Re: Spanish-Jewish Romance Songs

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

HI, Helen.

This adoption of secular songs for liturgical purposes happened all the 
time through the ages. Many scholars have looked at it; I am currently 
particularly enjoying Amnon Shiloah's treatment in Jewish Musical 
Traditions, Chap. 3, "Alien Melodies encroach on the prayers." He also 
provides a detailed discussion quoting Moshe Vital about the role of the 
Sephardi hazan in introducing "foreign" melodies. There is also a 
discussion of the Hasidic precept of "sanctifying" a foreign melody by 
employing it for holy purposes. (In case you couldn't tell, I can't 
recommend this book highly enough...)

La Rosa Enflorece is one of the most widely recorded Sephardic songs. It is 
also known by its alternate opening stanza, Los Bilbilicos (The 
Nightingales.) I know of 120 examples, and this is just of the Ladino 
version. I don't begin to attempt a count of its use as a melody for Tzur 
Mishelo. BTW, I believe "La Rosa Enflorece" is not actually a romance 
(which is a ballad which always comes in a particular format) but rather a 
lyric song.

Anyway, happy surfing! Let us know what you uncover.

Best,

Joel

P.S.

No sample of Tzur Mishelo actually that I could see by Elias at the 
Jewishmusic.com site. Were you listening to another song instead?

At 10:31 AM 7/14/99 -0700, you wrote:
>One of my favourite pastimes is surfing the net for information about the 
>songs we use in Israeli folk dancing (okay, I don't get out a lot).  A 
>favourite of mine is Tsur Mishelo.  I found a site that describes how the 
>melody for Tsur Mishelo was originally a Spanish_Jewish romance song 
>called La Rosa Enfloresce (www.joods.nl/jmf/en-exsefard.html) but now it 
>is a Hebrew song of thanks used on Shabbat.  I also found a cd by Michael 
>Ian Elias,"Keep the Light Shining" (which you can listen to on 
>www.jewishmusic.com) which really brings out the Spanish influence (as 
>opposed to one of our old folk dance recordings which sounds more or less 
>electronic).  That aside, the whole process of melodies switching from 
>secular to religious, and apparently handed down by women from one 
>generation to the next sounds very interesting.  Can anyone with more 
>knowledge in this area comment?
>Helen
>
>
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Joel Bresler
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