Dear friend, after one year sending the weekly newsletter of Music Before Shabbat, I thought it deserved its own domain. You can read the editions from December 2020 and on in http://www.musicbeforeshabbat.com
And now from Spain, some musical joy for Christmas and the best wishes! A carol by Vigüela for you.
In the post with the song Dunaj by Janusz Prusinowski (you can read it again here) I told you that it was my first season’s greeting. Because here you are the second one! ✌️
Yesterday I was in El Carpio de Tajo, the village where most of the vigüelis are settled and where the band was born, to make some videos for a documentary film and, after the serious work, we had time to sing together a little. And now I share this moment with you, from the intimate environment of their rehearsal room. If you need anything else about Vigüela, just let me know.
? This carol you have below is probably the most popular in Spain. The video below has subtitles in English for the lyrics.
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At the end of the song you see a change of concept, let’s say: it starts talking directly to the woman who is listening, who is told that she does not look stingy. This is because this song, and many others, are sung from house to house, requesting the inhabitants to come out and give something to eat or a coin to those who are singing. This custom of requesting from house to house in exchange for the song is called to “request the aguinaldo“, or “aguilando“, depending on the region.
¡Feliz Navidad!
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música
A song of good wishes for you, when we need them most, by Janusz Prusinowski
How are you? I hope well! This is a season’s greeting email, how original! In fact I think so ?
A few days ago Janusz Prusinowski sent me two recordings he had made for a project to disseminate the music from Łukowa, a village with 2.600 inhabitants in the South-East of Poland with a musical tradition that was lastly added to the National Heritage list. A group of people there are working to transmit this music to the new generations.
| Listen to: the solo voice version or the version with instrumentation – You can download and use them if you make a radio show or podcast or similar and send our best wishes also to your listeners – |
What is the song about? Let’s let Janusz explain it by himself.
Click on Janusz’s face to listen the explanation ?
Some more info about the song, by the artist:
“This is traditional wishing carol, that used to be sung by young men to the girls, walking from house to house. The name of a girl, for whom the wish is dedicated, is consequently repeated in each couplet of the song, as the magic incantation, in order to bring the “ideal bridegroom” next year. Naturally the real “ideal bridegroom” was just the one, singing the “dunaj”.
This year the covid situation stopped traditional carol singers in all regions of Poland. I hope, that internet would at least in 1% substitute the real situation of meeting, singing together and sharing good wishes.”
I am grateful to Janusz for allowing me to use his beautiful recordings to wish you a happy season. I hope 2021 will make us forget the grieves of 2020.
? And thank you, for being here visiting me. This is my first season greeting. More will follow soon!
And these are the lyrics. I had the support of Ewa Gomółka for the translation:
To the river, Maria, in the morning, to bring the water, to the river,
And with two buckets, to the river!
She picked up water, dropped the wreath of flowers, into the river,
And she went along the bank, to the river,
And she found three ospreys, to the river,
My dearest ospreys, fish my wreath of flowers, to the river
And how will you pay us, to the river,
To the river, Maria, in the morning, to bring the water, to the river?
For the first one, the present will be my rue crown, to the river,
For the second, the present will be my wedding ring, to the river,
For the third one the present will be the bride, to the river,
The bride, beautiful like a blueberry, to the river,
Work, work and while you are looking for money, to the river,
[One of the singers makes the prolonged sound “Iiiiiii”]
Go to the chest and look for the złoties, in the river,
Take the stick, bring down a sausage, to the river,
Search in the chest, pull out half a pig, to the river,
Look on the shelf, take out a loaf of bread, to the river,
To the river, for those in this house, to the river,
To the river, for the grandma who is sitting on a bench, to the river,
To the river, for the grandpa who is sitting on the table,
To the river, Maria, in the morning, to bring the water, to the river.
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I loved writing it for you.
Magazine #30 December’20 – The power of the human will. MOST Music, Fengaros Festival, Music Before Shabbat and +
Summary ?
