Search - Isaac ibn Ghiyyat, Jewish Traditional, Sephardic Traditional :: The Sephardic Experience, Volume 2: Apples And Honey

The Sephardic Experience quadrilogy, is a priceless sound document in which The Renaissance Players present their own performance versions of well- and lesser-known romansas (ballads), kantigas (religious songs) and muwashshahat (poetical forms) which have survived for centuries entirely via oral/aural transmission by parents, grandparents, friends and acquaintances within the family circle, while working, or as a form of ad hoc entertainment in Sephardic communities of the West and East. Sadly, as the end of the 20th century draws near we are witnessing the alarming disappearance of Spanish-Jewish culture due to vast, worldwide changes in social circumstances. In fact, these songs are no longer a part of the rich, musical fabric of the everyday life of the Sephardim.This collection of Spanish-Jewish songs and Mediterranean dance tunes in this second volume, Apples and Honey, are named for the joyful celebrations of Rosh Ha-Shanah, the head of the year. The texts of the muwashshah and kantigas evoke images of the sea and the river (powerful forces for the Sephardim in their post-expulsion Mediterranean settlements) and water. These are, in their turn, connected with exile, the siren, the moon, and various marriage customs. Various procedures related to Arabic and Balkan music are followed here: improvised instrumental taksim-like preludes, interludes between stanzas, repetition of the solo singer's line by a chorus of voices and/or instruments, lively, celebratory ululation by chorus singers, a variety of chest- and head-voice timbres, constant ornamentation of melodic lines, measured and unmeasured metres, and simple and complex additive rhythms. Likewise, a wide variety of arrangement is demonstrated.The four volumes of The Sephardic Experience (Thorns of Fire, Apples and Honey, Gazelle and Flea and Eggplants) can be purchased individually or together in a beautiful hand-wrapped black linen box.