Frontaal
Naakt
27 juni 2022

Jewish lust for life in the Middle Ages

 

 

Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and violinist Lily Henley released a new album of songs based on medieval Sephardic music, Oras Dezaoradas. The songs are in Ladino, the language of the Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century because they refused to convert to Catholicism. They formed communities in Mediterranean countries like Morocco.

These are bitter-sweet melancholic songs of displacement, loneliness and longing but with a certain lust for life and a joy that makes them very pleasant and comfortable. The above song, for instance, Morena me Llaman (Brunette they call me) is about a woman proudly in charge of her own sexuality, defying the opinions of others. “They shoot arrows at me / If they are the arrows of love / May they fly straight!”, Henley sings. And: “Brunette I am called / By the sailors / If they call me again / I will go with them.”

Henley combines Sephardic musical traditions with Celtic motives and modern melodies. Some of the ballads are centuries old, but there are some new songs too. The result is an album as fresh and as old as the morning dew. (PB)

Music