Victoria Hazan y sus grabaciones de música sefardí en NY (1942)

Abstract

It does not seem to be very common to find a Turkish musical repertoire sung in Spanish, incorporated in the parties and meetings in the «Café Aman» of the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx neighborhoods of NY during the first half of the 20th century. Songs that are part of the life of the taverns and narrate human stories thus accompanying the dances and meals. A repertoire that follows the musical forms of the Ottoman musical tradition and the Turkish modal system. The singing voices, immigrants from different places in Asia Minor, Greece, Armenia, Syria, bring with them a musical legacy, a repertoire that they have learned from birth, as part of their culture and they transfer it to the neighborhoods of NY creating with that way the same cultural environment that they lived in the taverns of Istanbul and Izmir for the same need for expression, communication and relief. One of the most brilliant voices that have been immortalized, thanks to the Metropolitan and Kaliphon recordings, is that of Victoria Hazan, of Sephardic origin, exiled from Smyrna, who has left a legacy of twenty-six songs, including ten in Ladino. In the present work we approach this repertoire to propose an analysis that allows us to understand these songs through the makam musical system, as well as classify it into modes, understand the forms that the singer uses in the recordings and finally be able to explore the possibility of reproduce it and use it as live cante in a concert repertoire using appropriate instruments.