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ellenkushnerAn Italian Renaissance band is touring the U.S. with a very interstitial-sounding Purim festival/concert March 4-18, beginning in NYC on Sunday March 4th. I want to go! Anyone else?
A RENAISSANCE PURIM FEST
LA ISTORIA DE PURIM IO VE RACCONTO.
FAMILY WORKSHOP AND CONCERT
Don’t miss the New York debut of Lucidarium, “pure energy on period instruments” --one of Italy’s premier early music ensembles!
The program includes an extraordinary evening performance and an afternoon family workshop open to children of all ages and designed as a journey into the sounds, songs, and imagery of a Renaissance Purim Fest. Period instruments, multi-language story-telling, and a touch of that Italian-Jewish theater that once went from Florence to Shakespearean England, will change forever the way in which you celebrate Queen Esther.
This is the ensemble's first stop in an eight-concert tour with a program that has delighted audiences and critics alike in thirty-five concerts from Paris to Budapest.
The repertoire, vast and entertaining, includes music originating in a fertile crossover of cultural forms and ideas, that became the shaping principle of the history and distinguished intellectual output of Italian Jewry. Drawing on a variety of coexisting Italian sources, including Giudeo-Italian poetry; Yiddish and Hebrew literary canons; the liturgical oral and written traditions of the communities of Northern and Central Italy; and the instrumental and vocal music of the era, Lucidarium attempts to recreate the soundscape of Jewish life in 16th Century Italy.
Two 16th Century Purim plays have come down to us written in sung poetic forms which still survive in the oral tradition of Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria. Written in Italian, but in Hebrew characters, they are designed, in particular, for the women of the congregation, who may have been able to read Hebrew characters without necessarily being well-versed in the language itself. Although no music has survived, a reconstruction has been made possible by borrowing the archaic melodies sung by the modern day housewives, farmers, craftsmen and factory workers who have lovingly conserved the tradition of the sung ottava rime and Maggio. Clearly archaic liturgical and para-liturgical melodies drawn from Jewish communities from throughout Italy, and songs from the short-lived but vigorous flourishing of Yiddish (with a Latin lilt) on the peninsula have been combined with dance music of the era, in an attempt to recreate the rich musical life, from synagogue to celebration, of the Jews of Renaissance Italy.
Leading Lucidarium is a dedicated couple: Avery Gosfield and Francis Biggi. A Philadelphia-born performer and conductor. Enrico Fink is a jazz player, a poet, and an exuberant fabulator. His most recent endeavor “The Jazz Singer’s Return to Faith,” is a voyage starting with the music of the Italian Jews, and reaching unexpected shores between jazz, tradition and electronic invention.
SUNDAY, MARCH 4 at 2:30 and 7:30
2:00-4:00 pm: Family workshop for children of all ages.
7:30: Concert
Center for Jewish History - 15 West 16 Street
Reservations: 917-606-8200
Space is limited and tickets are already going! Reserve now!
Tickets:
Workshop: Adults:$10; Kids 5-15: $5; Children: 0-4 free
Family pass: $30 - Price includes costume materials, music workshop; drinks and snacks
Concert: General: $20 - Seniors and students: $15
OTHER CITIES IN U.S. MARCH 4-18 here.
Ludicarum's description of their program on their website (& CD).
What is the Festival of Purim? See my radio website in connection with my show, Esther: the Feast of Masks, which will be broadcast the week of March 4 - or click here to listen online.
A long & interesting essay, , La Istoria de Purim; Jewish Music and Poetry in Renaissance
Italy, Adapted from a text by Francis Biggi and Avery Goldsfield, here:
The Italian Jewish community is the oldest in
Europe, its establishment on the peninsula
going back two centuries before the Christian era.
Over the course of two thousand years, in spite of the often precarious conditions
under which communities negotiated their territory and ability to establish social,
religious and business practices, Italian Jews and non-Jews shared and exchanged ideas and imagery, and jointly took part in the major economic, political, and cultural movements that shaped the history of Italy.
With their cosmopolitan and diverse background, both by vocation and necessity,
Jewish erudites contributed strongly to the development of Renaissance Humanism.
Whether court scholars, translators, artists, religious leaders, or men of business, Jews
were remarkably active in the princely courts of the 15th and 16th centuries, walking a
fine line between exclusion and recognition.
In daily life the Jewish communities largely succeeded in protecting their religious and
cultural traditions. Never isolating themselves from the larger world, Italian
Jews assimilated the customs of others and transmitted their own in all
fields of knowledge, crafts, and liberal arts.
This exchange of cultures becomes particularly visible in the musical traditions of the Jews of Italy.
