The Festival and Its Music HANUKKA , the postbiblical Festival of Dedication (actually, rededication), is an annual eight-day celebration of the...
The Festival and Its Music
HANUKKA, the postbiblical Festival of Dedication (actually, rededication),
is an annual eight-day celebration of the Hasmonean-Maccabean victories of the
Jews in 168-165 B.C.E. against the tyranny of the Greco-Syrian Seleucid Empire
ruled by Athenian-born Antiochus IV (Antiochus Epiphanes), and of the people's
fifteen-year struggle against the prohibition of Judaism and against enforced
paganism. It is also known as hag ha'urim, the Festival of Lights, in
commemoration of the rekindling of the candelabrum at the rededication of the
Temple in 165 - and the legendary "miraculous" eight-day duration
of the single day's worth of undefiled illumination oil on hand after the Temple's
cleansing and purification. The historical basis of the festival's eight-day
duration, however, stems from its original connection to the "retroactively
postponed" simultaneous celebration of the eight-day autumn pilgrimage
Festival of Sukkot. This celebration was held belatedly as part of the Temple's
rededication: The people had been prohibited from its observance for three years,
and public memory of having to forgo Sukkot was still acute, since its actual
date occurred less than twelve weeks earlier. Hanukka commences on the 25th
day of the Hebrew month of kislev, the date assigned historically to the rededication
and also accepted as the date on which pagan worship of Greek gods had been
instituted forcibly in the Temple three years earlier.
During the period of these struggles, ancient Judaea was under the domination
of the pagan Greeks of the Syrian-based Seleucid Empire, which they attempted
to "civilize" by imposing their version of Greek culture, especially
within Judaea and its capital, Jerusalem, which Antiochus aimed to transform
into a Greek-oriented city - architecturally, socially, and spiritually. That
late Syrian phase of Seleucid-imposed Hellenism, however, was a much-decayed
and diluted Greek culture, representing the residue and debris of the former
glories of classical Greek civilization and those attributes most prized by
the West since the Renaissance. That debased guise of Hellenism was not the
Greek culture of philosophers, poets, or artists, but of expeditionary armies,
camp followers, and slave traders. Nor, obviously, should Seleucid Hellenism
be confused with the legacies of earlier Athenian democracy, nor with the worthy
contributions that define ancient Greece at its zenith.
Our historical knowledge of the Hanukka episode is derived from a variety of
chronicles, legends, and Talmudic references and commentary - including much
taken from the two Books of the Maccabees, which are the last two books of the
Apocrypha. In the initial years of the Hellenization effort, a portion of Judaea's
population was indeed attracted to things Greek - as perceived "progress"
- and was ready to flirt with some of the enticements of introduced Greek values
and mores. But in 168 the Seleucid effort entered a brutal phase, when - party
to unify Judaea as its southernmost provincial outpost in its fortification
against Egypt as a rival power - the fusion of all peoples in the empire was
ordered. Judaism was outlawed and its practices forbidden as capital crimes
in many cases; pagan worship of Greeks gods was established and required in
the Temple and elsewhere by imperial authority and force; and sacred venues
and artifacts were defiled or destroyed.
In Judaism, idolatry has always been considered among the most hideous of offenses,
even requiring martyrdom rather than submission. By attacking so viciously the
Jews' central system of sacred values at its core, Antiochus's Hellenization
campaign now sowed the seeds of its own backfire. The revolt was begun and led
by Mattathias, an elderly priest of the House of Hasmon, and his five sons -
of whom Judah (to whom was subsequently attached the sobriquet Maccabee, "hammer,”
) became the supreme commander of the partisan forces. Jointed by bands of followers,
the Hasmoneans-Maccabees conducted a three-year virtual guerrilla war against
the Greco-Syrians as well has against their pro-Hellenistic Jewish supporter,
and this involved insurgent operations as well as pitched battles. These led
eventually to a truce and partial surrender, followed by an imperial edict rescinding
the anti-Jewish measures and restoring freedom of Jewish worship and observance.
