VWB - Verlag Für Wissenschaft Und Bildung The World of Music

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Reconstructing Sephardi Music in the 20th Century: Isaac Levy and his "Chants judeo-
espagnols"
Author(s): Edwin Seroussi
Source: The World of Music, Vol. 37, No. 1, Jewish Musical Culture – Past and Present
(1995), pp. 39-58
Published by: VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung
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39
Reconstructing Sephardi Music in the

20th Century: Isaac Levy and his
"Chants judeo-espagnols"
Edwin Seroussi
Abstract
The traditional music of the Sephardi Jews, the descendants of the Spanish Jews who
rsettled in the rims of the Mediterranean after their expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula
in 1492, had undergone in the 20th century a process of reconstruction, which includes re-
collection (i.e. recordings of the musical legacy of individual culture-bearers), re-transcrip-
tion (i.e. production of musical notations from these recordings by members of the re-
corded culture), re-presentation (i.e. staged performances by professional artists on behalf
of general audiences) of traditional music and re-location (performance outside its origi-
nal geographical and social context).
This reconstruction occurred at the initiative of individuals who manipulated tradi-
tional Sephardi music and were responsible for the ideologies behind the creation of its
new meanings. The focus of this study is Sephardi journalist, singer and music collector
Isaac Levy (1919-1977). Levy's activities included the documentation and publication of
Sephardi music in Israel, the commission of arrangements of this music by professional
composers which were then interpreted by himself or by other artists and the promotion of
these arrangements through the media. His work had an incommensurable effect on the
shaping of Sephardi music in the second half of the 20th century. This article is devoted to
his most influential collection: "Chants judeo-espagnols".
I. Theoretical Appreciations
Transformations of traditional musics (i.e. orally transmitted music until it

enters the process discussed here) are a vital component in the invention of
40 • the world of music 37(1) - 1995
"Jewish music" in the 20th century. One type of transformation, reconstruction,

includes the re-collection (i.e. recordings of the musical legacy of individual cul-
ture-bearers), re-transcription (i.e. production of musical notations from these
recordings by members of the recorded culture) and re-presentation (i.e. staged
performances by professional artists on behalf of general audiences) of tradi-
tional music. Re-location is another aspect of this process because traditional
music is now performed outside its original geographical and social context. Re-
construction occurs at the initiative of a reduced number of individuals who take
upon themselves the development of the technical procedures of manipulating
traditional music and are responsible for the ideologies behind the creation of its
new meanings. Reconstructed traditional music represents a new chapter in the
continuum of orally-transmitted music and is presented as a valuable cultural
asset due to its "historical authenticity".1
The traditional music of the Sephardi Jews, the descendants of the Spanish
Jews who resettled in the rims of the Mediterranean after their expulsion from
the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, had undergone such a process particularly after
World War II, as did, as a matter of fact, the musical culture of most Jews. Dur-
ing the 20th century most Sephardi Jews were relocated, their established com-
munal frameworks collapsed and traditional culture was revamped. The crucial
linguistic component of Sephardi culture, Judeo-Spanish or Ladino, suffered in
this century a rapid erosion. Music, on the contrary, understood as "recon-
structed songs in Ladino", became a significant component in the cultural iden-
tity of the present-day offsprings of Iberian Jews and, eventually, an inherent
component in the perception of "Sephardi culture" by outsiders. This process
was possible because memory plays a crucial role in modern Sephardi con-
sciousness and identity is anchored in the remembrance of a distant past known
to contemporary Sephardi Jews through 20th-century texts (cf. Bahloul 1993).
For this reason, the reconstruction of traditional Sephardi music included, be-
sides the technical changes that transforms it into a meaningful and palatable
music for modern audiences, its empowering with an historical dimension by
stressing, implicitly or explicitly, its mythical origins in a remote and. distant
past, usually in medieval Spain (cf. Katz 1972). Instead of interpreting the trans-
formations of traditional Sephardi music as a terminal stage in its existence, one
has to perceive it as a readjusting process to new social realities.
Studying the individuals who were actively involved in this reconstruction is
a step towards a new interpretation of contemporary Sephardi music. The focus
of this study is Sephardi journalist, singer and music collector Isaac Levy (1919-
1977). 2 Levy's activities included the documentation and publication of the
Sephardi musical legacy in Israel, the commission of arrangements of this music
by professional composers which were then interpreted by himself or by other
artists and, finally, the promotion of these arrangements through the media. His
work had an incommensurable effect on the shaping of Sephardi music in the
second half of the 20th century and therefore it deserves an encompassing study.
Seroussi. Reconstructing Sephardi Music • 41
This article is devoted to some aspects of his most influential notated collection:
"Chants judeo-espagnols" (CJE).3
2. Collecting to Survive: A Sephardi Perspective
The preservation of Sephardi traditional music in notation was not an inno-