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How are you? I have to confess that I am starting to get emotionally exhausted from this situation although I have great hope for the vaccination. I bring you a story that has lit up my heart today.
I illustrate these words with a photo from this past Sunday. It is in the street in front of the cathedral that señor Justo has been building for 60 years, without any knowledge of architecture and with recycled materials and the money from donations and sponsors. He is now 95 years old and his work is half finished. I don’t think I’ll see him finished in life and the future is uncertain. It is not a cathedral recognised by the Church and has no institutional support, but I would like to think that such a work will not end up collapsing in abandonment.
Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is an example of the power of human will that can serve us all. You can learn about his story and see more pictures of the building (also inside), which looks like it came from a dream, here and here you are a documentary with English subtitles with interviews with señor Justo.
I hope that this story brings you a moment of happiness and that you enjoy the rest of the content, which I find very interesting and also contains examples of dedication and passion, so needed in our reality.
Do you want to share any useful experience you have had during this difficult time or another content relevant for our community of the global music?
Contact me. And if you find this interesting, share it with your friends. You can read the previous issues here.
Thanks for your attention and remember that you can check our website to learn about our offers and the artists we work with.
Araceli Tzigane | info@mundimapa.com | +34 676 30 28 82
Subscription is available here.
IN DEPTH WITH THE TEAM OF MOST MUSIC
Throughout several previous editions of this magazine I have been sharing some news and interviews with the festivals selected in the MOST Music project (find the links under this interview) and now I have the pleasure of sharing some of the team’s reflections, based on the questions that have come up when I read deeply the website. By the way, the MOST Music website is very detailed and, if you have not visited it, I highly recommend you to do so, both for knowing the project well and for understanding this interview.
Here I will only mention two aspects:
- MOST Project has four main areas of activity, focused on artists (export), festivals (exchange, and it includes festivals in several regions of Europe), urban policies and management training for emerging professionals.
- And the activity is focused on the Balkan countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo (I copy exactly from their website: This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence), Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania and Serbia.
These interview below has been answered by members of the MOST Team: András Sőrés, project manager; Balázs Weyer, programme director.– – – – –
Mapamundi Música (MM): The project MOST Music is quite complex, involves many participants from four main categories: artists, managers, festivals and institutions. Who had the first idea about this? What was the first objective that he/she wanted to get from this project?
MOST Project team (MPT): MOST Music as a project has been a long time in the making. Members of the consortium have been curating this idea for a long while. The idea started out from V4 and European Capital of Culture projects. Initially partners were applying for funds many times and modifying the project plan according to tender evaluations so that it could realize itself. The first objective is what we have been emphasizing on all platforms: a way for the Balkan world music industry’s untapped potential to be channeled into and better connected with the rest of Europe, where infrastructure is oftentimes better.
MM: Following the previous question, when did this idea appear in your mind? How was the procedure between this first idea and the design of the complete project? How many profiles have been involved in the design? And during the development, now that it is being done, which are the profiles involved (I mean the team, not the artists, managers, festivals and policy makers that are the participants in the 4 branches)?
MPT: We applied to Creative Europe four times before the funds were granted. The project plan was modified and expanded according to the detailed feedback that European tenders offer. The fourth version of the tender was accepted.
In terms of project design, you of course know that there are 9 partners in the consortium that’s led by Hangvető, headquartered in Budapest. Leading means that Hangvető takes on project management duties. Otherwise consortium members vote on work teams for each pillar, so that certain partners are responsible for certain pillars. These duties are also rotating, so that each partner will have managed each pillar by the end of the project. Managing a pillar means making executive decisions and deciding on experts involved (such as mentors and trainers).
MM: About the artists part. Every year, 10 artists will be enrolled in this program to receive support and greater visibility. How was the procedure of selection? Is there any jury? If so, who selected the jury and which were the criteria to select them?
MPT: The selection procedure is decided by a professional jury. Jury members are also involved on a rotating basis from partner organizations. In the first round of MOST Music the members of the jury were Balázs Weyer, programme director of Hangvető, Budapest; Olsi Sulejmani, president of Balkan World Music Management; and Simon Broughton, editor-in-chief of Songlines Magazine.