Judah was permitted to reenter Jerusalem with his followers and retake control
of the Temple, which, under his leadership, was purified and rededicated with
elaborate music and Psalm singing. Therefore, the reference to miracles in the
Hanukka liturgy concerns the unlikely victories of untrained resistance fighters
as well as the legend of the oil lasting for eight days.
Some historians see in the Hanukka episode the first instance of a successful
war for religious liberty and minority reIigious rights. From a narrower Judaic
perspective, apart from its other extended theological, ethnic, and national-poIitical
connotations, Hanukka is essentially about resistance to Hellenism. It thus
commemorates the spiritual survival of Judaism, and its revival after a period
that had threatened to bear witness to its total disintegration and assimilation.
The celebration of Hanukka is a family event, and it is also expressed in the
liturgy. The first three selections here, B'RAKHOT L’HANUKKA, HANNEROT
HALLALU, and MA’OZ TZUR are expressions of the principal musical
manifestations of Hanukka - the kindling of the lights.
The Hanukka ceremony on each the eight nights commences with the rabbinically
ordained kindling of the Hanukka candles or oil-burning lights, preceded by
three benedictions and ending with two succeeding liturgical texts (hannerot
hallalu and ma'oz tzur). The Hanukka lights were originally kindled only
in the home, but were later Introduced into the synagogue as well. There, it
occurs immediately following the minha (afternoon) service on weekdays.
The benedictions and liturgy are generally sung at home with the assembled
family and guests. However, additional public candlelighting ceremonies are
well-established events often associated with Hanukka concerts. The tradition
of annual Hanukka concerts dates to pre-20th-century Europe and has been perpetuated
and even enlarged in many American communities. Cantorial-choral settings of
the candlelighting benedictions have thus been created by composers and arrangers
throughout the 20th century, in a wide variety of styles.
Two benedictions are recited (preferably sung) before the lights are kindled.
The first one praises and acknowledges God for enabling the Jewish people to
attain holiness (closeness to God) through observance of His commandments, which
in the context of Hanukka extend to the postbiblical legal requirement to kindle
the lights. Since the Hanukka episode is itself postbiblical, there is no reference
to it in the actual Torah. Yet the wording of the first benediction, "Who
[God] has commanded us to kindle the Hanukka lights,” is a reminder that
religious obligations ordained by the sages - beginning with the "men of
the Great Assembly" (anshei Knesset hag'dola), the spiritual leaders
in the period of Ezra the Scribe who are considered the prophets' successors
- have the same force of divine commandment in Jewish law and practice as those
stated in the Torah.
The second benediction praises and acknowledges God for His role in ensuring
the victorious outcome of the Hanukka Episode - for His having "wrought
miracles for our forefathers in those former times at this same season"
(i.e., this date on the Hebrew calendar for the rededication of the Temple following
the Maccabean victory).
On the first night of Hanukka, the kindling ceremony includes a third benediction
that is also recited on other occasions out of similar sentiment. It expresses
gratitude for having been sustained and preserved thus far, and therefore able
to reach and witness the current season.
Unlike certain other parts of the Ashkenazi liturgy, there is no single authoritative
melody for the Hanukka benedictions. The B'RAKHOT L'HANUKKA (Benedictions
for the Kindling of the Hanukka Lights) heard here is a setting for cantor and
choir by Raymond Goldstein that utilizes unrelated melodies by three
traditional cantorial composers - Solomon Ancis; Joshua Lind; and Zeidl
Rovner - the last two of whom were famous synagogue composers in the quintessential
eastern European folk-oriented mold. Goldstein's paraphrase here as a single
unified setting evokes a typical traditional Hanukka concert or public candlelighting,
but it is cleverly fused with a more contemporary harmonic character.
