According to the precept, before the wedding, the bride is taken to the ritual bath, in the “miqwe”, where she is submerged, bathed and then dressed ceremonially.
The women of the
family accompany her to the bathroom, giving special honor to her mother and to the mother
of the groom whom they call "la esfuegra grande".
In this ceremony only women
participate, who celebrate with food, sweets and songs like the theme presented here,
typical of the Sephardi of Salonica.
This song, generally accompanied by tambourines, is sung to the bride who is taken to the
ritual bath, to the "miqwe", but also sung alone at the wedding, participating in all the guests.
Interpreters
Elisabetta Marcora
Lisbon based singer from Italy, with a special interest in world music especially in traditional
music from the Mediterranean and the Balkans.
Integrant in musicals projects exploring a repertoire focused on this area, Malotira, malotira_music) and in a women musical project,
Asteria Ensemble asteria.musica
Héléna Morag
Violinist and singer, Héléna draws her musical inspirations from the Mediterranean at the
crossroads of the multiple repertoires that coexist there. Her innership has been moored in
Greece for a few years, where she fell under the spell of taverns musics and Judeo-Spanish
songs.
She plays in Café Maslum, a group of Judeo-Spanish music from Greece and Turkey, and in Les Orecchiette, a group of music from Southern Italy mainly oriented towards the repertoire in Griko language.
Gu Nunes
Brazilian clarinetist currently living in Lisbon. With over 10 years of orchestral experience,
creating shows and performances, as well as free improvisation and collective composition.
They currently works in different projects related to world music, from samba circles and
Brazilian music in general, to traditional Greek and Sephardic music, as well as research
projects and authorial repertoire interpretation that integrate Brazilian and Portuguese
rhythms.
Film by Filipe Casimiro
Artist, paintings: Valerio Giovannini