vative idea by Levy. His work is rather the apotheosis of one hundred and fifty
years of efforts to preserve this tradition. The perception by Sephardi intellectu-
als that their music is in a process of decline, even in danger of disappearing, is
not a contemporary phenomenon. The Spanish-Portuguese communities in
Western Europe were the first to feel the urgency of documenting their musical
legacy for future generations. In 1857, cantor David Aharon de Sola from the
Spanish-Portuguese community in London acted on such a premise when he
published in collaboration with composer Emanuel Aguilar the first anthology
of Sephardi liturgical music (Seroussi 1992).
Modernization and Europeanization started in the major Sephardi commu-
nities of the Ottoman Empire after the 1860s when the first modern Jewish
schools of the Alliance Israélite Universelle network were founded there. The
gradual but steady dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire and the growing ex-
posure to Western European culture in the region accelerated the pace of
change. These trends were soon reflected in Sephardi music too. Modernization
became synonymous of the abandonment of traditional life regulated by the nor-
mative religious precepts. Europeanization meant change in patterns of expres-
sive culture, whether material or behavioral (the decline of Judeo-Spanish in
favor of European languages was one clear sign). These trends lead in some
cases to reforms in synagogal music (e.g. the introduction of musical instruments
and modern choirs; see Seroussi 1988), as well as to the massive influence of
modern Turkish, Greek, French, Spanish and Italian popular songs.
In the early 20th century modern Sephardi scholars from Turkey such as
Abraham Danon and Abraham Galante felt the urgency of documenting tradi-
tional songs before they reached their unavoidable sad fate. Writing to Abraham
Zvi Idelsohn in Jerusalem in 1918, Sephardi journalist Isaac Refael Molkho from
Saloniki states:
I inform you that during the [First World] War I tried to collect in my city, Saloniki,
a genre of folksongs known in the East as romances and together with a French of-
ficer expert in this task we took the musical notes of some of them. Now this French-
man is not in Saloniki and the notations are in his hands. When I have the possibility
of receiving from him two copies I will sent to you, Sir, one copy with all my heart. I
intend, with God's will, to immigrate in a few months to the Land of Israel and
[then] I will propose to you a comprehensive program to save our heritage of music
and songs from total and imminent annihilation, because this task is very dear to me
despite the fact that I am not a professional and have no inclination to music and
singing; however, I am very concerned by the legacy from the past which has no sav-
iours.4
Sephardi composer and folklorist Alberto Hemsi (1898-1975) expressed

himself like Molkho when he decided in 1920 to dedicate himself to the preser-
vation of Sephardi music (Hemsi 1995, introduction). Similar statements to
those of Molkho and Hemsi can be found in the 1950s in the writings of
Sephardi musicians and scholars such as Léon Algazi (n.d.) and Ovadia Camhy
who worked on behalf of the World Sephardi Federation (Seroussi 1993).
Publishing collections of traditional music became a focus of cultural activ-
ism for Sephardi Jews. It is rare to find a culture so obsessed with its own "de-
clining" traditions. This "auto-documentation" was intensified in the context of
Israeli society, where music traditions of Jewish communities were documented
in publications sponsored by the state, academic institutions and ethnic organi-
zations. The work of Isaac Levy should be interpreted then on the background
of the long-standing propensity of the Sephardi Jews to document their tradi-
tional music and the ideological and social context of the emerging State of Is-
rael where he acted.
3. Ideological Background of Isaac Levy's Work
Isaac Levy was born in 1919 Manissa (a town next to Izmir), Turkey. In
1922 he immigrated to Israel with his parents. He studied voice at the Academy
of Music in Jerusalem and performed as a singer throughout the country. At the
same time he composed songs on biblical and other sacred texts as well as chil-
dren's songs, some of which became part of the Israeli "canon" of this genre. A
turning point in his career was his appointment as head of the Judeo-Spanish
program of Kol Israel in Jerusalem, in August 1954. From this post, Levy had a
primary mean of direct communication with the Judeo-Spanish speaking public
in Israel. He recruited his audience for the advancement of his collection and
indeed some listeners eventually became informants.5
Levy rarely expressed his ideas in writing. The introduction to volume I of
CJE written by Ovadia Camhy, the secretary of the World Sephardi Federation
(the publisher of this volume), contains direct quotations from Levy concerning
the methods and aims of his work: "I went from one old lady to another, from an
old man to another, to collect from their mouth the precious melodies which I
sent to you ..." ( CJE I:VI).6 The pathos of his words, those of a crusader with the
"sacred duty" (cf. Levy 1965) of saving a vanishing tradition, parallels similar
statements by previous Sephardi collectors.
Levy envisioned a process in which Israeli culture will transform itself from
an European into a "Mediterranean" one. He vaguely interpreted this adjective
as the juncture of the "ancient Eastern civilization of Israel and early Christian-
ity" with contemporary Western culture. The Sephardi Jews were, according to
Levy, the natural carriers of this legacy because they "always dwelled around the
rims of the Mediterranean and were never separated from the air and the atmos-
phere of this marvelous sea, cradle of the so-called 'Western' culture and civili-
zation" ( CJE I:VI). Therefore the future of Israel should be linked to this cul-
tural synthesis: "The melos in the new Israel has changed ... and I am convinced
that in time due our national music will be entirely Mediterranean. As the
Sephardi pronunciation of Hebrew was adopted [in Israel], so will the Judeo-
Spanish melodies serve as the basis for its music" ( CJE LVI).
The concept of an Israeli "national music" should be understood in the his-
torical context of the 1950s. This was a period when the highly centralized so-
cialist government in hands of European Jews dominated the cultural institu-
tions of the new country in accordance with secular Zionist ideology. During the
same decade, masses of Jews from Islamic countries arrived in Israel. The gov-
ernmental policy of absorption set the basis for an ongoing process of political,
social and cultural confrontation between the leadership of the state and the
new immigrants (see Smooha 1978). At this juncture, Levy was ambivalent. As a
musician trained in the Western tradition and a radio employee, he was part of
the establishment. At the same time he became, from within the official system,
an advocate of his own "Mediterranean" culture.
In a short autobiographic article Levy further expounded his ideology, amid
some details about his fieldwork (Levy 1965). He repeats his credo that the
songs in CJE will contribute to "the creation of a new Hebrew music in the
homeland" (Levy 1965:129). Thus, the impact of CJE on the art music scene was
part of Levy's purposes. As an example he mentions that Karel Salmon (Karl
Salomon, 1897-1974), then a major figure in the musical establishment of Israel,
composed a " Suite sfaradit" based on five melodies from CJE which was dedi-
cated to Pablo Casals. On the initiative of Salomon, a volume of CJE was sent to
Pablo Casals together with the score of the suite. Casals, then in political asylum
in Puerto Rico, wrote to Levy a letter dated on October 28, 1961, which in-
cluded the following remark: "In some of the songs [of CJE ] I was surprised to
find similarities with melodies from the Catalonian folklore which are certainly
of Jewish origin."
Few years later, Levy included a photocopy of the letter by Casals in the sec-
ond volume of CJE (1969). In the footsteps of his predecessors in the collection
of Sephardi music, Levy too was endorsed by a renowned Spanish musician who
attested the links between the Sephardi and Peninsular folklore.7
The partnership between Levy and the World Sephardi Federation ceased
after the publication of volume I of CJE. Volume II, published by the author, re-
produces the introduction by Camhy with some significant amendments. All ref-
erences to the Federation are omitted; volume II is presented as the second one
of the series as opposed to volume I which appeared as the third one in the series
of music publications of the Federation; finally, all references to liturgical music
found in Camhy's original disappeared.8 Levy also added a significant new para-
graph: "In publishing this series of volumes on the Sephardi song, we ensure not
only the preservation of this song which runs the risk of being lost, but we bring
to the Jewish music under gestation in the State of Israel the contribution of the
Sephardi traditional song" ( CJE II, introduction).
4. The Reception of CJE
CJE became a chief source for the renaissance of the Judeo-Spanish folksong
as a genre of popular music in Israel, Spain and the United States since the early
1960s as noted by Katz (1980). 9 Its content established the standard repertoire,
while the transcriptions fixed the musical and literary "text" of the popularized
Ladino songs. In Israel, for example, the long play by Yeoram Gaon,
"Romancero sefardí ' of ca. 1971 became the first discographie success based on
Levy's repertoire, followed by the musical "Bustan sefardí', based on a play by
Isaac Navon. Later on, other popular Israeli singers and ensembles (Esther
Ofarim, Rivka Raz, Ricky Gal and Ha-parvarim) issued their own versions of
Levy's materials. Some of these arrangements, prepared by leading Israeli ar-
rangers as Shim'on Cohen, Dubi Seltzer and Arie Levanon in lavish orchestral
styles, used Hebrew translations of the Judeo-Spanish texts and became "stand-
ards" of the Israeli repertory. It is noteworthy that most arrangements used
songs from volume I of CJE of 1959. From the 1980s on, the number of Judeo-
Spanish song performers proliferated worldwide, reaching its peak in 1992
when the 500 years of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain were commemo-
rated. While the sources for arrangements expanded considerably (to include
archival field recordings too), Levy's CJE remained a major repository, direcdy
or indirectly (in recent years some performers based their recordings on earlier
commercialized versions originating on Levy).10
In contrast to the significant impact of Levy's collection on the reconstruc-
tion process of the Judeo-Spanish folksong, academics remained consistently
skeptic about the value of his work, to say the least. Critics blamed Levy for a
"total lack of editorial criteria" and complained that the collection included
"much non-traditional lyric [songs]" (Armistead & Silverman 1960, 1971). Mu-
sicologists contested the credibility of Levy's musical transcriptions, especially
since Levy's original recordings and the names of the informants never became
available for public judgment (Katz 1972-75, 1:115). Katz, in a pioneering analy-
sis of commercial recordings of traditional Sephardi songs, was most categorical
when he concluded that Levy's work caused "a contamination of the tradition"
(Katz 1980:19s).11
Since ethnomusicologists are not inspectors of musical cultures but their
critical interpreters, a different scholarly approach to Levy's work should be ex-
plored in light of its undeniable impact on the reconstruction of Sephardi music.

