Secular Music from Christian and Jewish Spain
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Music CD Cover
Composer: Bartomeu CarceresComposer: Juan del Encina
Composer: Garcimunos
Composer: Luis de Milan
Composer: Diego Ortiz
Composer: Cancionero de Palacio
Composer: Sephardic Traditional
Performer: Hesperion XX
Performer: Jordi Savall
Performer: Montserrat Figueras
Edition: Music CD
Audio: Spanish (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1999-06-08
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Villancicos From Cancionero de la Colombina: Ni?a y vi?a
- Villancicos From Cancionero de la Colombina: Propiñán de melyor
- Villancicos From Cancionero de la Colombina: Como no le andaré yo
- Villancicos From Cancionero de la Colombina: Recercada
- Villancicos From Cancionero de la Colombina: Fantasia
- Villancicos From Cancionero de la Colombina: Pavana
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: Al alva venid, buen amigo
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: Perdà la mi rrueca
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: A los baños del amor
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: Fantasia
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: Romanesca
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: Pues bien para esta
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Palacio: Si avéis dicho, marido
- Romances From Cancionero de Palacio: Si d'amor pena sentÃs
- Romances From Cancionero de Palacio: O voy
- Romances From Cancionero de Palacio: Qu'es de ti, desconsolado
- Recercadas sobre tenores: Recercada 4
- Recercadas sobre tenores: Recercada 5
- Recercadas sobre tenores: Recercada 6
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Uppsala: Yo me soy la morenica
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Uppsala: Si la nocha haze escura
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Uppsala: Soleta só jo acÃ
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Uppsala: Con qué la lavaré
- Villancicos From Cancionero de Uppsala: Soy serranica
- Sephardic Romaces: Pregoneros van y vienen
- Sephardic Romaces: El rey de Francia tres hijas tenia
- Sephardic Romaces: Una matica de Ruda
- Sephardic Romaces: Palestina hermoza
- Sephardic Romaces: Nani, nani
- Sephardic Romaces: El rey que tanto madruga
- Sephardic Romaces: Por que llorax blanca nina
- Sephardic Romaces: Moricos los mis moricos
- Sephardic Romaces: Lavava y suspirava
- Sephardic Romaces: Paxarico tu te llamas
- Sephardic Romaces: La Reina xerifa mora
- Sephardic Romaces: Por alli paso un cavallero
Free Music Notes for Secular Music from Christian and Jewish Spain
Free Music Review: Although over thirty years old, this two-disc set shines
Hit: 5 Stars
Jordi Savall, eminent violist hailing from Catalunya, once again works his period magic with the help of Hesperion XX. Savall is perhaps best-known for his recordings of French Baroque music by Lully, Sainte Colombe and Marais (for example, Tous Les Matins du Monde/Dix Ans Apres), although he has extensively explored other early music genres such as Spain's Golden Age or Eastern music from Turkey, Afghanistan, and beyond.
On Music from Christian and Jewish Spain, Savall has divided the work into two separate discs. The first disc is devoted to Spanish court music from Spain's Age of Discoveries (1492-1553), consisting mainly of villancicos, romances, and recercadas. This is not my main area of expertise, but I would venture that these are court dances. According to the sparse liner notes, villancicos feature homophonic writing and contrast between the refrain and stanza, while romances are long narrative poems with ornamentation. The Cancionera de la Colombina relates to the son of Christopher Columbus.
The second disc is what primarily interests me; it's a lovely selection of Sephardic Romances (prior to 1492, when all Jews and Moors were expelled from Spain on the order of Isabella). Sephardim Jews had lived in Spain for centuries, with large communities in Cordoba and Toledo, and wrote many beautiful works in Ladino, a cross between Hebrew and Old Castilian (written in the Hebrew alphabet, Ladino is easy to read for a Spanish speaker when transcribed with the Latin alphabet). These haunting ballads are strongly influenced by Arabic musical modalities (Spain was under Islamic control from 711 CE-1492 CE, when Granada was captured by los Reyes Catolicos, Ferdinand and Isabella). After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, Sephardim dispersed to Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, and beyond, taking their language, culture, and music with them (the beautiful cover art is taken from an early 14th-century Hebrew bible from Portugal).
Savall's wife, soprano Montserrat Figueras, sounds equally at home on both the Christian villancicos and the Sephardic romances, but of the two styles, I felt that she really shined when singing in Ladino; the combination of period instruments such as Saracen chitarra and Figueras's haunting delivery make you feel as though you've just stepped back in time. There's a stark contrast between the heavily ornamented style of the Spanish court music (heavy on strings) and the sparse backing of the Sephardic ballads, where the focus is on the lyrics and the singer. Some songs feature heavy use of Arabic percussion (Una matica de ruda).
Overall, this is a beautiful, balanced look at two major styles of period Spanish music (the third, and one of my favorites, is mudejar, the culture of Muslims who remained under Christian rulers until their expulsion in 1492). It has been digitally remastered and sounds as fresh as if it had been recorded yesterday. Savall also revisited Sephardic ballads on the more recent release Diáspora Sefardí, also featuring vocals by Montserrat Figueras, but Music from Christian and Jewish Spain is still an excellent introduction to both early Christian court music and Sephardic ballads.
Secular Music from Christian and Jewish Spain Poster
Before their expulsion in 1492, the Jews of medieval Spain developed a rich and lively culture, including an exquisite repertory of songs called romanceros--and they kept that repertory alive as they settled in places as diverse as Morocco, Bosnia, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Lovely as the romanceros are, they would have languished as the objects of ethnomusicological studies and might have disappeared altogether, were it not for the efforts of gifted musicians like Hespèrion XX. Jordi Savall and his ensemble, fronted by the unique soprano Montserrat Figueras, just about single-handedly brought those songs to the attention of the modern public with this 1976 recording (now reissued at a bargain price). Disc 1 features a selection of secular music from "Christian" Spain--that is, the courts of Ferdinand and Isabella and the Catholic nobility. The music is elegant and occasionally austere, but Figueras, Savall, and colleagues give the livelier pieces a flavorful swing. Yet disc 2, which features the Sephardic songs, is the real drawing card here. It was in Moorish Spain that Jewish culture flourished, so Hespèrion XX performs the romanceros with Arabic instruments, such as the 'ud (the ancestor of the European lute) and hand drums. These musicians, rechristened Hespèrion XXI in honor of the new century, perform this repertory with more polish now than they did in 1976, but--just as A Feather on the Breath of God did for Hildegard von Bingen--this recording made its own little bit of musical history. --Matthew WestphalChristian & Gospel Music CDs
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