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Sephardic songs accompanied life from beginning to end—love and courtship, pregnancy, childbirth, weddings, and mourning. They also marked the yearly cycle with songs rooted in Jewish traditions and historical events.
Ladino, originating from 15th-century  Spanish, was the language of Jews expelled from Spain in 1492. As they dispersed across the Mediterranean, Ladino song absorbed local linguistic and musical influences.
There are two main dialects:
Ladino (Español) – Spoken in Turkey, Greece, Sarajevo, Bulgaria, Rhodes, and beyond.
Haketia – The dialect of northern Morocco.

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From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. From ‘Esther’, a musical play in three acts depicting the story of Purim, which articulates the plot via various operatic genres: recitativo, arias, duets and choruses. Some of its...
From Arboleras - De las altas mares, Ecos Sefardies de la isle de Rodas, 2009 A humorous story of an adulterous wife whose lover sneezes while in hiding from her husband who has come back...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5433/4 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 208, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This wedding cantiga is sung as a blessing for the bride and groom,...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 This wedding cantiga is sung as a blessing for the bride and groom, portraying the groom’s gifts and the bride’s graceful qualities in return.
From Merendjenas, Orit Perlman, 2023 This wedding cantiga is sung as a blessing for the bride and groom, portraying the groom’s gifts, with an interesting emphasis on types of shoes, and the bride’s beauty and...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement:  YCD 2416/59 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 209, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This wedding cantiga is sung to bless the bride and groom and...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5830c/2 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 197, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. In this wedding song the groom declares that he does not want a...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc1661/18 Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Oriente, pg. 130, Editorial Alpuerto, 2010 Susana Weich-Shahak. This romance, La reina adúltera ("The Adulterous Queen"), recounts the story of a queen...
From Kanta Gayiko, Judeo-Spanish songs from Bulgaria, 2025 Orit Perlman : voice Yarden Erez : accomapanyment and arrangements This romance, La reina adúltera ("The Adulterous Queen"), recounts the story of a queen who believes she...
From Arboleras Vol. 2 - Romances Sefardies Tradicion Oral This romance, La reina adúltera ("The Adulterous Queen"), recounts the story of a queen who believes she is confiding in her lover, unaware that it is...
From Morenika Izmirlia - Judeo-Spanish songs from Smyrna, 2020 This is one of the few hexasyllabic romances whose lines do not have 16 syllables (as is more common, divided into two hemistiches of 8) but...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: NSA Yc1038/1 Referenced and notated in: Romansero Sefardi de Oriente pg. 129 Editorial Alpuerto S.A. 2010 Susana Weich-Shahak This romance, La reina adúltera ("The Adulterous Queen"), recounts the story of...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc1402/31 This is one of the songs sung at the end of the Passover meal. It is a cumulative song which is performed at length, thus complying with the rabbinical...
From Ventanas Altas de Saloniki, 2013. This tells the Purim story of Haman and Mordechai. This was the first printed copla first published around the year 1700 and reprinted until 1923. The verses are in...