Had Gadya in Portugal

[Judith R. Cohen <judithc...>]

Speaking of that neat old Folkways anthology of Had Gadya (Schwadron has
the matching long article about it in Selected Reports in
Ethnomusicology, late 1970's or early 80's I think; and Voice of the
Turtle has a recording with several versions also), if you are ever in
Belmonte with the Crypto (well, now not-Crypto) Jews, and hear some
singing a beautiful Moroccan version of Had Gadya, it's NOT a survival
form the medieval ages, (as people are so fond of ascribing medieval
origins to so many aspects of Ibero-Jewish culture!!) but - dates to
1997. I know, because I taught it to them. I learned it in Montreal from
a very elderly couple who did it bilingually, Hebrew (well , Aramaic)
and Ladino : he did the first and she the second, rocking in an old
chair, with a huge pendulum clock ticking away in back - t was
mesmerizing, and she died soon after. Anyway, Had Gadya also exists as a
Portuguese folk song (and who KNOWS why or what the origin is, Jewish or
not), and was a natural one to teach them when they asked me to do a
short concert. I reinforced it with "my" family, and last year the
resident three-year-old sang some of it into my tape recorder, with his
grandmother (who normally doesn't like being taped) smiling away. This -
after the rabbi who was there in 1990-1992 told me when I interviewed
him in Jersualem that same year, '97, that the reason he hadn't taught
them any Pesakh songs (I asked him why on earth he'd taught them several
songs but NOTHING for PEsakh) was that "they don't have the intelligence
to remember a song that's only sung once a year". 
Even 3 years later this makes me so angry that I won't even comment
further!
I'll be there in a few wereks (leave for Spain today and haven't
finished packing!) and am sure they'll sing an even more complete
version than last year - and also sure that someone will come along,
hear them singing it and publish something about the survival of this
"medieval pre-Inquisition Had Gadya"!!!! 
I'll check mail when I can. For private messages, use this address
and/or judithrc (at) yahoo(dot)com
Cheers, Judith

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