A(lberto) Hemsi. Coplas Sefardies - (Chansons Judéo-espagnoles)

Issued by the Edition Orientale de Musique of Alexandria Egypt, these rare booklets focus on the Ladino musical compositions of the Jews of Rhodes in particular and the communities along the shores of the Adriatic, Ionian and Agean Seas in general. "The unusual interest in this collection of Spanish and mainly Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) folk songs lies in its importance as a historic and folkloristic document as well as in its artistic value, literal and musical, of the songs it contains. The songs of the first two volumes were collected at the island of Rhodes, the songs of the other three in Salonika. Judging by the musicianship revealed in the harmonic settings and by the evident care with which A. Hemsi has collected and arranged the songs, we can easily accept them as faithful transcriptions, but how close to the fifteenth-century original these modern versions are we cannot ascertain, because there are no known records, manuscript or printed, of them." Hispanic Review, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Apr., 1938) pp. 166-168