title: Dance the Horah (medley: Hey Harmonika and Mayim, Mayim)
composer: Alkoni and Emanuel Amiram (arranged by Joshua Jacobson)
accompaniment: piano, tof (middle-eastern drum), clarinet and flute (optional bass)
text: Alkoni and Isaiah 12:3
year of composition: c. 1950 (arranged in 1998)
description: a medley of two vibrant dance songs from the land of Israel.
title: De Profundis (Out of the Depths)
composer: Arnold Schoenberg
publisher: MCA
catalogue number: 11193-062
voicing: SSATBB
level of difficulty: difficult
description: A challenging work. The chorus sometimes sings lines based on a twelve-tone row, and sometimes speaks the text in Sprechstimme.
title: Dirshu Adonai (Seek the Lord)
composer: Kenneth Lampl and Kirsten Lampl
publisher: Walton Music
catalogue number: WW1638
voicing: SSAATTBB, SATB soli
recordings: https://youtu.be/IGjw4q1M6zc
level of difficulty: medium
description (from the publisher's website): A sensitively composed meditation that reminds us to "Seek the Lord and his strength." A beautifully rich harmonic structure. The echoing solo quartet illustrates the fact that these words reach back throughout time and space.
title: Dodi Li (My Lover is Mine)
composer: Nira Chen (arranger Joshua Jacobson)
accompaniment: clarinet, flute, percussion
text: after Song of Songs 3:6, 4:9, 4:16, 6:3.
recordings: The Songs We Sang (HZ-906)
description: When European Jews began to return to the land of Israel at the beginning of the twentieth century, they were determined to create an ideal new life, based on the ancient Hebrew civilization. Among the manifestations of this new life-style was a body of popular secular songs whose texts were taken from the Old Testament and whose melodies were in tune with the rhythms and scales of the Middle East. Nira Chen's Dodi Li provides an excellent example. The text is taken from the greatest Biblical love song, the Canticle of King Solomon. The exoticism of the melody is reinforced by the repeated horah rhythm and the modality, vacillating between Dorian and Aeolian. In this arrangement, the amorous quality of the text is the springboard for a sensuous interpretation. The tempo is slow and languid, the dynamics expressive.
title: Dona, Dona
composer: Sholom Secunda (arranged by Joshua Jacobson)
text: Aaron Zeitlin
description: Originally composed for the 1940 Yiddish musical, Esterke, this song was made famous to American audiences in Joan Baez's popular 1965 recording.
title: Durme, Durme (Sleep, Sleep)
composer: Yehezkel Braun (arranger Joshua Jacobson)
recording: Sepharad 92 (HZ-903)
description: In 1981 Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun composed "Seven Sephardic Romances," a song cycle for soprano and piano. This work was based on love songs from the ancient traditions of Jews who lived in Spain prior to the sixteenth century. The Ladino language is a jargon combining elements of Castilian Spanish and Hebrew, with the former predominating. In 1990 Joshua Jacobson arranged the entire cycle for mixed chorus. In "Durme, Durme" a troubadour sings to his beloved. The arrangement is not difficult, but does call for the choir to divide into six parts. The entire suite(Don Amadi, Esta Rakhel, Nani Nani, Durme, Por que Llorax, Di me Rozina, Morenica) is available from Transcontinental.
title: Enosh Kechotzir Yomov (Human Life is Brief)
composer: Louis Lewandowski
accompaniment: organ
language: Hebrew (English alternate)
text: Psalm 103:15 - 17
recordings: The Majesty of Holiness, The Songs Live On
description: One of Lewandowski's most moving compositions, this work, written for a memorial service, describes the ephemeral nature of human life in poignant tones. Similar in style to Mendelssohn. An orchestration is available from Transcontinental Publications.
title: Erev Shel Shoshanim (Evening of Roses)
composer: Joseph Hadar (arranger Jack Klebanow)
catalogue number: WMP 03
timing 3:15
text: Moshe Dor
recordings: The Songs We Sang (HZ-906)*
description: "Erev Shel Shoshanim" is an Israeli song, conceived in a "folk" style, and tremendously popular both in Israel and the Diaspora in the 1960s. The text of this secular love song is a paraphrase of verses from the Biblical Song of Songs, in which the poet entreats his lover to join him in the fragrant garden for an "Evening of Roses." This one is quite easy to learn, and has achieved great popularity among U.S. high-school choirs; the tempo is slow, the meter remains quadruple, the mode is Dorian, and voice parts are simple. The trick here is to perform the work with a warm tone and expressive legato phrasing.
