Major trends of change in Jewish Oriental ethnic music in Israel

Abstract

In this article we report some findings of our research into the inter-relationship of social and musical change among Jewish Oriental ethnic groups in Israel. This research is based on a broad approach to the ethnomusicological study of change which can be conceived as follows: the ethnomusicological study of musical change endeavours to analyse musicologically significant processes of change in terms of anthropologically or sociologically significant variables. This approach resembles that of J. Blacking who argued that ‘… we must “explain music and music-making with reference to the social, but in terms of the musical”’ (quoted in Kaeppler 1983, p. 359).