{"id":2245,"date":"2020-08-07T13:44:33","date_gmt":"2020-08-07T11:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/?p=2245"},"modified":"2020-08-07T14:05:43","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T12:05:43","slug":"mbs-with-the-central-link-of-a-chain-from-the-beginning-of-xix-century-until-our-todays-saoud-loranaise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mapamundimusica.com\/en\/musicbeforeshabbat\/mbs-with-the-central-link-of-a-chain-from-the-beginning-of-xix-century-until-our-todays-saoud-loranaise\/","title":{"rendered":"MBS with the central link of a chain from the beginning of XIX century until our todays: Saoud l’Oranaise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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7th August 2020 \u2013 Shabbat is almost here<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Pulling the thread of the Algerian Jews artists, we listen Saoud Medioni, or Saoud l’Oranais, the master, the taliba of Reinette l’Oranai<\/span><\/strong>s, with whom we will travel back in time even to XIII century<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n
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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?<\/p>\n

I don’t know when but I know this will end. In the meantime let’s try to celebrate each little joy.\u00a0In this ocassion we will go back in time to listen Saoud l’Oranais, the master of Reinette, who was our star\u00a0of this edition<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

As usual, you have the video at the bottom.\u00a0<\/strong>And if you like this, as usual, please<\/strong>: share it with your friends! Thank you in advance.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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The music master from the historic city of Tlemcen<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/span>Despite being known as Saoud l’Oranais, Messaoud El M\u00e9diouni\u00a0was born in Tlemcen, in the North West of Algeria, two hours from Oran, near Morocco. A\u00a0land, like mine, with olive trees and vineyards.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Saoud was\u00a0the grandson of the great master of Andalusian music in Tlemcen\u00a0Ichou Mediouni<\/strong>, known as \u2018Maqchiche\u2019 (1829-1899). At a very young age he settled in Oran, where he ran a caf\u00e9 in the Jewish quarter of that city. He would distinguish himself as a musician thanks to his wide Andalusian repertoire and his\u00a0haouzi<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0aroubi<\/em>\u00a0(different styles from the Andalusian music, in this occasion we listen an aroubi) renditions. Saoud settled also a music school in which he teached\u00a0Reinette l’Oranaise<\/strong>\u00a0and other artists, like the also great\u00a0Cheikh Joseph Moise Guenoun, knows as Cheikh Zouzou<\/strong>. Listen to him,\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The city of Tlemcen has a long story of Jewish presence. According to the\u00a0International Jewish Cemetery Project<\/a>, “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\u00a0Rabbi Ephraim Enquaua<\/strong>. Sometimes more than 10.000 people from many parts of the world convened there on Lag ba-Omer.”<\/em><\/p>\n

About the mentioned Rabbi, whose name you will find also as Ephraim ben Israel Alnaqua (and Ainqaoua, Al Naqawa, Alnaqua, Encaoua…), don’t miss\u00a0this article<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This wonderful picture of the tomb is\u00a0from the website<\/a>\u00a0of the\u00a0Beit Hatfutsot museum<\/strong>:<\/div>\n
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Back to Saoud, as I already explained in the edition dedicated to\u00a0Reinette<\/a>, in 1938, he moved to Paris, where he was going to set up a cafe in Montmartre.\u00a0In January 1943 the German army, after the Operation Torch, made a roundup of Jewish in Marseille\u2019s port and deported Saoud and his 13 years old son Joseph to Drancy camp and later to Sobibor, where they would be murdered.<\/div>\n
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The\u00a0aroubi\u00a0<\/em>song, from the gharnati school<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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In Tlemcen it was developed the\u00a0gharnati\u00a0<\/em>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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0Moriscos\u00a0<\/em>(the Muslims that stayed in Iberian lands, converted into Catholics, forcibly\u00a0most of them) who were expelled in 1609.\u00a0The gharnati music is performed with small line ups of singers and instrumentalist and the soloist singing is fundamental.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

This picture of Alhambra in Granada is by\u00a0Slaunger<\/a>\u00a0in Wikipedia.<\/div>\n
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According to the Youtube channel\u00a0El Hassar Salim<\/a>, 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\u00a0Saoud, other artists that have played aroubi are Ib\u00e9ho Bensaid (1890-1972) and\u00a0Joseph Ben Guenoun said Maalam Zouzou (1889-1972). Aroubi songs are played nowadays.\u00a0Check here to listen to <\/a><\/span>one recording of the song\u00a0Serej ya fares ltam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0aroubi\u00a0<\/em>as a musical genre\u00a0started by the singer-songwriters of the old so-called Andalusian tradition who brought them into the urban cultural world. The poems\u00a0describe Bedouin idylls and the simple life embodied by the peasant life,\u00a0feelings of honor and bravery through epic songs or chronicles of rural life.\u00a0It is called the\u00a0Bedouin\u00a0<\/em>genre and some of its poets were Most\u00e9fa Ben Brahim (deceased in\u00a01867) from the region of Sfisef (Sidi Bel Abb\u00e8s), and Hani Benguenoun (1761-1864), Youcef Bel Abb\u00e8s (deceased\u00a0in 1843), both of them\u00a0from Mascara.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Clic in the picture to listen to \u00c2aroubi merguoum erichet ya hmem<\/em>\u00a0by Saoud l’Oranaise:<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n