The selection criteria (apart from citizenship of at least one of the 9 target countries) are as follows:
● artist’s international potential
● diversity of selected artists by style, to match the profile of showcase events
● popularity/artistic quality
● long-term engagement with the project
● artist’s basic infrastructure (web, communication…)
● artist’s local audience size
● quality of existing audio and video material (technical and artistically)
● diversity of selected artists by sub-scenes in world music (e.g. sevdah, brass bands, etc.)
● diversity of selected artists by gender
● diversity of selected artists by geography
MM: In the current selection of artists there are no artists from Albania, Croatia, Montenegro or North Macedonia. Of course, this has been the first round of selection and in future rounds they may be. But this arose some questions about this:
1. Did you receive applications from those countries? Albania and Croatia, for instance, have musical styles that are recognized by the UNESCO as immaterial legacy. Didn’t you have applications?
2. If you didn’t have applications from those countries or if you had very few ones, which do you think are the reasons?
3. As with the artists, has it happened the same with the call for management training?
MPT: We had open calls in all the countries listed here, so the reason why one or the other might not be represented in a certain pillar is that there weren’t any or a lot of applicants from them. We have participants from Croatia and North Macedonia in other pillars, such as Management Training and Festival Exchange. However, Albania and Montenegro were hard for us to reach, we had very few applications altogether. In Montenegro one hardship was that we did not have a partner with their local network to help us spread the word. But all in all, we must certainly work on our communication in those regions in future rounds.
MM: About the part of urban policies, you mention “Projects will then be presented by the tandem (urban creative + policy maker)”. So, I understand you will involve policy makers. Let me see if I understand well. Would those be, for instance, the councillor of culture of a city? I mean, they are real politicians or people assigned by politicians, that can make real decisions, aren’t they? I think so, as you mention that “winning initiatives will be implemented in their respective cities.” How did you get the engagement of those people? Are they guaranteeing some budget from their cities to develop the winning initiatives?
MPT: We are only starting up MOST Music and the environment we planned it for was for a very different normal, so please excuse me, but I can only answer in terms of our goals, plans, and hopes, and not in terms of anything that has already been actualized.
Our goal is to involve real decision-makers: politicians, municipalities, local governments, and more. We hope that such connections between creative industry professionals and decision-makers will bring a certain openness and sensitivity to the situation of creative professionals.
MM: About the budget, the project is co-funded by Creative Europe. Can you tell me the overall budget? Which were the other co-funders?
MPT: The overall budget is 4 million Euros, half of that is provided by the European Union’s Creative Europe programme (2 million Euros). The rest of the funding was raised by partner organizations and varies from country to country.
MM: So far, apart from the emergence of the pandemic, that has made you change some activities to an online environment, did any other event or new idea arose that made you rethink any of the activities planned?
MPT: Online activities are currently happening in three pillars – we just finished a week-long online training in the Balkan Music Exchange pillar and are currently in the process of training Urban Creatives and Management Trainees, both are longer, less time-intensive training programmes. Of course one key element of this whole programme is networking and making professional connections – this is not impossible per se, but it’s certainly not as natural as it could be if we could meet up in real life, as originally planned. We are making every effort to substitute these offline connections in online ways, and to bring in new opportunities for participants to meet and network, such as providing them passes to virtualWOMEX, and more.
Previous interviews about festivals included in MOST Music project are available:
- Maria Kaimaklioti, Andreas Trachonitis & Lefteris Moumtzis from Fengaros Festival, here below in this same edition
- Anđela Galić from Kamičak Ethno Festival
- András Bethlendi from Mera World Music
- Zlatan Jaganjac from Ritam Mediterana
- Dragos Rusu from Outernational Days
- Mirza Redzepagic from Zeman
- Davide Mancini from Musicastrada
- Béla Pap from Heritage World Music Festival
- Agnieszka Matecka from Mikołajki Folkowe
- Bojan Djordjevic from Todo Mundo
- Jordi Fosas from Fira Mediterrànea
Note that some of these interviews are from before the start of MOST Music and before the pandemic.
