Sounding Memory in the Tradition of the Caucasian Jews. Part II. The Rhetoric of Lamentation

The article explores the musical heritage of the Caucasian (Mountain) Jews in relation to the waves of their historical migration to the Caucasus. The author substantiates the genetic code (‘the rhetoric of lamentation’) of the traditional oral-professional music of the Near East region, rooted the 2500-year history of Mesopotamian laments with a complex of musical expression means. The most ancient type of responsive female singing of unmeasured melodies eme-sal was formed on the basis of the genre of laments in the syncretic rituals of the temple cities of the Mesopotamian civilization. It influenced the biblical laments and acquired new contexts after the ArabMuslim expansion in the art of maqām and the mystery of ta‘żīaẗ. The article presents the variants of expression of the rhetoric of lamentation in the traditional music in the juhūrī language. The author analyses the key concepts and describes the mechanism of retaining past events in memory through the giryo concept, which endlessly reproduces the idea of gathering the scattered people in the land of Israel. The assumption is made about the uniform character of the intonation of liturgical texts in the Caucasian and Yemenite Jewish communities.