Re: Hava Nagila

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Moshe Nathanson wrote (as a 10-year-old boy or so!) the _words_ to Hava 
Nagila, whose melody is a Hassidic _niggun_ of the Sadigor Hassidim of 
Hungary, which (the melody) was collected by Avraham Tzvi Idelsohn.  The 
melody of the first paragraph of benching (aka "Grace After Meals"--but 
_not_ the words!--_was_ composed by Nathanson, and has indeed been adopted 
by amcha as a "folk" melody:  It has long since "lost its composer," in 
other words, and did so w/in Nathanson's lifetime (to his amusement and/or 
consternation).


>From: Lori Cahan-Simon <lsimon (at) SoftHome(dot)net>
>Reply-To: jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org
>To: World music from a Jewish slant <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
>Subject: Hava Nagila
>Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1999 14:28:14 -0400
>
>I just finished a slim volume with an awfully long name:   _Hava Nagila!
>The World's Most Famous Song of Joy!:  The Story of the Song and the
>Composer Who Gave it Its Life... Moshe Nathanson_, by Sheldon Feinberg
>(Shapolsky Publishers, New York, 1988) and would like to publicize this to
>our members.  If what the author says is true, then what we have considered
>a "traditional" song is attributable, after all.  He wrote MANY other
>popular tunes, including what most of us (I'm assuming) sing for Birkat
>Hamazon, after meals.  I did not know this and wanted to share it with all
>of you so that you can also educate the others not on this list.
>
>Lori
>
>


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