November 21, 2024 ~ Shabbat HAYE SARA. HIJAZ.
H Haim Shaul Aboud (1890- June 1977) was born in Aleppo and was a
student of H Raphael Tabbush and H Moshe Ashear. Aboud travelled to
Buenos Aires, Argentina, and served as a cantor and as a teacher in a
local Talmud Torah. In 1929, he went to Jerusalem to settle in the Beit
Israel neighborhood. In Jerusalem, he noticed that there was little
knowledge and respect for the Hazzanut and pizmonim customs among the
average people. Aboud worked to teach pizmonim to young children without
getting paid for these services. Aboud revolutionized how Classical
Arabic music was viewed by the Jews in Jerusalem. Aboud composed many
pizmonim that were based on popular Arabic melodies such as those by
Mohammad Abdel Wahab (1901-1991). Many of his pizmonim became very
popular throughout the Sephardic world. His pizmonim book that he
composed is called Shire Zimrah, "שירי זמרה", and this became very
widely used in Israel.
