Sephardim

The Sacred Bridge
Jews & Christians in Medieval Europe
Boston Camerata - Joel Cohen
Erato 2292-45513-4 [Cass.]
Erato 2292-45513-2 [CD]

Contents:

    I - Songs of Exile

    Anon., Sephardic (Jerusalem)
  1. Boray ad ana / Criador hasta cuando

  2. Anon., Sephardic (Psalm 137)
  3. Al naharot bavel
  4. II - The Sacred Bridge

    Anon., Gregorian / Ashkenazy
  5. In exitu Israel / B'tset Yisrael

  6. Obadiah, the Proselyte: Eulogy of Moses
  7. Mi al har Horeb
  8. III - Jewish Minstrels at Christian Courts

    Mathieu le Juif, 13th c.
  9. Par grand franchise

  10. Sueskint von Trimberg, 13th c. (t) / Der Wilde Alexander, 13th c. (m)
  11. Wa heb' uf
  12. IVa - Jewish Folklore of the Mediterranean Basin – Jewish of the Provence

    Anon., Carpentras, 18th c.: Lou Tragediou de la Reine Esther (t) / L'Air du Postillon (m)
  13. Cansoun d'Ester

  14. Anon., Carpentras, 18th c.: Circumcision Song
  15. Eftach sefatai
  16. IVb - Jewish Folklore of the Mediterranean Basin – Spanish Jewry in exile (Morocco, Balkans)

    Anon., sephardic
  17. Morena me llaman
  18. Yo hanino, tu hanina
  19. En ciudad noble y encina (instr.)
  20. Desde hoy mas, mi madre
  21. La rosa enfloresce
  22. V - Songs of Mystical Spain

    Anon., sephardic
  23. Respondemos, Dio de Abraham

  24. Alfonso el Sabio (attr.): Cantigas de Santa Maria
  25. CSM 340: Cantiga Virgen Madre gloriosa

  26. Anon.
  27. Kaddish (instr.)
    Alfonso el Sabio (attr.): Cantigas de Santa Maria
    CSM [422]: Madre de Dios, ora pro nos

  28. Alfonso el Sabio (attr.): Cantigas de Santa Maria
  29. CSM 1: Dos oge mas quer eu trobar
  30. CSM 34: Gran dereit (instr.)

  31. Anon., sephardic
  32. Cuando el Rey Nimrod

  33. Abraham, cantor of Gerona (12th c.)
  34. Ahot ketana

  35. Alfonso el Sabio (attr.): Cantigas de Santa Maria
  36. CSM 263: Muit e benaventurado (instr.)

  37. Anon., sephardic
  38. El nora alila

Performers:
The Boston Camerata
Anne Azéma (soprano, percussion), Joel Cohen (baritone, treble lute, turkish lauta, percussion), Michael Collver (counter-tenor, percussion), John Fleagle (tenor, oud), Jesse Lepkoff (recorders, transverse flute), Carol Lewis (vielle, treble viol)
Guest performers: Ellen Hargis (soprano), Lynn Torgove (soprano), Alice Robbins (vielle)
Joel Cohen, dir.

Playing time: 65' 21"

Recording site and date:
Unknown [01/1989];
Rel.: 1990

Reviewed in:

Excerpts:
[3] Erato 4509-91777-2 Music and Memory – Musiques et Mémoires

This program attempts, through music and poetry, to trace some of the ways in which Jewish and Christian communities in medieval Europe related to and depended on each other despite their forced seperation from each other. The program includes songs of exile, works by Jewish minstrels at Christian courts, Mediterranean Jewish folklore, and 'songs of mystical Spain'.

Among these repertories, the Sephardic songs originating in medieval Spain have been given a good deal of attention. A few programs devoted to these songs in varying interpretations, along with other related items as in the present recording:

Díaspora Sefardí
Romances & Música Instrumental
Ensemble Hespèrion XXI - Jordi Savall
Alia Vox AV 9809 A+B (2 CDs)
El Canto Espirituel Judeoespañol
Alia Música - Miguel Sánchez
Harmonia Mundi "Ibérica" 987015
Sephardic Romances
Traditional Jewish Music from Spain
Ensemble Accentus - Thomas Wimmer
Naxos 8.553617
Sepharad
Songs of the Spanish Jews
Ensemble Sarband - Vladimir Ivanoff
Deutsche Harmonia Mundi 77372
From the shores of the Golden Horn
Paths of Exile - Quincentary Series Vol. 1: Music of the Spanish Jews of Turkey
The Voice of the Turtle - Judith Wachs
Titanic 173

An extensive listing from Voice of the Turtle can be found in the final link above. See also the under construction Sephardic discography.

This is primarily oral repertory, and so performances are based strongly on the survival of Sephardic descendants in modern Turkey and Northern Africa. Some facts regarding music in Islamic Spain are also used. Of course, there are many other program of Sephardic music, including many on modern instruments.

In addition to this Sephardic repertory, medieval Spain also notably included Islamic music. A recorded example:

Música Andalusí
Nuba Al-Istihlál
Ibn Báya Ensemble - Omar Metioui & Eduardo Paniagua
Sony "Hispánica" 62262

And a recording devoted to the earliest conjecturally surviving Jewish music, that from the Old Testament:

La Musique de la Bible revélée
notation millénaire décryptée
Suzanne Haïk Vantoura
Harmonia Mundi musique d'abord 190989

A recording which attempts to reconstruct synagogue chants from the middle ages:

Ancient Hebrew Chants of the Mediterranean
Paolo Buconi Ensemble
Tactus 590002

Finally, a recording moving into the Baroque, of a unique example of composed music for the Jewish temple:

Salomone Rossi: The Two Souls of Solomon
Ensemble Daedalus
Accent 96119

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Todd M. McComb