SEPHARDIC MELODY AS A BASIS FOR A BOSNIAN SEVDALINKA

The origin of the melody of probably the best known and the most performed Sarajevo sevdalinka “Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu” (When I went to Bembaša) has been attracting the attention of researchers, writers, folklorists and lovers of folk music tradition. It is interesting to trace the thorny path that its popular melody passed from one end of Europe to the other and thus became part of Bosnian and Herzegovinian secular and spiritual Islamic musical tradition.

Only 39 years after the triumphant conquest of Constantinople, at the other end of the continent, the year of 1493 marked the fall of Granada. Spanish inquisition led by Spanish king Ferdinand II and queen Isabella I executed the policy of the purity of blood (Limpieza de sangre) with the aim of baptizing descendants of Jews and Muslims and bringing them back to Catholicism. Muslims of Endelusa were forcefully baptized, killed or banished to Morocco, and were finally exterminated in 1492. A tragic fate also befell Spanish Jews in the same year, and the Portuguese ones two years later. Destruction of the Spanish multicultural society was a crucial event for Jews, who would find a safe haven in the Ottoman Empire, upon the invitation by Sultan Bayezid II. Jews from the Pyrenean Peninsula, named Sephardim, brought, into their new homeland, their language Ladino, and with it their culture, customs and music. In Bosnia, as part of the Ottoman Empire, Sephardim were first mentioned in court records (sicils) dated in 1551. Ever since, Jews have been inseparable part of the multicultural society of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to Sephardic tradition, the melody of the well-known Sarajevo sevdalinka “Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu” draws its origin from the traditional Sephardic prayer tune “Odeha ki anitani...” from prayer “Seder alel”. The tune was related to the ritual of bidding farewell to the rest day of Shabbat. We cannot confirm with certainty under what circumstances and when this extremely melodious tune later also became part of Sephardic secular musical tradition, as a basis for the love song “Mi kerido, mi amado”. The first stanza of this romance goes as follows in Ladino: Mi kerido, mi amado/ken lo save onde stas/mi kerido, mi amado/kero verle i nada mas. The translation is: My love, my desire/ who knows where you are now/ my love, my desire/ I wish I could see you.

A Jewish theologian and long-time prominent professor of the violin at the Academy of Music in Sarajevo David Kamhi (1936–2021) believed that this Sephardic romance originated in Sarajevo and that it was sung across the Balkans to the same melody (Kamhi: 2017). During its development, Sephardic music came into touch with Moroccan, then with Greek and Turkish music, which resulted in interesting junctions and musical styles. From the lyrics of the cited Sephardic song one can conclude that its main motif is yearning for the beloved one. Since the feeling of yearning typically prevails in sevdalinka as well, we assume that it did not take long for an unknown folk poet to borrow this Sephardic melody as a basis for Sarajevo sevdalinka “Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu”. The song sang about a tragic love anecdote which took place at a well-known Sarajevo site Bentbaša/Bembaša.

According to interpretation by Himzo Polovina, lyrics of this sevdalinka go as follows: Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu/ na Bembašu, na vodu/ ja povedoh bijelo janje/ bijelo janje sa sobom./ Sve djevojke Bembašanke/ na kapiji stajahu/ samo moja mila, draga/ na demirli-pendžeru./ Ja joj rekoh: dobra večer/ dobra večer, djevojče/ ona meni dođ' do veče/ dođ' do veče, dilberče./ Ja ne odoh istu veče/ već ja odoh drugi dan/ drugog dana moja draga/ za drugog se udala (When I went to Bembaša / to Bembaša to the river/ I took a white lamb / a white lamb with me. / All the girls from Bembaša / were standing on the gates / only my dear darling / was standing on a high window. / I told her: Good evening, / Good evening, girl, / She told me: Come till night /, come till night, love. / I didn't go the same night / But I went the next day, / the next day my darling / married another one.).

The song speaks about a young guy who, having failed to come at the agreed time, missed the opportunity to marry his beloved. The second stanza of the lyrics, where his darling is on the high window, while other girls are on the gates indicates an unhappy end; all the other girls are on the gates (close by), and only his darling is on the high window (distance), which symbolizes an unattainable goal. The white lamb, perhaps the most interesting motif of the listener's questions in the whole song (why a lamb in a love story?) should not be understood literally. The lamb does not fit into usual elements of a love story and plot. However, even if we want to take into account different explanations such as the one that it is a qurban (association to former Isa-bey's zavija (monastery), or that it is just a lamb which the guy took to water, where cattle drank water in olden times, or to roast it on  a spit on the bank of the Mošćanica river, the most convincing answer to the question wherefore a lamb and why a lamb would be that the white lamb actually represents the guy's honesty, innocence, guileless youth, open love and, above all, the heart in love. The final verses of the sevdalinka, the next day my darling married another one speak for themselves – there is no need to further explain what happened. The missed moment will not return.

