Search - Voice of the Turtle :: The Sword of the Dove - A Judeo-Spanish Fantasia

This is a Purim 'fantasia', a musical collection of fabulous, intriguing, surprising melodies created, remembered, preserved and adapted by the Spanish Jews. Our collection offers traditions from many different Sephardic communities, in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish. The variety of expressions from spiritual through humorous parody reflects the wide dimension of the character of the holiday. In order to introduce as wide a perspective of the content of the texts, we have begun many versions in the middle of the narrative, since many of the songs have the same words, particularly at the beginning. The texts tell the stories of Purim which have been preserved in Coplas and Piyutim. The versions of the songs on this recording have, with the exception of one version of 'Purim Lanu,' (from the Idelsohn collection, Volume 3) come from the remarkable anthology of Isaac Levy, Antologia de Liturgia Judeo-Española. These notated versions of the melodies which have informed and inspired our composed arrangements, were collected by Levy from many communities of the Spanish Jews. These songs were among the first repertoire we had the pleasure of discovering from the treasure chest of Judeo-Spanish music, melodies which have stayed with us for 22 years.