First, the lack of information about the informants (in all volumes) or the geo-
graphical provenance of the songs (in volume I) seems deliberate. The repertory
is presented by Levy as "the people's tradition", a transnational mass of songs
whose anonymous transmitters are oracles for all past generations of Sephardi
Jews. Second, the "lack" of criteria in the selection of the songs, should be wel-
comed as one of Levy's most interesting contributions. The reproach of the crit-
ics on this issue reveals their biases rather than Levy's fault. Since the late 19th
century, scholars studying the Judeo-Spanish song stressed the survival of the
medieval romance as the most spectacular and research-deserving fact in the
Sephardi legacy, for it linked the descendants of the Spanish Jews to the His-
panic commonwealth in a most distinctive manner. Songs belonging to genres of
more recent accretion were perceived by scholars, even if undeliberately, as less
prestigious. A critical approach to the Sephardi coplas and modern lyric songs
started to mature only in the last two decades (see Romero 1992b; Pedrosa
1993). CJE provides therefore a panoramic overview of the extremely eclectic
character of the Judeo-Spanish repertory in the 20th century in the former Otto-
man territories. This repertory took its present shape starting with the last dec-
ades of last century and was well established by the 1930s, as the collection by
Alberto Hemsi testifies (cf. Hemsi 1995). 12
A non-biased approach needs to be applied to the musical transcriptions by
Levy too. All extant notations of Sephardi oral traditions are the result of a pre-
meditated initiative framed within clear ideological backgrounds and bound to a
complex set of variables (Seroussi 1988). If these variables can be defined, one
can extrapolate from the notations valuable data for research. Researching the
criteria and techniques of transcription used by Levy clarifies much of his "inac-
curacies".
According to Isaac Navon, former President of Israel and Levy's friend and
supporter and Levy's brother Hayyim Levy, Isaac Levy worked out each melody
on his piano, note by note, and then revised the entire sketch (Interviews with
the author, July 1993 and January 1994). Individuals with academic musical
training assisted Levy in the process of transcribing too. Levy's final goal was a
synthetic version of each song which could be easily arranged and harmonized,
not a scientific transcription of a particular recording: the use of the piano deter-
mined a priori the elimination of non-tempered pitches; melodies without a clear
pulse were rendered within fixed meters; metronome signatures were not pro-
vided (only volume I has tempo indications in Italian); and melismas were sim-
plified, if not eliminated. Thus, the principal stylistic features of the traditional
Sephardi repertory disappeared, as righdy observed by Katz (1980). The users of
CJE who did not have access to the original style of the Sephardi singers were
then exposed to a newly conceived outcome. The final product printed by Levy
conformed with his view of a "Mediterranean" music. This abstract ideal appar-
ently included modal frameworks, stepwise embellished melodies in narrow
ranges and sometimes compound meters reminiscent of Turkish, Arabic and

