{{short description|Israeli musicologist of Uruguayan origin (born 1952)}} {{Infobox person | name = Edwin Seroussi | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1952|12|26}} | birth_place = Montevideo, Uruguay | occupation = Musicologist | image = Edwin Seroussi.jpg | image_size = | caption = | native_name = אדווין סרוסי | native_name_lang = he | known_for = | awards = {{plainlist| * Israel Prize for Musicology (2018) }} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}} '''Edwin Seroussi Bargman''' ({{Langx|he|אדווין סרוסי}}; born 26 December 1952 in Montevideo) is an Israeli musicologist of Uruguayan origin. He is the Emanuel Alexandre Professor Emeritus of Musicology, chair of the Academic Committee of the Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a visiting scholar in Jewish studies at Dartmouth College.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/22115081|title=Curruculum Vitae|last1=Seroussi |first1=Edwin }}</ref> He is the 2018 Israel Prize laureate in the field of Musicology.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Hebrew-University-professor-Edwin-Seroussi-awarded-Israel-Prize-542484|title=Hebrew University professor Edwin Seroussi awarded Israel Prize|work=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=2018-02-15 |issn=0792-822X}}</ref> In 2024 he became a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities<ref>{{cite web | title=פרופ' אדוין סרוסי | url=https://www.academy.ac.il/Index2/Entry.aspx?nodeId=809&entryId=22760 }}</ref>
== Biography ==
Edwin Seroussi was born in Montevideo, Uruguay.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.hum.huji.ac.il/english/templates/staff_details.php?cat=731&incat=728&id=2947&act=view&tui=728|title=The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Humanities|website=www.hum.huji.ac.il|access-date=2018-02-15}}</ref> In Montevideo he studied violin with Maestro Miguel Szilágyi Pauer and composition with Héctor Tosar Errecart. He immigrated to Israel in 1971 to study at the Department of Musicology of the Hebrew University at the undergraduate and graduate levels continuing into his doctoral studies at the Department of Music (today the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music) of the University of California Los Angeles (1981–1987). Upon graduation he taught at Bar-Ilan University (1988–2000), transferring in 2000 to the Hebrew University.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.academia.edu/https://www.academia.edu/34378313/Edwin_Seroussi_List_of_Publications|title=Edwin Seroussi's updated list of publications}}</ref> Parallel to his undergraduate studies in musicology he continued to pursue the study music composition with Prof. Andre Hajdu.
He founded and edits Yuval Music Series and is editor of the CD series Anthology of Music Traditions in Israel of the Jewish Music Research Centre (JMRC).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il|title=Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem|website=Homepage of the JMRC (jewish-music.ac.il) |access-date=2020-01-18}}</ref> As of 2025 he is acting as the chairman of the Centre.<ref>Homepage of the JMRC, accessed 21 July 2025</ref>
== Areas of Research and Publications ==
Seroussi's earliest publications explored diverse aspects of the history and consolidation of Sephardic liturgical music (see for example: ''Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue Music in Reform Sources from Hamburg'').<ref>{{cite book |last1=Seroussi |first1=Edwin |title=Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue Music in Nineteenth-century Reform Sources from Hamburg: Ancient Tradition in the Dawn of Modernity |date=1996 |publisher=Magnes Press |location=Jerusalem |url=https://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/en/content/spanish-portuguese-synagogue-music-nineteenth-century-reform-sources-hamburg-ancient |access-date=23 June 2024}}</ref> At the same time, he started to explore the Judaeo-Spanish song repertoire, leading an international team in the editing of the ''Cancionero sefardí'' (1995) by Alberto Hemsi, one of the largest field collections of Sephardic songs from the pre-World War II period.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hemsi |first1=Alberto |last2=Seroussi |first2=Edwin |title=Cancionero Sefardi |date=1995 |publisher=Magnes Press |location=Jerusalem |url=https://jewish-music.huji.ac.il/en/content/cancionero-sefardi |access-date=23 June 2024}}</ref> Another line of historical research into the same repertoire led to the publication of ''Incipitario sefardí'' with the collaboration of Rivka Havassy.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://libros.csic.es/product_info.php?products_id=262&language=en|title=Incipitario sefardí: El Cancionero judeoespañol en fuentes hebreas (siglos xv-xix)|first1=Edwin|last1=Seroussi|first2=Rivka|last2=Havassy|date=9 October 2009|publisher=CSIC|isbn=978-8400088828|via=Google Books}}</ref> This volume records all the songs in Judaeo-Spanish mentioned as melody clues in collections of Hebrew sacred poetry in manuscript and printed. A series of articles on single Judeo-Spanish songs led to the publication of the monograph ''Ruinas sonoras de la modernidad: La canción popular sefardí en la era post-tradicional''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://libros.csic.es/product_info.php?products_id=262&language=en|title=Ruinas sonoras de la modernindad: La canción popular sefardí en la era post-tradicional|first1=Edwin|last1=Seroussi|first2=Susana|last2= Edición: Asensio Llamas|date=1 April 2019|publisher=CSIC|isbn= 978-84-00-10484-9|via=Google Books}}</ref> A slightly updated English version of this monograph appeared as ''Sonic Ruins of Modernity" Judeo-Spanish Folksongs Today''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.routledge.com/Sonic-Ruins-of-Modernity-Judeo-Spanish-Folksongs-Today/Seroussi/p/book/9781032276540|title=Ruinas sonoras de la modernidad: La canción popular sefardí en la era post-tradicional|first1=Edwin|last1=Seroussi|date=29 January 2024|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781032276540|via=Google Books}}</ref>