EXPERIENCE AGAIN BEFORE BABEL MUSIC XP
As announced previously, Before Babel Music Xp took place in online format, on days 26 and 27 of November. They have now released the conferenfes in shape of podcast. Find them here.
I participated in a round table: New collaborations and solidarity for professionals relaunching their careers. Here below you see the moderator, Ludovic Tomas, and me with the other participants: Birgit Ellinghaus, Umair Jaffar, Emad Mabrouk and Amobé Mévégué.
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CURRENT AND FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR FESTIVALS
In this occasion, we travel to Cyprus, to talk with the team of the Fengaros Festival.
MINI INTERVIEW WITH MARIA KAIMAKLIOTI, ANDREAS TRACHONITIS & LEFTERIS MOUMTZIS FROM THE FENGAROS FESTIVAL (CYPRUS)
The Fengaros Festival takes place since 2011 in Kato Drys, a village with less than 150 inhabitants in the district of Larnaca, Cyprus, and combines a festival with concerts and an educational project called “Music Village”.
Mapamundi Música (MM) – What do you search for in an artist when you program?
Fengaros Festival team (FFT) – Besides music that catches our attention, Fengaros Festival – especially the festival founders, Lefteris Moumtzis and Andreas Trachonitis, particularly look for artists that play very well live, have entertaining and sophisticated stage presence and whose music is authentic and unique. This might not be whatever is mainstream according to western media.
We want to also provide a platform for local Cypriot acts and while we encourage all Cypriot acts to get in touch with us, one of our criteria is to see that the local acts are thinking about long-term plans for their career. We try to learn about more local acts by watching them and meeting them at live shows.
We started Fengaros Music Village in 2014, three years after Fengaros Festival was founded. FMV takes place one week ahead of the festival and is a series of workshops that allows for participants to meet each other, jam together, and potentially form new bands. We’ve booked a good handful of acts that were formed from Fengaros Music Village (FMV), or took off after FMV, or that came to our attention at the workshops in the past. We also think about the festival audience a lot. We understand that there is heavy reliance on the Greek music scene, however one of our goals is to unravel this and also create partnerships with the surrounding region. We know how our audience reacts to various genres and we are in a happy position where the audience is challenged but at the end of the day, they trust the festival.
MM – Which are the global objectives of your festival?
FFT – Our main objective is to produce a festival with acts that we want to show to our audience and that we believe is important for Cypriots to hear. Another important goal is to produce a festival that fits and reflects our identity. Our festival does not try to copy the many fantastic festivals abroad. It’s impossible because of the many unique aspects that come into play simply by being a festival in Cyprus. We are an island; our culture and experiences have overlaps with the west and east; it’s extremely hot in the summer… Every aspect of Fengaros reflects this unique position, including the lineup, festival grounds and administrative procedures. So an important goal is to showcase this unique perspective, offer something that is not necessarily presented by the radio and mainstream media, and create reminders to embrace many aspects of Cypriot experiences, such as rural landscapes and interesting locations.
MM – What are the most complicated or difficult issues to deal with in your festival?
FFT – A difficulty is dealing with local policies and funding opportunities. Most of the limited institutions in Cyprus are still very much in development and require intense pushing towards arts policies that make sense and that are formulated by those with experience in arts, international festivals and tourism.
A second issue is travel – flight tickets are expensive to Cyprus, not to mention the environmental cost.
MM – Which are currently the main challenges for this kind of cultural proposals like yours?
FFT – Apart from economic hurdles, our main goal is being able to sustain the trust and attention that our audience has for Fengaros. It’s important to expose the audience to our entire programme.
MM – In one sentence, summarize the reason/s to go to your festival.
FFT – Fengaros is three days of living in a traditional Cypriot village discovering new experiences every turn you take, all the while being surrounded by music and artists that seriously believe in the power of music.
