1 La rosa enflorese /Los bilbilicos cantan. Anonymous Sephardic song
2 La rosa enflorese (Instrumental)
3 Mas presto ven palomba/La rosa enflorese. (taken from PN1160 ‘La Rosa de la Alhambra’)
4 Vayse meu corazon de mib (Version). Abraham Ibn Ezra’s Jarcha de moaxaja (1089-1167)
5 Nani, nani, quere el hijo. Sephardic lullaby
6 Nina erguídeme los ojos. (Version). Alonso’s Palace Musical Songbook, S.XV
7 Como la rosa en la huerta. Sephardic song from Northern Africa, (taken from PN1160 ‘La Rosa de la Alhambra’)
8 Morena me llaman. (Instrumental) – Eastern Shepardic song
9 Oy, qué casas tan hermosas. Bulgarian Sephardic song (taken from PN810 ‘Klezmer Sefardí’)
10 Dame parás para el bano. Bulgarian Sephardic song (taken from PN810 ‘Klezmer Sefardí’)
11 Las esuegras de agora. Turkish Sephardic song (taken from PN810 ‘Klezmer Sefardí’)
12 Aspamia/Licor de Espana. Tunisia Maluf tune (taken from PN540 ‘Morada del corazón’)
13 Ajedrez (Instrumental version). Cantiga #47 of Alfonso X the Wise 1221-1284
14 Istemen, babacigim/No quero, madre (version). Turkish Sephardic song
15 Iodujá Raionai (version). Shabat song, text by Israel Najara (Safed, XVI century).

“Not by might, nor by power…but by My spirit” Zechariah 4:6

The magnificent collection of Sephardic songs that we know today is the result of the search since the late nineteenth century for Jewish tradition in documents and in Sephardic diaspora host cities. Converts in the Iberian Peninsula never came out of hiding and only practised Judaism in secret. Spanish Jews who left Sepharad held onto their songs in the Muslim countries of North Africa: Djerba, Constantine, Tetuan, and the Ottoman Empire, which implied a long journey for their local languages: Judaeo-Spanish or Ladino, Judaeo-Arabic and Judaeo- Catalan.

Songs praising wine and love, as well as paraliturgical songs, guarded by the Diwans in cultured Sephardic society, eventually became ceremonial songs in festivals and songs about the cycle of life, from birth to death. Nowadays, their distinguishing features are: vocal and monodic oral tradition, modal scale or sentiment and a melodic formula for success.

From the 11th to the 14th centuries, with the rise of Islam and the prosperity of Iberia and the Mediterranean, a new concept of music and Jewish song emerged in Sepharad. In the Umayyad Golden Age Jews in contact with Arab culture developed their own unique brilliance that shone in their poetry and musical culture: Ibn Gabirol d.1057, Juda ha-Levi d.1141, Abraham ibn Ezra d.1167, Maimonides d.1204.

The songs are based on the theoretical musical science of the quadrivium with variations as a result of elements from local cultures, depending on where they are from; Andalusian musical forms and Hispanic strophic poetry. Jews from Sepharad stand out in the Christian arts; the Hebrew piyyutim and the paytanim were Jews mimicking troubadours. Another special aspect is Jewish mysticism, especially after the Sephardic Diaspora when many Sephardim settled in Safed (Israel Najara d.1628), with the influence of Hispanic, Turkish or Arab songs.

The rose features in many poems and songs with all its symbolism: its colour, its fragrance, its thorns, its petals forming concentric layers around its centre, like the protecting strength of a city or of true love. The rose, together with the dove (colomba), symbolizes the triple exile of the Jewish people: exile from Israel among nations, exile of the yearning soul in the body and exile between satisfaction in a settlement and freedom.

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Rose of Sepharad: Treasure of dreams