Therefore, this paper attempts to define musica mizrakhit as a musical culture by using Zohar Argov’s "Ha Perah BeGani" ("The Flower in My Garden") as a paradigm of musica mizrakhit.

It is generally accepted that musica mizrakhit is the musical genre to which Zohar Argov’s music belongs. According to researchers Jeff Halper, Edwin Seroussi, and Pamela Squires-Kidron, musica mizrakhit is defined as "a complex of elements, both musical and non-musical" (Halper, et al. 1989, 134). Musica mizrakhit stems from the culture of Sephardic (Spanish, North African, and Middle Eastern) Jews in Israel. It conveys the emotions of individuals such as Zohar Argov, a Yemenite in the Sephardic community of Israel. In terms of sound, this musical genre combines certain stereotypical musical elements from both Western and Eastern traditions. The producers of musica mizrakhit try to appeal to a Western audience by developing a stereotypical Oriental sound that is pleasing to the Western ear. In a sense, it is an Israelization of these Western and Eastern sounds as it produces a new type of sound in Israel that did not previously exist anywhere (Cohen and Shiloah 1985, 204). According to a case study on musica mizrakhit (Halper, et al. 1989, 135), the genre usually includes the following elements:

Zohar Argov’s music, and in particular, his song, "Ha-Perah BeGani" ("The Flower in My Garden") does incorporate all of the aforementioned components of musica mizrakhit and is therefore representative of the musical "style". Perhaps the most striking Oriental characteristic of this song, after the instrumental opening, is Zohar Argov’s use of muwal. Reminiscent of Oriental culture and at the same time sung in the predominant melody of the song, it is stereotypical of what Westerners would conceive of as an Oriental melody. Zohar Argov periodically inserts a muwal and in this sense there is always a juxtaposition between Eastern and Western culture. Other elements of the song also indicate this juxtaposition as well. In terms of harmony, the song is composed in the Western tradition: five basic chords and each section constructed of sixteen bars (see attached song). In terms of orchestration, a guitar, which plays the fundamental chords, performs (generally) in unison with Zohar Argov. This unity indicates the "Middle Eastern fashion;" however, there are obvious points in the song where certain instruments (e.g. trumpet, violin, flute, synthesizer, and drum kit) depart completely from this unity and color the song with a more Western ambience. In addition, there are instances when these Western instruments mimic the sound of Zohar Argov’s vocal phrases, as is common in many Oriental songs. More Oriental elements can be noticed when listening to the song as a whole. For example, in the song there is no clear major or minor melody and Zohar Argov’s voice has a nasal quality. Overall, this song uses both Western and Eastern motifs that are not merely reproduced but rearranged and readapted into the style of musica mizrakhit, thereby reflecting Zohar Argov’s background, or musical culture.

In order to elucidate the meaning of a musical culture it is first necessary to establish and define several fundamental terms . According to the Oxford English Dictionary, music can be defined as "one of the fine arts which is concerned with the combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and the expression of emotion" (OED, electronic ed. on-line, s.v. "music"). Gustave E. Von Grunebaum describes culture as a "‘closed system’ of questions and answers concerning the universe and man’s behavior in it which has been accepted as authoritative by a human society" (Grunebaum 1957, 86). The music produced by individuals in the same "closed system" is an answer to the question concerning their emotional and artistic relationship to that culture. Music derives from an individual’s culture because it is an interpretation of his or her life within that culture. Music expresses an individual’s or a group’s feelings, hopes, and concerns about many aspects of their lives, both religious and secular (Cohen and Shiloah 1983, 228). In fact, "as Merriam has pointed out, music is a language of feeling deeply rooted in the subconscious of an individual steeped in a given cultural tradition" (quoted in Cohen and Shiloah 1983, 288). Music forms a unique musical culture that exists within the larger context of a closed system, or culture. Therefore, musical culture can be interpreted as collections of music that express and represent the emotions of individuals within a specific culture, or "closed system" and is recognized as such by society.

It is now important to examine whether the genre musica mizrakhit can be regarded as a musical culture. Musica mizrakhit exists within a specific culture, or "closed system" and therefore, it can be considered as part of a distinct musical culture. Musica mizrakhit exists within a "closed system" because it can be discerned from other musical genres. It can be identifiable by society as music that expresses the emotions and is produced by Sephardic Jews, rather than Ashkenazic Jews, or other groups of individuals. However, one must note that a "closed system" such as a musical culture can have outside influences. Indeed, musica mizrakhit has many influences from outside of the Sephardic community. Clearly, as represented in Zohar Argov’s song, Western popular musical influences play a role. The "closed system" helps only to identify the enclosed musical culture as a distinct and identifiable entity. It does not prevent an outside environment from influencing it. In a sense, a musical culture can be compared to a cell in an organism. The contents of a cell, like a musical culture, are contained within a "closed system." However, the semi-permeable membrane of the cell, like the geographical or cultural borders of a musical culture, still allows for interaction and influence from an outside environment. Concurrently, the membrane or border keeps the cell or musical culture distinct as a "closed system." Therefore, musica mizrakhit is a true musical culture because it satisfies the qualities of a "closed system" and expresses the emotions of a specific culture that can be influenced by outsiders.

