Between Nostalgia and Novelty – Yiddish Song in the Italian Renaissance

• In Event: The Study of Early-Modern Jewish Musics: Mapping the Field (II)

Abstract

During the 16th century, Northern Italy was an important centre of Hebrew and Yiddish manuscript production and publishing, producing a unique brand of “Yiddishkeit” where German-Jewish and Italian culture mixed freely, which eventually faded as the German-Jewish population assimilated. The short “Golden Age” of Yiddish in Italy saw numerous poems written, some with forms (and melodies) probably brought from Germany, others were born from this German-Italian fusion. In some cases, this can be fairly easily ascertained, but simpler forms, like octosyllabic quatrains, make the question more complex. One particularly interesting case is the enigmatic “ottava rima” melody, probably the basis for the Bovo-Bukh melody, which might (or might not) have impacted other Yiddish forms.

Author

• Avery Gosfield, Ensemble Lucidarium