Parallel to his work on Sephardic music cultures, Seroussi turned his attention to popular music in Israel. Results of this research project appeared in the book that he co-authored with sociologist of culture Motti Regev, ''Popular Music and National Culture in Israel''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kAxLAn6sOb4C|title=Popular Music and National Culture in Israel|first1=Motti|last1=Regev|first2=Edwin|last2=Seroussi|date=26 April 2004|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520236547|via=Google Books}}</ref>
Beyond his specific areas of specialization, Seroussi has published essays on Jewish music in general,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Seroussi |first=Edwin|date=2020 |title=Juedische Musik |trans-title=Jewish Music |url=https://www.mgg-online.com/article?id=mgg15539&v=2.0&rs=id-328bc9c9-2e93-0809-2a78-294db57d5504|language=German |journal=Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart Online|doi= |access-date=21 June 2024}}</ref> as well as on Judeo-Muslim relations in music.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Seroussi |first1=Edwin |title=Music: Muslim Jewish Sonic Encounters |journal=Routledge Handbook of Muslim-Jewish Relations, ed. Josef (Yousef) Meri |date=2016 |pages=429–448 |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Muslim-Jewish-Relations/Meri/p/book/9780367581596 |access-date=23 June 2024}}</ref>
== Digital Humanities ==
Seroussi initiated the development of Jewish Cultures Mapped, an online platform,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewish-cultures-mapped.org/#/?_k=zkfdyx|title=Jewish Cultures Mapped|website=www.jewish-cultures-mapped.org |access-date=2022-05-19}}</ref> in collaboration with computer scientist and vocal performing artist Dr. Josef Sprinzak and web graphic designer, researcher, educator and media activist Mushon Zer-Aviv<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://mushon.com|title=Mushon Zer Aviv|website=www.mushon.com|access-date=2022-05-19}}</ref> (aka Shu'al).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shual.com|title=Shual|website=www.shual.com/jewish-cultures-mapped/|access-date=2022-05-19}}</ref> Launched by the research project Da'at Hamakom<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.daat-hamakom.com|title=Da'at Hamakom| website=www.daat-hamakom.com|access-date=2022-05-19}}</ref> in 2017 and under the care of the Jewish Music Research Centre <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il|title=Jewish Music Research Centre at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem|website=www.jewish-music.ac.il|access-date=2020-01-18}}</ref> since late 2019. This interactive web-based map employs digital-mapping and information visualization technologies designed to explore and experience Jewish cultures in their historical development from a perspective of time and space. The map offers easy accessibility of high quality content to a wide range of publics, such as university researchers, school teachers, students and lay persons searching for information in a platform that differs from extant searching and data mining engines.
==See also== *Music of Israel
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://huji.academia.edu/ESeroussi Edwin Seroussi at Academia.edu] *[http://www.piyut.org.il/articles/260.html "Change and Continuity in the Singing of Baqqashot among Moroccan Jews in Israel: Transformations in the Symbolic Meaning of a Traditional Music Custom"]. ''Pe'amim'' 19 (1984), 113–129. [In Hebrew] *[http://www.piyut.org.il/articles/283.html "The Tradition of singing of the Maftirim in Turkey"]. *[https://www.ybz.org.il/_Uploads/dbsAttachedFiles/Article_56.6(1).pdf "On the Beginnings of the Singing of Bakkashot in 19th- century Jerusalem"]. ''Pe'amim'' 56 (1996), 106–124. [In Hebrew] *[https://muse.jhu.edu/article/747288v "Songs That Young Gershom Scholem May Have Heard: Jacob Beimel's Jüdische Melodieen, Jung Juda, and Jewish Musical Predicaments in Early Twentieth-Century Berlin"]. *[https://sephardicmusic.org sephardicmusic.org]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Seroussi, Edwin}} Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Jewish Israeli musicians Category:Academics from Montevideo Category:Jewish musicologists Category:Israeli musicologists Category:Israeli music educators Category:Israeli people of Uruguayan-Jewish descent Category:Uruguayan emigrants to Israel Category:Uruguayan Sephardi Jews Category:Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Category:20th-century Israeli educators Category:20th-century Israeli male musicians Category:21st-century Israeli educators Category:21st-century Israeli male musicians Category:Israeli Sephardi Jews Category:Israel Prize in music recipients Category:Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Category:UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music alumni Category:Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities