Music for Guitar and Soundtrack | Ladino Music

THROUGH THE ALLEYS OF TIME
for guitar and sound track

DUTATION: 22 minutes

INSTRUMENTATION: guitar and soundtrack

YEAR COMPOSED: 2007

THROUGH THE ALLEYS OF TIME (2007) by Lior Navok is a 22-minute work for classical guitar and soundtrack inspired by the fading Ladino language and culture. Drawing on authentic archival recordings of traditional Ladino songs, prayers, and chants—alongside manipulated sounds of soprano, oud, lute, recorders, viola da gamba, percussion, and guitar—the piece follows the imagined journey of a troubadour searching for a long-lost song. Blending historical voices with contemporary textures, the work becomes a passage through time, evoking the rich multicultural heritage of Andalucía and the Sephardic diaspora.

GUITAR AND LADINO | LADINO GUITAR | CLASSICAL GUITAR AND LADINO | GUITAR AND SOUND TRACK | LADINO MUSIC GUITAR

THROUGH THE ALLEYS OF TIME Ladino guitar music [Hard Copy]

$41.00

Quantity

Item:	Performance Score + Soundtrack CD
Format:	Hard Copy
Edition:	2nd Edition
Copyright:	Lior Navok
Publisher:	Lior Navok Music
Pages:	29
Binding:	Plastic Spiral
Ink:	Black & White
Paper Size:	DIN A4 / Letter

Through the Alleys of Time – for classical guitar and tape focuses on the Ladino language, culture, and way of life that is fading away as the older generation passes. My inspiration for this vanishing tradition came during a visit to Córdoba and Sevilla, where the alleys seemed to whisper the tales of long-gone local communities. I envisioned a once-thriving community that, after 1492, dispersed in various directions, taking its language and traditions to new places like Greece and Bulgaria.

The music narrates the journey of a troubadour—a folk singer traveling from village to village in search of a particular song. Along the way, he encounters fragments of other songs, prayers, and chants, including Jewish prayers, traditional Ladino songs (Judæo-Espagnol), narratives, and influences from Christianity and Islam. During the Golden Age in Andalucía, these three religions coexisted harmoniously, enriching each other's cultures.

All the recorded fragments are authentic, featuring elderly men and women singing songs from their childhood. They represent perhaps the last link in a long chain, as these songs and expressions were not fully passed down to subsequent generations, if at all. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Shoshana Weich-Shahak for her lifelong dedication to tracing these singers and informants, and for generously allowing me to use excerpts from her recordings. Thus, the work as a whole becomes a passage through time, where voices, sounds, and images from the past emerge before our troubadour, whose quest leads him to discover his long-awaited song – "La Serena."

Through the Alleys of Time was commissioned by the Legacy Heritage Fund, through the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, dedicated to Guitarist Liat Cohen.