Posts by Daniel Halfon
423 posts
[https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvd3h2QBHjxSY0jN_KUzyYXelfzOD1ILh&si=Kzto4to2lWOpyU9d](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvd3h2QBHjxSY0jN_KUzyYXelfzOD1ILh&si=Kzto4to2lWOpyU9d)# Playlist of 36 melodies the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Tradition Associated with Pesach.# # Mo’Adim LeSimcha!
# Snogeiros,Don't forget, starting tomorrow - Rosh Hodesh NissanHodesh Tob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWUB11gMDek)
[https://youtu.be/HA3lWJx8UJE](https://youtu.be/HA3lWJx8UJE)# Hashkibenu - Festive | LondonWhen I joined Congregation Shearith Israel as Assistant Hazzan in 1978, I entertained the hopeful notion that the community might welcome a few melodies from the London Spanish and Portuguese tradition as a way of gently expanding the repertoire.The first candidate that suggested itself was the Livornese mel...
[[https://youtu.be/KxviMaIPQSw?si=huAT4fngXi5F3zeQ](https://youtu.be/KxviMaIPQSw?si=huAT4fngXi5F3zeQ)](https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FKxviMaIPQSw%3Fsi%3DhuAT4fngXi5F3zeQ%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBEyZTVqMVdFWUIzalpoS0FmdXNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5H67AQCmtAuEYdCcQFZVtYnUd0SyjWdSptjXuubESz3pS5sp3Mo5wxVREXgQ_aem_uMQlqnG5LkgHo0Cvu2oe_A&h=AT4t7-GIEEsF4kuK...
[[[https://youtu.be/ATZ4abRbxsQ?si=N0oDc_W5jn607SLY](https://youtu.be/ATZ4abRbxsQ?si=N0oDc_W5jn607SLY)](https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FATZ4abRbxsQ%3Fsi%3DN0oDc_W5jn607SLY%26fbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExVFV0VUE5NUJnV2o2Q3FNNHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR5geVxt5JwYGzqg4hxIsaXT_mvZD4csrLzIPcrQhHWCzq_DQUxEhTvhErMVBA_aem_hNuaqYT6fwCv750Y5CTSlw&h=AT1a6X1Tt1-JAPZ...
[https://youtu.be/Ajub53a_hsw?si=fi-pyG230MCVTHzE](https://youtu.be/Ajub53a_hsw?si=fi-pyG230MCVTHzE)# Bachodesh HaShelishi - Parashat Yitro | LondonWhen Hazzan Eliezer Abinun began reading the fourth Aliyah of Parashat Yitro, it was as if the whole congregation present at Lauderdale Road had been transported to the foot of Mount Sinai. Even as a nine-year-old boy, I could feel that something deepl...
https://youtu.be/Ajub53a_hsw?si=fi-pyG230MCVTHzEBachodesh HaShelishi - Parashat Yitro | LondonWhen Hazzan Eliezer Abinun began reading the fourth Aliyah of Parashat Yitro, it was as if the whole congregation present at Lauderdale Road had been transported to the foot of Mount Sinai. Even as a nine-year-old boy, I could feel that something deeply special was happening.As I got older, it surprised m...
[https://youtu.be/D8WJzBw-6Ls](https://youtu.be/D8WJzBw-6Ls)# Yehi Chasdekha - Mombach | New York Some of the greatest composers of the nineteenth century in the Western Ashkenazi tradition find their voices unexpectedly preserved within the musical canon of Congregation Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of New York. One such figure is Julius Mombach (1813–1880), the celebrated...
[https://youtu.be/Tid5hl_tDw4](https://youtu.be/Tid5hl_tDw4)# Echoes of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s defeat at the Battle of Culloden Continue to Reverberate in the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogues of LondonThe connection between the Jacobite Rising of 1745 and the musical repertoire of the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi community of London is a matter rarely considered.The uprising was decisively cr...
[https://youtu.be/qBTtSFoBdXQ](https://youtu.be/qBTtSFoBdXQ)# What a New York Adon Olam Would Sound Like in LondonOne of the most familiar Sephardi melodies for the piyyut Yigdal Elohim Chai, and a mainstay of the London tradition, is curiously absent from the musical canon of New York’s Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi community. However, a variant of this melody, exhibiting some micro-divergences...
[[https://youtu.be/1KnZK_v0_Xo](https://youtu.be/1KnZK_v0_Xo)](https://youtu.be/1KnZK_v0_Xo?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExSm8zUGVnaGJiaGZCc01DdwEebsghE6puK_qDproGNy_xJow_gJTR9phliDP9FcMCMbb274f4PUWhZOOAnGs_aem_QmVGQ0JQdt_mryRo-Md3hw)***Now, here’s an idea……***# Ra'u Banim - Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur - Sephardi MelodyApplying a single melody to multiple texts is a well-established feature of th...
https://youtu.be/QzQng9T4gzU# Rachamana - Bedil Vaya'abor - Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Selichot | LondonThis Selicha serves as a prelude to the chanting of the Shelosh Esreh Middot (Thirteen Attributes of Mercy). This 'short' version is traditionally recited during the evening Selichot unique to the Spanish and Portuguese liturgical tradition.In this recording, the piece is presented in a har...
https://youtu.be/7q55bUa_Yok# Ana Keʾab Zedoni | New YorkWe are just a week away from Hodesh Elul and the start of Selichot, but the first musical signpost on the journey to the Yamim Noraʾim has already come and gone.On the afternoon of Tisha BeʾAb, the verses of comfort, ‘Nachamu Nachamu Ami’, were sung in the special chant used only for the Pesukim of the penitential season. A small but unmista...
