Jewish Iraqi Composer Ṣaleḥ Al-Kuwaity: A Revival?

Ṣaleh Al-Kuwaity (1908-1986) was one of the most distinguished musicians in Iraq during the 1930s and 1940s. He immigrated to Israel in 1951. A Jew, his name was erased from the national archives and from reprints of old books during the Baath regime. His songs were printed as “Iraqi heritage” with no credit to him as the composer. Though his music never died, there has been in the past ten years an element of revival in the awakening interest in the man and his music. Muslim Iraqi artists who settled outside the Middle East, now visit Israel and perform together with local Jewish and Palestinian musicians. Similar activities take place in London, involving the Jewish Iraqi community.

This paper deals with both performance and reception of these songs nowadays, through musicological and sociological surveys. Presenting renditions of Ṣaleh Al-Kuwaity’s songs from the past ten years, I show how they retain some features of the 1930s - 1940s recordings. Other aspects, like modality and instrumentation, have changed. Moreover, some of the current recordings convey a sense of nostalgia through choices of sound and visual features.

Looking at the reception of the songs, I examine how listeners express themselves on YouTube channels, on music websites and in newspapers. Like some of the performances - the discourse among listeners seems to revolve around sentiments of nostalgia. I examine the situation through Niall Mackinnon’s differentiation between re-enacting, which strives for authenticity, and revival, which is described as “continuity through a process of artistic evolution”.