Greek folk and popular music. However, songs of obvious modern European
extraction (based on major/minor scales, triadic melodic motifs, tonal se-
quences, simple meters and rhythms) are included in CJE too and significandy
were not perceived by Levy as inconsequent with the "Mediterranean" ideal.
5. Some Observations on the Contents of CJE
Levy claimed in the introduction to volume I of CJE that the geographical

provenance of all songs is the Eastern Mediterranean. Although this claim is ba-
sically true, one should notice that romances from Tangier and Tetuán (North
Morocco) can be found, even in volume I where the geographical provenance of
the songs is omitted (e.g. 1:13, 15, 16, 18). The percentages of songs from each
Sephardi subtradition are somehow surprising. Traditions such as Sofia,
Filipópoli and Sarajevo are abundandy represented while the extremely fertile
repertory from Saloniki appears in substantial numbers only in volume IV and
the rich one from the Island of Rhodes is absent. Apparendy Levy took the city
of birth of the informant as the criterion for the geographical attribution of the
songs. This is a shaky criterion due to the high degree of territorial mobility
among Sephardi Jews of the Eastern Mediterranean in the 20th century. Also
the ascription of many songs to "Turquía" is as inaccurate as the total lack of
information. Songs from "Egipto" (in volume IV) were certainly collected from
informants from Alexandria, a community consisting entirely of Sephardi immi-
grants from other centers of the Ottoman Empire.
Each volume of CJE is roughly arranged by genres and social functions. In-
fluenced by his predecessors, Levy opens the four volumes with the prestigious
romances (1:1-16, 18-20; 11:1-33; 111:1-12; IV:1-11), continues with lyric songs
and, in two cases, ends with a string of songs for the life cycle events, the wed-
ding in particular (11:107-16; 111:93-111). The relatively low number of ro-
mances in the four volumes is a further testimony of the decline of this genre
among modern Sephardi Jews.
The Sephardi repertory in Levy's work includes more texts than melodies
because the predominant process of folk composition among the Sephardi Jews
was the adaptation of new lyrics to melodies of extant popular songs. Levy pro-
vides many texts without the melody and directs the reader to the music of other
versions or songs. Also, variants of one melody are spread in the four volumes
with the same or different text. Levy does not point out these melodic relations.
An excellent example of this process of composition is a widespread melody of
the modern Sephardi repertory which appears in six variants from three differ-
ent cities, each set to a different text (see Example 1).
Ex. 1. A tree of musical variants. 1:32, "Una matica de ruda" ( version of the romance "La
guirnalda de rosas", unspecified location); 111:47, "Mama no tenia visto" (Jerusalem); 11:59,
"El papás me engañó" ( Jerusalem ); 11:64, "Oh, que hermoza muchachica" (Izmir); IV:23,
"Yo quería ser palomba" (Saloniki); 11:21, "Ir me quero la mi madre" (Jerusalem)
6. Musical Sources of the Sephardi Song as Reflected in CJE
The process of adaptation illustrated in Example 1 demonstrates that the

music of the Sephardi song should be treated separately from the texts because
the "same" melody appears with different literary genres and structures. This is
an important aspect of the eclectic nature of the Sephardi repertory mentioned
above. The following observations are therefore a hint of the potential of CJE for
research on the sources and composition of music in the Sephardi song. The
music of the songs in CJE can be classified, according to its source, into three
groups:
(1) traditional melodies of unknown origins;

(2) composed by Sephardi musicians; and
(3) adopted from the modern Turkish, Arabic, Greek, Bosnian, Western Euro-
pean and Israeli popular repertories.
(1) Traditional Melodies
Aspects of the traditional Sephardi performance practices and repertories

are preserved in Levy's work. One case is the linking of several songs into a sin-
gle string, particularly in weddings. For example the wedding song " Caminando
por la plaza + Los ducados del novio"" (111:95) consists of two songs found sepa-
rately in other volumes (1:51, with a different melody, and 11:107 respectively).
An exquisite relic is a version of the cumulative wedding song "La borracha"
(IV: 13) which preserves a refrain that appears as a melody indication for an He-
brew religious song by Rabbi Israel Najara in an early- 17th-century manuscript
(Seroussi 1990b). Levy also recorded jewels from the coplas repertory. "La ar-
mada turca era comandada por el ministro Enver Pashã" (IV:43) is a song from
World War I based on the melody of an apparently military march, a favorite
repository for the modern Sephardi repertory of melodies. Another copla ,
"Barukh dayán emeť (IV:44) from Bulgaria, praises the Ottoman Empire in the
format of the traditional coplas of Purim (nine verses per stanza) with a remote
variant of the traditional Sephardi melody used for this religious festivity.
(2) Compositions by Sephardi Musicians
Songs by semi-professional Sephardi musicians from the turn of the century

