Simha Arom is a French ethnomusicologist who has conducted research mainly in Central Africa. Today it has more than eighty years and director Jerome Blumberg made a documentary about his life and his career as a researcher.

Circulating on the Internet for a few days request to contribute to the production of the film through the crowdfunding platform Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Today Arom is emeritus director of the CNRS, the National Centre for Scientific Research, which is the most important French public research organization. Born in Düsseldorf in 1930 and fled to Palestine to escape Nazi persecution, he spent nearly fifty years in business studies (still in progress) of the mechanisms of the traditional music of Africa and other continents (in recent years, such example, his work has focused on the study of Georgian polyphony).

His research began almost by accident. In fact, before turning to ethnomusicology, he studied violin and French horn, becoming first French horn of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in 1957. In 1963 he went for the first time in the Central African Republic at the invitation of President Dacko, who invites him to coordinate the project for the creation of a brass band. Once in Africa Arom is electrocuted by pygmy music, he abandoned the project of the band began to record it and study it.

Here you can find the trailer of the documentary and some general information about the project.

Autore: Daniele Cestellini

Daniele Cestellini ha scritto 752 articoli.

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