Taking this vision as a starting point, the Ensemble Lucidarium embarked on a
performance project constructed between scholarship and free interpretation, largely
inspired by the historical, ethnomusicological, and
philological studies ....
Delving into a vast and entertaining musical and poetic repertoire and highlighting the
exuberant crossovers originating in the multi-ethnic cradle of the Mediterranean,
Lucidarium brings to the audiences of today the magical atmosphere of Medieval and
Renaissance Jewish festivities, the sophisticated beauty of the language at the time of Dante, and the tentative and colorful shades of regional dialects, tinged
all over by the patina of Hebrew.
A 16th Century Meghillah in Rhymes and Stanzas.
Lucidarium’s artistic directors followed their fascination with a 16th century popular
version of the Megillat Esther written in eight-line stanzas by Rabbi Mordecay
Dato. The poem is declared by its author to be composed for those women who are not learned in the Scriptures, but are the ones who will prepare
the delicious festive banquet and delight themselves in hearing the story of the beautiful Jewish orphan girl who becomes the Queen of Persia, discovers a conspiracy against the Jews, and saves them from slaughter. With a novelistic editing of the biblical text (i.e.: less politics, more romance, repeated hints at the kitchens of his audience, and lots of precious textiles, perfumed oils, brocade clothes, and oriental gardens), Dato seeks to elevate the souls of the women, and creates at the same time one of the earliest examples of literary popularization in Judeo-Italian language.
Moving from this delightful finding (see: Giulio Busi, La Istoria de Purim Io Ve Racconto, Rimini, 1987) the leaders of Lucidarium explored the story of a Jewish theatrical group once in residence at Gonzaga court in Mantua. They imagined a pre-modern world where the gentile population would visit the Jewish quarter to observe the Purim festivities, enlightened clerics were curious about Jewish learning and practice, and Jewish musicians, composers, theatrical troupes, directors, costume makers, dancing masters, poets and playwrights, as well as doctors, linguists, and scientists, abounded throughout the peninsula.
While this is more likely a projection of today's hopes than the reality of
those times, the high degree of integration and exchange among Jews and non-Jews in Italy and more broadly the confluence of Mediterranean cultural and philosophical forms into the Medieval society that gave the foundation to modern Europe, represent an intriguing and documented story that many scholars today try to explore with new eyes.
A Step into the Past
At the time in which La Istoria de Purim was written the Jewish communities of Northern
and Central Italy were of diverse provenance.
Next to the Italikim, those whose ancestors had arrived in Italy prior to the destruction
of the Second Temple, lived Yiddish-speaking groups from Northern Europe and a significant Sepharadic population from Spain, Portugal, and the Levant: all of them contributing to the rich and dynamic cultural spectrum of Italian Jewry.
The blending of the various communities in everyday life was such that the terminology
applied to each group - tedesco, spagnolo or italiano - soon came, in practice, to refer
exclusively to the synagogue it attended and the kind of religious service it followed. Although families tended to conserve the specific liturgical order and traditional melodies of their ancestors, Italian (or the local dialect,) was, with few exceptions, the language spoken by the Italian Jews at home and on the street, no matter what their origin.
Attempting to reconstruct the soundscape of a Jew in 16th Century Italy, Lucidarium drew
from a variety of sources: sung poetry in Judeo-Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew; the liturgical and para-liturgical repertoire as preserved orally in the various communities of North and Central Italy; and specific pieces from the instrumental and vocal canon of the era.
Research & Resources
A great deal of what is known about the musical practices of these isolated Italian
Jewish communities abroad, as well as liturgical and folk music traditions among the Jews in Italy, is due to the monumental research conducted by Leo Levi in the
years following World War II. Traveling between Italy, the Eastern Mediterranean, North
Africa and Israel, he recorded and transcribed the melodies remembered by what
were often the last survivors of once flourishing communities. His work is irreplaceable, not only because without it, the memories of entire communities would have
been lost forever, but because he possessed the cultural tools, as well as the musicological and ethnomusicological knowledge, that allowed him to analyze,
compare and make important conclusions about the vast amount of material he collected.
And what he found was surprising, mirroring trends that seem to have already been present in the 16th century and earlier, going back even to the earliest examples of notated liturgy. With its often archaic traits, this music gives us not only an irreplaceable tool in reconstruction, but also a vibrant repertoire. Levi’s work has been carried on
and codified by several ethnomusicologists, most notably Francesco Spagnolo who
edited a wonderful CD from the Leo Levi collection and the late Roberto Leydi.
A RENAISSANCE PURIM FEST
LA ISTORIA DE PURIM IO VE RACCONTO.