Bentbaša, from Turkish words bent and baša, was the name of a water dam on the Miljacka. The dam existed from 1462 to 1875. In the song, the word Bentbaša was replaced with Bembaša or Benbaša for easier singing. During his voyage through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech musicologist and researcher Ludvik Kuba (1863–1956) recorded varieties of the song “Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu” (with the described site Bimbaša) in Livno, Čajniče, Jeleč and Goražde. Citizens of Livno claimed that the song refers to Livno site of Bimbaša, which has the identical meaning (water dam).

Professor Kamhi rejects the opinion that the melody was brought to Bosnia by Ottoman soldiers in the early 20th century, since he believes that the song was composed far earlier. He claims that after their banishment, Sephardim first brought the song to Istanbul, and then to some other regions of the Ottoman Empire (Kamhi: 2017). We learn about the connection between the melody and Ottoman soldiers based on the composition “Vatan marşı” from 1908, by Ottoman poet and composer Rifat Bey (1869–1930). Melodic segments from the Sephardic melody were indeed used in this composition, though in a variation, which additionally confirms professor Kamhi's claim about its far earlier creation. Compared to the Sephardic, as well as our melody, “Vatan marşı” is far more modest, simpler and has fewer elements of musical elaboration.

To support the fact that the melody found its place in Bosniaks' spiritual Islamic music, we will mention the data that it served as a basis for the well-known qasida “Džud bi lutfik, ya Ilahi”, which was recited in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Džud bi lutfik, ya Ilahi/men lehu zadun kalil/muflisun bi sidqi ye' ti/inde babik, ya Dželil...).  This qasida opened the program of the “Evening of ilahijas and qasidas” in the Olympic Hall “Zetra” in Sarajevo in 1990. It should also be noted that in Bosnia and Herzegovina this qasida has been performed only to the identical melody of sevdalinka, and therefore the qasida can be labeled as our indigenous creation. In Turkey, where sources refer to khalif Ebu Bekr es-Siddik, r.a., as the author of the lyrics (in the title Hz. Ebu Bekr kasidesi), qasida “Cud bi lutfik, ya Ilahi” is performed to a melody composed by Haci Faik Bey, which has nothing in common with our melody.

Sephardic musical tradition and Bosnian and Herzegovinian sevdalinka share several common characteristics: simplicity, melodiousness, and the fact that both musical traditions are primarily vocal. Sevdalinka “Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu” has been performed and recorded by many performers of traditional folk music, including: Himzo Polovina, Safet Isović, Nada Mamula, Meho Puzić, Zehra Deović and others. This folk song has experienced many arrangements in the popular music as well, and was particularly exploited during the 14th Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo. As a matter of fact, it was published on a compilation album of sevdalinkas, performed by Nada Mamula, and the record was sold and donated to numerous visitors of Sarajevo Olympics of 1984.

Sevdalinka “Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu” is one of the most frequently performed traditional songs in the region. Indeed, its melody itself has something distant, mysterious, unattainable and unachieved. It is in this song that intertwining and intersecting of different cultures is best reflected, and the music which manifests intertwining of two cultures has engendered this beautiful musical treasure. The link between music of Sephardim and traditional urban music of Bosnia and Herzegovina should not be sought only in the past. It has continued to this day. It is confirmed, with her own example, by a prominent musician of Sephardic origin Marina Toshich, born in Sarajevo and a master on Arabic oud. With her album “Sevdah” (2019), she has continued the tradition of intertwining the two cultures.

References:

• Albahari, Aron (2017), “Porijeklo melodije narodne pjesme 'Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu'”, Magazin za kulturnu raznolikost, no. 1.

• Kamhi, David (2017), “Sefardska muzika u multikulturnoj Bosni i Hercegovini”. in Preporod, br. 3/1085, 01.02.2017.

• Kuba, Ludvik (1984), “Pjesme i napjevi iz Bosne i Hercegovine”, Sarajevo: Svjetlost.

• Sound recording of the song“Kad ja pođoh na Bembašu” (1984) Himzo Polovina, “Sevdah i suze”“, Zagreb: Jugoton LSY61939.