became another important source for the contemporary repertory of Judeo-
Spanish songs notated by Levy. These performers toured the Eastern Mediterra-
nean communities usually appearing in private parties and coffee houses then in
vogue among the Sephardi Jews.14 Famous among these bards was Hayyim
Yapaci (born Bakhar) Effendi (Adrianolopis, ca. 1860 - Cairo, ca. 1940) who
issued many commercial records of popular songs since at least 1911 (see the list
in Bunis 1981:120-2). One of these songs "El barón despreciado" (11:68-9;
rV:68), perhaps adopted to an extant French melody by Hayyim Effendi, be-
came very popular as the testimonies recorded by Levy certify.15 "Mis amigos me
dan esperanza" (1:44) was also recorded by Hayyim Effendi. "La reina de la
gracia" (111:29) with lyrics by the poet Nessim de Yehuda Pardo and music at-
tributed to the violinist and composer Hayyim Alazraki, both natives from Izmir,
was traditionalized in that city. It became famous in a recording of Isaac Algazi
(1889-1950), another famous Sephardi singer, and remained in oral tradition
until the 1970s (Seroussi 1989, no. 30). Another renowned singer was Isaac
"Çakum" Pa§arel. A detail about him transmitted by oral tradition is that the
popular song "Alta luna al esclarecer" (1:22; IIL36-7; IV:81) was composed or at
least made notorious in public by him.16
(3) Adopted Melodies
Popular Greek songs are an extremely rich resource for the modern
Sephardi cancionero reflected in CJE. A typical case is "La pastora amada" (1:28:
"Una pastora yo amť), which was identified by Nar (1993) as the poem "The
Kiss" by the Greek poet Georgios Zalokostas (1805-1858) set to music by G.
Lambiris. This popular song became an inspiration for the operetta "The Lover
of the Shepherdess" by Dimitri Koromilas premiered in Athens in 1893 and sub-
sequendy performed in Izmir (1895), Constantinople and Saloniki (1898) where
it became known to the Sephardi Jews. Nar assumes that this song was
traditionalized only in Izmir where the Greek play was assiduously performed
by Jewish troupes in Judeo-Spanish.17 The popular Greek melody of the song
La cantiga del Hanum Dudu ' (11:48-9; IV:27, 61-2: "Ventanas altas") is another
example of related musical variants (Example 2). The melody is typical of the
Jews from Saloniki and was probably transferred to Jerusalem by Salonician im-
migrants during the 19th century. There a new text was composed of which
Levy recorded three versions scattered in two volumes of CJE (11:48-9; IV:27).
These Jerusalem versions are a compound text which contains remnants of the
original song from Saloniki combined with another text, "Ni blanca ni morena" .
Other Greek melodies in CJE are "La rosa de mayo" (1:59: "La rosa enflorece "),
"La comida de la mañana" (1:77; the originai 7/8 meter is transformed by Levy
into 2/8), "La escuela de la Alianza" (111:85: "En la excola de la Alianza") which
was also adopted in Saloniki to liturgical texts (cf. Idelsohn 1923, no. 57; Lopes
Cardozo 1987:62 [with the copla "Noche de A Ih ad"]; Levy, ALJE 1:274 and
V:270) and "Maruta, Maruta pagasoma mometa" (IV:14).18
Ex. 2. Musical variants of "La cantiga del Hanum Dudů"
The Jerusalemite Sephardi tradition on which Levy heavily relied includes

many Arabic melodies. "La mujer de Moxe Varsano" (11:50) and "El prestigio del
turco" (1:54; 11:51) are Judeo-Spanish adaptations of a Palestinian folk song
known by Jews from Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century, as already
noted by Bayer (1980:57). 19 The Judeo-Spanish texts, referring to an individual
(Moxe Varsano) or to the vicissitudes of a Turkish Jew in Marseilles, are of cer-
tain late composition. "La maldición de ser asker" (111:38: "Para que me parió mi
mama"), a cantiga de askerlik (a song about the recruitment of Jews to the Turk-
ish Army after the Young Turks' revolution), is based on a melody apparendy
brought to Jerusalem by Jewish immigrants from Bukhara at the turn of the 19th
century. This melody was also sung in Jerusalemite synagogues (ALJE 1:78 and
V:410).
French (throughout the Ottoman Empire) and Italian (in Rhodes and the
Adriatic coast) influences on the Sephardi cancionero became noticeable in the
second half of the 19th century. Following the expansionist policies of the West
European powers in the Middle East, philanthropic Jewish organizations based
in Europe set up "modern" schools to prepare the Eastern Jews to cope with
modernization. The teaching and performance of European music in choirs and
brass bands were part of the curriculum in these schools. European popular
music also became fashionable through touring vaudeville troupes and commer-
cial records which were available after ca. 1910.20 Dancing halls with live Euro-
pean music became customary entertainment for Sephardi Jews in large cities.
In these halls they became exposed to the most recent dancing fashions such as
the tango, the fox-trot and the "charleston" (e.g "El charleston ", 11:53). The
waltz, another favorite dance, is well represented in CJE.21 Perhaps the ultimate
"Sepharadization" of an European melody is "La nacida sin corazón" an adapta-
tion of the aria "Addio del pasato" from the last act of Verdi's "La traviata" (1:83;
11:90: "Adio querida").22 Satirical and sentimental songs in Ladino published in
chapbooks in the 1920s were adopted to popular Greek, Turkish, French and
Spanish popular melodies, as their printed titles clearly indicate. Some of these
ephemeral songs subsisted in oral tradition as CJE testimonies. "La huérfana en
la prisión" (1:61; 111:134; IV:21-2: "Yon la prizión, tú en las flores"), is an oral
version of the song "Estáte callado! Respuesta al cante del prisionero, se canta al
son de Sabahtan kalktim" ("Shut up! Response to the song of the Prisioner,
chanted to the melody of [the Turkish song] 'I Woke Up in the Morning'")
which, signed by "Gilda", is included in the chapbook of satirical songs "Los
cantes de la Gata" (Saloniki 1927).23
Modern Spanish and Latin-American songs reveal the renewed contacts of
the Sephardim with the Peninsula via Spanish troupes that toured the Balkans
and Turkey and commercial recordings.24 At least one Spanish romance from the
18th century was transmitted to the Eastern Sephardi communities: "El hermano
infame" of which Levy transcribed no less than four variants from Turkey, Bul-
garia and Bosnia (11:97-100). Several Judeo-Spanish discographie "hits" based
on versions published by Levy have modern Spanish origins (late 19th - early
20th century). "El amor engañado" (1:34-5 and 80: "Yo menamori d'un aire") has
modern Andalusian origins as noticed by Pedrosa (1991:131-2). Another mod-
ern import from Spain is "La serena" of which Levy published no less than eight
versions (1:33; 11:71, 72; 111:48; IV:32-4, 74; see Pedrosa 1991:89ff.). The popu-
lar Spanish repertory of the last century is not the only Peninsular repository for
Sephardi songs. The Spanish musical theatre is represented in songs as "La
bohemiana" (111:59) which shows evident ties to the zarzuela repertory. The
traditionalization of tangos from the River Plate area in the Sephardi repertory
has already been pointed out (Seroussi 1990a). The tangos in CJE reinforce our
knowledge about this phenomenon. Rich in particular is the repertory of tangos
from the Westernized cities of Sarajevo and Sofia (11:91; 111:63; IV:85). Other
songs of Latin-American background, such as "Ay Halisca [sic] tierra mia"
(11:62), appear in Levy's anthology too.
The Zionist experience was an integral part of Sephardi culture ever since
the spread of this movement to the Eastern Mediterranean, especially after
World War I. The identification of the Sephardi intelligentsia with the Jewish
national movement was part of the process of modernization, particularly in
major cities such as Saloniki and Istanbul. Youth clubs were the stage for the
singing of Hebrew songs imported by envoys from Palestine. Local composers
wrote additional songs in Judeo-Spanish for festive occasions and for theatre
plays of nationalistic content and some survived in oral tradition. "La bandera de
Sión" (1:17: "Sion, tú mi ojo prieto") was composed in honor of the first Zionist
Congress in Basle 1897; "La esperanza palestina" was very well known in Saloniki
(111:112; rV:53-5: "Palestina hermosa y santa") and Sofia (IV:56). An interesting
example of this genre is the complex song or hymn of Maccabi Saloniki, a Zion-
ist sports organization, "Despues de miles de años" (IV:52).25 Finally, the massive
settlement of Sephardi Jews in Palestine after the 1940s exposed them to new
Israeli songs. Levy recorded one case, "Madres amargadas" (IV:45), which is a
Judeo-Spanish version of a song from the War of Independence, "Be'arvot ha-
Negev" ("On the Negev Steppes", lyrics by Refael Klatzkin set to a Russian folk
melody).26
To crown this overview of the boundless sources of the eclectic Sephardi
musical repertory we can mention a curious item from CJE : a melody which, ac-
cording to Levy, was employed by composer Abraham Goldfadn (1840-1908)
for the song "Yidden bnei rachmonim" from his operetta "Die Zauberin" ("The
Sorcerer", partially published for the first time in New York, 1900). The melody
is, surprisingly enough, adopted to two old Hispanic romances'. "Casada con un
viejo" (1:67) and a very fragmentary version of "Delgadina" from Sofia (IV:7).
Needless to say, Levy's hypothesis is implausible. Yiddish operettas (by
Goldfadn included) were staged in Sephardi communities (Romero 1983: index,
passim) and therefore the likelihood is that this melody was adopted by Sephardi
singers in the 20th century. Yet, the remnants of medieval Hispanic romances
with a melody by an Eastern European Jewish composer symbolizes the dispa-