It is important to note that change and influence also may occur within the confines of a "closed system" or a musical culture without rendering the musical culture as something totally different. Although produced and performed by composers of Sephardic origin and belonging to that musical culture, musica mizrakhit incorporates many different musical styles from other cultural traditions. Sometimes, a composer of musica mizrakhit will invent his own particular style without having been influenced by an outside culture. A new innovation that occurs within a particular musical culture, like a mutation within a certain cell, can give it a special character. This influence can be considered to be orthogenetic because it is a "growth from native presuppositions" (Grunebaum 1957, 86). For example, Ofra Haza, who is of Yemenite descent and performed in the style of musica mizrakhit in her early career days, challenges her own existing musical culture today, because she is a woman and expresses an attitude that exposes feminine and feminist matters. Until her presence, it was unheard of, in her musical culture, for women to address gender issues from a musicological standpoint. As a native producer of musica mizrakhit she introduces growth into her own community by challenging its members to address feminist issues. On the other hand, influences or changes in a musical culture that come from outside its geographical borders, or in a cell from outside its membrane are heterogenetic (Grunebaum, 1957, 87). For example, Zohar Argov’s use of Western motifs and Western instruments in his song, "Ha-Perah BeGani," are heterogenetic influences on musica mizrakhit. In addition, the bright instrumental introduction of "Ha-Perah BeGani" has a clear Spanish or Mediterranean flavor further indicating the heterogeneity of musica mizrakhit. However, these influences, whether generated from inside or outside, do not determine the whole nature of the musical culture or cell; rather, the influence punctuates the musical culture or cell with particular instances of its own articulation. One can still recognize the overall musical culture or cell as the same particular musical culture or cell. For the case of musica mizrakhit, Oriental, Mediterranean, and Western musical traditions are often intertwined by Sephardic composers of different cultural traditions to create unique musical creations classified as musica mizrakhit (Cohen and Shiloah 1983, 242). Zohar Argov’s use of Western and Eastern musical styles is evidence of these types of creations.

Since musica mizrakhit is a musical culture, the term "musical genre" is not an adequate indication of what musica mizrakhit entails. A musical genre does not imply cultural or historical significance. A genre merely implies a certain abstract category that is often ambiguous. Even though the term, musica mizrakhit, implies some sort of general association with Eastern sounds, it does not explicitly indicate the exact cultural origin of the sounds. Moreover, a specific musical genre, unlike a musical culture, may not exist within a system that allows for changes and influences. The musical culture of Zohar Argov is composed of specific sounds that are a reflection of his Israeli and Yemenite heritage. Therefore, "musical genre" is simply not comprehensive enough a category to define the music of Zohar Argov. His music, which is an example of musica mizrakhit, must be defined as a musical culture because it is his Israeli and Yemenite cultural background that defines his music. Therefore, it is essential to examine the historical context in which musica mizrakhit developed in order to give further meaning to Zohar Argov’s music or musica mizrakhit in general. By understanding this history, one is able to appreciate how the music has been created from the culture of Oriental or Sephardic Jews, and additionally, what the music means to that culture.

During the past one hundred fifty years, there have been several migrations of communities of Oriental Jews to Israel that have resulted in the widening of the gap between Eastern and Western culture in Israel. One of the largest migrations, known as "Operation Magic Carpet" occurred in 1949, bringing approximately 55, 000 Yemenite Jewish immigrants to Israel (Ahroni 1986, 167). Like most Oriental Jews, these Jews were used to a rural lifestyle in their country of birth and were suddenly confronted with a modern, highly developed, Westernized environment upon arrival in Israel (Ahroni 1986, 2). Despite the attempts of these Oriental Jews to become fully integrated into the greater Ashkenazi Jewish community in Israel, they were faced with overt discrimination because of their Eastern, "barbaric" heritage. Most Ashkenazim acted contemptuously towards the new immigrants because "Oriental civilization was generally considered ‘backward’ or ‘Levantine’" (Cohen 1980, 149). Many Ashkenazic Jews did not regard the rich and vast culture of the Yemenite Jews as significant. In fact, they even questioned the Yemenite immigrants’ identity as Jews. Their separation from the Western Jewish community had lasted so long that they were unaware of, as Norman Berdichevsky remarks, post-Talmudic developments in Ashkenazi Jewry, namely the prohibition against polygamy (Berdichevsky 1980, 76). However, "the steps taken by the national institutions to facilitate the social and economic ‘progress’ of the Orientals did not succeed in putting them in a short time on an equal footing with Ashkenazim" (Cohen 1980, 149). All of these factors served to alienate the Oriental Jewish community from their Western "brethren".

