The International Festival of Jewish Music of Lyon has been held every year at the Espacio de Hillel since 2008 and aims to to give visibility to the cultural and social life of Lyon’s Jewish community. It is an open space for the expression of Jewish culture in the city through many activities and concerts.
This year the central theme of the festival is Jewish music and gypsy music. Both peoples, Jews and gypsies, have endured similar situations throughout history. Their music, especially the Jewish music of Eastern Europe and klezmer, music, display many similarities and share common origins.
AC/E is collaborating in this year’s festival by supporting the participation of the Capella de Ministrers, which is performing a concert of medieval Sephardic music on November 0 at the Espace Hillel. Capella de Ministrers is a Spanish group specialised in the musical heritage of the Iberian Peninsula from the nineteenth century onwards. Its aim is to preserve this heritage with historical rigour and musical sensitivity. This year the group is performing a programme entitled Enclosed Music. Sephardic Songs.
Sephardic music originates from the Spanish Jews of Castile and Aragón who adapted popular Castilian songs until their expulsion during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, and it is a blend of Arab and Christian music – Arab in the rhythm and instruments used and Christian for the language, Spanish, in which the songs were sung. The most common theme of Sephardic songs is love, though there are also lullabies and wedding songs. Therefore, when referring to Sephardic music as such, we cannot speak of a new genre but rather of how the Jews who settled in Spain adapted existing melodies, which were enhanced both rhythmically and instrumentally with the arrival of the Sephardic Jews. When they were expelled from the Spain, the Sephardic Jews took with them their music and traditions to Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria, countries where they mainly settled. They have preserved the songs in Spanish that they inherited from their forbears despite the passing of the centuries and have added their own words from each local language. The Sephardic music that continues to be practised in the eastern Mediterranean gives us an idea of what this music sounded like in the Middle Ages.