Sephardic Songs

'Sephardic' (Hebrew for Spain) refers to the Jews who lived and flourished in the Iberian Peninsula for many centuries, until they were expelled along with the Muslims in 1492. Sephardic Jews took their language and musical traditions with them in to exile and absorbed other traditions from North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and countries in the Middle East where they settled. The lingua franca of Sephardic Jews was Judeo-Spanish which was based on mediaeval Castilian. The Ladino ballad repertoire was a very important song tradition transmitted through the female line.

Sound samples James Bull - Sound Engineer