rate routes which the singers of the Judeo-Spanish songs assumed.
7. Conclusion
In the introduction to their classic study "The Invention of Tradi

Hobsbawn and Ranger concisely summarize the premise of the presen
"The history which became part of the fund of knowledge or the ide
nation, state or movement is not what has actually been preserved in
memory, but what has been selected, written, pictured, popularized and
tionalized by those whose function is to do so" (Hobsbawn & Ranger 1
Levy's "Chants judeo-espagnols" , alongside other publications of the same
tory, set up a process of reconstructing the Judeo-Spanish musical tr
which was declining under major social and cultural transformations.
reation substituted oral tradition, improvisation and memory with th
century proxies: mass distribution of mediated music through printed an
tronic media.
Levy's heritage was not circumscribed to his publications. His strongh
the state-controlled Israeli radio for more than two decades gave him a to
set the standards of the Judeo-Spanish repertory in Israel.27 From the et
point of view some aspects of his work remain questionable. Few of his in
ants felt "exploited" and were sometimes reluctant to collaborate with ot
searchers because the credit for their contribution to Levy's work was de
them.
Many artists performing Judeo-Spanish songs nowadays rely consciously or
unconsciously, on Levy. Moreover, a most interesting by-product of his work is
the recycling of traditional music. During fieldwork among Sephardi Jews today
one encounters many oral versions stemming from recordings based on Levy's
work. Thus a full circle is completed: recording oral tradition/transcribing/ar-
ranging/performing on stage or commercial record/relearning from recon-
structed version/oral retransmission to the (sometimes uninformed) ethnomusi-
cologist. One can also notice an "electronic" chain of transmission because sing-
ers imitate models from released recordings, many of which are based on Levy.
The same occurs with Sephardi printed sources (Levy's included), were the copy
of materials is widespread. Copyrights laws aside, this process has generated a
diversified international market for the Judeo-Spanish song which, in the world
of global music, developed well beyond the limited sphere of the Sephardi com-
munity.
A recent ethnographic vignette succinctly exemplifies the process described
here. The closing event of the emotionally-loaded First International Encounter
of Judeo-Spanish-speaking Jews held in Tel-Aviv in April 1994 included a con-
Fig. 1. Issac Levy (left) and Yaakov Nitzani at the Kol Israel studio during the early days of
the Judeo-Spanish programs (ca. 1957). Courtesy of Moshe Shaul, Jerusalem, private
collection
cert of unarranged Judeo-Spanish songs sung by four representatives of differ-

