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.