Re-Run: Muslim Spain–The Soundtrack
The perversity of the universe being what it is, the final stages of renovating our new-old house and finishing my book proposal have collided. Instead of driving myself mad trying to write blog posts or letting History in the Margins go blank for a few weeks, I decided to run some of my favorite posts from the days when only a handful of people read along. I hope to produce some new content along the way*, so re-runs will be clearly marked.
And now, without further ado, I bring you
Muslim Spain: the Soundtrack
These days, I’m spending a lot of time in Muslim Spain–a golden age of cross-cultural pollination by any standard. At a time when most of Europe was wallowing in the Dark Ages, Muslim Spain was a center of wealth, learning–and tolerance. If you wanted libraries, hot baths, or good health care, Spain was the place to be.
I recently discovered the perfect soundtrack for thinking about Muslim Spain: the ladino music of Yasmin Levy.
Ladino is the Sephardic equivalent of Yiddish. (Sephardic comes from the Hebrew word for Spain.) Spoken by the Jews of Muslim Spain, ladino began as a combination of Hebrew and Spanish. When their most Catholic majesties Isabella and Ferdinand expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492, most of them sought protection in the Muslim states of North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. Over time, their language took on elements of Arabic, Greek, Turkish, French, and the Slavic languages of the Balkans.
Ladino music, like the language itself, carries the history of the Sephardic community in its sound. It has elements in common with Portuguese fado, Spanish flamenco, Jewish klezmer music, and Turkish folk songs.
Today the ladino speaking community is small. Perhaps 20,000 speakers. Like other embattled language groups–the Gaelic speakers of Ireland, the French-speaking Cajuns of southwest Louisiana–Sephardic activists are working to keep their language alive.
Take a moment to check out this video of Jasmine Levy in performance:**
Remember. You heard it here first.
*I have some stories I’m dying to tell you. I want to tell you about Flat Arthur. I want to ponder the Roman Empire in the Middle East. I want to remember the Alamo. But first I need to get this dang proposal off to my agent and get a house finished.
**If you subscribe to History in the Margins by e-mail, you need to go to the website to see the video clip. Just click on the title.
An Extra Helping
I’ve recently started posting on Tumblr. Like History in the Margins, my Tumblr posts focus on history, writing, and writing about history, plus an occasional odd bit. Unlike my posts here, they are snapshots (sometimes literally) of what I’m working on, thinking about, and reading. I suppose you could describe them as Marginalia.
If you’d like a quick bite of history in between History in the Margin posts, drop on by: http://pdtoler.tumblr.com/.
Word With A Past: Vaudeville
In 1648, revolution broke out in the streets of Paris. Known at the time as the Fronde ,* it was in many ways a rehearsal for the French Revolution(s) that would follow. Barricades went up in the streets. Aristocrats were pulled out of their carriages and shot at. Militias paraded in the public squares. There were threats of pulling down the Bastille.
More important for the purposes of this blog post, the Fronde was fought in the media as well as in the streets. Printed placards were put up in public places and distributed door-to-door. Small notices, called billets (tickets), were strewn around the city streets. Peddlers sold political pamphlets on street corners like newspapers.** And satirical political songs, known as vaudevilles, became popular.
A contraction of the the phrase voix de ville (the voice of the town), vaudevilles were well named. Writers took popular tunes and wrote new lyrics to them about current events. Singers were paid to roam the streets and sing the latest tunes. Rich and poor alike would hum them as they went about their day. The songs became so popular that collections of greatest hits were compiled.
In eighteenth century France, vaudevilles became a way to get around restrictions on the theater. Theaters presented vaudevilles in conjunction with pantomime and comic sketches. Tap shoes optional.
* Slingshot, a name with a David and Goliath feel appropriate for a revolution that was, at base, about privilege.
** Almost a historical reference in its own right.