title: Esther
composer: Cristiano Giuseepe Lidarti
voicing: SAB chorus, SSTT soli
accompaniment: chamber orchestra
text: Jacob Saraval
recordings: (excerpts on Italia!) available from IMI
description: In 1774, Giuseppe Lidarti composed an oratorio in Hebrew based on the biblical story of Queen Esther, as recast in a libretto by the Venetian rabbi Jacob Raphael Saraval. It was probably commissioned by the Jews of Amsterdam, but was certainly performed in Italy as part of the tradition of presenting musical theater for the festival of Purim. This work had been lost until its rediscovery several years ago by Prof. Israel Adler.
title: Ets Chayim Hi (It Is a Tree of Life)
composer: Robbie Solomon
accompaniment: (optional piano)
description: A sweet setting of the liturgy that ends the Torah service. "The Torah is a tree of life to all those who cling to her."
title: Even When God Is Silent
composer: Michael Horvit
voicing: SATB (also for SSAA or TTBB)
recordings: The Songs Live On
description: The anonymous poem was written by a victim of the Nazi Holocaust. The luminous setting reflects the optimism of the lyrics.
title: Five Hebrew Love Songs
composer: Eric Whitacre
publisher: Walton
catalogue number: WJMS1038
voicing: SATB (S solo and narrator)
accompaniment: piano and violin or string quartet
text: Hila Plittman
recordings: Albany Records
description: These choral gems were inspired by five Hebrew poems written by Whitacre's girl friend (now wife), Hila Plittman. The romance can be felt in every measure. Includes a breath-taking aleatoric section in the fourth movement.
title: Four Motets
composer: Paul Schoenfield
publisher: E.C. Schirmer (ECS Publishing)
accompaniment: a cappella (keyboard for rehearsal only)
description: The composer describes these as "neo-renaissance motets."
title: Ha'Ir Mesacheket Machavo'im (The City Plays Hide and Seek)
composer: Avni, Tsvi
publisher: IMI (distributed in the USA by Theodore Presser)
catalogue number: IMI 6587 (Presser 512-00492)
voicing: ssa
text: Amichai, Yehudah
recordings: Jerusalem 3000
description: This mystical piece celebrates Jerusalem as the home of many peoples and many faiths. There is a tonal center, but several chromatic modes are used.
title: Ha-Kotel (The Wall)
composer: Dov Seltzer (arranged by Joshua Jacobson)
accompaniment: piano (optional electric bass)
text: Y. Gamzu
year of composition: arranged in 1993
description: A touching song describing the remaining "wall" of the ancient Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. "Some men have a heart of stone, but some stones have a human heart."
title: Half Kaddish (Santification, shorter form)
composer: Jack Gottlieb
accompaniment: piano (or brass ensemble)
language: Aramaic (or English)
description: An energetic setting of the Jewish doxology by Leonard Bernstein's musical assistant. The driving Bernsteinian rhythms give this composition an exciting edge. The modes are somewhat challenging, as is the rapid articulation of the text.
title: Hal'luhu (Praise Him)
composer: Benjie-Ellen Schiller
voicing: SATB (solo soprano)
accompaniment: piano or guitar and tof (hand drum)
description: This vibrant setting of Psalm 150 has syncopated horah-like rhythms, mixed meter, and an exotic Mixolydian modality.
title: Halleluyah
catalogue number: CR-25
recordings: ROSSI (HZ-910)
description: Salamone Rossi (c. 1570 - c.1630) was a Mantuan violinist and composer in the employ of Duke Vincenzo Gonzaga. He was also the first composer to publish a collection of polyphonic motets for the synagogue. The thirty-three motets, set for three to eight voices, include psalms, hymns and prayers for synagogue services or for sacred concerts. "Halleluyah" is included in the liturgy for Sabbath and festival morning services. Rossi's setting is largely homophonic, similar in style to church music composed by his Christian colleagues.