FAMILY WORKSHOP AND CONCERT
Don’t miss the New York debut of Lucidarium, “pure energy on period instruments” --one of Italy’s premier early music ensembles!
The program includes an extraordinary evening performance and an afternoon family workshop open to children of all ages and designed as a journey into the sounds, songs, and imagery of a Renaissance Purim Fest. Period instruments, multi-language story-telling, and a touch of that Italian-Jewish theater that once went from Florence to Shakespearean England, will change forever the way in which you celebrate Queen Esther.
This is the ensemble's first stop in an eight-concert tour with a program that has delighted audiences and critics alike in thirty-five concerts from Paris to Budapest.
The repertoire, vast and entertaining, includes music originating in a fertile crossover of cultural forms and ideas, that became the shaping principle of the history and distinguished intellectual output of Italian Jewry. Drawing on a variety of coexisting Italian sources, including Giudeo-Italian poetry; Yiddish and Hebrew literary canons; the liturgical oral and written traditions of the communities of Northern and Central Italy; and the instrumental and vocal music of the era, Lucidarium attempts to recreate the soundscape of Jewish life in 16th Century Italy.
Two 16th Century Purim plays have come down to us written in sung poetic forms which still survive in the oral tradition of Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria. Written in Italian, but in Hebrew characters, they are designed, in particular, for the women of the congregation, who may have been able to read Hebrew characters without necessarily being well-versed in the language itself. Although no music has survived, a reconstruction has been made possible by borrowing the archaic melodies sung by the modern day housewives, farmers, craftsmen and factory workers who have lovingly conserved the tradition of the sung ottava rime and Maggio. Clearly archaic liturgical and para-liturgical melodies drawn from Jewish communities from throughout Italy, and songs from the short-lived but vigorous flourishing of Yiddish (with a Latin lilt) on the peninsula have been combined with dance music of the era, in an attempt to recreate the rich musical life, from synagogue to celebration, of the Jews of Renaissance Italy.
Leading Lucidarium is a dedicated couple: Avery Gosfield and Francis Biggi. A Philadelphia-born performer and conductor. Enrico Fink is a jazz player, a poet, and an exuberant fabulator. His most recent endeavor “The Jazz Singer’s Return to Faith,” is a voyage starting with the music of the Italian Jews, and reaching unexpected shores between jazz, tradition and electronic invention.
SUNDAY, MARCH 4 at 2:30 and 7:30
2:00-4:00 pm: Family workshop for children of all ages.
7:30: Concert
Center for Jewish History - 15 West 16 Street
Reservations: 917-606-8200
Space is limited and tickets are already going! Reserve now!
Tickets:
Workshop: Adults:$10; Kids 5-15: $5; Children: 0-4 free
Family pass: $30 - Price includes costume materials, music workshop; drinks and snacks
Concert: General: $20 - Seniors and students: $15
OTHER CITIES IN U.S. MARCH 4-18 here.
Ludicarum's description of their program on their website (& CD).
What is the Festival of Purim? See my radio website in connection with my show, Esther: the Feast of Masks, which will be broadcast the week of March 4 - or click here to listen online.
A long & interesting essay, , La Istoria de Purim; Jewish Music and Poetry in Renaissance
Italy, Adapted from a text by Francis Biggi and Avery Goldsfield, here:
The Italian Jewish community is the oldest in
Europe, its establishment on the peninsula
going back two centuries before the Christian era.
Over the course of two thousand years, in spite of the often precarious conditions
under which communities negotiated their territory and ability to establish social,
religious and business practices, Italian Jews and non-Jews shared and exchanged ideas and imagery, and jointly took part in the major economic, political, and cultural movements that shaped the history of Italy.
With their cosmopolitan and diverse background, both by vocation and necessity,
Jewish erudites contributed strongly to the development of Renaissance Humanism.
Whether court scholars, translators, artists, religious leaders, or men of business, Jews
were remarkably active in the princely courts of the 15th and 16th centuries, walking a
fine line between exclusion and recognition.
In daily life the Jewish communities largely succeeded in protecting their religious and
cultural traditions. Never isolating themselves from the larger world, Italian
Jews assimilated the customs of others and transmitted their own in all
fields of knowledge, crafts, and liberal arts.
This exchange of cultures becomes particularly visible in the musical traditions of the Jews of Italy.
Taking this vision as a starting point, the Ensemble Lucidarium embarked on a
performance project constructed between scholarship and free interpretation, largely
inspired by the historical, ethnomusicological, and
philological studies ....
