ARAMAIC WATCH: Aramaic (Syriac) made a good showing at the recent Fez World Musical Festival in Morocco. From the BBC:

A performance by Lebanese singer Ghada Shubeir, was one to remember.

Accompanied by the Qanoon, an Arabic string instrument, she chanted Christian hymns in Syriac (a liturgical language used in some Middle Eastern churches which is related to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus Christ).

The performance was incredibly crisp, and its spiritual roots stretched back hundreds of years.

Ms Shubeir said after the concert it was the first time she had been invited to perform in a Muslim country.

And from the Guardian:

These [cross-cultural] connections were even more movingly expressed by Ghada Shbeir, a Maronite from Beirut who gave a recital of ancient Christian songs, accompanied by qanun under the giant oak. Her voice at first sounded Arabic, with inflections typical of the region, but it was possible to detect the signature intervals of early European music. Many songs were in Aramaic, the pre-Hebrew language of Palestine spoken by Jesus.

Nitpicks: Syriac is not "related to" Aramaic; it is an Aramaic dialect. And Aramaic is not pre-Hebrew; it developed more or less contemporaneously with Hebrew. But the point is that the music was good.