ent Sephardi communities. The songs in the program did not belong to the
"canon" established after Levy (the influence of a scholar behind the scene, my-
self!) and the public listened politely. However, towards the end of the concert
the singers "plugged" some of the reconstructed Judeo-Spanish "classics" pro-
duced after Levy; only then did the entire audience (which included delegates
from four continents) erupt in a massive and emotive choral finale. At least, the
catharsis of the congress was achieved through musical performance and Isaac
Levy scored another triumph over the old oral tradition.
This critical interpretation of Isaac Levy's work suggests a new approach to
"Jewish music" in the 20th century. A more elaborated research model is
needed to cope with the role of printed music and the electronic media in the
definition of "traditions". The role of individuals (including scholars and their
works too) and social institutions moulding and promoting these reconstructed
"traditions" should be given more careful consideration. This approach may
serve as a paradigm for future appreciations of the fate of other "Jewish musics"
in this century.
[Final version received: 6 October 1994]
Notes
1 The concept of reconstruction occurred to me from the reading of the article "The Music of t
Sephardi Jews" by Sephardi composer and folklorist Alberto Hemsi (included in Hemsi 1995). I glad
adopted it, although not in the exact same sense as Hemsi, because it appeared as a "native" conce
too. For previous studies of transformations in traditional Sephardi music and poetry see Katz 198
Cohen 1987 and 1989; Salama 1993; Seroussi 1988, 1990a and 1993. "Reconstruction" appears as
theoretical concept in the study of other 20th-century music cultures. See, for example, Stokes 199
chapter 3 in relation to contemporary Turkish music.
2 For previous overviews of Levy's work see Katz 1972-75 (Vol. 1:1 14-20) and Katz 1980. For a study
contrafacta based on the collections by Levy, see Bahat 1986.
3 Four volumes (see References). In the quotations in this study the volumes are marked with Roman n
merals and songs with Arabian ones. His other major work, "Antología de la litúrgia judeo-española" (10
vols., 1964-1980, Jerusalem: The Author; vol. X is posthumous; hereby ALJE), which had a very differ
ent fate than CJE, will be the subject of a separate study.
4 Letter from Isaac Refael Molkho to Idelsohn of 14 Tevet 5679 [=1918] found at the A. Z. Idelsohn es
tate, Jewish National and University Library, Music Department, Mus. 7 (436). The French officer is th
musicologist Eugene Borrel who published in 1924 five Sephardi songs collected in Saloniki and Izm
See Katz 1972-75, 1:60-8, especially p. 64, notes 3-5.
5 See Anon. 1982. 1 am grateful to Mr. Moshe Shaul, former director of the Judeo-Spanish program at
Israel and a collaborator of Isaac Levy for providing me with this and other information for this artic
6 A few years later Levy told how a first draft of volume I of CJE , apparendy prepared by 1956, was lost
a Jerusalem bus and almost disheartened him from pursuing his "sacred" work. The work was resumed
after 1957 at the initiative of Yaacov Nitzani, a Sephardi member of the Knesset (Israeli Parlament), an
a long time supporter of Levy in the early stages of his career (see Levy 1965).
7 The original letter reproduced by Levy in volume II of CJE of 1969 is slightly shorter than his Hebr
translation printed earlier (1965:129). A paragraph in praise of Salmon's Suite was deleted. Apparent
Levy "edited" the manuscript letter of Casals for publication!
8 It is unknown if Camhy agreed to have his introduction reproduced with such changes.
9 Levy's work was not the first source for arrangements of Judeo-Spanish traditional songs in Israe
abroad. He was preceded in Palestine by Bracha Zefíra in the 1930s (see Zefira 1978). Perhaps othe
contemporary singers of Zefira made public appearances upon their immigration to Palestine. I was abl
to locate the recording of two Judeo-Spanish folk songs from circa 1936 by a singer named Rica B
Dagan at the still unpublished Robert Lachmann collection located at the National Sound Archives
Jerusalem. Mrs. Bar Dagan, a native from Serbia (probably Sarajevo) was recorded by Lachmann in
"arranged" performance in Jerusalem accompanied by the legendary Iraqi-Jewish 'ud player Ezr
Aharon who immigrated to Palestine few years before. Singers as Gloria Levy, Refael Elnadav and R
Eliran issued commercial records in the United States before the impact of Levy's work was felt.
10 For an exhaustive discography of Sephardi commercial recordings see Cohen 1993.
1 1 The unavailability of Levy's recordings led, to a certain measure, to renewed ethnographic efforts in th
field of the Judeo-Spanish folksong in Israel. Noteworthy are the recordings by Susana Weich-Shahak
the National Sound Archives (Jewish National and University Library) and the collection of the Ladino
program at Kol Israel, directed by Moshe Shaul. Both efforts started in the mid-1970s and include item
by some of Levy's informants. The name of one of Levy's informants and the circumstances of his dis
covery were disclosed (Levy 1965). His name is Shelomo (Salomon) Altarac, native of Sarajevo, a sho
maker from the Bak'a neighbourhood where Levy dwelled. Levy recorded from him songs included
volume I of CJE.
12 Full credit to an early, balanced appraisal of the Judeo-Spanish repertory deserves Moshe Attias. In
"Cancionero judeo-español" (1972) Attias treated in detail the modern strata of Sephardi songs.
13 The titles of Sephardi songs used in this study are adopted from three major sources. Romances are tide
after the "Catálogo-Indice" by Samuel Armistead et al. (1978); coplas after "Bibliografía analítica
ediciones de coplas sefardíes" by Elena Romero (1992a); and lyric songs after the unpublished catalog
designed by Jose M. Pedrosa under the guidance of Iacob M. Hassan for the Proyekto Folklor of th
Ladino program of Kol Israel and applied in Hemsi (1995). When songs do not appear in one of the
catalogues the opening verse is used as title. I wish to thank here Mr. Avner Peretz who provided me a
computerized file containing all the data relative to Levy's CJE.
14 Coffee houses are mentioned in Sephardi songs included in CJE ; see, "El pretendiente despreciado"
(111:24-5: "En el cafe de Amaneser"-, this is apparently a deformation of "En el café de Menashé" , cf. the
Kol Israel recording FL AD 331/01) and "Los mancebos de Buenos Aires" ("Buenos Aires se hinchó de
mancebos"). A cafe named "Buenos Aires" existed in Izmir. It was owned by Jews and offered live musi-
cal performances; see, the announcement in the Judeo-Spanish periodical El Nuvelista 19, no. 36 (June
3, 1908), p. 236.
15 Indeed Eugene Borrel (1924) who heard this song before 1918 notes that its melody recalls the "Ronde
de Nicette" from the third act of "Pre aux clercs", an opera by Ferdinand Herold (see the piano edition,
Paris: Troupenas, 1849, pp. 154ff.). In relation to this and other songs of the Sephardi Jews of Saloniki
ca. 1916-1918 he adds the following remark: "Y a-t-il eu imitation, le théâtre occidental regnant sans
conteste en Orient depuis fort long temps? La mélodie ancienne, venue d'Espagne, a-t-elle été replacée par
une nouvelle, ou a-t-elle été profondement transformée au contact d'airs occidentaux ...?"
16 This singer is probably the same as "Çakum" Effendi who recorded at least one commercial record of
Sephardi liturgical music (Bunis 1981, no. 1094).
17 On March 12, 1903, students of the Alliance Israelite Universelle performed the Judeo-Spanish version
of the Greek play on behalf of the local Jewish hospital under the title "La chobana" ("The Shepherd-
ess"). On March 10, 1906 it was staged once again under the title "La amante de la pastora: Drama muy
esmovido en 5 actos"-, another performance is recorded for the year 1914 (Romero 1983, index). Hemsi
collected it as a traditional song from Izmir as early as 1933 (Hemsi 1995, no. 82) and Diaz Plaja re-
corded it in the same city slightly later (Diaz Plaja 1934).
18 One could add at this point the particular case of the Bosnian Sephardi Jews, whose repertory shows
adoptions from the local Muslim genres, particularly sevdalinka. See Petrovic 1990.
19 This melody was adopted to the Hebrew song by H. N. Bialik "Yesh li gan" in the 1920s and became a
popular Israeli song thereafter (see Zefira 1978:219, 236-7; Bayer 1980:56-60).
20 For songs of popular European musical origins see, for example, "La declaración del diesiochoañero"
(1:51: "Diesiocho años tengo")-, "La carrocina" (11:46: "Madmoasellle Sarica ")•, "El amor f unente" (11:65:
"Enfrente la caza tuya moro")-, and "Tu me dizes '«""(11:67).
2 1 See, for example: "Los amantes de la casa rica" (1:30: "Pajaro de hermosura")-, "Por ver tu cara morena"
(1:31: "Avre este abajur')-, "Tus ojicos joya mia" (1:79); "La malcasada con un viejo" (1:81: "Sos muy
hermosa")-, "Rendez-vous a ti te dava" (1:97); "El pretendiente despreciado" (11:74: "Hermosa muchachi-
ca")' "Los años de amor" (11:92: "Niña sos de baxa gente")-, "El amor furiente" (IV:49: "Rio corriente"), etc.
22 This correspondence was noticed by Katz (1980). The apocryphal story that Verdi had actually learned
this melody from Sephardi Jews during a stay in Corfu is unverified.
23 This rare survival was identified by Leonor Carracedo (1989). Judith Cohen recorded an oral version of
a Judeo-Spanish song based on the melody of "Valentine" from the musical "Il candide" which was made
famous by Maurice Chevalier. The Judeo-Spanish text appeared in the chapbook of satirical songs "Los
cantes deSadiky Gazoz" [5], Saloniki, ca. 1925 (cf. Cohen 1989).
24 For an attempt to establish parallels between songs published by Levy and Spanish folk songs, see
Querol 1984. For the renewed ties with the Peninsula as reflected in the Sephardi musical repertory, see
Seroussi [forthc].
25 On Sephardi Zionist songs see Attias (1972). The music of these songs is generally in a martial style. Cf.
the hymn of the organization Benot Tsyion ("Daughters of Zion") from Saloniki in Attias 1972:319.
26 Translations and paraphrases of popular Israeli songs (e.g. "Jerusalem of Gold" by Naomi Shemer) are
still customary among Israeli Sephardim.
27 According to Katz "Mr. Levy's enviable position as a prime spokesman for Sephardi culture has for long
been a bone of contention among the more traditionally minded Sephardic leaders who have criticized
him for his stylized renditions of traditional music" (1967:160). I was not able to corroborate this state-
ment. Scholarly-oriented Sephardi intellectuals, aware of Levy's reconstruction of the repertory, per-
ceived the public impact of his works in a positive vein. Moshe Attias, for example, wrote that "Levy's
special merit resides in the introduction of Sephardi songs to the Israeli scene" (Attias 1972:328).
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Reconstructing Sephardi Music in the