title: Halleluyoh
composer: Drechsler, Joseph
language: Hebrew (optional English text)
recordings: The Majesty of Holiness
description: Salomon Sulzer, the famed cantor of the Seitentettengasse Synagogue in Vienna for most of the nineteenth century, commissioned this work from Joseph Drechsler, the renowned kappelmeister of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The music is succinct but charming, homophonic and rather easy to master.
accompaniment: organ (or piano)
language: Hebrew or English
year of composition: ca. 1882
description: A majestic anthem by the famed choirmaster of the Oranienburgerstrasse synagogue in Berlin, this rousing work has long been a favorite.
composer: Salomon Sulzer
voicing: SATB, baritone solo
accompaniment: harp and organ (or string orchestra)
year of composition: published in 1838
recordings: Majesty of Holiness
description: This work was composed for a (non-liturgical) concert performance, commemorating the birthday of the Emperor Joseph I. A jubilant choral "Hallelujah" frames a slower middle section, set antiphonally between the cantor and choir. There is even a brief cadenza for the harp.
title: Hamisha Asar (Fifteen)
composer: Flory Jagoda (arranged by Nick Page)
publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
catalogue number: OCTB7078
voicing: SATB (a version for SSA is also available)
text: Flory Jagoda
year of composition: song © 1993. arrangement © 1999.
recordings: YouTube
description: Flory Jagoda has made her life's mission the perpetuation of the Sephardic culture of her native Bosnia. The Ladino langauge melds an old Spanish dialect with Hebrew words. The melody uses a Middle Eastern mode similar to Phrygian but with an augmented second between the second and third degrees of the scale, and the music moves in a lively tempo and a rollicking 7/8 meter. The arrangement progresses from unison to two-part and finally four-part homophonic texture. The subject of this song is the celebration of the festival of the trees on the fifteenth day (full moon) of the Jewish month of Sh'vat (usually occuring some time in January).
title: Hanukah Tarantella
composer: David Polansky
catalogue number: 982035 (SA version is 982083)
voicing: SATB (or SA)
text: David Polansky
recordings: Zamir 25
description: Polansky is best known for his songs for children. But this tarantella is sure to appeal to children of all ages. With Tom-Lehrer-like cleverness, Polanksi exhausts every possible (and impossible) rhyme for the word "Chanukah." It's a hoot!
title: Hashkivenu (Let Us Lie Down in Peace)
catalogue number: M051467259
voicing: SATB div, T solo
text: Friday evening synagogue liturgy
recordings: Naxos (Leonard Bernstein: A Jewish Legacy)
description: This early work by Bernstein is a setting of the evening prayer for peace, commissioned by New York's Park Avenue Synagogue. In ternary form, the outside sections in the Phrygian mode in flowing triple time, stand in sharp contrast with the highly syncopated Lydian middle section.
title: Hava Nagila (Let Us Rejoice)
composer: folk (arranged by Daniel Faktori)
text: Moshe Nathanson or Abraham Idelsohn
year of composition: 1911 (?)
description: With a melody derived from a Hassidic niggun, and quintessential Zionist lyrics, "Hava Nagila" song has come to be the most well-known Israeli song. Faktori's arrangement brings the rhythms to life in a delicate madrigalesque way.
title: Hayoshevet Baganim (The Girl in the Garden)
composer: Nissim Cohen Havron (arranged by Aryeh Levanon)
accompaniment: tof
text: Song of Songs 8:13-14
recordings: The Songs We Sang
description: A simple but very effective setting of a popular Israeli dance song. The arrangement is in ABA form, fast-slow-fast.
title: Hitragut (Serenity)
composer: folk (arranged by Paul Ben-Haim)
voicing: SATB (optional soprano solo)
text: Yehuda Karni
description: This gorgeous little serenade is based on an older Sephardic folk song. Its three strophic verses are set homophonically. For variety, the third verse may be sung by a soprano soloist while the choir hums their parts
title: Hodu Ha-Arets (Give Thanks, O Earth)
composer: Cristiano Lidarti (edited by Joshua Jacobson)
catalogue number: N/A
text: Rabbi Jacob Raphael Saraval
recordings: Italia
description: This is the final joyous chorus from Ester, an oratorio by Lidarti in the classical style. The Hebrew libretto is actually a translation of the libretto that Handel used for his oratorio, Esther.
Titles D-H Recommended Jewish Choral Music