Sephardic Music - Instrumentation

Instrumentation

Sephardic music, including pan-Sephardic music which may not necessarily be Judeo-Spanish, is primarily vocal. Instruments, when they are used, are played to accompany songs. Instrumental practice among Sephardim has generally reflected that of the host culture: Greek, Turkish, Moroccan, etc. The instruments most common are plucked lutes (fretless: 'nd, the Middle Eastern lute; and in Turkey fretted saz or sometimes mandoline or the chumbush), kanun or santur (plucked or hammered Middle Eastern zither), violin and hand drums (frame and goblet).

For weddings and other celebrations, musicians might also be hired from the Muslim community. On the other hand, skilled Jewish musicians would be hired by the Muslim community. Generally, Sephardic men played both local percussion and melody instruments, while women usually sang unaccompanied in domestic contexts, and at weddings accompanied their singing with tambourines and sometimes other percussion instruments. Molho describes Salonica Sephardic women using kitchen utensils as improvised percussion, in a manner reminiscent of Spanish and Portuguese village practice today. (Molho 2021) In the eastern Mediterranean, women musicians specializing in singing and drumming for weddings were known as tanyederas, and they played a central role in the wedding events. Some early 20th-century Ottoman-area Jewish schools taught 'udand mandoline to girls, and some women learned to play the piano. In any case, whether or not instruments are used, the main and always appropriate instrument in Sephardic music is the voice.

Medieval instruments as such are not used, except in cases such as the 'ud where the instrument has survived with minimal changes in traditional practice. Sephardim, like other traditional musicians, often adapt traditional instruments to current norms: at a Sephardic wedding one will definitely not find any medieval instruments, but will likely notice an electronic keyboard.