[HANASHIR:4886] Re: hatikvah

[Adrian Durlester <durleste...>]

It's not cut and dry. Here are two articles I retrieved courtesy of the
Jewish-Music list:

>From Jewish-Music, 12/29/99

The tune is *much* older than "The Moldau" from Smetana's "Ma Vlast," and

seems to have come from further west. This is what, as a musicologist, I

have been able to discover about the origin of the "Hatikvah" tune:

"Hatikvah"/"La Montovana" FAQ (first written and posted in June, 1997)

The first known appearance of the "HaTikvah" tune was in an intermedio of

1608, performed during celebrations of a Gonzaga wedding in Mantua.

Several composers collaborated on the music for this performance: they

were Claudio Monteverdi, his brother Giulio Cesare Monteverdi, Giovanni

Gastoldi, and Salamone Rossi. Which composer used the tune is not known,

although the fact that there are other tunes also called by some version

of the name "Mantovana," and that some of them are known to be by

Gastoldi, is suggestive. (The lutenist James Tyler attributes it to

Gastoldi on stylistic grounds, and that seems plausible to me.) There is

no evidence that this music was a setting of a pre-existent tune rather

than a new composition -- we simply don't know.

The tune became very popular: it was used for Italian madrigals (Cataneo),

solo songs ("Giuseppino"), guitar settings (Pico), instrumental settings

in Renaissance style (Zanetti, Giamberti, anonymous), violin divisions

[i.e., variations] (anonymous), trio sonatas (Marini), and was published

in England in Playford's collections of country dances. It is not known

where Smetana (1824-1884) got the tune, but he seems to have believed that

it was a Czech folk tune.

It is also not known for sure where Naftali Herz Imber (1856-1909) got the

tune, to which he wrote only the words (being a poet, not a composer).

Edith Gerson-Kiwi, in "Grove" (Vol. 9, p. 359), refers to the tune as a

"Romanian folksong." It is quite possible that Imber simply took the tune

from the "Moldau" movement of Smetana's "Ma Vlast" (composed in 1874), and

no evidence whatsoever that he did not do so.

Hope Ehn <ehn (at) world(dot)std(dot)com>

(M.M., music history, New England Conservatory;



ABD musicology, Brandeis University)



And from:

From: http://www.jewishsf.com/bk980605/supphow.htm



The melody also has its own story. Imber wrote a poem without music. Various
attempts were made to set it to music. The first, apparently, was done by a
composer named Leon Igly. He had been brought to Zichron Ya'acov by Baron
Edmond de Rothschild for the express purpose of learning farming. He tried
to learn, but didn't like it, so a Rothschild aide gave him a room in Rishon
LeZion and handed him a copy of Imber's book of Hebrew poetry, Barkai
(Morning Star).

Igly immediately turned to "Tikvatenu," in its nine-verse version. In what
he certainly thought was a stroke of creative genius, Igly wrote a different
tune for each stanza.

Teaching the public to sing the unofficial anthem was so difficult that
children who succeeded in getting through all nine verses used to get a
prize of chocolate. But all the chocolate in the world couldn't make Igly's
masterpiece catch on. He returned to Russia, and the melody was lost.

Soon thereafter, a new melody emerged in Rishon LeZion, the melody Jews all
over will probably be singing on Independence Day. Where did it come from?
Some trace it to "The Bohemian Symphony," by the Czech composer Smetana, but
others say it is based on the Sephardic melody for Psalm 117 in the Hallel
service. Still others say it bears a striking resemblance to a Romanian folk
song.

"Tikvatenu" got a real boost back in 1890, when Rehovot was established.
Each new Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael chose a song or poem, and the
people who were building Rehovot chose "Tikvatenu."-----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 2:45 PM
To: hanashir
Subject: [HANASHIR:4879] Re: hatikvah



  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


  Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com