https://youtu.be/_6wfUWBcVEI# Chishki Chizki – Abraham de Casseres | Amsterdam 18th CenturyChishki Chizki is a Piyyut written in 1675 by Haham Yitshak Aboab de Fonseca to celebrate the inauguration of the new Esnoga in Amsterdam. Approximately twenty years later, Abraham de Casseres, who served as the Amsterdam community’s composer-in-residence, set the text to music.His setting, a refined, three-...
https://youtu.be/ECV_8R2XtCg# Psalm 150 - Halleluyah - M. Moss | LondonAs a young boy singing in the Lauderdale Road Synagogue choir, I was especially struck by the exuberance of the congregation's melody for Psalm 150; although “exuberant” was probably not a word I knew at the time. It was sung at weddings as the Hatan and Kallah departed the Huppah, and it rang out on the eves of Simchat Torah a...
https://youtu.be/ECV_8R2XtCg# Psalm 150 - Halleluyah - M. Moss | LondonAs a young boy singing in the Lauderdale Road Synagogue choir, I was especially struck by the exuberance of the congregation's melody for Psalm 150; although “exuberant” was probably not a word I knew at the time. It was sung at weddings as the Hatan and Kallah departed the Huppah, and it rang out on the eves of Simchat Torah a...
https://youtu.be/o-FNeRQDzR4# Mizmor LeDavid - Psalm 29 "Continental" (Bolaffi) | LondonThis melody is one of three distinct settings for Psalm 29 (Mizmor LeDavid) preserved by the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi community of London, chanted to accompany the procession of the Sefer from the Tebah to the Hechal on Shabbatot and Moʿadim.Referred to by members of the choir as the “Continental Mizmor"...
https://youtu.be/o-FNeRQDzR4 # Mizmor LeDavid - Psalm 29 "Continental" (Bolaffi) | LondonThis melody is one of three distinct settings for Psalm 29 (Mizmor LeDavid) preserved by the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi community of London, chanted to accompany the procession of the Sefer from the Tebah to the Hechal on Shabbatot and Moʿadim. Referred to by members of the choir as the “Continental Mizmo...
https://youtu.be/VHYLbkEkamg# Baruch She'amar | LondonThe origins of Baruch She'amar are of considerable antiquity. Rav Sa'adya Gaon noted its widespread use as early as the ninth century C.E., and Maimonides (the Rambam) attributes its authorship to the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (the Men of the Great Assembly).According to many leading authorities Baruch She'amar is meant to be sung rather than si...
https://youtu.be/VHYLbkEkamg# Baruch She'amar | LondonThe origins of Baruch She'amar are of considerable antiquity. Rav Sa'adya Gaon noted its widespread use as early as the ninth century C.E., and Maimonides (the Rambam) attributes its authorship to the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah (the Men of the Great Assembly).According to many leading authorities Baruch She'amar is meant to be sung rather than si...
https://youtu.be/MsB_w5BcDOs# Azharot | London, Amsterdam and New YorkIn the Sephardi tradition, the Azharot - a monumental poem by Shelomo Ibn Gabirol enumerating all 613 mitsvot - is recited on the holiday of Shabu'ot. In the Diaspora, the custom is to divide the recitation over two days: the positive commandments on the first, and the negative on the second. In the Land of Israel, where Shabu'o...
https://youtu.be/MsB_w5BcDOs# Azharot | London, Amsterdam and New YorkIn the Sephardi tradition, the Azharot - a monumental poem by Shelomo Ibn Gabirol enumerating all 613 mitsvot - is recited on the holiday of Shabu'ot. In the Diaspora, the custom is to divide the recitation over two days: the positive commandments on the first, and the negative on the second. In the Land of Israel, where Shabu'o...
[https://youtu.be/ailgsfmuzDo?si=p0ELQw_zej-6_23A](https://youtu.be/ailgsfmuzDo?si=p0ELQw_zej-6_23A&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExaHExT2tpUmxxd3I4cmhzeAEeiIEGFXreQh37Ap7h-h8AJ7850-SD77mf5dpiP6LcorWYt-ADYDRtUXjN2M0_aem_u_0pt0Wd4mVGjsCuFcKSbw)## Lag Same’ach!In the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi tradition, a short excerpt from the Book of Ruth is chanted to its ta’amim on the days between Lag ...
[https://youtu.be/ailgsfmuzDo?si=p0ELQw_zej-6_23A](https://youtu.be/ailgsfmuzDo?si=p0ELQw_zej-6_23A&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExaHExT2tpUmxxd3I4cmhzeAEeiIEGFXreQh37Ap7h-h8AJ7850-SD77mf5dpiP6LcorWYt-ADYDRtUXjN2M0_aem_u_0pt0Wd4mVGjsCuFcKSbw)## Lag Same’ach!In the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi tradition, a short excerpt from the Book of Ruth is chanted to its ta’amim on the days between Lag ...
https://youtu.be/NNxplGGWl4o# La’el Asher Shabat Mikol Hama’asim | New YorkThe melody used for Hakol Yodukha and El Adon—two well-known selections in the Shabbat morning service—is shared by both the London and New York Spanish and Portuguese communities. This chant has deep historical roots and close parallels are still heard today in North African traditions.Though the London and New York versio...