December 01, 2008
An Invitation to Piyut
There's a terrific website devoted to introducing the world of piyutim... to the world. The Piyut website explores historical and contemporary versions of piyut: the texts, the music, the history, and the various styles from different places in the world. There is a collection of piyutim and melodies which is also searchable. There is a list of melodies, articles, website radio, and lists of new recordings. There is also a section devoted to liturgical texts not always included with the traditional groupings of piyutim. Many of the tables are in Hebrew, but the site doesn't carry a full mirror in English of all the Hebrew pages. Let's say you want to hear "Ma Nishtana". You can get the text, and also hear it in the Egyptian, Kurdistani, Babylonian, Tunisian, Yemeni, Moroccan, and Ashkenazi styles. You can also get some information on the poets of the texts of the piyutim. This site, sponsored in part by Avi Chai, is an excellent site for anyone curious to learn more about the world of Jewish piyutim. (also spelled with 2 y's... Piyyutim, if you're going to Google or look it up on Wikipedia).http://www.piyut.org.il/english/ Posted by jmwc at December 1, 2008 11:23 PM