Judeo-Spanish songs in the Sephardic communities of Montreal and Toronto: Survival, function, change

Ph.D. dissertation. An examination of traditional Judeo-Spanish song in the Sephardic communities of Montreal and Toronto. A corpus of some 300 songs recorded in a field study is described in terms of context, function, themes, distribution by age and gender, and transmission. Transcribed examples represent all types of song in the repertoire, including frequently neglected light and topical material. A complete list of recorded songs, cross-referenced to other published transcriptions and recordings, is included in an appendix. Major change and severe diminution in the tradition are described as a culturally valid phenomenon rather than the premature death of a static tradition: The potential interaction between native and non-native performers is not a corruption of the tradition but potentially a new chapter in its history.