Hava Nagila

[Lori Cahan-Simon <lsimon...>]

I had a private posting from a friend that I thought I should share as an
addendum.  It is a quote from Tara Publications' new reprint of the
Hebrew-Oriental Thesaurus Vols 8-10 by Abraham Zvi Idelsohn.

>"This song may serve as an example of how a song becomes a popular folk
>song, and particularly how a song becomes Palestinian. The tune
>originated at the court of Sadigora (Bokowina) and was brought to
>Jerusalem.  In 1915, I wrote it down. In 1918, I needed a popular tune
>for a performance of a mixed choir in Jerusalem. My choice fell upon
>this tune which I arranged in four parts and for which I wrote a Hebrew
>text. The choir sang it and apparently caught the imagination of the
>people, for the next day men and women were singing the song throughout
>Jerusalem. In no time, it spread throughout the country, and thence
>throughout the Jewish world. In 1921, I printed the song, in my
>arrangement, in my Hebrew songbook Sefer Hashirim, page 164-165. Since
>then, it has been printed in several songsters as Palestinian."
>
>Thesaurus of Hebre-Oriental Melodies Volume 10, by Abraham Zvi Idelsohn

And the debate rages on ;-)

Lori
Lori Cahan-Simon

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