Here's something very cool. In January I posted a Pesach post, featuring a 17th century Latin Haggadah (link). The translator, Johannes Rittangel, happened to have included the musical notation for two Passover night hymns according to the tune which they were sung among Western European Jews in his time. I jokingly, but hopefully, asked talented readers if they would care to play those tunes on a harpsichord and upload it so we could hear it. One polymathic reader did just that (link; although I suspect that we ought to call that "harpsichord" style).
Paul Shaviv, principal of TanenbaumCHAT in Toronto was so intrigued by those tunes that he asked the school's music directors if they could transcribe the music in modern notation and arrange it for the school's choir to perform, and they did. Here it is!
As was already noted in the comments, Adir Hu in particular, while certainly sounding antique, is recognizable as the common tune still sung by Ashkenazim. The other one, Ki Lo Na'eh, sounds very medieval and both of them sound great. One teacher at the school said "It is not exactly what I would describe as jaunty . . . it is more of a dirge than a toe-tapper" which I cannot disagree with - as quoted in the National Post, which did a nice story about it here.
I should repost the music as it appeared in Rittangel's Haggadah, so here it is:
I should also mention that I asked Paul if he could get his choir to give life to Christian Gerson's notation for Talmudic chant circa 1600 [1]:
Gerson, a convert, printed this sample. Note that it is set to be to a tune which rhymes "herring" and "pfenning." I'm not sure if Gerson's point was that this traditional chant for reading the Talmud was to this folk tune, or if he was mocking the Talmud and setting it to trivial words. Alternatively, they may actually be a translation of a few lines in the Talmud - of course trivial seeming ones - but I'm not sure.
In any case, whether or not I ever got to hear a good version of Christian Gerson's rendition of The Lady Gets a Herring for Three Pfennings to a tune probably used by the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Eidels">Maharsha, I couldn't be happier than with what Paul did with the Pesach songs. Many thanks to him for thinking of it, and for his talented students and teachers for making it happen.
[1] I'm not sure if it's a good idea to give a hat tip to the individual who supplied me with this image, so let me just say thank you.
Thanks! This was a great experience for our school and our students. Special thanks to two very talented and dedicated music teachers -- Janice Rose and Jaclyn Klimitz, and to JS teacher (and talented musician) Zev Steinfeld. This was recorded at rehearsal (hence the casual clothes...). The actual performance was a WOW! As you linked, a major Canadian nation newspaper -- the National Post - sent a reporter and a photographer to the dress rehearsal, and ran it as the lead story on page 3!!
ReplyDeleteThanks to 'On the Main Line' for the stimulus!
This would seem to be Renaissance-era music, not medieval. As for the "dirge" quality, it hardly strikes my ear as a dirge; but in any case, if this were performed in one instead of three (one sounding more like what I'm used to hearing in this style of music), it would be quite peppy.
ReplyDeleteMore like this tempo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lDCxv3Hv2g
ReplyDelete... I am shocked!! Clearly, singing at the suggested tempo, as per the clip, would lead to mixed dancing !!!
DeleteAll comments, especially the learned ones, appreciated -- but give these kids a break -- this is a high school taking on an unusual challenge, and doing it with great enthusiasm.
Yes of course; I'm only responding to the comment about the character of the music. I am not one to criticize anybody's performance. Mixed dancing, also of course: these musical forms were intimately tied to dance. When I was in music school they invited a troupe of Baroque dance specialists to give a performance, so we could better understand what we were dealing with.
DeleteIf you want more of the same, just search for madrigal singers on YouTube, and good luck finding the secular selections :)
Wow, you're a stickler. ;-)
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree, these are joyful, not mournful. Yet to our modern ears they are not exactly peppy, but I guess that's a matter of opinion.
I guess that's where sitting in Med/Ren Music History class for a while changes your attitude :)
ReplyDelete"All comments, especially the learned ones, appreciated -- but give these kids a break -- this is a high school taking on an unusual challenge, and doing it with great enthusiasm."
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding me? They are great, and not just for a high school! I don't think anyone was coming close to unkind. We're talking about the tunes themselves (dirge? not dirge?), not the singers who are just fine.
Nice! Glee should make an episode out of it...
ReplyDeleteI hope the one who organized this based on your blog gave a nice donation as per the request. He surely benefited!! In any case, what a nice thing...However next time post just the audio. There is a problem of Kol Isha here -- better then to probably not be able to see what the girls singing look like...
