Playing time: 59' 30"
Performers:
Judith R. Cohen (voice, medieval fiddle, drums), Tamar Ilana Cohen
Adams (voice, drum, shells), Eduardo Paniagua (kanun, arab flutes,
tambourine, triangle, sistro), Wafir Sheik (arab lute, viola),
David Mayoral (drums, tympani, tambourine, bells)
Recording site and date:
Madrid, Spain [08/2000]
Excerpts:
[5] Pneuma « Colección Historica
(Tres culturas) » PN-1200 [CD] Cantos de Mujeres en las
Tres Culturas / Female voices in the three cultures – Spanish
Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Middle Ages
[11] Pneuma PN-800 [CD] Puentes sobre el
Mediterráneo: Dialogo musical de las culturas medievales del
Mediterráneo
[13] Pneuma PN-370 La llamada de Al-Andalus
- The Call of Al-Andalus: Obras maestras de la colección
Al-Andalus de Pneuma
Reviewed in:
Diapason (#-p.):
Gramophone (Vol./#-p.):
Fanfare (Vol./#-p.): 25/5-243 (may/june 2002)
Goldberg (#-p.):
Comments:
Information from owned CD and Judith R. Cohen. She wrote:
"Empezo quiero contar" - "I'd like to begin to tell
the story...." We've chosen this opening line of the Moroccan
Judeo-Spanish Purim song as the title of our recording, for it's
meant to tell a story in its own way, linking the songs of Sefarad
- the traditional Jewish name for the Iberian Peninsula, and by
extension, Sephardic culture - to their roots in medieval Jewish
Iberia. Of today's Sephardic repertoire, there are no songs which
can actually be said to be medieval. Many of the texts do have
their roots in medieval or Renaissance Spain, but their melodies
are not medieval: rather, they are part of an oral tradition which
has developed over centuries, continents and cultures into the
unique blend making Judeo-Spanish songs what they are today. At
the same time, the Jewish poetry of medieval Spain remains mostly
unsung, because it has not come down to us with its melodies. So
I have experimented with contrafacta: setting some of these poems
to medieval melodies which the poets may have known. Other songs
we have chosen have very old texts, or very old themes, although
the actual texts may not be medieval. We've also included two
regional Portuguese songs, which Tamar and I learned while conducting
fieldwork in areas where Crypto-Judaism is still practiced. We
have tried to preserve a traditional vocal style, based on fieldwork
over the years in Sephardic and Mediterranean communities: for the
Middle Ages, of course, any attempt at re-creating vocal style can
be only speculative. Some of the instrumentation is entirely
traditional (which occasionally means there is none); in other
cases, such as the romance La Envenedadora, Eduardo and Wafir have
added accompaniments, providing some of the sound texture of
Sephardic worlds of both Middle Ages and today's Mediterranean
cultures.
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Pierre-F. Roberge