MM – What has happened with the edition of 2020 in the current situation of the pandemic?
FFT – Although there were not any official laws against festivals in the summer, we decided in the springtime to postpone our festival to July 29-31 2021. Cases were between 0-10 each day in July 2020 and we were able to go ahead with safely hosting our series of workshops at Fengaros Music Village although with slight changes in our instructors lineup. This turned out to be hugely successful and we had double our usual turnout, even with many precautionary restrictions in place! We are now planning an online edition of Fengaros for early 2021 that will showcase Cypriot acts to local and international audiences. Stay tuned!
Credits:
- The portraits are provided by the team.
- The banner is from the website of the festival.
- The landscapes are from the festival’s Facebook page.
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BRIEF NEWS FROM THE MEDIA, CHARTS AND SISTER PROJECTS
- About Mundofonías, our monthly favourites are the albums Wiązanka by Wowakin, Silver Sanctuary by Zedashe and At Royal College of Music, Stockholm by Akkarai Sisters.
- Transglobal World Music Chart has moved the annual charts to September, but some news will come soon.
- Our colleagues from World Music Charts Europe have announced their list for 2020, and it is available here. They have recently made a big change, passing the management to Radio Proglas, in Brno, Czech Republic, with Milan Tesař as the new coordinator.
- The Songlines Awards for 2020 have been announced this last Sunday and the show is available in their website. The winners this year are: Best Artist: Bassekoy Kouyaté, Best Group: Cimarrón, Africa: Blick Bassy, Americas: Leyla McCalla, Asia: Jambinai, Europe: Lankum, Fusion: Kefaya + Elaha Soroor, World Pioneers Award: Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela, Newcomer award: Elaha Soroor.
- After one year of one weekly email of Music Before Shabbat and hosting the editions inside the website of Mapamundi Música, I decided to launch a new website for this initiative. The last Friday, www.musicbeforeshabbat.com was launched, with all the editions and the new one, for Shabbat of Hanukkah.
Do you have a call of interest for our community that you want to share? Let me know asap.
OPEN CALLS
- The Afro Pepites Show 10th edition. Since 2009 the Afro Pepites Show connects artists to professionals and fans of African cultures. The call for artistic projects is open until 15 january 2021. This time it will be online. More info and registration, here.
- Fira Mediterrània de Manresa. The call for artistic projects is open until Wednesday 27 January at 24h. It will take place from 14 to 17 of October 2021. More info and submissions, here.
WHO WE ARE AND SISTER PROJECTS
Mapamundi Música is an agency of management and booking. Learn more here. Check our proposals at our website.
We also offer you our Mundofonías radio show, probably the leader about world music in Spanish language (on 50 stations in 18 countries). We produce the Transglobal World Music Chart with our partner Ángel Romero from WorldMusicCentral.com. And we lead also the Asociación para la Difusión de los Estilos.
Feel free to request info if you wish. For further information about us, get in touch by email, telephone (+34 676 30 28 82), our website or at our Facebook.
This newsletter is open to sponsorship. Feel free to ask for details.
MBS a talk with a generous disseminator, Joel Bresler, and the quest for the multiples branches of an artistic seed
4th December 2020 – Shabbat is almost here
And I am pleased to share a little conversation with another disseminator whose work has fed mine in several ocassions: Joel Bresler. And we’ll listen Ruth Yaakov’s Majo, Majo i Majo and discover how a song can produce many branches.
Hello, how are you? I hope well. You know how I love old music. But from time to time I like to talk with people that are alive, because they can answer. I would love to make questions to Moishe Oysher or to Bienvenida Aguado but for now I just can dialogue with them in my fantasy. So on this occasion, I will be exchanging ideas with another disseminator whose work is exceptional: Joel Bresler, creator of SephardicMusic.org. He is also very fond of old music and not only old. He is, in his own words, an “obsessed” collector and discographer.
