Jewish music in northern morocco and the building of sonic identity boundaries

Abstract

This article presents the conclusions drawn from field work done in Morocco between 2007–2019 of the Judeo-Spanish repertoires of Northern Morocco and their internal societal functions. My findings conclude that their communal use is strictly inner facing and specific to their life in Morocco and not a representation of a long nostalgia for life in pre-Expulsion Spain, contrary to the prevailing focus in previous studies on this repertoire. Moroccan Jews have repurposed this material drawn from the cultures of contact to act as sonic protection against assimilation to the majority culture, through a complex system of encoded messages woven through the song texts, their contexts and moments of performance culminating in a pre-wedding ritual heavy with songs which reifies the bride as sacred vector for communal continuity through her sexual purity and fertility. Their use of music for constructing boundaries exemplifies sociological theories on boundaries and community identity which demonstrate a complex weaving and nesting of multiplicity of identities within their sung repertoires.