The minority status of, and discrimination against, Oriental Jews greatly affected their musical culture. During the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, ideology encouraged the waning of ethnic cultural traditions by supporting the idea of a "melting-pot" or a general "Israeli society" (Cohen and Shiloah 1983, 234). From 1948 until 1970, explicit expressions of Oriental cultural ethnicity were transitory, unenduring, and disregarded in favor of two dominant musical styles of the time: the Shirei Eretz Israel style and Anglo-American popular music (Halper, et al. 1989, 133). Both of these styles disregarded purely Oriental motifs. The Shirei Eretz Israel ("Songs of Israel") style advocated an aesthetically Eurocentric Israeli folk music concerning issues of local (i.e. Ashkenazi Israeli) experience. These musical styles clearly indicated that Oriental music had little or no role in the popular Israeli music of the time. In fact, as Berdichevsky wrote of the time, "Ashkenazi ethnocentrism is still very apparent today in Israel where the concept of ‘traditionally Jewish’ in food, music, folklore, humor, recreation, etc. is interpreted to mean traditionally Ashkenazi" (Berdichevsky 1980, 76-77).

By the 1970s, true expressions of Oriental culture became possible with the assistance of Orientals who protested their situation in Israel. These protesters belonged to a new generation of destitute Oriental Jews whose parents had been part of the earlier migrations (Cohen 1980, 152; Halper, et al 1989, 133). In particular, the rise of the Black Panthers2  movement in Israel made the greater Israeli population aware of the Oriental Jews’ low socioeconomic status. It even questioned the dominant ideology of the time that a national integration of all Jews was possible and further put into perspective the possibility of virulent ethnic strife (Halper, et al. 1989, 133; Cohen 1980, 148). Nevertheless, Oriental protesters, as Halper, Seroussi, and Squires-Kidron remarked, still accepted the goals of the melting pot (Halper, et al. 1989, 133). Moreover, they attempted to integrate into the surrounding Ashkenazic society and at the same time keep their Eastern identity by holding "ethnic" events such as the Moroccan Mimuna or Kurdish Saharanei festivals for the whole Israeli community (Halper, et al. 1989, 133). Even though Eastern Jews were thought of as the lower class by the Israeli population and still wanted to assimilate into the Israeli community, these festivals affirmed the Oriental Jewish population’s feeling of edot (sing. edah) or community and served to bring them together as edot hamizrakhot, or a community of Eastern (i.e. Sephardic) Jews (Halper, et al. 1989, 133). Moreover with the rise of the right-wing Likud party in 1977, which was widely supported by working-class Eastern Jews, the Oriental community felt that "their ‘own’ were governing [and this gave] Easterners a sense of added legitimacy and allowed them to express their ethnicity without endangering their status as Israelis" (Halper, et al. 1989, 134). As a united Eastern community, these Oriental Jews had the ability both to create and to be recognized through such cultural expressions as musica mizrakhit.

After the 1970s, musica mizrakhit gradually became more popular and was considered Israeli music. This categorization was a result of the blurred musical distinctiveness among Oriental communities because they created a general Eastern sound in musica mizrakhit that could not be associated with any specific edah (Halper, et al. 1989,134-135, 140). Musicians such as Zohar Argov would compose music that had a pseudo-Oriental texture in order to make their songs sound more pleasing to Western Jews and to appeal to both Western and Eastern audiences so that they could enjoy an equal cultural status.3  In other words, Oriental musicians made an attempt to "Israelize" their musical heritage; that is, to "create a synthetic transitional style...which would preserve the Oriental character of the music, but in new form, aesthetically pleasing to an external, non-ethnic audience" (Cohen and Shiloah 1985, 204). Since this new Israeli music was created by Orientals, rather than Westerners, the Oriental musicians could have a better chance of achieving a status equal to Ashkenazic Jews in Israeli musical life and cultural expression (Cohen and Shiloah 1985, 204).

The elements that define musica mizrakhit are not merely musical. While musica mizrakhit is a musical reflection of Oriental or Sephardic emotion, it is also connected to a wider historical narrative that shapes its very existence. Musica mizrakhit therefore must be considered a musical culture because it is distinctive of Oriental or Sephardic Jewish culture and history in Israel. In other words, it is a collection of music that expresses, represents, and is shaped by the Oriental or Sephardic Jewish experience in Israel.

"The Flower in My Garden" ("Ha Perah BeGani")

Words and Arrangement: Avihu Medinah

Singer: Zohar Argov

Translated by: Jason Kemper4 

While the following is not a literal translation, it does convey the general meaning of the song.