item Item : Festival : pélerinage de la synagogue Ghriba : bande 2 : 01

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Title
Festival : pélerinage de la synagogue Ghriba
Collector
Davis, Ruth
Collection
Mission R. Davis, Tunisie (Djerba), 1978 (en cours de traitement)
Recording date
May 25, 1978
Access type
metadata

Geographic and cultural informations

Location
Tunisie
Location details
Djerba
Language
Arabe et hébreu
Population / social group
Juifs
Ethnographic context
Célébration à l'arrivée du pélerinage à la Synagogue Ghriba, cours du fondouk. Groupe de Jacob Bsiri, musicien juif.

[Notes en anglais de Ruth Davis :]
25-05-78 stereo
Place: Courtyard of the funduk next to the Ghriba synagogue, Hara Sghira.
Repertory: piyyutim, "auction" calls, crowd sounds
Performers: Yakob Bsiri on ‘ūd and male musicians from Hara Kebira on bendir, ṭār, darbūka .

Scene: Second afternoon of Lag b’Omer festivities. The master of ceremonies, a burly man, with a bendir and ṭār player on either side, are standing on a golden wagon decorated with hundreds of candleholders. Jacob Bsiri and his band are performing in the courtyard below. The crowd presses close. Someone tosses a coloured silk shawl to the burly man who makes as though to auction it. (Cries of “trois dinars . . . cinq dinars” etc, on the recording.) At the highest bid the musicians strike up a tune, the players on the wagon pivot around waving and beating the instruments, the MC flourishes the shawl, and bucha (spirit of fig) is passed round. The shawl is draped over the wagon and a new one is offered for "auction".

The money received is offered to the Ghriba to help support the old men who spend their days studying and praying there, e.g. Bana, Tape 19.

By early evening the wagon is completely covered with motley shawls. On the first day it is wheeled into the Ghriba, the shawls are removed, and the candleholders filled with burning candles. On the second day the crowd follows the draped wagon and the performing musicians in a procession across the open countryside towards the village and the main synagogue of Hara Sghira, just below the Ghriba. The piyyutim continue inside the courtyard of the synagogue. Finally a rabbi makes a speech in honour of President Bourguiba.

Since I had no functional batteries I couldn’t follow the procession with the recorder. In the funduk I used the electric socket inside the room of a couple of elderly pilgrims. They were delighted to help me but I clearly disturbed the wife’s cooking arrangements: ideally she would be preparing something on the electric stove through the afternoon. I took a risk trailing the microphone cables through the crowd. I mounted a bench as close as possible to the musicians and held up the microphone stand, slanting it towards them, above the heads of the intervening crowd. I had some difficulty persuading those who tried to displace me that their "help"’ was not needed. Others were also standing on benches so I was not too conspicuous. Periodically I asked a neighbour to hold the stand while I disappeared to check the cables and the controls on the recorder.
Keywords
Religion

Musical informations

Generic style
Populaire
Number Composition Vernacular name Interprets
Voix chantée : homme
1 Luth Oud
Tambour sur poterie Darbouka
Tambour sur cadre à 1 membrane Tar
Tambour sur cadre à 1 membrane Bendir

Archiving data

Code
CNRSMH_I_2018_003_002_01
Item number
: bande 2 : 01
Remarks
Last modification
Jan. 4, 2023, 5:05 p.m.

Technical data

Media type
Audio
Item size
246.1 MB