Re: klezmer and Sephardic

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Hi, Judith. Thanks!

Are you referring to the recent Renaissance Players recordings (on 
Celestial Harmonies), or are there others out there that have also adopted 
this vocal style?

Best,

J

At 06:15 AM 1/20/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi, perhaps not coincidentally, I just received a note from someone
>about Sephardic songs to include in their Balkan music repertoire. While
>there were several tunes borrowed back and forth, as Josh, Joel and
>others have been demonstrating, Josh is right: the Judeo-Spanish aspect
>of Sephardic music was primarily vocal, with no separate instrumental
>tradition, and indeed, little instrumental accompaniment except for
>women using frame drums and occasionally derbukka for wedding songs; and
>a small men's calgiya type ensemble, also for  weddings. Just a note
>about the vocal style, too: at least one early music group has started
>including Sephardic songs sung in Bulgarian village women's style. In my
>fieldwork experience, Sephardic women didn't use that style. Not only
>that, many of the ones I interviewed dissociated themselves from it as
>being "village" "peasant" style. The few Bulgarian songs I've heard them
>sing were more in the line of popular urban songs of the time they were
>growing up. Cheers, Judith
>



Joel Bresler
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Lexington, MA 02420 USA

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