Sephardic Art Song: A Musical Legacy of the Sephardic Diaspora

Abstract

This dissertation explores the rich Sephardic Art Song repertoire. It comprises a geographical and historical overview of the Sephardim; an introduction of the Ladino (Judeo-Espagnol) language; a musical overview of traditional Sephardic songs; and the development of the genre from its emergence to the present, including a list of all the 20th- and 21st-century composers that have contributed to the Sephardic Art Song genre and a catalog of their works; a discussion on performance practice, including a diction guide for Ladino; and three recital performances of a selection of works from this repertoire. The recordings of these live performances are available for view. The Sephardim are a diasporic population of Jewish people, whose ancestry can be traced back to the Iberian Peninsula, specifically to the Jews that were expelled from Spain in 1492 as a result of the Spanish Inquisition. As they migrated all over the world, the Sephardim carried with them their culture, traditions, Judeo-Espagnol language, and oral literature. Traditional Sephardic songs constitute a large portion of this literature and have been preserved to this day through oral transmission from generation to generation. The 20th century witnessed an emergence of a Sephardic song repertoire in the form of classical art song, as Western classical composers, such as Alberto Hemsi, showed interest in collecting and transcribing these folksongs, and in arranging them in the Western classical tradition for voice and various instruments, in various degrees of complexity. As of today, there are over forty-five 20th- and 21st-century Western classical composers that have made significant contributions to the Sephardic Art Song genre with their arrangements of over a hundred and ninety Sephardic folksongs, as well as their original compositions. The composers discussed and the selection of 20th- and 21st-century works performed in this dissertation are the following: Yehezkel Braun, Seven Sephardic Romances; Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Three Sephardic Songs; José Antonio de Donostia, Canciones Sefardíes; Frederic Hand, Sephardic Songs; Alberto Hemsi, Coplas Sefardies; William Kenlon, Two Sephardic Songs; Manuel García Morante, 40 Canciones Sefardies; Joaquín Nin-Culmell, Six Chansons Populaires Séphardiques; Lorenzo Palomo, Cinco Canciones Sefardíes; Sid Robinovitch, Rodas Recordada; Joaquín Rodrigo, Cuatro Canciones Sefardíes; Wolf Simoni, Cuatro Cánticas Sefardíes; Manuel Valls, Canciones Sefarditas; Andrew Zohn, 8 Sephardic Songs.