Medieval Elements in the Liturgical Music of the Jews of Southern France and Northern Spain

Refutes the theory held by Idelsohn and others that Sephardic music reflected solely Arabic influence, and posits that, from the mid-12th c. to the end of the 15th c., the center of gravity of Iberian Jewish culture moved northward to Christian Spain and Provence. The burgeoning musical culture of that region must have affected the music of the Jews there, just as the synagogue song of the German Jews was influenced by the secular song and Christian chant of northern Europe. Utilizing materials from Christian and Jewish sources, and employing the aid of a computer, the author has compared the musical notation of the two repertories and shown that they share a common vocabulary of melodic idioms which prevailed in southwestern Europe from the 12th to the mid-15th c.