La música en las Coplas de Yosef haŝaḍic de Abraham Toledo (1732)

Abstract

Coplas de Yosef haŝaḍic by Abraham de Toledo consists of two types of stanzas. The absolute majority are quatrains that tell the Biblical story in verse. Intermingled with them are lyric poems in which emotions of the heroes or thanksgiving prayers are expressed. In the first two editions (Constantinople 1731-1732 and 1754-1755), out of the five known today, the lyrical poems are headed by epigraphs alluding to the original musical performance of Toledo's epic. The present article is an attempt to descipher these terms. Their majority refer to musical modes and rythms of the Ottoman art music tradition, while others refer to the melody of religious Hebrew poems which were well known to the circles where the work by Toledo was initially performed.