Re: Sefardic song from Bosnia?

[Carol Freeman <tsipra...>]

borzykowski wrote:

>   The accordion player of my klezmer band HOTEGEZUGT brought a very
> nice melody calledKAD JA PODJAH NA BENBASUShe was told that it's a
> sefardic theme with bosniac words.

Hi -

This is one of the most beloved songs in urban Bosnia, made famous by
the singing of Nada Mamula. This was reissued a few years ago on
Smithsonian Folkway's "Songs from an Endangered World: Bosnia," which is
still available. (It's NOT EVER a good idea to learn a song without
having an original source recording  - particularly if it is not in a
style that one knows really, really well. Otherwise, all of the vocal
and stylistic nuance is lost, and song ends of being nothing but an
empty shell of its skeletal Westernized melody and text. That's why
there's so much mediocre singing out there in the modern world!)

The text here has some mistakes and is not complete - I can supply the
complete text and translation if needed, but no time to enter them right
now. However, one version of the text is printed on the source material
listed above.

I wonder why  your friend was told that this is a Sephardic theme. What
was meant by that? I guess anything is possible, but it's a very typical
Bosnian melody, and is practically the city anthem of Sarajevo. In terms
of it being a Sephardic melody with Bosnian words, well, it usually it
works in reverse. The traditional songs that revival singers know mostly
from Flory's recordings are for the most part Ladino texts set to
Bosnian sevdalinka (love song) melodies.

Carol

> A translation or any other info about this song will be gratly
> appreciated. Here are the words:

> KAD JA PODJOH NA BENBASUNA BENBASU NA VODUJA POVEDOHBJE LA JAGNJEBJE
> LO JAGNJESA SOBOM SVE OD DERTAI SERDAHAOD TU GEI JALOS TISVUD SAM
> ISOSVUD SAM GLCDONE BIL DRAGU VIDJEO And the music:FED_  E__FED_ C_G_A
> Bb_ D_ C Bb A__G_ABbCBbAG_F_GABbA FED_E_FG_ A_
> FED__ If interested, I can send you the real score off list as .gif
> file.Thanks!
> MICHAL
>
> Michel Borzykowski
> e-mail: borzykowski (at) infomaniak(dot)ch
> Geneva klezmer page: http://borzykowski.users.ch