Voice of the Turtle is a musical group specializing in Sephardic music. VotT is unique in its emphasis on doing original historical research before making recordings. The band members travel the world looking for documents of Sephardic songs, and also interview community members who may remember particular musical arrangements. Their work is of both musical and historical import. An article in Rootsworld says,

"Based in Boston, Voice of the Turtle is one of the best-known groups performing Sephardic music in America. Theirs is an unusual marriage of artists who see the power of music more than just a presentation to a concert audience. 'We are all galvanized by the idea that it is critically important to preserve oral traditions in any culture. It's not so much about preserving Sephardic music but encouraging people to look at their own culture. Take from the people around you the treasures that are often missed. Learn to value the treasures that the elders have brought with them,' says Wachs."

The group members are:

• Derek Burrows
• Lisle Kulbach
• Jay Rosenberg
• Judith Wachs

Wachs died in October 2008. A memorial concert was held at the Somerville Theatre

Somerville Theatre

The Somerville Theater is a movie theater and concert venue in Davis Square, located just outside of Boston, Massachusetts, in the city of Somerville in the United States of America. It is currently the only operating movie theater in Somerville since the closing of the theater complex at Assembly...

 in Somerville, MA on October 19, 2009.

History and Recordings

The group was established in 1978, and has twelve full-length recordings. Nine recordings were published by Titanic Records, a leading publisher of early music. The book "Sacred Song in America" by Stephen Marini contains a detailed history of the group, including the story of how Wachs (who comes from an Ashkenazic Jewish background) first came to be interested in Sephardic music.

Music by Voice of the Turtle is often described as unusual. The recording "A Different Night, a Passover Musical Anthology," contains 23 versions of the song Chad Gadya

Chad Gadya

Chad Gadya is a playful cumulative song in Aramaic and Hebrew. It is sung at the end of the Passover Seder, the Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover...

. The New York Times comments (regarding the album "From the Shores of the Golden Horn': Music of the Spanish Jews of Turkey,") that "far from being esoteric, this powerfully expressive repertory will leave no one unmoved."

Languagues and Instruments

Voice of the Turtle sings in a variety of languages typical of Sephardic music, including not only Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Hebrew, and English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, but also Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), Aramaic, Yiddish, Judeo-Italian, Judeo-Provencal, and Judeo-Arabic.

Instruments played by the group include bagpipes

Bagpipes

Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes of many different types come from...

, kamanja, cornettino

Cornettino

The cornettino was the descant instrument of the cornetto family. Cornettini usually featured a primary scale of C or D major, with middle C or the adjacent D the pedal note of the instrument. The regular cornett was the 'treble' instrument of the family....

, chalumeau

Chalumeau

This article is about the historical musical instrument. For the register on the clarinet that is named for this instrument, see Clarinet#Range....

, dumbek, riqq, shawm

Shawm

The shawm was a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family made in Europe from the 12th century until the 17th century. It was developed from the oriental zurna and is the predecessor of the modern oboe. The body of the shawm was usually turned from a single piece of wood,...

, bombard

Bombard (music)

The bombard, also known as talabard or ar vombard in the Breton language or bombarde in French, is a contemporary conical bore double reed instrument widely used to play traditional Breton music. The bombard is a woodwind instrument; the reed is held between the lips. The bombard is a member of the...

, 'ud, saz

Baglama

thumb|180px|Cura and bağlamaThe bağlama is a stringed musical instrument shared by various cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Central Asia....

, and ney

Ney

The ney is an end-blown flute that figures prominently in Middle Eastern music. In some of these musical traditions, it is the only wind instrument used. It is a very ancient instrument, with depictions of ney players appearing in wall paintings in the Egyptian pyramids and actual neys being found...

.