7th August 2020 – Shabbat is almost here
Pulling the thread of the Algerian Jews artists, we listen Saoud Medioni, or Saoud l’Oranais, the master, the taliba of Reinette l’Oranais, with whom we will travel back in time even to XIII century
Hello, 
how are you? I hope well. Here, the months without our natural behaviour, without the smiles at the shops and at the streets and now also with new outbreaks of the virus and the return to the confinement of some locations are starting to weight. I began these little emails of Friday in the last Sabbath of Hannukah. Will we have recovered our lifes in the next Hanukkah?
I don’t know when but I know this will end. In the meantime let’s try to celebrate each little joy. In this ocassion we will go back in time to listen Saoud l’Oranais, the master of Reinette, who was our star of this edition.
Pupil and master of masters, Saoud’s end was dreaful but his contribution to the world brings him back to life again, today with us.
The music master from the historic city of Tlemcen
Despite being known as Saoud l’Oranais, Messaoud El Médiouni was born in Tlemcen, in the North West of Algeria, two hours from Oran, near Morocco. A land, like mine, with olive trees and vineyards.
Tlemcen was the capital city of an independent kingdom from 1236 (when it became a Ziyyanid kingdom after its declaration of independence from the Almohad califate) until it became part of the Ottoman empire in 1554. In 1830, France takes Alger. Our star was born at the time when his land was controlled by France.
Saoud was the grandson of the great master of Andalusian music in Tlemcen Ichou Mediouni, known as ‘Maqchiche’ (1829-1899). At a very young age he settled in Oran, where he ran a café in the Jewish quarter of that city. He would distinguish himself as a musician thanks to his wide Andalusian repertoire and his haouzi and aroubi (different styles from the Andalusian music, in this occasion we listen an aroubi) renditions. Saoud settled also a music school in which he teached Reinette l’Oranaise and other artists, like the also great Cheikh Joseph Moise Guenoun, knows as Cheikh Zouzou. Listen to him, here.
The city of Tlemcen has a long story of Jewish presence. According to the International Jewish Cemetery Project, “the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Tlemcen was the most important place of pilgrimage for Jews and non-Jews. Located there is the tomb of Rabbi Ephraim Enquaua. Sometimes more than 10.000 people from many parts of the world convened there on Lag ba-Omer.”
About the mentioned Rabbi, whose name you will find also as Ephraim ben Israel Alnaqua (and Ainqaoua, Al Naqawa, Alnaqua, Encaoua…), don’t miss this article. This is so interesting that I will come back to this story soon. Alnaqua was born in Toledo, that is, by the way, the city where my company Mapamundi Cultural is settled. Wow, I really feel I am standing over shoulders of gigants.
The aroubi song, from the gharnati school
In Tlemcen it was developed the gharnati music school, which name comes from the city of Granada, in Andalusia. Granada was the last city under Muslim control in Iberian peninsule. In 1492 the Catholic Kings defeated the last stronghold of the Muslims, who had to leave the land. They took the music with them and many of them settled in Algeria.
The relationship between Tlemcen and Granada was strong, as they were allies at the time of the Nazari dinasty in Granada and the Ziyyanid dinasty in Tlemcen. This made of Tlemcen a referential settlement for the Muslims after the 1492 disaster as well as for the Moriscos (the Muslims that stayed in Iberian lands, converted into Catholics, forcibly most of them) who were expelled in 1609. The gharnati music is performed with small line ups of singers and instrumentalist and the soloist singing is fundamental.
According to the Youtube channel El Hassar Salim, the aroubi is a musical genre that refers to pastoral poetry that Jewish musicians have largely contributed to popularize, specially in Algeria, Morocco and France. Apart from Saoud, other artists that have played aroubi are Ibého Bensaid (1890-1972) and Joseph Ben Guenoun said Maalam Zouzou (1889-1972). Aroubi songs are played nowadays. Check here to listen to one recording of the song Serej ya fares ltam.
The aroubi as a musical genre started by the singer-songwriters of the old so-called Andalusian tradition who brought them into the urban cultural world. The poems describe Bedouin idylls and the simple life embodied by the peasant life, feelings of honor and bravery through epic songs or chronicles of rural life. It is called the Bedouin genre and some of its poets were Mostéfa Ben Brahim (deceased in 1867) from the region of Sfisef (Sidi Bel Abbès), and Hani Benguenoun (1761-1864), Youcef Bel Abbès (deceased in 1843), both of them from Mascara.
Clic in the picture to listen to Âaroubi merguoum erichet ya hmem by Saoud l’Oranaise:
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Shabbat Shalom.
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música