Transformations of traditional musics (i.e. orally transmitted music until it

"Jewish music" in the 20th century. One type of transformation, reconstruction,

2. Collecting to Survive: A Sephardi Perspective

The preservation of Sephardi traditional music in notation was not an inno-

Sephardi composer and folklorist Alberto Hemsi (1898-1975) expressed

3. Ideological Background of Isaac Levy's Work

4. The Reception of CJE

plored in light of its undeniable impact on the reconstruction of Sephardi music.

ranges and sometimes compound meters reminiscent of Turkish, Arabic and

5. Some Observations on the Contents of CJE

Levy claimed in the introduction to volume I of CJE that the geographical

6. Musical Sources of the Sephardi Song as Reflected in CJE

The process of adaptation illustrated in Example 1 demonstrates that the

(1) traditional melodies of unknown origins;

(1) Traditional Melodies

Aspects of the traditional Sephardi performance practices and repertories

(2) Compositions by Sephardi Musicians

Songs by semi-professional Sephardi musicians from the turn of the century

(3) Adopted Melodies

Ex. 2. Musical variants of "La cantiga del Hanum Dudů"

The Jerusalemite Sephardi tradition on which Levy heavily relied includes

with a melody by an Eastern European Jewish composer symbolizes the dispa-

In the introduction to their classic study "The Invention of Tradi

cert of unarranged Judeo-Spanish songs sung by four representatives of differ-

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