References to the City of Thessaloniki in Sephardic Songs

This paper aims to present Sephardic songs which refer to Thessaloniki or to districts or landmarks of the city. These songs either narrate historical events which affected the living conditions of the citizens of Thessaloniki or mirror perspectives of life in the city during the 19th and the 20th centuries. Apart from their historical and anthropological context, the selected songs, often found in variants, are also of musicological interest. They have either been preserved in western notation transcripts, and/or in professional recordings which took place in Thessaloniki at the beginning of the 20th century, and/or in sound archives. In most cases, the latter include songs which were sung by Greek Jews who had migrated to other countries before the Holocaust or by survivors of the Holocaust. Variants of each song will be presented, along with their sources. The differences between the variants of each song, having to do with lyrics, melodic lines and motions, musical scales or use of modality, will be examined. Influences of Ottoman music will be traced, as well as similarities with local urban folk songs or popular songs of the time. Thus, issues that have to do with the preservation of these songs, as well as the difficulties that occur while attempting to present them anew, will be highlighted.