Re: Spanish-Jewish Romance Songs

[Lori Cahan-Simon <lsimon...>]

Sholem Aleykhem, everyone,

I'm new here and you just happen to have hit upon something I know a bit
about!  Unfortunately, I'm not familiar yet with the lyrics to La Rosa
Enflorece (Los Bilbilicos), however, I can tell you something about the
Romance form of the end of the 14th century and beyond.  

The Romance is a poem originally recited or sung accompanied by a musical
instrument to entertain an audience or for a dance, or unaccompanied in a
more intimate setting.  It is comprised of an indeterminate series of
octosyllabic verses with asonant rhyme (vowels, not consonants, in the
ultimate and penultimate syllables) in the even-numbered lines.  The odd
lines are free rhyme (that is to say, they don't necessarily rhyme).  There
are other forms with 6, 7 or 11 syllables.  Since the 16th c.  the Romance
tended to group the verses in four line units, but the rhyme scheme
remained the same.  It is the most typically Spanish form of versification,
living in popular tradition, as well as in erudite poetry and in narrative
poetry such as is used in the theater.

You have to take into account the joining of proximal syllables where one
ends in a vowel and the next begins with one; they are counted as one.
Does the pattern fit with the above?  If so, there you have it!

Lori

At 04:09 PM 7/14/99 -0400, you wrote:

>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
>

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