In New York City during the winter of 1922 and the spring of 1923, Mair Jose Benardete recorded the texts of the thirty-nine traditional ballads published in this volume. His collection, the beginning of Judeo-Spanish ballad research in America, was assembled when the oral tradition was still rich and vigorous among immigrants to New York from the Sephardic settlements of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. Among the ballads are a number of rare text types, some never again recorded in the Sephardic communities of the United States, In addition, many of the texts provide new insights into the origins of the thematic traditions they represent. Samuel G. Armistead and Joseph H. Silverman have edited the ballads collected by Benardete, offering an English abstract and exhaustive bibliography for each ballad. In addition to placing each ballad within the context of its Sephardic variants, the bibliographies refer to the most important collections in the modern Castilian, Portuguese, Catalan, and Hispano-American traditions, to earlier (fifteenth- to seventeenth-century) evidence, and to any known analogs in other European traditions. The volume also includes a general bibliography, a thematic classification of the ballads, several indexes, and a glossary of exotic lexical elements. In an introduction, professors Armistead and Silverman present a documented survey of Judeo-Spanish ballad scholarship with particular attention to fieldwork in teh United States and elsewhere. Benardete himself attributed the decline of ballad singing among the Sephardim to a growing preference for phonographic recordings over traditional family singers. The need for further field-work increases as "Sephardic folkspeech and folklore retreat before the irresistible onslaught of the English language and modern American mass-media culture" (from the Intro -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- THE BALLADS -- 1. EL DESTIERRO DEL CID (á-o) + LAS QUEJAS DE JIMENA (á-e) (MP 5/A9 + MP 3/A3) -- 2. ALMERIQUE DE NARBONA (i) + RONCESVALLES (i) + LAS BODAS EN PARIS (i) (MP 20/B8 + MP 20/B3 + MP 95/M14) -- 3. EL SUENO DE DOÑA ALDA (á-e) + MELISENDA INSOMNE {á-e) (MP 21/B6 + MP 28/B17) -- 4. GAIFEROS JUGADOR (á-e) (B15) -- 5. ROSAFLORIDA Y MONTESINOS {í-a) (MP 26/B20) -- 6. JUAN LORENZO (á) (MP 12/C2) -- 7. LA MUERTE DEL DUQUE DE GANDÍA (¿-a) (MP 14/C12) -- 8. LA EXPULSIÓN DE LOS JUDÍOS DE PORTUGAL (í-o) (MP 13/C13) -- 9. LA MUERTE DEL PRÍNCIPE DON JUAN (á-a) (MP 15/C14) -- 10. EL NACIMIENTO Y VOCACIÓN DE ABRAHAM (strophic) (MP 30/E3) -- 11. EL SACRIFICIO DE ISAAC (á-o) (MP 31/E5) -- 12. EL ROBO DE DINA (o) (MP 32/E7) -- 13. TAMAR Y AMNÓN (á-a) (MP 37/E17) -- 14. BLANCAFLOR Y FILOMENA (é-a) (MP 100/F1) -- 15. HERO Y LEANDRO (ó) + LA MALCASADA DEL PASTOR (ó) (MP 41/F2 + MP 72/L8) -- 16. EL ROBO DE ELENA (d-o) (MP 43/F5) -- 17. TARQUINO Y LUCRECIA (á-a) (MP 45/F7) -- 18. VIRGILIOS (é) (MP 46/F8) -- 19. LAS HERMANAS REINA Y CAUTIVA (í-a) (MP 48/H1) -- 20. DON BUESO Y SU HERMANA (strophic) (MP 49/H2) -- 21. LA VUELTA DEL MARIDO (/) (MP 58/11) -- 22. LA VUELTA DEL MARIDO (é) (MP 59/12) -- 23. EL CONDE NIÑO (d) (MP 55/J1) -- 24. DIEGO LEÓN (á-a) (MP 63/J5) -- 25. LA AMANTE ABANDONADA (polyas.) (K2) -- 26i EL PÁJARO VERDE (á-a) (MP 6 6 / K 5 ) -- 27. EL CONDE ALARCOS (t-a) (MP 64/L1) -- 28. LA MALA SUEGRA (,d-e) (MP 70/L4) -- 29. LA MALCASADA DEL PASTOR (ó) + JUAN LORENZO (á) (MP 72/L8 + MP 12/C2) -- 30. LA MUJER ENGAÑADA (í-a) (MP 74/L13) -- 31. EL RAPTO (i-a) (MP 94/05) -- 32. EL FORZADOR (i-a) (MP 96/07) -- 33. SILVANA (t-a) (MP 98/P1) -- 34. DELGADINA (d-a) (MP 99/P2) -- 35. GERINELDO (í-o) (MP 101/Q1) -- 36. REPULSA Y COMPASIÓN (á) (MP 115/S5) -- 37. EL SUEÑO DE LA HIJA (polyas.) (MP 68, 129/S6).
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