[HANASHIR:14349] In re to "Hatikvah"

[Burton A. Zipser <zipmusic...>]

        In attempting to respond to the discussion on "Hatikvah", it 
is always helpful to check authoritative sources.
        1.  In 1949 Peter Gradenwitz published a book entitled The 
Music of Israel (W.W. Norton, New York). On P. 301 (Appendix III), he 
states that a song named "Hatiqvah" was adopted as the Jewish 
National Anthem. The author of the poem was Naphtali Herz Imber. The 
words were published in 1886 in a collection of poems published in 
Jerusalem entitled "Barkai". He cites 12 different melodies from 
which the tune may have been derived.
        2.  In 1975 Macy Nulman (Director of the Cantorial Training 
Institute at Yeshiva University) published The Concise Encyclopedia 
of jewish Music (McGraw-Hill, New York). On P. 99 he writes that the 
hymn was adopted by the First Zionist Congress (Basel) and formally 
declared the Zionist anthem in 1933 at the Zionist Congress (Prague). 
It was the unofficial anthem of Palestine for more than 50 years and 
was sung at the proclamation of the State of Israel (May 14, 1948). A 
suggestion states that Samuel Cohen (from Bohemia) created the 
melody. Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (a very authoritative Jewish 
musicologist) found eight sources. Eric Werner suggests that the 
melody is based on the "magen Avot" mode (a white key scale from A to 
A with no sharps or flats).  The traditional melody had 16 measures 
with the last four repeated. Most of us learned that version in 
religious schools. The third group of four measures has the following 
words: "Od lo avda/tikvatenu/hatikva/sh'not alpayim". The last four 
measures begins with "Liyot am chofshi" using the notes G GG F F.
        3.  In 1994 Irene Heskes published Passport to Jewish Music; 
Its History, Traditions, and Culture (Greenwood Press, Westport, 
Connecticut).On P. 229, she writes that two songs were introduced at 
the Basel Congress, the other being a Yiddish "Dort vu di tseyder" 
(There, where the cedars blossom). At the Zionist Congress at The 
Hague (1907), "Hatikvah" was adopted as the national anthem of 
Zionism. That version had first been sung to celebrate the first wine 
season at Rishon-le-Zion, one of the earliest of the modern pioneer 
Jewish settlements in (then called) Palestine.
        4.  In 2000 a collection of Israeli choral music arranged by 
Gil Aldema entitled A Vocal Array (Modan Publishing House, Tel Aviv) 
includes a four-part choral arrangement of "Hatikva (Israel's 
National Anthem)". In this version, there are 20 measures of music 
without the repetition of the last four measures. However, the third 
group has the following words: "Od lo avda/tikvatenu/hatikva 
bat/shnot alpayim". "Lihyot am chofshi" now uses the notes C CC F F, 
but the repetition in the last four measures of those words goes back 
to G GG F F.
        A final thought: In more than one discussion of the hymn, no 
reference suggests that the Knesset has ever officially recognized 
"Hatikvah" as the Israeli National Anthem, although it is often 
played and sung as if it were the "de facto" national anthem.  Books 
noted in #1 and #3 above can be found in most libraries if you want 
additional information.
                Burton Zipser, Intl. Archive of Jewish Music