“Soundscapes of the Old City”: Listening to Jerusalem’s Old City

Abstract

Damascus gate, we come to a lively Palestinian market street (See Figure 1.1). A vendor calls out the price of his wares in Arabic: ‘bi-’ashara’— for 10 (shekels)0:15 In a different part of the market, shopkeepers are quietly preparing for the day ahead, opening the metal shutters of their stores. Two adjacent stores are playing recordings of the Qur’an, the voices of the two readers weaving together while a street cleaner sweeps the stone streets of a side alley (see Figures 1.2 and 1.3)0:32 In a nearby courtyard, a group of schoolboys play outside between lessons. Their voices resonate between the stone walls that surround them0:49 Back in the market, the first rainstorm of the year has arrived. The raindrops make a loud clattering sound on the corrugated iron roofs that jut out over the stores. Passersby start to talk loudly over the sounds of the rain1:06 Moving along in the market, we pass the doorway of a busy souvenir shop. A number of languages are spoken1:20 We are now approaching the Western Wall, a holy site for Jews. It’s a Monday morning and two bar mitzvah ceremonies, celebrations of the coming of age of 13-year old Jewish boys, are taking place. First, we hear djembe drummers and a clarinetist playing in a resonant space below the pathway (Figure 1.4). A few seconds later, another group moves into the sound space, singing a Hebrew psalm text and drumming, their leader using a portable microphone1:53 At the Jaffa Gate, an entrance to the Old City frequently used by tourists, a young Jewish Israeli student is busking, playing the oud, a Middle Eastern lute, in the resonant space. A small crowd gathers to listen to him2:20 A group of Russian Orthodox pilgrims sing as they walk through a busy part of the market, following the path of the Via Dolorosa, along which Christians mark Jesus’s final path through the city to his crucifixion. As they move through the market, they walk past a music shop; the sounds of their voices compete with an Arabic pop CD then separate out3:18 On the Via Dolorosa, a bell rings above a Franciscan monastery. The street here is empty but the regular rhythm of the bell in the sonorous space is punctuated by the squeaking of its mechanism3:33 On a nearby rooftop, church bells ring with a different timbre, as the muezzin calls religious Muslims to prayer (Figure 1.7)3:55 Back in the market, later in the day a street vendor cuts sugar cane to make a sweet drink for those breaking their fast during the Muslim festival of Ramadan. In the evening, hundreds of Muslim worshippers from Jerusalem, the Galilee and further afield will walk down this street on their way to the al-Aqsa mosque and several people are setting up food stalls4:10 Above the plaza of the Western Wall, the sound of hundreds of birds in a large tree cheeping as dusk falls4:26 Walking back to our starting point outside the Old City walls, crickets can be heard loudly chirping. The sounds of traffic are also immediately noticeableWhat did the recording reveal about Jerusalem’s Old City? While recorded on different days during a year of fieldwork, the sounds you heard represented something of how a typical day might sound in this space. I’m sure that you noticed one major difference from most Western cities: inside the stone walls of the Old City, the noise of cars is rarely present. Most of the streets are reverberant stone alleys and market places that can only be traversed on foot. Perhaps the fact that you could hear many voices on the streets-traders, pilgrims, tourists-reminded you that Jerusalem has a warm, Middle Eastern climate, in which much public life takes outside.