What was Ofra Haza’s cultural background? What had happened to her music? What do you hear in CD 3:14 that shows (A) the influence of traditional Arab music and (B) Western influence?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• Ofra Haza was a Yemeni Jew who "grew up in Israel performing in community theater." (Yemen is "home to Jews, Muslims, and Christians who differ in terms of ethnicity, socio-economic class, and political organization. . . . [In 1948] Israelis sent planes to evacuate virtually the entire Jewish community (50,000) from Yemen to Israel.")
• "She was picked up on the nascent mediascapes of international pop music and, by the 1990s was a strong player in a relatively new music/marketing category called ‘World Beat' or ‘EthnoPop,' something we now more often find under the ambiguous term "world music."
• (A) Arab influence: CD 3:14, "Im Nin'alu is "from the traditional collection of religious songs of the Yemenite Jews called the Divan and was written by a 17th century poet, Rabbi Shalom Shabbezi. . . . [Y]ou can hear a brass tray and tin can, household items that acquired the function of percussion instruments during a time of musical repression in Yemen."
• (B) Western influence: The music features a "quasi-Western sounding chamber ensemble that includes oboes and violin . . ."
• Note the solo female voice (Ofra Haza) sings (A) unaccompanied in free meter at the beginning of the selection followed by an abrupt change to (B) strong, rhythmic music in a Western meter (solo female voice continues accompanied by ethnopop background). (A) = Arab influence, (B) = Western influence