Sephardic Songs
See our concerts page to find out when we will be performing these songs in public, buy them on our CD, or else book us for your own event."Fantastic the way you introduced the songs in English I felt that I got so much more out of the songs."
"[T]he Sephardic songs for me are from a far off and strange culture- I really loved them."
The songs
We have recorded many (though not all) of these songs for our CD Some tiny extracts of both live and CD performances are available as MP3 by clicking on the songs below.
 Si Verias | If you would see | |
| Yo m'enamori d'un aire | I'm in love with the air | |
| Paxaro de hermozura | Bird of beauty | |
| Abre tu puerta serrada | Open your closed door | |
| Avrix mi galanica | Let me in, my love | |
| Nani nani (live) | Lullaby | |
| Por la tu puerta yo pasi | I passed by your door | |
| Morenica | Dark girl | |
| Tres hermanicas eran | There were three sisters | |
| La serena | Serenity | |
| El rey de Francia | The king of France | |
| Ya salio de la mar la galana | She came out of the sea | |
| Partos trocados | Babes exchanged | |
| Durme, hermoso hijico | Sleep, sweet darling son | |
| El quiupri se duzido | The bridge was levelled | |
| Las muchachas de servir | Serving girls | |
| El encalador | The whitewasher | |
| Estrella | The star | |
| Los bilbilicos | The nightingale | |
| Esta montana d'enfrente | This mountain before me |
These songs are from the oral tradition of the Sephardim whose ancestors lived in the Iberian peninsula during the Spanish Golden Age. They spread to other parts of the Mediterranean, picking up the musical influences and stories of their new homelands. The result is a delicious mix of sounds and textures: Spanish, Jewish, Moorish, Greek, Turkish ...
The songs are predominantly in Ladino, which has, like its speakers, travelled from Judeo-Spanish, collecting words from Turkish, Greek, French, Italian and others.
We've enjoyed arranging the songs in our own way, inspired and guided by the wild magic of the melodies and lyrics. The stories are intense yet familiar and the songs live on.
Karen has not been the same since she fell in love with the music at a Sephardic concert in 1998. Andrew caught it from Karen.
You can find out more about Sephardic music in the Wikipedia.
