Re: "16th-century Sephardic music" (not)

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

Hi, all.

To clear up any possible confusion, the review J. Miller originally quoted 
is about a recent release of Hesperion XXI - a two CD set, with one CD 
including vocals and one instrumental. Some of Judith's comments deal with 
a re-issue of their two CD set originally recorded and released as a two LP 
set in the late 1970s. It's now available on Virgin as a budget entry.

Has anyone else heard the new release? It just sounds weird to me; 
completely self-referential performances that to my (admittedly amateur) 
ears don't sound like Spanish renaissance music, other Sephardic music, or 
even their album from the 1970s. (And this from someone that really 
appreciated the earlier release, which, for all its faults, was my 
introduction to Sephardic music.)

Buena fortuna,

Joel


At 01:35 AM 6/12/00 -0700, Judith Cohen wrote:
>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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>Yahoo! Photos -- now, 100 FREE prints!
>http://photos.yahoo.com
>



Joel Bresler
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