On this enlightening report, “The Music of the Sephardim” in Early Music America magazine, he and Judith Cohen (with whom I will talk soon) explain what is the Sephardic music and they mention several artists that have striven for authenticity and Ruth Yaakov is one of them. Find the video with her music at the bottom.
– And, as usual, find the music piece at the bottom – ?
Hannukah is coming soon and the last Hannukah is when this Music Before Shabbat initiative was born. Celebrate this birthday with me ?. All I want as a birthday present is to welcome more people here. Share this with your friends and with anybody who can enjoy it. Thank you in advance. |
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Joel Bresler’s SephardicMusic.org
The website SephardicMusic.org has been a source of information for me in several occasions, specially related to the oldest recordings. For it didn’t seem to be supported by any organization, so I got curious to learn who was behind this jewel. And it was not difficult: Joel Bresler is the author and here below you have a little conversation in which he explains some interesting facts. I am really thanksful to him for his dedication! In the picture you see Joel with Mrs. Sylvia Cohen, who donated 78-rpm recordings for his project ?
Araceli Tzigane: As a disseminator of Jewish music, and moreover being a Spanish person, your website is a treasure for me. I feel I can understand what forces drives you to disseminate this music you love. Because I think this is not a business, despite you may earn some income from the sales from Amazon done through the website. These kinds of initiatives come from some transcendental need. Which is yours?
Joel Bresler: So glad you enjoy the website – that means a lot to me! I have never earned any money from the amazon links, so that wasn’t a motivation. I went from devotee to collector to discographer. Enjoyed the music, then started collecting it, then attempting to collect every recording ever made with at least one song in ladino. And by then, since I had built a “want list” of recordings that weren’t in my collection I turned it into a discography. First for LPs, cassettes and CDs. And then a separate effort for 78s.
AT: In the website, in the About, you explain that you were transfixed by Sephardic music when you first heard it thirty years ago (now it must be around forty years ago, right?).
JB: Yes.
AT: But what happened, why did you get transfixed? What was the specific song or recording? Was it just because of the music or also because you realized there were Jews who spoke Spanish out of Spain for 5 centuries or anything else?
JB: I love Renaissance music and also listened to a lot of Spanish Renaissance music. So my first Sephardic recording was the Hesperion XX double LP of Jewish and Christian music. They performed Sephardic music as Renaissance music which is actually not that authentic, but it was my start.
AT: I’d like to highlight that you have another career, you are currently the Director of Technology Ventures at Northeastern University. It sounds very cutting edge. You are not the first Jewish person who I have met that works in something very technological and at the same time has an initiative related to the dissemination of Jewish culture, like a festival of live music or your website. Are you also a musician yourself? Do you have any other initiative, apart from your work and the website of SephardicMusic.org?
JB: I fell deeply for the American folk song Follow The Drinking Gourd and wrote a cultural history of it at www.followthedrinkinggourd.org . I have also prepared political parodies the last three us presidential elections, see:
2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD-vY5WIZdw
2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_9CltI4G8&feature=youtu.be
2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWs7TXCy7uI&t=5s
AT: What are the origins of your family? I believe Bresler comes from Breslau/Wrocław, the city that is currently in the South West of Poland, doesn’t it? Can you explain to me the background of your ancestors from both sides? Bresle is the Yiddish for Wroclaw. I believe you may not have Sephardic ancestors, do you? (according to your answer I might have to ask you something more).
JB: Hi, you have all this exactly right. My maternal grandmother’s maiden name was Karo, which as you may was the name of a very well-known and influential Sephardic rabbi. There were Sephardim who made it as far as Poland, so it’s possible even if not likely. Since it is such an influential name, it could be my ancestors adopted it for the prestige. We may never know. I’ll probably get a genetics test some day!
Related to Joseph Karo, Joel provided several links:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/joseph_karo
- https://esefarad.com/?p=84555
- https://www.avotaynu.com/sephardim.htm
- https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/sephardim
- https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/actually-a-significant-number-of-ashkenazim-are-descended-from-sephardim/
This is a picture of the Market Square in Breslau, between 1890-1900 at the time when it was Germany (now Wrocław, Poland) ca. View from the East. This is in Wikipedia and is of public domain. Might be one of these people any ancestor of Joel Bresler?