Immediately after the lights are kindled, the assemblage sings hannerot
hallalu, which underscores the exclusive function of the lights in recalling
God's miracles and wonders and His deliverance. The admonition concerning the
sanctity of the lights - and the prohibition of any profane or practical use
other than simply looking at them - necessitates the use of a separate ninth
flame (the shammash) to kindle the others. The present choral setting,
Hugo Adler's HANNEROT HALLALU, with its contrapuntal sections
juxtaposed against more homophonic treatments, is appropriate for a public candlelighting
ceremony.
The candlelighting ceremony concludes with ma'oz tzur, probably the
most widely known Hanukka hymn text, sung after each light appropriate to the
particular sequential night has been lit. The poem is the creation of one "Mord'khai,"
apparently a 13th-century Ashkenazi poet whose name appears as an acrostic in
the initial letters of each of the five stanzas.
The text refers to four principal instances of deliverance of the Jewish people
from its oppressors. The fifth and final stanza offers a twenty-four-word summary
of the Maccabean struggle, along with the traditional legendary account of the
miraculously burning oil.
The singing of ma'oz tzur apparently was well established as part of
the Hanukka candlelighting ceremony in western and west Central Europe by at
least the early 15th century - and quite possibly much earlier.
Apart from two well-known versions, there are many alternative melodies for
ma'oz tzur that have not gained wide currency. The present MA'OZ TZUR
by Cantor Aaron Miller is familiar only among the contemporary Bobover
Hassidim, to which dynasty he belonged. While not, strictly speaking, a traditional
Bobover tune, it exhibits the quintessential Bobover conviction that there is
at least some measure of joy to be found in every human experience.
The Hanukka festival has also generated a body of folksongs that are incorporated
within several of the pieces here.
Samuel Adler's TO CELEBRATE A MIRACLE, for large wind ensemble,
or wind orchestra, incorporates the melodies of nine of the most popular and
best-known Hanukka-related songs and hymns (seven secular and two liturgical),
creatively developing their constituent motives and phrases and judiciously
exploiting the various timbres and technical possibilities of the individual
instruments. The number nine here was intended by the composer to represent
the nine candles or lights in the Hanukka m'nora (candelabrum) on the
last night of the festival. All but one - Y'mei ha'hanukka - are incorporated
in Adler's choral work The Fiames of Freedom (tracks 8-15).
Y'mei ha'hanukka was a 19th-century eastern European Yiddish folk tune
to which Abraham Abrunin [Evronin] provided Hebrew lyrics. Apparently it was
known earlier as a folksong about the Festival of Sukkot. It was also sung in
eastern Europe as a Hanukka song, Hanukka, oy hanukka, a yom tova sheyner,
to a poem by Mordkhe Rivesman (1868-1924). That version remains popular among
Yiddish cultural circles. During the first half of the 20th century, various
English adaptations were circulated in America as well, especially for children.
Di khanike likht, the well-known poignant poem by Morris Rosenfeld (1862-1923)
about the Hanukka lights - and their evocation of lament over lost Jewish sovereignty
and the ensuing centuries of persecution and suffering - has served as the lyrics
for many folksong versions as well as art and quasi-art songs and choral settings.
Sometimes called "the poet of the sweatshop," Rosenfeld was one of
the most important Yiddish poets in America during the early decades of eastern
European immigration. A pioneering force for Yiddish poetry in the United States
and a leading poet of the labor movement, he was born in Bolkshein, Russian
Poland, but spent his youth in Warsaw and emigrated to New York in 1886. His
poems became popular as songs sung by shop and factory workers and at mass protest
rallies. His fame as a socialist poet spread back eastward to Europe, so that
many of the poems he wrote in America became attached to European folk melodies
and gained popularity there.
Rosenfeld also became attracted to the emerging Jewish national consciousness,
and that side of his orientation is evident in this Hanukka poem, with its collective
nostalgia for ancient nationhood, defensive military might, and valor. As lyrics,
these lines are a marked departure from typical secular American Hanukka songs,
where national aspirations, if present at all, are clothed in the context of
the victorious Maccabean struggle for religious - not necessarily political
- freedom.
