(b Turgutlu, Turkey, 23 Dec 1896; d Aubervilliers, nr Paris, 7 Oct 1975). Italian composer, ethnomusicologist and music publisher. After education at the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Turgutlu, from 1907 he attended the school of the Société Musicale Israélite in Izmir, studying composition with Shemtov Shikayar and cantorial music with Isaac Algazi. He won a scholarship to Milan Conservatory, where he was a pupil of Zavaldi and Pozzoli (theory and solfège), Gatti (orchestration), Zampieri (history), Bossi (composition) and Andreoli (piano) (1914–15, 1917–19). His studies were interrupted by war service and Hemsi was severely wounded. He returned to Izmir to teach, then on to Rhodes (1923–7) and finally Alexandria. From 1920 he became intensely interested in the traditional music of Sephardi Jewry, collecting material around the eastern Mediterranean, in Alexandria, Jerusalem, Rhodes, Turgutlu, Manisa, Izmir and Thessaloniki. Most of the material in Coplas sefardíes, the work which established his reputation, was furnished by the Sephardi communities of Alexandria, Istanbul and Sofia; his well-suited piano accompaniments brought these songs into the salons and concert halls. In Alexandria he founded the Edition Orientale de Musique, the first Egyptian house to publish the work of composers familiar with Middle Eastern culture. In his own music he sought a compromise between Western technique and oriental tradition, believing that harmonic, equal-tempered music would replace microtonal heterophony. He founded a conservatory to propagate these ideas; he also established and conducted the Alexandria PO (1928–40) and was music director of the Grand Elihu Ha-navi Synagogue (1927–57). In 1957 he left for Paris to become professor of music at the Jewish Seminary; in the following year he was made music director of the Berith Shalom synagogue. He studied ethnomusicology under Marcel-Dubois at the Sorbonne (1961–5) and was active in French radio thereafter.
(selective list)
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Choral: Ein Kelohenu, op.26; 3 poèmes, op.32, T, female chorus, fl, tambourine, c1942; 6 choeurs en Ladino, op.50, 1965; Qabbalath Shabbath, op.52; 4 pièces hébraïques, op.54, chorus, pf |
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Orch: Croquis égyptiens, op.24, c1930; 3 arie antiche, op.30, str qt, str, c1940; Tableau symphonique, op.33; 3 danses bibliques, op.36; 3 danses nuptiales grecques, op.37 no.3, 1957; Shalom ‘aleikhem, op.46 no.4, B-Bar, orch, 1965 |
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Chbr: Vieille chanson du ghetto, op.15 no.1, pf, vn/12 insts; Danse populaire juive, op.15 no.2, pf, vn/12 insts; Méditation dans le style arménien, op.16, vc, pf; Pilpoul sonata, op.27, pf, vn, 1941; Str Qnt, G, op.28; 4 suites sephardies, opp.29, 39, 40, 43, vn/vc, pf; Divertissement dans le style populaire égyptien, op.38, 7 insts, perc, 1964; Carovano al tramonto, 14 insts, perc |
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Pf: Marinaresca, barcarolle, op.3 no.1; L’étoile engloutie, arabesque, op.3 no.2; 3 danses égyptiennes, op.11; Melodie popolari egiziane, op.14; 3 danses turques (Zeibék), op.21; Croquis égyptiens, op.24; Tema e variazioni chronologiques, op.35, 1951; 3 danses bibliques, op.36, 2 pf, 1952; 3 danses nuptiales grecques, op.37, 1952; Paniyiri (Gk ballet), op.47, 2 pf |
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Songs for 1v, pf: K. nidrei, op.12; Yom gilàh yavò, yavò, op.17; Hamisha shirim [5 Songs], op.25; Visions bibliques, op.48; Arba‘ah shirim [4 Songs], op.42 |
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Coplas sefardíes (Chansons judéo-espagnoles): op.7 (1932), op.8 (1933), op.13 (1934), op.18 (1935), op.22 (1938), op.34 (1969), op.41 (1970), op.44 (1972), op.45 (1972), op.51 (1973) |
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MSS in IL-J |
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Principal publisher: Edition Orientale de Musique |
‘La musique traditionnelle chez les juifs séfaradim d'Orient’, Hamenorah, iii/9 (1925), 62–3
‘Ha-musiqah ha-ammamit shel ha-sefardim’ [The popular music of the Sephardim], Mizrah u-ma‘arav, ii (Jerusalem, 1929), 414–18
La musique de la Torah (Alexandria, 1929)
La musique orientale en Egypte: études et polémiques (Alexandria, 1930)
‘Cancionero sefardí’, Sefarad, xix (Madrid, 1959), 378–84
‘Evocation de la France dans le folklore séphardi’, Le Judaïsme Séphardi, nos.24–5 (1962), 1091–3
‘Poesía y la música en las tradiciones de los sefardíes de Oriente (siglos XV al XIX)’, Anales del Ataneo Ibero-American de Paris, iv (1967), 3–24
‘Chants populaires judéo-espagnols’, Encyclopédie des musiques sacrées, ed. J. Porte, i (Paris, 1968), 508–11
‘Romancea y cantigas sefardíes’, Boletin de la Real Academia de San Fernando, xxxiii (Madrid, 1971), 37–56
H.G. Davidson: ‘Recent Musical Progress in Egypt’, Musical Courier (2 Jan 1932), 7, 38
I. Molho: ‘Alberto Hemsi’, Tesoro de los judios sefardíes, ii (Jerusalem, 1959), 111–13
I.J. Katz: Judeo-Spanish Traditional Ballads from Jerusalem, i (New York, 1972), 68–77
S.G. Armistead and J.H. Silverman: ‘Sobre las Coplas sefardíes de Alberto Hemsi’, Sefarad, xl (1980), 423–47
M. Shaul: ‘Alberto Hemsi: pionero del esforso para la prezervasion del folklor muzikal djudeo-espanyol’, Aki Yerushalayim, ii/8 (1981), 14–15
A. Galante: Histoire des Juifs de Turquie, iv (Istanbul, 2/1985), 69–70
E. Fintz Menascé: ‘Alberto Hemsi and his Coplas Sefardíes’, Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, xv/2 (1993), 62–8
E. Seroussi and others, eds.: Alberto Hemsi: cancionero sefardí (Jerusalem, 1993) [incl. A. Bennoun: ‘Alberto Hemsi in Memoriam (1897–1975)’, 3–5]
ISRAEL J. KATZ