AT: So one side of your family comes from Poland. And the other side too? Your grandparents from your father and also from your mother, were from Poland? And do you know when did your ancestors arrive to the USA?
JB: Yes, all four grandparents from Poland (though one was US-born.) And perhaps some ancestors from Spain (much earlier!!. Key word here is “perhaps”!) On my maternal side, approx. 1920 or so. On my paternal side, my grandfather was here at roughly the same time; my grandmother was US born and so her parents like arrived late 19th century??
AT: In your website I found a link to the work of 2009 The Music of the Sephardim, by you and Judith Cohen. There you mention that: “But some musicians constantly invoke a mythological exoticism and the supposed antiquity of Sephardic song as an excuse to make of it what they will and justify it in the name of “creativity.””. I have to say that I totally agree and that the same happens with traditional music from Spain (not Sephardic, but rural traditional). The invocation of its antiquity, or of its coming from the tradition, is used to legitimate also mediocre works. Don’t you think it may happen the same in many other traditions? Doesn’t it happen with Askenazi or Yemenite Jewish music?
JB: I believe that after World War II, once musicians hear a song they can take it and perform it however they might wish to. It used to be difficult to find repertory – there were actually song-sharing groups active in the folk community in the 1960s. Now, with Itunes, Spotify, digitized field recording, Youtube, etc. It’s quite easy.
AT: Are you interested in receiving new recordings of Sephardic songs that are done nowadays? If so, how shall the people send them to you?
JB: My public account is joelbresler@gmail.org. I am always interested in new recordings. Although i am not doing a comprehensive discography of electronic recordings – a job for the next generation.
AT: In this edition I will accompany your interview with a recording by Ruth Yaakov: “Majo, majo y majo” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty-7V-MZfFo She is one of the singers you and Judith Cohen (old friend of mine, with whom I will talk here soon) mention that have striven for authenticity. She is really outstanding, one of those singers that are quite impossible to imitate. Do you want to share any insight about this recording or about the song or about Ruth Yaakov?
JB: Aside from deep admiration for her work and artistry, I don’t have too much to add. As opposed to scholars like Judith, I am “just” an obsessed collector and discographer!
The Jews in Wrocław
So the origin of Joel Bresler’s surname and at least of some of his ancestors is Breslau, currently Wrocław in Polish. After the II World War and the Potsdam Agreement (August 1945) the city became part of Poland. I would have been in Wrocław last June, for a concert by Gulaza. It is one of the losses caused by the pandemic. Nevertheless, the city is still there, waiting for me….
According to JGuideEurope, the oldest Jewish tombstone found in Wrocław (Breslau) dates back to 1203, indicating that by then Wrocław was home to a permanent Jewish community. In 1290, Wrocław had the second largest Jewish community in East Central Europe, after Prague. Click the link to learn more about the history of Jews in this city, that was a referential point in several moments.
This is the White Stork synagogue in 1979, by Stiopa in Wikipedia ?
The website of the Jewish Community of Wrocław explains that:
“The resurgence of the Jewish community in Wrocław took place after 1989. Scientific conferences, exhibitions and cultural events dedicated to Jewish issues began to be organised in the city. Scientific research on fascism and the Holocaust in Silesia was developed, as well as on the history of the Jews of Lower Silesia after the Second World War. In 1993, the Centre for the Study of the Culture and Languages of Polish Jews was established at the University of Wrocław, transformed in 2003 into the Study of Jewish Culture and Languages.
Until 2006, there was an independent Jewish religious community at Wrocław, which was then incorporated into the structure of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in the Republic of Poland and transformed into a branch of the ZGWŻ at Wrocław. The branch has its own rabbi: since 2013 it has been Tyson Herberger, who is the Chief Rabbi of Wrocław and Silesia. TSKŻ still operates in the city, as well as several organizations dealing with Jewish culture and education, including the Bente Kahan Foundation and the GESHER Foundation for Jewish Culture and Education. Aleksander Gleichgewicht has been the president since 2012.”
