JR005
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Melody & text: traditional. A paraliturgical pizmon in Hebrew from the Baghdadi community in India. Learned from the singing of Rahel Musleah. Translation: Tal Rogoff ©. Although from this eastern region, the scale sounds very western to my ear.
Melody & text: traditional; a cumulative song in Aramaic from Romania. Learned from the singing of Avraam Altarats. This song, sung at the end of the seder (festive meal) on the festival of Pésach (Passover), is sometimes sung in Aramaic, Hebrew, Ladino, Yiddish, German, Italian or Russian; my family always sings it in Aramaic.
Melody & text: traditional. A Sephardi song in Ladino from the Balkans. Learned through Matilda Cohen-Sarano of Jerusalem. Translation: Jill Rogoff ©. This song contains several ‘floating’ elements; i.e. lines or verses that appear in many other songs.
Melody & text: traditional; a piyyut (paraliturgical song) in Hebrew from Italy. Learned from Aharon Cohen and Matilda Cohen-Sarano of Jerusalem. This song is sung at weddings and in synagogues in Rome and Trieste on Simhát Toráh and Yom Kippùr, when the ark (containing the books of the Torah) is ceremonially opened. Translation: Jill Rogoff ©.
Melody & text: traditional. A Sephardi endecha (lament) in Ladino from Turkey and Rhodes. Learned from Matilda Cohen-Sarano of Jerusalem, who shared with me the verses that her late mother, Diana Hadjes-Sarano z”l, used to sing. Translation: Jill Rogoff ©.
Melody: Anon.; text: Psalms 19:15. In Hebrew. Learned from Rachel Medwin of Philadelphia. This song from the repertoire of the Jewish Reform movement in North America shows that the custom of setting ancient Jewish texts to music continues to this day: the tune demonstrates the influence of Western folk/pop music.
Melody & text: traditional; a women’s song in Arabic from Rad’a, South Yemen. Learned from Tsvia Bar of Holon. In Yemen, the Jewish men always sang the liturgical and paraliturgical songs in Hebrew. The women composed their own songs in the vernacular of their region; these reflected their more down-to-earth lives, and remained a totally separate repertoire. Translation: Tsvia Bar & Jill Rogoff ©.
Melody: attributed to Rabbi Yehiel Michael (circa 1731-1786) of Zolochov (Galicia, Poland). Learned through Benny Hendel of Israel Radio. R. Yehiel was a disciple of the Ba’al Shem Tov, who founded the Hasidic movement in Eastern Europe. A niggún, part of the Ashkenazi musical tradition, is a melody sung to vocables (words that have no dictionary meaning), traditionally on Shabbát or some other festive occasion. The legend associated with this one relates that R. Yehiel would get so carried away singing it every Shabbát that he would ask one of his students to watch over him. One Shabbát, however, both the student and the rabbi got so carried away that the student forgot to remain vigilant, and R. Yehiel’s soul left his body.
Melody & text: traditional. A Sephardi kantiga de boda (wedding song) in Ladino from Tetuan, Spanish Morocco. Learned from Arcadio de Larrea Palacin’s book, Canciones Rituales Hispano-Judias: Celebraciones familiares de transito y ciclo festivo anual. Madrid: I.D.E.A., 1954. Translation: Jill Rogoff ©.
Melody & text: traditional; an Ashkenazi lullaby in Yiddish from Poland. Learned from The Yiddish Song Book, comp. Jerry Silverman. NY: Stein and Day, 1983. Translation: Benny Hendel & Jill Rogoff ©.
Melody: traditional Ethiopian; text: Rabbi Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (1505-1584). Shabbat song in Hebrew. This text (of which I sing only two verses here) by the famous kabbalist of Zfat is sung in every Jewish congregation on Erev Shabbát (Friday night). I learned this version, set more than a century ago to this tune by Abba Feivevitch, from Aharon Cohen of Jerusalem.
Melody: attributed to Nissen Blumenthal, arr. Jill Rogoff with Mitch Clyman ©; text: lines 1-4: Proverbs 3:17-18; lines 5-8: Lamentations 4:21. A liturgical song in Hebrew, sung as the Torah scrolls are returned to the ark. Romanian-born Blumenthal (1805-1903) was a famous hazán (cantor). By the 1950s, his melody had gone through the ‘folk process’: the first part remained as he had written it, but the second half had changed considerably. This melody is sung throughout the Ashkenazi communities of the former British Commonwealth. It was my favourite synagogue melody during my childhood.
Melody: Sara Levi-Tanai (1910/11-2005) ©ACUM; text: Shir HaShirim (the Song of Songs), verses 6:11, 7:12-13. Israeli-born Levi-Tanai was the leader of the famous Inbal dance company. In addition to dancing and choreographing, she also wrote several beautiful songs based on ancient texts. Translation: Jill Rogoff ©.
Melody & text: traditional. A Sephardi song in Ladino from Sarajevo. Learned through Matilda Cohen-Sarano of Jerusalem. Translation: Jill Rogoff ©. The melody is said to have been a popular Yugoslavian song.
Melody & text: traditional; a song from Kurdistan -- in the Kurmanji Sorani dialect -- that is shared by the Jewish and Muslim communities. Learned from the singing of Ilana Elia.
Melody & text: traditional; a wedding song in Farsi from Teheran. Learned from Nehemia Bejik of Jerusalem. Translation: Nehemia Bejik & Jill Rogoff ©. Jews traditionally get married under a hupà; this is a canopy, held up at each corner by an honoured guest, which symbolises Heaven.