RE: Borrowing melodies for liturgy

[Ryna Kedar - Mekatleget for music lib. <ryna_k...>]

On the subject of borrowing: my husband (who constantly listens to
classical music) has used the theme from the Walkure (Wagner) for Kedusha
of Shabbat morning Shacharit! (I don't think anybody noticed!)
I myself have done some borrowing. While putting together a
program (I sing folk songs and accompany myself on guitar) I decided that
Adon Olam would be great with Don McLean's and I Love You So, and it was!

Ryna Kedar
Head, Acquisitions & Cataloguing Division
The Felicja Blumental Music Center & Library
Tel-Aviv, Israel


On Wed, 6 Jan 1999, Robert Cohen wrote:

> Two observations re borrowing melodies for liturgy (I've changed the 
> subject from the useless "Correction," retained by previous 
> posters--which surely doesn't indicate the real subject!):  On a playful 
> note, it may interest Dick Rosenberg and other readers to know that 
> "What Do You Do w/ a Drunken Sailor" was, in fact, used by the Orthodox 
> folk group Dveykus, in their second album, as the melody for "Od 
> Yishama"--from one of the Sheva Brachos, or wedding blessings.  They 
> charmingly attribute the music (words are essentially from Jeremiah) to 
> the "Dubliner Rebbe."  More seriously, the question of using existing 
> (folk, popular, etc.) melodies for prayer has been the subject of 
> numerous rabbinic opinions and diktats, reflecting diverse, sometimes 
> conflicting positions.  (The practice was already in use in Second 
> Temple times, which we know from the rabbis condemning it--in the 
> Talmud.  The practice, and its rabbinic condemnation, is pretty much a 
> constant in Jewish music history.  On the other hand, borrowing 
> melodies--musicology calls this "contrafacta," new words to an existing 
> melody--may be as old as the Psalms. But I digress.)            One 
> cantor, I believe Sephardic and based in Israel, and who _is_ willing to 
> appropriate non-Jewish melodies for prayer, takes the position that 
> borrowed melodies are kosher only if the congregation _doesn't_ know the 
> origin of the original--i.e., doesn't recognize it, w/ its (presumably 
> not necessarily "religious") associations.  For what it's worth, I think 
> it's conditional:  _If_ the original, known melody distracts--or 
> continues to distract after it's been tried--then don't use it (except 
> on Purim).  But sometimes the associations and resonance of the original 
> can actually _enhance_ the prayer (or the praying).  I gave a talk on 
> borrowing melodies in prayer just last weekend, in D.C. (I do that 
> occasionally, and have written on the subject too) and I taught the 
> group "Eliyahu Hanavi" (which is traditionally sung Sat. night, at the 
> end of Shabbes, not just at the Passover seder) to Dylan's "The Times 
> They are a Changin'"--not even quite picked up by everybody at first.  
> "Eliyahu" is a messianic _piyyut_ (hymn) and Dylan's is a messianic song 
> (I learned this shidduch from Jeff Oboler of my old Bet Cafe chevra in 
> NYC)--it's a wonderful pairing! I'd welcome hearing of successful 
> borrowings; I'm looking to see if I have a recording of "Saint Anne's 
> Reel," which Rachel Heckert reports using for Shir Hamaalot (i.e., Ps. 
> 126).
>