Had Gadya

[Judith R Cohen <judithc...>]

>  There is an 
> interesting compendium from that marvelous resource, Smithsonian Folkways, 
> of recordings of chad gadya from many different traditions.  I don't recall 
> if it includes ladino and can't put my hands on it at the moment

Yes, it does include Ladino, and there is a lengthy article by the same
ethnomusicologist in "Selected Reports in Ethnomusicology", UCLA< but I
can't remember the year, 1970-something. Abraham Schwadron is the name
of the author/the compiler of the Folkways recording. SHould be findable
through  Smithsonian Folkways - I do have it lurking somewhere around
the house.

There's a wonderful Tunisian version , very danceable! on an old LP
"Haggadah de Pesakh" (album notes , such as they are, basically nil, in
French) .
Voice of the Turtle has an interesting Pesakh cd with comparative
versions.
I have a lovely Moroccan version which I recoeded years ago from an old
Tangier couple, he singing in Hebrew/Aramaic and she in Ladino, in
alternating verses; Tamar and I do sing it but haven't recorded it.In
fact, we taught it to the Crypto-Jews of Belmonte the first time we
spent Pesakh with them some years ago and they have transmuted it into
Portuguese (actually, a version already existed as a Portuguese
folksong). I'm sure someone will record them singing it one of these
years and conclude that it's a medieval pre-Inquisition survival (even
though it wasn't documented in any Jewish tradition before
15__-something) . 
Sorry for the lack of concrete references, I have a bunch of deadlines,
Judith

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