Fare Musica Antica (Ebraica) reinventing a usable past

Very little Jewish music in notation from before 1620 has come down to us. Next to this, however, a kind of “shadow repertoire” exists – the hundreds of poems by Jewish authors that we know were sung (at least upon occasion) that have survived in text-only form. My proposal is for a research project centered on Jewish poems from Italian sources, and their relation to extant repertoire: both notated music from Early Modern 'Gentile' sources and orally-transmitted song. The goal would be two-fold: an edition, and a series of performances based on the research. The whole would necessarily be complimented by a discussion of the close intertwining of research and creative expression, and its role in Early Music itself, especially when working with the data-poor repertoires typical of populations living outside of the mainstream, including the moral questions involved, especially considering the questions of authenticity or reception by the modern public.