Judeo-Arab treasures
The children of Jean Bécache entrusted the European Institute of Jewish Music for the treatement and conservation of his archives. Between 1930 and 1945, Jean Bécache, musician and composer native of Algeria collected traditional liturgical melodies from Algiers and Arab-Andalusian music.
This collection gathers 140 documents and is composed of handwritten texts on the theory of Judeo-Arab music, sheet music of Jean Bécache’s compositions, liturgical scores in Algierian ritual, audio cassettes and other archives (press clips, service programs…). It includes the beginning of a collection of liturgical sheet music in Eastern ritual, as well as 23 rare scorebooks of the « Répertoire de musique Arabe et Maure », dating 1904/1905, collected by Edmond-Nathan Yafil under the direction of Jules Rouanet.
These archives are now available on the catalog of our collections (browse the Jean Bécache collection) or by making an appointment with the European Institute of Jewish Music (contact@iemj.org)
Read a biography of Jean Bécache
