Friday 18 November 2016

International Influence On Sephardic Music- Ari Afilalo

Music is the expression and soul of the Sephardic culture. Music plays a phenomenal role in constructing the history of Sephardic in the twentieth century. Many Sephardi people were involved in the preservation and publication of music. 




Moroccan Sephardic Music
The Jews of Morocco had quite a striking effect on the Sephardic music. Their traditional ballads of lullabies, court romance, and biblical songs in medieval Spanish had a strong impact on their music. The combinations of these melodies and songs are referred as Sephardic music.

Movement Of Iberian Jews To New Lands
After Iberian Jews moved to other areas, Sephardic music absorbed several aspects of the music from the new locations. In today’s Sephardic music, the influence of Balkan rhythms and the high pitched ululations of North African locales and the Turkish Maqam mode can be observed. Each relocation influenced and added something in the Sephardic music. From Ottoman Empire, France, England, Italy, Germany, U.S.A., South America and Canada, Jews moved in different parts of the globe from Spain.

Multilayered International Influence
Sephardic music retained the Jewish culture and acted like a representative of its original environment despite migration of Jewish people all around the world. The fragments of musical traditions of romance in the popular lyric songs of Sephardic music from nineteenth century Spanish compositions. Other Sephardic songs are based on local compositions based on events, old narrative ballads and calendar cycle songs of Sephardic music are from nineteenth century Spanish compositions.
Types Of Sephardic Music
Sephardic music is of mainly types consisting of topical songs for entertainment, ceremonial and spiritual songs and romance songs. Their lyrics are in many languages including Hebrew which is mainly for spiritual songs and Ladino, a language made from the mixture of Spanish and Hebrew.
Ari Afilalo is a celebrated writer, author and a philosopher who is also an active member of the Sephardic Jewish community in the New York city.

Friday 11 November 2016

Influential Factors In Sephardic Music- Ari Afilalo

Sephardic music is a term which is used for the Sephardic Jewish music. Sephardic Jews is a term used to refer to the exiled Jews from Spain. In Sephardic secular tradition, usually the music is in dialects of Judeo-Spanish and other other languages such as Greek, Turkish and Hebrew including the local languages of the diaspora are used. 


Liturgical and para-liturgical traditions are preserved by Sephardim. Their music repertory have a unique flavor that centres primarily around the Mediterranean basin. Following the beginning of Sephardic music recordings on the commercial level and the revival of the folk music revival, the discovery of Sephardic music and the world music led to gargantuan changes in the performance, repertory and commercial practices.

For sephardic communities, Judeo-Spanish, Ladino was an important marker of the culture. Most performers from the Sephardic community were Ashkenazi or non-Jewish. With increasing music recordings in the fusion or rock-influenced categories, the recordings are marketed as critical part of the early music.

The obscure music of sephardic community slowly spread throughout the world which is now performed in every imaginable style. The music has evolutionized to a great extent since the pre-Biblical times. The religious music regarding the Exodus and Solomon’s Temples started in the early middle ages. Salamone Rossi’s work exhibits the early emergences of Jewish musical themes.

Jewish music has been found by some observers in Gershwin’s some 800 songs. The learners do not miss the synagogue ideas and themes in Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin. The famous Israeli composers of Sephardic music are Yitzhak Yedid, Tsippi Fleischer, Betty Olivera, Chaya Czernowin and Mark Kopytman.

Ari Afilalo is an artist and musician who has keen interest in musical heritage and studies the musical themes of the Sephardic culture. He is also part of the French Moroccan community in New York.