the H song

[Andrew Tannenbaum <trb...>]

> On the other hand, the professional musicians I know are so sick of
> playing Hava Nagila that they just call it "the H song".

Quite so.  Interesting story.  I was at Klezcamp one year which could
be construed as a gathering of those who are sick of playing "that
song."  Anyway, there's a Russian immigrant klezmer who's just arrived
in the US, who is just ecstatic to be in the company of his brothers
and sisters (we were all ecstatic, he was more so).

So all the musicians are jamming away, playing tune after tune, and
they break into some very popular Russian Jewish tune ("Djankoyeh" ?
perhaps, I don't remember).  Anyway, as soon as he's finished singing
it, he yells Hava Nagila, and musicians react with some degree of
polite shock.

In the post mortem to this episode, it turns out that in Russia it is
customary/mandatory to play Hava Nagila right after this other Russian
song.  Live and learn.

        Andrew Tannenbaum   Brookline, MA  USA

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