Hatikvah - the Untold Story

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Last Saturday night I taught a session called "Hatikvah - the Untold Story" at the Sweet Tastes of Torah community event in Fair Lawn NJ.  It was an exciting way for me to combine my interests in Israel, Jewish liturgical poetry, and music.

Here are some links to the resources I discussed about the evolution of the words and music of Hatikvah.

Words:

my source sheet

 http://www.piyut.org.il/textual/359.html - Naftali Hertz Imber's original poem 'Tikvateinu'

http://www.musiccathedra.bravehost.com/hatikva.wmv and http://www.musiccathedra.bravehost.com/ch10.wmv - Hebrew video interviews with Astrith Baltsan about her book about Hatikvah, including discussion of the words and musical examples.
Music:

 http://youtu.be/lDJUDqtxK6M - early recording of Hatikvah, 1918, by Alma Gluck and Efrem Zimbalist Jr  (using 'the old words')

http://youtu.be/adTjy-TIW_Q - Romanian folk song "Carul Cu Boi" ("A cart with oxen") -- the melody that Romanian immigrant Samuel Cohen (Rishon Letzion) suggested for Hatikvah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ifJ8JXVJRo - La Montavana - Italian song with similar melody

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMst624lBrA - Fuggi la questa cielo (starting around 2'15") - Italian love song based on La Montavana

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BTvoqVK420 (broken link replaced 5-2019) - Mozart's 12 Variations 'Ah vous dirai-je Maman'  (otherwise known as 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star').  Variation #8 (starting at 4'12") sounds remarkably similar to Hatikvah / Carul Cu Boi / La Montavana  -- in the session we speculated on why that might be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOxIbhqZsKc -- Smetana's "Moldau"  (Vltava) from "Ma Vlast" -- starting around 1'05" - the most famous statement of the "Hatikvah" theme in Western classical music.  In the session we talked about how Smetana used folk materials in his composition, and that "The Moldau" sounds like Hatikvah not because Hatikvah is based on "The Moldau," but because both are based on similar earlier folk motifs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syUSmEbGLs4 -- perhaps the most emotional recording of Hatikvah, from 5 days after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in 1945.

Addition in 2019:  Also listen to the Hatikvah podcast by Israel Story:  https://israelstory.org/episode/36-mixtape-part-hope/

Comments

  1. Samuel Eitan CohenFebruary 8, 2012 at 9:43 AM

    Toda Raba Rabbi Scheinberg for this amazing collection and the research and time you spent to show it all to us.

    Eitan Cohen

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 5, 2013 at 3:00 PM

    Rabbi, have you done any research to share about Purim music
    Todah rabah.
    Linda Buxbaum
    Temple Beth Israel, Long Boat Key, Florida

    ReplyDelete
  3. LbYvSGJune 11, 2014 at 9:01 AM

    "The Moldau" sounds like Hatikvah not because Hatikvah is based on "The Moldau," but because both are based on similar earlier folk motifs.

    Thank you. I always wondered why I thought of Hatikvah when hearing "The Moldau".

    ReplyDelete

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