SEPHARDIC MUSIC:
A CENTURY OF RECORDINGS
E.M. von Hornbostel, Demonstration Collection of E.M. von Hornbostel and the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv
Label and Number: Folkways Records FE 4175 and re-released on Smithsonian
Folkways Records 04175
Format: LP and CD
Year Released: 1963
City, State, Country Released: NY, NY, United States
78-era Sephardic Songs:
Note: In 1963, Folkways Records released the "Demonstration Collection of E.M. von Hornbostel and the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv", a sampler of cylinders from the pioneer Berlin ethnomusicological collection. It included a cylinder, number 103, recorded by A.Z. Idelsohn in Jerusalem in March 1913. The track is described as "Pentateuch (?) Performed by a Catholic Jew from Spain." The recording is indeed Torah cantillation, specifically Exodus, Chapter 20, verses 1-3 and part of 4. The performer follows Sephardi practice; I have been told it is Yerushalmi or Morrocan.