Leo Low's UKHTELEKH and Zavel Zilberts's Dl KHANIKE
LTKHT set to Rosenfeld's poem have both enjoyed popularity. Low's is presented
here in a choral arrangement by Larry Moore, as it might have been heard in
the past by Yiddish folk chorus presentations. Zilberts's is sung in its original
version for voice and piano.
Herbert Fromm's SIX MADRIGALS is a series of contrapuntal a cappella
choral pieces. In his preface, he wrote, "The work is grouped around the
Sabbath and five Jewish holydays and combines secular with sacred selections,
so that the term 'madrigal' (generally denoting secular content) is given a
broader implication here." For the HANUKKA MADRIGAL, Fromm chose
Mi y'mallel? (Who Can Recount or Express?), one of the best-known nonliturgical
Hanukka songs. Its lyrics are ascribed to Menashe Ravina [Rabinovich], who actually
assembled them from biblical and Talmudic sources. The opening four words of
the Hebrew lyrics, mi y'mallel g'vurot yisrael? (Who can recount the
mighty acts of Israel?), are a paraphrase of a passage from Psalm 106:2, mi
y'mallel g'vurot adonai? (Who can recount the mighty acts of the Lord?).
The substitution of adonai for yisrael is indicative of the writer's
secular Zionist orientation. The origin of the tune is undetermined.
Samuel Adler's THE FLAMES OF FREEDOM - A Hanukka Celebration
is a cantata for three-part treble-voice chorus and piano, based on ten well-known
Hanukka songs and hymns together with original music to two other liturgical
Hanukka texts. It consists of eight short movements, each representing one of
the eight Hanukka lights. Adler chose the three-part treble choral medium to
provide a musical counterpart to Benjamin Britten's well-known Christmas work
based on traditional carols, A Ceremony of Carols - given that the two holidays
usually occur coincidentally within close calendar proximity, even though there
is absolutely no religious or historical connection between the two (as there
is, for example, between Passover and Easter); nor is Hanukka in any sense a
Jewish counterpart to Christmas.
In the score, five movements are presented with the original Hebrew and English
adaptations in the text underlay; three movements - two originally Hebrew and
one originally Yiddish - are set to English words only. All but one of the English
lyrics were written for this cantata by Samuel Rosenbaum, an American cantor
best remembered for his many English librettos and translations from Hebrew
and Yiddish. The English lyrics as sung here throughout represent liberal readings
and paraphrases rather than actual translations.
1. Ma'oz tzur. Though the age and provenance of this melody is undetermined,
we know that it was current as the "traditional" ma'oz tzur
version among Ashkenazi Jews in Venice by the 18th century, when it was first
documented as such in musical notation. Its melodic structure and rhythmic suitability
to the poetic meter of the text allow for the possibility that it could have
been an accepted ma'oz tzur version much earlier, even in German-speaking
regions - perhaps as early as the 14th or 15th century, even before it would
have been imported to Venice by Jews who resettled there.
The ma'oz tzur melody in this first movement of Flames of Freedom
is one of eleven melodies notated by he Italian composer Benedetto Marcello
(1686-1739) as he heard them sung among the Jewish community in Venice. For
his use as cantus firmus sources in his series of original choral and
orchestral settings of Italian paraphrases of the first fifty Psalms, Estro
poetico armonico (Poetic-Harmonic Inspiration; Venice, 1724-26), Marcello
culled those eleven melodies from both Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions in
Italy, and identified six - including this ma'oz tzur - as Ashkenazi.
2. Hannerot hallalu (the lights we have kindled). This is Adler's original
setting.