Delving into a vast and entertaining musical and poetic repertoire and highlighting the
exuberant crossovers originating in the multi-ethnic cradle of the Mediterranean,
Lucidarium brings to the audiences of today the magical atmosphere of Medieval and
Renaissance Jewish festivities, the sophisticated beauty of the language at the time of Dante, and the tentative and colorful shades of regional dialects, tinged
all over by the patina of Hebrew.
A 16th Century Meghillah in Rhymes and Stanzas.
Lucidarium’s artistic directors followed their fascination with a 16th century popular
version of the Megillat Esther written in eight-line stanzas by Rabbi Mordecay
Dato. The poem is declared by its author to be composed for those women who are not learned in the Scriptures, but are the ones who will prepare
the delicious festive banquet and delight themselves in hearing the story of the beautiful Jewish orphan girl who becomes the Queen of Persia, discovers a conspiracy against the Jews, and saves them from slaughter. With a novelistic editing of the biblical text (i.e.: less politics, more romance, repeated hints at the kitchens of his audience, and lots of precious textiles, perfumed oils, brocade clothes, and oriental gardens), Dato seeks to elevate the souls of the women, and creates at the same time one of the earliest examples of literary popularization in Judeo-Italian language.
Moving from this delightful finding (see: Giulio Busi, La Istoria de Purim Io Ve Racconto, Rimini, 1987) the leaders of Lucidarium explored the story of a Jewish theatrical group once in residence at Gonzaga court in Mantua. They imagined a pre-modern world where the gentile population would visit the Jewish quarter to observe the Purim festivities, enlightened clerics were curious about Jewish learning and practice, and Jewish musicians, composers, theatrical troupes, directors, costume makers, dancing masters, poets and playwrights, as well as doctors, linguists, and scientists, abounded throughout the peninsula.
While this is more likely a projection of today's hopes than the reality of
those times, the high degree of integration and exchange among Jews and non-Jews in Italy and more broadly the confluence of Mediterranean cultural and philosophical forms into the Medieval society that gave the foundation to modern Europe, represent an intriguing and documented story that many scholars today try to explore with new eyes.
A Step into the Past
At the time in which La Istoria de Purim was written the Jewish communities of Northern
and Central Italy were of diverse provenance.
Next to the Italikim, those whose ancestors had arrived in Italy prior to the destruction
of the Second Temple, lived Yiddish-speaking groups from Northern Europe and a significant Sepharadic population from Spain, Portugal, and the Levant: all of them contributing to the rich and dynamic cultural spectrum of Italian Jewry.
The blending of the various communities in everyday life was such that the terminology
applied to each group - tedesco, spagnolo or italiano - soon came, in practice, to refer
exclusively to the synagogue it attended and the kind of religious service it followed. Although families tended to conserve the specific liturgical order and traditional melodies of their ancestors, Italian (or the local dialect,) was, with few exceptions, the language spoken by the Italian Jews at home and on the street, no matter what their origin.
Attempting to reconstruct the soundscape of a Jew in 16th Century Italy, Lucidarium drew
from a variety of sources: sung poetry in Judeo-Italian, Yiddish and Hebrew; the liturgical and para-liturgical repertoire as preserved orally in the various communities of North and Central Italy; and specific pieces from the instrumental and vocal canon of the era.
Research & Resources
A great deal of what is known about the musical practices of these isolated Italian
Jewish communities abroad, as well as liturgical and folk music traditions among the Jews in Italy, is due to the monumental research conducted by Leo Levi in the
years following World War II. Traveling between Italy, the Eastern Mediterranean, North
Africa and Israel, he recorded and transcribed the melodies remembered by what
were often the last survivors of once flourishing communities. His work is irreplaceable, not only because without it, the memories of entire communities would have
been lost forever, but because he possessed the cultural tools, as well as the musicological and ethnomusicological knowledge, that allowed him to analyze,
compare and make important conclusions about the vast amount of material he collected.
And what he found was surprising, mirroring trends that seem to have already been present in the 16th century and earlier, going back even to the earliest examples of notated liturgy. With its often archaic traits, this music gives us not only an irreplaceable tool in reconstruction, but also a vibrant repertoire. Levi’s work has been carried on
and codified by several ethnomusicologists, most notably Francesco Spagnolo who
edited a wonderful CD from the Leo Levi collection and the late Roberto Leydi.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 04:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-22 05:33 pm (UTC)I did a concert of Jewish Italian music a couple of years ago, so I'm already interested in the subject.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-23 05:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-23 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-23 02:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-23 11:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 09:53 pm (UTC)to see what mood Spencer is in though, since as it is he's probably
a bit young for it.... -Jess
no subject
Date: 2007-02-28 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-01 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 02:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-06 02:56 pm (UTC)cheap propecia
Date: 2012-02-21 11:59 am (UTC)