ReplyDeleteI want to make it clear that Paul Shaviv is a dear friend of mine - well, virtually so anyway. I have nothing but admiration for him. We share common interests and would get along just peachy if we lived close to one another. (But thanks for saying what was undoubtedly well-intentioned on your part. :-)
DeleteAs for the other point, while I appreciate that you are trying to be accommodating within your own sensibility - after all, some people would not listen even without seeing, and would question even posting audio - there are good reasons why I did not take such a sensibility into account at the expense of posting this properly the way it deserved. Since I don't want to make this thread about kol ishah, if you want to know more about what I have in mind feel free to email me.
For those who would not listen to kol isha without a picture (I would question if the picture would qualify for knowing the woman)the picture would make it obvious not to click.
DeleteNow i really want to hear that chant....
ReplyDeleteOne polymathic reader did just that
ReplyDeleteLOL! I don't think I've ever been called that before. I think Yitz is completely right about the tempi and I've uploaded speeded up versions: Adir Hu, Ki Lo Naeh
As you implied, my "harpsichord" is GarageBand on my Mac laptop. Hag Sameah!
Yes, this is about the tempo I've been using for this tune for ages (and not in Israeli pronunciation with a thick American accent).
DeletePretty amazing that a blog post led to all this. Kol hakovod!
ReplyDeleteCan someone post a link to the modern notation? My early-music reading skills are a bit rusty. Might want to have a crack at this.
ReplyDeleteGreat work by all involved! It's true that any guess about the correct tempo for this music is just that (a guess -- even if an educated one). It probably would have been "stylistically obvious" to a 17th-century musician how these should be sung, though. The metronome is a 19th-century invention.
ReplyDeleteThe Talmudic chant notation sample in this post looks pretty straightforward. Humming it out, it sounds a little like "standard" (eastern Ashkenazi) Torah trope: major-scale sounds that resolve to a different tonic.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is amazing!! Wouldn't be possible without the internet.
ReplyDeleteThis has been available in libraries probably ever since it was printed.
DeleteKol hakavod, S., for planting the seed for this fascinating project. I hope the Zamir Chorale (New York or Boston) picks up on this music and makes it part of their repertoire.
ReplyDeleteRenaissance, not medieval in any sense at all. period.
ReplyDeleteAdam -- thanks for your comment. Others have suggested the same (that the correct description is Renaissance / Baroque). There is definitely room for discussion. However- a) there is a well-know academic debate regarding when the Middle Ages finished for Jewish communities (politically / philosophically / culturally / economically) and b) it has to be plausible that ritual music like this -- esp music that was only sung once/twice each year - tends to retain anachronistic character, and therefore may (in this case) have much earlier roots than the time it was recorded. But point taken.
DeleteAnyway it's Yekkish, so by definition it's a mi-Sinai tune. :-)
DeleteI just listened to the music (I didn't have access to audio before). Much more beautiful than I suspected. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteEven with the presence of our Rabbi, we somehow won't sound like this....but I do love it....Happy Passover to all!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is lovely, but as to how authentic, I'm not so sure. As far as I can make out the lower voice is not sung at all according to what is written in the music, and even the upper voice has been changed in several key places.
ReplyDelete2,447 views on YouTube so far...
ReplyDelete... now (Tuesday) over 3,000!
Delete...motzai chag (Sunday evening): approaching 4,200 !
Deletewhats interesting to me is that in this version they dont repeat kel binay , kel binay ,2x, in the chorus
ReplyDeleteThe tune for Ki Lo Na'eh sounds very much like the tune my grandfather (who just passed away) sang. I never heard the tune anywhere else that I attended the seder, but now I know that the tune is quite old. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteHave a good yomtov,
Dave
This tune is actually very much like the one my husbands family sings by the Seder. I suspect that they have the more "correct" version, being that this is a tune handed down from father to son. It does sound very different sung by mostly male voices with a slightly faster beat. I guess to hear the authentic version one could join a Hungarian/chassidishe Seder. Some chassidishe Cd albums also have this song recorded. So no, this was not the first time in hundreds of years that this song was sung.
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This is fascinating and beautifully done! Isn't it strange that the English transliteration uses "a" for kamats ("lecha") instead of "o" ('lecho"), as one would expect in an old German Haggadah?
ReplyDeleteChristian Hebraists generally pronounced Hebrew more like the Sephardic tradition, regardless of their country of origin. There are exceptions, and you can find transliterations in some of these old books which use an "o."
ReplyDeleteAny chance of getting a copy of the arrangement? I'm sure my musical family might try this out at our Seder if we had a copy of the music.
ReplyDelete