"16th-century Sephardic music" (not)

[Judith Cohen <judithrc...>]

Hi, this is a re-issue of a recording from, I think,
the late ´70's, one of the first to impute or at least
imply Early Music status to Sephardic oral tradition
meldies. It even, as I remember (from a distance, in
Spain) includes the melody, without its words, of
"Palestina tu hermoza", from the early 20th century.
There is nothing Sephardic about Figueras' voice or
the arrangements, and nothing Renaissance about the
Sephardic melodies on the recording, though, as
always, several of the romances, particularly the 2
versions of "Hermanas reina y cautiva" ¨"La Reina
Xarifa Mora" from Morocco and "Moricos", the eastern
Mediterranean version) , do have TEXTUAL origins in
medieval Iberia. Personally, I find Montserrat
Figueras' renditions of both the Sephardic and the
Renaissance material on this recording more noisy than
ravishing, but that's neither here nor there.... Last
week I was asked to sing Sephardic songs in a
"medieval festival/market of the Three Cultures" (in
Spain, these are always Jewish, Christian and Muslim,
or imagined versions thereof: in Canada, they may be
Anglophone, Francophone and First Nations...). This
was in Zaragoza. I made sure the audience knew these
were NOT medieval songs. But on my stage, there was
also a performance of "Sephardic dances" (not
something that actually exists: basically,
Sephardimhave danced the local styles, or adapted them
, e.g. "a la turca", "a la franca"). These turned out
to be the standard 1950´s/´60´s Israeli folk dances by
a small local group who'd learned them some years ago
from an Israelipassing through. I asked why they
called them "Sephardic" and they replied "because the
organizers told us to call them Sephardic whether they
were or weren't". Ditto for the children's choir, and
the pastry stands. The local group playing
unidentifiable music on accordeon, clarinet and flute,
when asked about their musical offering, replied, to
me, "we were told to play something as Arabic as
possible...."
Tri-cultural cheers, Judith



Date: Sun, 11 Jun 2000 10:22:33 -0400 
To: World music from a Jewish slant
<jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org> 
From: Jeffrey Miller/Burden of Proof Research
<jefmil (at) interlog(dot)com> 
Subject: 16th-century Sephardic music 


I don't know anything about Sephardic music, but I
came across this
mini-review in a recent edition of the Montreal news
magazine, 
L'actualité.
I've translated it for those on the list who might be
interested. The 
review
is by François Tousignant.

Ballads and Instrumental Music of the Sephardic
diaspora from 
16th-century
Spain. Montserrat Figueras (soprano) and the Hesperion
XXI ensemble,
directed by Jordi Savall. AliaVox AV9809A+B.

Persecuted during the Spanish and Portuguese
Inquisition, Sephardic 
Jews
disseminated around the Mediterranean basin and North
Africa to the 
capital
cities of the Ottoman Empire. This migration proved
fertile, and many
influences enlivened it.  In deciding to retrace his
roots, Jordi 
Savall has
explored this music and brings us all the beauty that
he has discovered 
in
the Judaeo-Hispanic tradition.  As always with
Hesperion XXI, a
fascinatingly poetic universe blossoms.  While
listening to the two 
CDs, the
medieval "stylings" [? mélismes] of Montserrat
Figueras' ravishing 
voice and
the instrumental subtleties are enchanting -- little
gems of sound [!].
Don't forget get to browse the informative
accompanying booklet.

J. Miller
Toronto



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