Mail Archive sponsored by
Chazzanut Online
jewish-music
Re: Is "Hatikvah" Jewish?
- From: Marvin <physchem...>
- Subject: Re: Is "Hatikvah" Jewish?
- Date: Thu 03 May 2001 17.56 (GMT)
Smetena used melodies from folk music. Hatikvah probably used the same
resource.
----- Original Message -----
From: shirona
To: World music from a Jewish slant
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2001 4:04 PM
Subject: Is "Hatikvah" Jewish?
A few years ago I attended a seminar on the origins of "Jewish Music", and
one of the examples studied was our very own Hatikvah. Most people think that
the melody was taken from Smetana's "Moldava" - which already implies that it
was "shnorered" from another (non Jewish...) source. However - according to
some musicologists, the melody for Hatikvah can be traced to a Romanian
horse-and-buggy song. The same tune that might have influenced Smetana... But
either way - our own National Anthem is not Jewish. So what kind of excuses do
we need to come up with to justify this?
How can we make any claims at all - on what Jewish music is or isn't?
Wandering for two thousand years - we "shnorered" from whatever culture we
lived with at the time, mixed it with what we already had, moved to other
countries - and the process goes on and on. If anything - we were probably the
most effective proponents of "cultural cross-pollination" around.
But what difference does all this make? Does it really matter if the music
we use was genuinely "created" by "us", or somehow borrowed, intentionally or
unintentionally, from another source? Is it important to hang on to those
definitions? Music is music... Traditions, taste and styles change and evolve
with time.
OK Robert... I'm now waiting for your "Ipcha Mistabra" response. If you
don't know what that means - it's in Aramaic. Look it up.
Shirona
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
* * * Singer / Songwriter and Teacher of Jewish Music * * *
www.shirona.com
Listen to Shirona's music on:
www.mp3.com/shirona
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -