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«TRIBUTE TO MAIMONIDES»
The Golden Age of Sephardi in Medieval
Andalucia
Director E. Paniagua
Jorge
Rosemblum: vocals
Cezar Carazo: vocals
Eduardo Paniagua: choir, qanun, flutes,
darbuqa, tar, sistre
Wafir Sheikh: oud, darbuqa
David Mayoral: pandero, tombak, darbuqa,
daf, riq
This
concert honours the eight hundredth
anniversary of the death of the exceptional
Jewish philosopher and man of science,
Maimonides, one of the great sages of
the Middle Ages.
Rabbi Moshé
Ben Maimon, better known as Maimonides,
was born in 1135 in Moslem Spain, in
the Jewish quarter of Cordoba. He was
the son of Rabbi Maimon Hadayan, rabbinical
judge and a direct descendant of King
David.
Physician, lawyer,
mathematician, astronomer and philosopher,
Maimonides moved to Fes in Morocco and
then on to Palestine after the conquest
of Cordoba by the Almohads, which resulted
in a much less liberal society where
Christian and Jew were forced to go
into exile or to convert.
Eventually he settled
in Cairo where he became the personal
physician of the sultan Saladin, and
where he died in 1204.
The greatest Jewish
thinker of the Middle Ages, his works
were first written in Arabic and then
translated into Hebrew and Latin. Maimonides
is considered one of the most important
Judeo-Islamic scholars who reconciled
tradition, revelation, philosophy and
science. Almost a contemporary of and
equal to Avicenna, Farabi and Averroes,
his thinking opened the way for Albert
Le Grand and Saint Thomas Aquinas. His
work is still studied not only by students
and intellectuals of the Jewish faith
at whom it was largely aimed, but also
by Muslim and Christian philosophers.
Many of his numerous
works are still in print today, such
as The Guide to the Perplexed, The Book
of Commandments, The Second Law –
Mishneh Torah. Some of his prayers are
still sung today throughout the Jewish
community.
A Spanish Jew writing
in Arabic, Maimonides is a fitting symbol,
along with those scholars already mentioned,
of this medieval Muslim Andalucia where
great intellectual thought brought harmony
between the three religions of the Book,
and whose people cohabited for several
centuries.
It is this era,
sometimes called, rightly or wrongly,
The Golden Age, that is referred to
in the concert to be presented by Eduardo
Paniagua and Jorge Rosemblum. However,
Maimonides’ position in relation
to music and its many uses both sacred
and profane was one of strict conformity,
in line with his Muslim and Christian
colleagues of the time.
The repertoire of
liturgical poems and prayers set to
music – among with, the Credo
of Maimonides – is from Jewish
writers both known and unknown, who
lived in Sephardic Spain or the Maghreb
after the fall of Granada: Dunash Ben
Labrat (Fes and Cordoba, 11th century);
Moshe Ibn Ezra (Granada, 9th century);
Israel Najara (16th century); and Shemuel
Hanaguid ibn Nagrella (Cordoba, 10th
century).
Melodies used by Jewish musicians at
this time (10th – 12th centuries)
have unfortunately disappeared but according
to some writings, these melodies borrowed
largely from neighbouring Christian
and Muslim musical traditions, over
which the Hebrew texts were laid.
Thus the traditional
Jewish music Bakashot developed along
the lines of the nouba andalouse.
Following this tradition,
Eduardo Paniagua and the musicians of
this ensemble have borrowed melodies
from the Maghrebi/Andalous school, from
the Sufi brotherhoods, from the schools
of wisdom of Gharnati nouba in Algeria
and Fes, and from the mudejar chants
of the Cantigas of Alfonse le Sage.
They present a musical voyage to the
source of this ancient spirituality
of the Jews of Andalucia.
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