3. AI hannissim (for the miracles and miraculous acts …[we thank
You]) is the first of two texts inserted during Hanukka into the penultimate
of the set of benedictions that forms the core of every traditional service,
known collectively as the amida ("standing"), as well as in
the seder birkat hammazon (grace after meals) during Hanukka. The "miraculous
acts" in al hannissim, which call for additional gratitude, refer
specifically to Hanukka.
The second insertion, blmei matityahu (in the days of [the High Priest]
Mattathias…), summarizes the Hanukka story from the traditional theological
perspective. Its first half is also included within this third movement, where
it is punctuated by recapitulations of the al hannissim section. The
music in this movement is not drawn from any traditional source, but is Adler's
original composition.
4. MI ze hidlik? (Who kindled these [lights])?).According to the Israeli
scholar Natan Shachar, this tune is ascribed to Shmuel Shapira, of kibbutz Ein-Harod,
in Israel, who is said to have modeled it on an earlier Polish Hassidic melody.
The words are by Levin Kipnis (the Ukraine, 1894 - Tel Aviv, 1990), who wrote
the lyrics of many of the most famous Israeli holiday songs for children. Like
other Hanukka songs with lyrics stemming from Jewish Palestine, its wide dissemination
in America as a children's song is probably a function of Zionist-oriented Hebrew
cultural influence in the first half of the 20th century. However, Adler combines
it contrapuntally with altered yet recognizable motives from another, unrelated
children's Hanukka song, S'vivon, sov, sov, sov (Dreidl, Spin...)
- a folk tune whose lyrics are also by Kipnis.
5. El hammikdash ba y'huda (to the temple Judah came). The circulation
of this song in America dates at least to the early 1950s, for it appears in
a 1955 children's anthology compiled by Judith Eisenstein and Freida Prensky,
Shirei y'ladim (Songs of Childhood), where it is credited to Hava Greenberg.
6. Mi y'mallel? (Who Can Recount or Express?) The English version of
the first part of the song (the first two phrases) is by B.M. Edidin and has
long been established in America. The rest of the song departs from Edidin's
adaptation and is presumed to be Samuel Rosenbaum's own.
7. Candles in the Night. This movement is actually a well-known European
folksong version of Morris Rosenfeld's famous Yiddish poem about the emotions
evoked by the Hanukka lights, sung here to Samuel Rosenbaum's unrelated English
Iyrics - juxtaposed against an originally Hebrew song, Hanukka, hag yafe
kol kah (Hanukka, Such a Beautiful Holiday!). The Hebrew lyrics to
the latter are by Kipnis. An interesting device is the counterpoint in the sopranos
to the Yiddish folk tune in the alto line in the opening measures, which appears
subtly derived from the composer's own music for al hannissim in the
third movement.
8. Ma'oz tzur (Rock of Ages). This eminently more familiar musical version
of the same text found in the first movement is undoubtedly the Western world's
quintessential melodic association with Hanukka - among both Jews and Christians.
Modern research has revealed that this tune is a patchwork of motives and phrases
borrowed from 15th and 16th-century German folksongs, one of which was coincidentally
adopted for a Lutheran chorale. The tune extends beyond the single text by which
it is commonly identified (ma'oz tzur in this case), to include its singing
to many other prayer texts during the week of Hanukka and even in anticipation
of it. Because of that function throughout Ashkenazi Jewry for so long, it may
be considered one of the set of seasonal leitmotifs in minhag Ashkenaz
known as missinai tunes, even though the "canonization" of
most of the others in that group dates to the Middle Ages. By the Baroque era,
dozens of original compositions - for various liturgical texts sung throughout
the year - were also infused with motives from this ma'oz tzur melody
to signify their rendition specifically during Hanukka. That practice has continued
to the present day.
It is unlikely that this adopted hybrid melody was initially attached specifically,
or even at all, to the poem ma'oz tzur, which, from the time of its introduction
into the liturgy and probably until the 18th century, had other melodies. For
one thing, the meter, syllabic scheme, and Hebrew accentuation of the poem do
not conform ideally to the rhythmic features and contours of the melody; the
tune does not fit this text as well as it does others.