This is the White Stork synagogue nowadays in Google Maps Street View:
For further information, visit the mentioned links and the page about Wrocław in Sztetl.org.pl
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Listen to Majo, Majo i Majo by Ruth Yaakov
As Ruth Yaakov (born in 1960 in Israel) is one of the artists that, according to the article “The Music of the Sephardim“, have striven for authenticity, I have chosen a piece of her work. From the album Shaatnez (Piranha Records, 1998), by Ruth Yaakob Ensemble, I have chosen Majo, majo y majo, with a part of the lyrics of the piece El mancebo enamorado (The young man in love), that shares part of the lyrics with the story of the but also of the song of the Ciego raptor (The blind raptor). Under the picture you’ll find the lyrics that Ruth Yaakov sings in this recording. But before, let’s go deeper into this piece.
In the popular anonymous pieces that have been transmitted orally it is very normal that versions and divergences arise. This is a case in point. I have located several references and recordings that exemplifly it well.
The Maale Adumim Institute for the Documentation of the Jewish-Spanish (Ladino) Language and Culture has several versions, published in their El Trezoro de Kantes de Sefarad (Sefarad Song Treasure). There are many other recordings named El mancebo enamorado, but I have selected the ones that have at least one stanza similar to what Ruth Yaakov sings. The stanza of majo, majo i majo is present in many occasions between any other lyrics, usually related to love, but in some ocassions it is sang together with the lullaby “nani, nani”.
- This one from the Bulgarian tradition, sang by M. Tiferet, recorded in Yafo in 1978
- This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Kobi Zarko, recorded in Jerusalem in 1989
- This one from the Greek tradition, sang by Dasa Liza (date and place of the recorded not indicated)
- This one, that includes just one of the stanzas, from the Turkish tradition, sang by Ilter Yitshak, recorded in Bat Yam in 1978
- This one, from the Turkish tradition, sang by Politi Mazal, recorded in Jerusalem in 1979 (the first part is another piece)
- This one (tradition not mentioned but I feel it sounds Turkish), sang by Karavani Hanna, recorded in Jerusalem in 1984 (just the first stanza is shared with the other versions)
- This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Levy Ventura, recorded in Jerusalem in 1985 (this includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo between many other stanzas)
- This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Mizrahi Rivka, recorded in Jerusalem in 1979 (this includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo after other two)
- This one from the Turkish tradition, sang by Zevulun Estrea, recorded in Beer-Sheva in 1978 (this includes the stanza of “akodravos dama” (remember, lady) at the beginning and the one of “los males son kurados” (ailments are cured) that is also present in other versions)
- This one (tradition not indicated), sang by Vardi Zaavi, date and place not indicated. This includes the stanza of majo, majo i majo in the middle.
Some of the stanzas and ideas of the lyrics of this piece are shared with another piece, with very different meaning: the blind raptor. I found the lyrics at the website of Pan-Hispanic Ballad Project. This song registered by David Romey in Seattle between 1948 and 1950 starts like the other and the last stanza is also shared, but the story is quite different. In this, the foreigner pretends to be blind to beg at the house of the girl he loves and kidnaps her. His mother wonders where his Flor (flower, used as the girl’s name) is.
So far I am sure you want to listen to the announced recording by Ruth Yaakov, so here you are!
Click the picture to listen to the recording:
Lyrics
| Majo i majo i majo Agua en el mortero No ay ken s’adjideye De este forastero No ay ken s’adjideye De este forastero. Akodravos damma I dezir ansí Majo i majo i majo |
I mash, mash and mash water in the mortar. No one take pity on this foreigner. No one take pity on this foreigner. Remember, lady, And to say so I mash, mash and mash |
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Shabbat Shalom.
Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música