[HANASHIR:15993] melodies

[Golda18 <Golda18...>]

I spent Yom Kippur with my friend who is the Rabbi/Hazzan of a congregation 
in West Hartford that uses the German tunes they brought from Germany when they 
left together after Kristallnacht.  She has made an effort to learn their 
tunes.  The "Al Chet" sounded a bit like a Vienna waltz.  It was a little hard 
to 
get into the spirit of the prayer with that melody, but it was nice to be 
part of a tradition, even if it wasn't mine.

THere are few "mi sinai" tunes, aleynu is one.  There are actually several 
tunes for ani maamin. I was shocked the first time that I heard a very upbeat 
Carbachy type tune when I was at someone's house for Shabbat.  But, I think 
it's 
good to have tunes that can evoke different meanings depending on the time of 
use. So I think that traditional tunes have a use at traditional times.  But 
that doesn't mean that the words of faith can't be used elsewhere in a 
different way.

Gail Nalven