The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #24992   Message #289457
Posted By: Alice
01-Sep-00 - 03:19 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Ladino Songs
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ladino Songs
Annraoi, there was a documentary film on Ladino that I saw last year on PBS. It was made by a young man whose family had been part of the Jewish community that had left Spain for the Isle of Rhodes and then moved during world war II to the Los Angeles area. I'll see if I can track it down. You may be able to get it on video.

I know one verse of a Ladino song I learned from sheet music my friend Suzanne. But, like she says, it is hard to learn from written music, because like Arabic and Flamenco and many other types of folk music, you have to hear the rhythm and the way the sounds are made that are part of the music. She is Jewish, a cantor, but not Ladino. As she says, notes alone don't make it. It's part language, part music, part culture, really hard to re-create Ladino if you aren't part of the culture. That said, I can sing it and make a sound file if you can hear MP3 or MP2.

Alice