One convincing thesis holds that this German melody was first adopted for the
text of shnei zeitim (two olive branches), an older piyyut that at one
time was sung on Shabbat Hanukka (the Sabbath of Hanukka.) This poem's
rhythmic scheme is better suited to the tune and matches its contours naturally.
The most educated estimates place the merging of the ma'oz tzur poem
with this Germanic tune in the early 18th century - first for the home candlelighting
ritual and then, later, in the synagogue. In German Reform synagogues of the
early 19th century it became a standard hymn for the Hanukka season, sometimes
with newly created German lyrics.
Various English paraphrases have been fashioned expressly for this ma'oz
tzur melody. But the most famous one of all, still in use, is Rock of
Ages. That text, whose style is now dated, was written by Rabbi Gustav Gottheil
(1827-1903), an early Reform vocal advocate and promoter of Zionism in America.
During Hanukka, Psalm 30 is recited or sung in the synagogue, both because
of its reference to deliverance and because it is thought to have been written
or adopted for the original dedication of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, or
perhaps the Second Temple.
MIZMOR SHIR HANUKKAT HABBAYIT is emblematic of Solomon Ancis's
finely honed skill in writing for male voice choir, with its distinctive timbres
and idioms, along with his appreciation for traditional cantorial style. It
has been used frequently for Shabbat Hanukka services - Sabbaths that
occur during the eight-day festival.
Hanukka observances have traditionally reserved a central role for children
in the context of family celebrations. Over the course of centuries, various
games were devised, especially for the duration of the burning Hanukka lights.
These games serve dually as associative learning reinforcements and sheer entertainment.
The most ubiquitous symbol of such Hanukka diversions is the dreidl (Yiddish,
from drei, to spin or turn), or s'vivon, in Hebrew. This is a spinning
top, on each of whose four sides appears the initial letter of one of the words
of the sentence nes gadol haya sham (A great miracle happened there).
Those letters are the Hebrew characters nun, gimel, hei, and shin (In modern
Israel, those initials are often adjusted to read nun, gimel, hei, pei,
representing nes gadol haya po - a great miracle happened here.) The reference
is of course to the miracles of Hanukka.
The latkes in the lyrics refer to flat cakes or pancakes (usually potato-based)
fried in oil, which have become the most typical symbolic Hanukka food among
Ashkenazi Jews. Although such customary Hanukka foods vary among different traditions
and regions (in Israel, for example, the prevailing one is a type of doughnut,
or sufganiya), the common element is the oil in which they are fried,
recalling the lumination oil involved in the rededication of the Temple.
Judith Shatin's NUN, GIMEL, HEI, SHIN is a simple, gay-spirited round,
reflecting the dreidl's momentum as it spins. The song's parts may be
repeated at will, and the composer has also suggested improvised accompaniments
- either in lieu of or in conjunction with the printed piano part recorded here.
It is also published in an a cappella version.
Hallel (praise) is a section of the liturgy that is made up of Psalms
113-118, or of verses from these Psalms. Adonai z'kharanu is the text
incipit of verses 12-18 of Psalm 115. The Hallel - whose verses pertain
to the theme of collective praise for God and His attributes of dependability,
mercy, and ultimate wisdom - is recited or sung in the synagogue as part of
the liturgy on festive or jubilant holy days - as well as on Hanukka.
Alexander Olshanetsky did not necessarily compose this setting of ADONAI
Z'KHARANU exclusively for Hanukka, and indeed it achieved popularity through
its performance on a Passover Seder recording by Moishe Oysher. Yet it is no
more related to Passover than to Hanukka or any other occasion for Hallel. Its
performance history includes both Shabbat Hanukka services and Hanukka
concerts, some under Olshanetsky's baton.
