[HANASHIR:8428] Re: Avot/Gevurot melodic origins

[BZcantor <BZcantor...>]

In a message dated 02/13/2001 4:42:59 AM 
Eastern Standard Time, contzius (at) home(dot)com writes:

>  the entire cognregation to chant it as a whole. 
>  We most certainly do this with the g'vurot, for 
>  those of you who sing the "Trad." melody of 
>  Max Wohlberg (who wrote that little ditty when 
>  he was 18, according to the midrash)

Pardon my picking up on an old thread, but I just
saw this as I was going through old messages.

I don't know when Wohlberg actually wrote the
M'chalkeil Chayim most of us use, but it was 
published in 1947 in his book "Shirei Zimroh"
(Bloch Pub.) on page 18.  This is a complete
Shabbat morning service, keyed to the then
brand-new Silverman siddur.  This is long out
of print, but the Cantors Assembly has other
(newer) collections of Wohlberg's music for sale.

Max mentioned many times to us at JTS how much he 
regretted writing this melody, because of a unfortunate 
folklorization which contradicts the meaning of the text.  
In line 3, measure 4 he wrote a descending line for 
"lisheinei afar", carefully matching the meaning here
"those who sleep in the dust".  The higher melodic 
line of the ending ("umatsmi'h y'shu'ah") has been 
folklorized to both phrases, losing the wonderfully
accurate "word painting" of his original melody.

Of course, a worse situation is the fact that Wohlberg 
seldom gets credit for composing the piece.  Even
some of our most esteemed publishers have missed
the proper attribution in collections of congregational
melodies.  As more of us pay attention to our sources,
hopefully he will get credit for this widespread melody
(even if he grew to dislike it).

            Cantor Neil Schwartz      

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