[HANASHIR:4879] Re: hatikvah

[jerd <jerd...>]

The great theme Smetana chose to represent the river has an interesting and 
musing story. 
This melody is now commonly sung in Czechoslovakia with some amusing words 
about a cat 
coming into a house through a hole in the wall, while a dog through a window, 
and it is 
generally thought to be a Czech folk song inserted into the symphonic poem by 
the 
composer. The truth is very nearly the opposite. When Vltava (Moldau) became 
well 
known, people took Smetana's tune and decorated it with the existing familiar 
words to it. 
The text is an old one, and it was first published in a big collection of Czech 
folk songs that 
appeared during Smetana's lifetime.

There is also no mistaking that this tune and the first 8 bars of Hatikvah are 
virtually the same.

Judy :)

> ** Original Subject: [HANASHIR:4876] Re: hatikvah
> ** Original Sender: "Adrian Durlester" <durleste (at) home(dot)com>
> ** Original Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 14:29:19 -0600

> ** Original Message follows... 

>
> Actually, Shimon Cohen and others discredit the "Moldau" theory. Shimon, who
> belongs to one of Israel's founding families, claims the original source is
> a Roumanian folk tune called, I believe, the Donkey and the Cart. Smetana's
> "The Moldau" simply utilized this and other folk melodies.
> 
> The author of HaTikvah is, most assuredly, N. H. Imber.
> 
> Adrian
> 
> -----Original Message-----From: owner-hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org 
> [mailto:owner-
hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org]On
> Behalf Of jerd (at) centurytel(dot)net
> Sent: Monday, January 10, 2000 1:56 PM
> To: janeen kobrinsky; hanashir
> Subject: [HANASHIR:4874] Re: hatikvah
> 
> 
> Janeen,
> 
> You do know that a major part of the melody of Hatikvah was taken from
> Smetana's
> Moldau .  The Moldau is the 2nd of 6 symphonic poems written by Smetana
> around 1872.
> The entire cycle of 6 poems is titled Ma Vlast and the second movement was
> called Vltava --
> the name of a river which in German is called the Moldau.  The melody which
> is the
> predominant theme in this movement is based on an old Czech folk song.  This
> folk melody is
> what Hatikvah was based on.
> 
> Judy :)
> 
> 


>** --------- End Original Message ----------- **

> 
 

Judy Caplan Ginsburgh, Professional Singer/Music Specialist
http://www.jewishentertainment.net/judy
Director, Jewish Entertainment Resources
http://www.jewishentertainment.net
1999 Louisiana Professional Artist of the Year!
Chairperson, 23rd annual Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education


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