havah nagilah author

[JRJ <JRJ...>]

The melody for Hava Nagilah comes from Sadigora, Bukowina, where
it was sung by the Hassidim as a niggun: a melody sung to
.."cables such as "ay yay yay di di day"
In 1915 it was transcribed into musical notation by Abraham Z. Idelsohn
in Jerusalem. Idelsohn was a ethnomusicologist collecting samples
of Jewish music from the different communities.

What happened next is a matter of debate. In an article in the Musical Quarterly
(October, 1932) Idelsohn claims that he himslef wrote the lyrics with
which we are now so familiar in 1918 when he was preparing his
choir for a concert.

In the book, HAVA NAGILA by Sheldon Feinberg, the claim is made that the
twelve-year old Moshe Nathanson, a student in Idelsohn's class in
Jerusalem, wrote the lyrics. Nathanson, by the way, later came to the
USA and became a well-known cantor and composer. Among his better
known melodies rae the tune for the first paragraph of birkat hamazon.
Joshua R. Jacobson
Northeastern University 
Boston, MA 02115 
JRJ (at) neu(dot)edu