{"id":48040,"date":"2025-12-05T01:43:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T09:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=48040"},"modified":"2025-12-03T15:12:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T23:12:03","slug":"an-oral-song-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/12\/05\/an-oral-song-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"An oral song tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenandoah University Prof. Lori \u015een spoke about Sephardic music on Nov. 2, as part of Kolot Mayim Reform Temple\u2019s 2025\/26 lecture series. (PR photo)<\/em><\/p>\n

Kolot Mayim Reform Temple started its 2025\/26 Building\u00a0 <\/span>Bridges Zoom lecture series \u2013 six music-themed talks running through April \u2013 on Nov. 2, with Lori \u015een, a professor of vocal pedagogy at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.<\/p>\n

The title of \u015een\u2019s lecture was Classical Echoes in Ladino: Sephardic Songs Reimagined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis talk is especially meaningful to me, as it reflects a journey that began about eight or nine years ago with my doctoral dissertation in voice performance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat started as an academic project has since grown into a broader exploration and celebration of a rich and underrepresented genre within the Western classical tradition \u2013 Sephardic art song.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u015een spoke about the Sephardim, their history, language and culture, before discussing the elements of traditional Sephardic music. Later, she introduced Western classical arrangements of Sephardic folk songs for voice and various instruments, and spoke about the development of this genre, playing excerpts from a variety of songs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Within the expanse of what constitutes Sephardic culture, there is a language, most commonly called Ladino or Judeo-Spanish, a mix of 14th- and 15th-century Castilian, with contributions from Galego-Portuguese, Catalan, Valencian, Aragonese, Hebrew, Turkish, Arabic and others, such as Greek, French, Italian and Balkan languages.<\/p>\n

\u201cA certain linguistic creativity is inherent to Judeo-Spanish, which has even been used as a vehicle for expressing verbal revenge through humour in an oppressive society,\u201d \u015een said, citing examples of plays on words that can be found in Ladino.<\/p>\n

\u015een quoted from linguist Marie-Christine Varol, author of Manual of Judeo-Spanish<\/i>: \u201cIrony, distance, puns and endless plays on meanings and stylistic nuances bouncing back and forth make this language of quotations, double entendres, discrete jokes that seem undecipherable of implied and overly clear meanings into an original and eternally renewed linguistic system steeped in a devastating sense of humour that can only be achieved through a knowledge of several languages, a knowledge that gives it its strength, its richness and its freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u015een said the types of Sephardic song are defined based on musical parameters such as structure, melody and rhythm, as well as the text and the relationship between the music and text. Many songs were passed down orally, making their origins difficult to trace. Others are Ladino translations or adaptations of Turkish, French and Balkan songs, incorporating dance rhythms like tango and foxtrot, and sometimes referencing familiar operettas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince this repertoire represents such a wide range of cultural exchange, the musical analyses of them require vast musical knowledge,\u201d \u015een said. \u201cSephardic music possesses elements of Western classical music of all periods, starting from medieval, Spanish, Moroccan, Balkan and Greek musical traditions, and Turkish folk and classical forms, including makam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makam<\/i> is the Middle Eastern modal practice with more pitches than we\u2019re used to in our Western 12-tone notation system.<\/p>\n

According to \u015een, although instruments were employed on occasion, the Sephardic song repertoire is essentially vocal. When instruments were involved, they were mainly percussive, a tambourine, for instance, though mandolin and oud were also employed.<\/p>\n

Traditional Sephardic folk songs, since they were transmitted orally, incorporate a large amount of improvisation. Thus, the melodies of the same songs can differ significantly between communities and across generations.<\/p>\n

On her website, lorisen.com<\/a>, \u015een has a catalogue she compiled that includes lists of Sephardic works and composers, works categorized by instrumentation, and songs. Based on archival research and interviews she has conducted with Jewish musicians and music scholars, \u015een has identified more than 45 composers who have arranged more than 190 different traditional Sephardic folk songs in the art song form for voice and various instruments. Also on her website is a Ladino diction guide designed to assist singers interested in performing Sephardic songs.<\/p>\n

A mezzo-soprano and Fulbright alumna, \u015een\u2019s range spans opera, art song, musical theatre and jazz, and she has performed throughout Europe and the United States. Her teaching and research specialize in vocal literature, pedagogy and voice science. Further, through her background in physics, she explores the art and science of the singing voice.<\/p>\n

The next lecture in the Kolot Mayim series will feature Broadway historian and lecturer David Benkof on Jan. 11 at 11 a.m. Benkof will deliver his talk \u2013 Spotlight on Jewish Broadway with the Broadway Maven \u2013 in Victoria in person and on Zoom. For information, visit kolotmayimreformtemple.com<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Margolis<\/b> has written for the <\/i>Globe and Mail, the <\/i>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shenandoah University Prof. Lori \u015een spoke about Sephardic music on Nov. 2, as part of Kolot Mayim Reform Temple\u2019s 2025\/26 lecture series. (PR photo) Kolot Mayim Reform Temple started its 2025\/26 Building\u00a0 Bridges Zoom lecture series \u2013 six music-themed talks running through April \u2013 on Nov. 2, with Lori \u015een, a professor of vocal pedagogy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[4242,9270,24498,3036,24497,8370],"class_list":["post-48040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-history","tag-kolot-mayim","tag-lori-sen","tag-music","tag-sephardic-music","tag-speakers"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}