At the recent Jewish Studies conference in Boston, December, 2003, Francesco Spagnolo gave more insights into Italian Jewish music. The CD will allow you to follow this new important area of research. Selections and commentaries by Francesco Spagnolo (Yuval Italia, yuval@powerlink.it). 42 tracks.

Italian Jewish Musical Traditions From the Leo Levi Collection (1954-1961)
Part of the Anthology of Music Traditions in Israel, No. 14, edited by Edwin Seroussi. Produced in Jerusalem – Roma, 2001, by The Jewish Music Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Roma. Scholarly edition.

The CD comes in a box with a booklet either in English/Hebrew or Italian/Hebrew, with an introduction to the traditional Italian Jewish music repertoires, and commentaries for each of the 42 tracks presented in the selection. Leo Levi (Casale Monferrato, 1912- Jerusalem 1982) was the first scholar who devoted his research to Italian Jewish oral musical tradition. “The recordings collected by Italian-Israeli ethnomusicologist Leo Levi throughout the 1950’s constitute a unique testimony to the wealth of Italian Jewish musical traditions. The first and only extensive aural documentation of a fascinating cross-cultural world, these melodies take the listener on a musical journey across Jewish Italy, painting the portrait of a lost world. A large portion of this orally transmitted heritage was lost over the first half of the 20th century, and can only be heard in recordings.” The CD is available through the Jewish Music Research Center at the Hebrew
University jmrc@cc.huji.ac.il .