Persistence and Transformation of a Sephardi Penitential Hymn under Changing Enviromental Conditions

A noteworthy study based on the comparative study of one Sephardic melody over a vast geographical and historical span. The presence of one melody in all Eastern and Western Sephardi communities generates many versions of one basic form. Usually none of these versions can be considered as more original or archetypal than the next; rather all the musical versions are what can be called “The Tradition”. This article deals with 43 versions of the well known Selicha melody “Atanu LeHallot Panecha”. Its first aim is to develop analytic instruments and comparative methods to establish the core of persistence, and what tendencies guide its transformations. It appears that the versions can be divided into two circles of Tradition; the European and the Eastern which overlap in the transition area of the Balkan. Within the circle itself the versions line up into two areas of tradition the first being the central and the other being peripheral. Although neither of these definitions is evaluated to be better or worse than the other