Re: Spanish-Jewish Romance Songs

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

At 04:36 PM 7/15/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Dear Helen et al.:  There is, indeed, as Joel suggests, an extensive, 
>centuries- or millenia-old tradition of "borrowing" melodies from 
>secular/folk/popular sources for Jewish prayer--and such 
>"contrafacta"--that's the [somewhat ugly?] musicological term for new 
>words to an old/existing melody--aren't only (or mainly) transmitted by 
>women!
>This tradition may go as far back as the Psalms, was already condemned in 
>the Talmud, and was probably practiced by cantors in every age (usually to 
>the consternation of the rabbis); it may have reached its apogee, though, 
>in the Shabbat table hymns or zemirot (many of which were _intended_ to be 
>sung to contemporaneous folk or popular melodies) and in the music of the 
>Hassidim, who made of borrowing (spiritually appealing) melodies for 
>prayer a mitzvah--a religious obligation.  (And BTW, such borrowing--the 
>practice, after all, is ubiquitous in folk and popular music 
>generally--sometimes goes in the opposite direction: Richard Farina used 
>this same "Tzur Michelo" melody--if we want to call it that--for "The 
>Swallow Song" [unattributed, of course!].) ...

I had heard that Farina had done a Sephardic melody, but never knew which 
one - thank you so much!

A swallow song appears on:

Reflections in a crystal wind, Vanguard 1966 (LP), 199-? (CD)
The Best of Mimi and Richard Farina, Vanguard, 1971 (2 LPLs), 1988 (CD)

>There is considerable literature on this practice--Shiloah just devotes a 
>few pages, I believe, though it's an astute account as I recall; my own 
>modest contribution was an article in the August 1994 Moment magazine 
>("We're Playing Their Song").  A scholarly article speaking to exactly 
>Helen's area of interest is "Judeo-Spanish Contrafacts and Musical 
>Adaptations:  The Oral Tradition" by Edwin Seroussi and Susana 
>Weich-Shahak, which appeared in the journal Orbis Musicae; I inexcusably 
>don't have the date but could no doubt find it cross-referenced somewhere 
>else.

Judeo-Spanish Contrafacts and Musical Adaptations: The Oral Tradition. 
Orbis Musicae 10 (1990-1), 164-194. (with Susana Weich-Shahak)

Two of the best contemporary scholars in Sephardic music. Fabulous 
contributions.

>Hope this is helpful, Helen and y'all.


It was to me!

Joel



>>From: "Helen Winkler" <winklerh (at) hotmail(dot)com>
>>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>>Subject: Spanish-Jewish Romance Songs
>>Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 10:31:34 PDT
>>
>>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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