Eli tsur yeshuati (le-Furim)

Eli tsur yeshuati (le-Furim). My god, the rock of my salvation (Purim song). Performed by hazzan Halevi [from Aleppo] accompanied by several singers on July 16, 1913. Cyl. # 631.          2:03

A precious recording of a song for Purim with an alphabetical acrostic attributed to R. David ben Yaacov Pardo (1718-1790). It was first published in Amsterdam in 1765 under the title Shirah hadashah with a Yiddish translation. The rare poetical form of this piyut corresponds to the Judeo-Spanish Coplas de Purim (nine lines of seven syllables per strophe in the ababbccdd rhyme pattern). The inclusion of this piyut in the Aleppo repertoire can be attributed to the influx of Livornese families to the city that began in the eighteenth century. Notably, the melody also resembles the traditional tune of the Coplas de Purim as sung by Judeo-Spanish speakers of Turkey and Salonika (starts at 00:36:51) even though the intonation in Lurie’s recording leans towards maqam Segah. For Judeo-Spanish Coplas de Purim, see: Isaac Levy, Antología de la liturgia judeo-española, vol. 4 (1965), p. 77; vol. 10 (1980), p. 266; and most especially Iacob M. Hassán, Las coplas de Purim (Madrid, 2010); Elena Romero, La Reina Ester En Solfa: Coplas Sefardíes de Purim sobre el Libro Bíblico de Ester : Edición y Estudio de los Textos (Barcelona, Logroño: Tirocinio; Fundación San Millán de la Cogolla. 2021).