Songs

Home /  

Songs

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.

Filters

Filters
Song
Academic title
Congregation
Genre
Life Cycle
Yearly Cycle
Lyric/love Songs
Informant / Performers
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y6446a A humorous pasodoble describing the dire circumstances of young women remaining single due to massive male emigration out of Tetuan to Argentina, Brazil and Palestine, code named as Bilboa....
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: YCD2980/27 A wedding song that reflects the the bitter sweet moment of separation, in which the bride says goodbye to her mother, asking permission to leave with the one she...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5627a/10 Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marruecos, pg. 70, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak. This ballad tells the story of Amnon, King David's son, the...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Marruecos, pg. 70, Editorial Alpuerto, Pardes Publishing House, 2018 Susana Weich-Shahak. A story of a young woman longing for her beloved who is...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y648/6 Referenced and notated in: En Buen Siman, Panorama del repertoorio Musical Sefardi, pg. 70, Pardes Publishing House, 2006 This Ladino cantiga comes from a Greek musical that was translated...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y4552/24 Referenced and notated in: Judeo-Spanish Moroccan Songs for the Life Cycle, pg. 72, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1989, Susana Weich-Shahak.
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5434/1 Referenced and notated in: Romancero Sefardi de Oriente, pg. 74, Editorial Alpuerto, 2010 Susana Weich-Shahak. Blancaflor and Filomena [The seducer of her sister-in-law] (6) (F 1) According to Ovideo,...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc1888/5 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 181, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. This love song, which tells of a diamond ring given to a beloved...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc 1038/10 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 236, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. One of the more common wedding songs with many variations. Turkish words...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: YCD2980/19 A humorous song with a melody taken from the popular dance tunes of the time.
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Yc2140/22 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 77, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak. A dance song performed at weddings in which the dance movements follow the...
Jerusalem National Sound Archives placement: Y5671a/6 Referenced and notated in: El ciclo de la vida, pg. 248, Editorial Alpuerto, 2013 Susana Weich-Shahak.