The Music of the Safardim
There is a song fragment on this page, you have to wait a minute to hear it.
"Everyone knows his own single psalm, but the cantor knows two."
{Sephardic saying} (Lazar 139).
The tradition of Sephardic music is very similar to their literature. It has the same themes, such as, the Bible, Nature, History, weddings and death (Armistead 106;Muñiz-Huberman 85). For example:
The Wedding Song (Salonica)
Mother, dear Mother, if you love me true,
Take my precious love with thee,
And lead to the bath my bride-to-be;
Wash her with little brushes three,
With musk-scented soap soap her for me,
In rose-water immerse her fully
With a golden comb comb her hair for me (Lazar 42).
The melodies are rhythmical, with repetition and varied instrumentation.
One very important musical format in Sephardic music is the Romancero, which continues to be part of Spanish society today. The Spanish tradition was preserved in the songs of the Sephardim. This includes The Song of My Commander (El Canto de Mío Cid), and others (Muniz-Huberman 85; Armistead 243). In each region that the Sephardim lived in after the expulsion, they borrowed elements of the local music (Armistead 244). Consequently, today there are many branches of the same music that began during the Golden Age. Below are some pages where you can find Sephardic music, enjoy!
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