Like much choral music written for traditional or orthodox synagogues in America
during the first half of the 20th century, this setting draws unabashedly upon
popular Jewish theatrical effects; yet those features, together with the overall
popular choral style and emotionally evocative melodies, were prominent in the
repertoire of many late-19th-century eastern European synagogue choirs - not,
of course, in the sophisticated and relatively westernized choral synagogues
in Russia, the Ukraine, or Poland, but in smaller communities and among celebrated
itinerant choirs and cantors. In that respect, if it reflects Olshanetsky the
popular Yiddish songwriter, it follows equally in the path of a number of eastern
European immigrant synagogue composers whose work was devoted almost exclusively
to the liturgy - such cantor-composers as Zeidl Rovner, Joshua Lind, and Isaac
Kaminsky, for whom both drama and uncomplicated melody were paramount concerns.
The rendition here, combining children's and men's voices for the SATB choral
format but without women's voices, is aurally representative of a choral ambiance
once typical of orthodox synagogues in America as well as Europe.
ASPECTS OF A GREAT MIRACLE, by Michael Isaacson, was assembled
for a '997 performance by the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Isaacson selected
four of his individual SATB choral settings that had already enjoyed success,
and reworked them into this larger format, each piece constituting a movement.
He orchestrated them for seven brass instruments, harp, piano, timpani, and
a battery of percussion.
The first movement, Light the Legend, is a setting of a lyric by Susan
Nurenberg. He had suggested to her that A Carol of the Bells would serve
as a good model for the "sparkling fast-paced setting" he envisioned
for this Hanukka piece. The words for the second movement, A Hanukka Dreidl,
were written by the composer "as an homage to Ernst Toch's Geographical
Fugue."
He later wrote about the piece as "a crackling, spinning out of the Hanukka
story (the dreidl being a four-sided spinning top, but also with the
connotation of a Jewish vocal melisma) for speaking chorus accompanied by percussion.
I encouraged the singers to use wide-eyed, childlike vocal inflections to make
the story come alive in a charming way."
Light, the third movement, is described by the composer as a setting
of Jeffrey Rake's "shimmering lyric clothed in a gentle garb of a 6/8 meter.
We wrote the song originally for a television film about a futuristic 'virtual
reality' winter holiday theme park called X-MAS World." In that
imagined amusement park, children and their parents could board a fantasy ride
that would take them through the cosmic "worlds of winter holidays."
Light was sung at the park's "Hanukka experience."
The fourth and final movement, Psalm 150, with its praise for God with a variety
of diverse instruments used in ancient Israel, has been Isaacson's favored Psalm
text for his Sabbath services. Here it serves as a rousing, joyous finale.
-Neil W. Levin
About the Composers
Belgian-born cantor and composer HUGO CHAIM ADLER (1894-1955) was cantor
of the Haupt-Synagoge in Mannheim, Germany, from 1922 until his emigration to
the United States in 1939. In the United States, Adler was cantor and music
director of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts, and in 1942 he was awarded
first prize by the Central Conference of American Rabbis for his liturgical
settings. He wrote many large-scale cantatas on biblical and other Judaic subjects,
as well as two complete services.
SAMUEL ADLER (b. 1928) is unique among those established mainstream
American composers whose Jewish identities have informed a part of their art.
He has written prolifically for the Hebrew liturgy and has been consistently
active in the American cantorial and Jewish music infrastructure. Adler was
born in Mannheim, Germany, where his father, Hugo Chaim Adler, was a respected
cantor. After the family's immigration, he became his father's choir director
at the age of thirteen. Adler studied composition with Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith,
Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson, and conducting with Serge Koussevitsky,
and he holds degrees from 8oston University and Harvard. He was music director
of Temple Emanu-EI in Dallas from 1953 until 1966, when he became professor
of composition (and later department chairman) at the Eastman School of Music.
His opera includes more than 400 works in nearly all media, apart from his large
liturgical output. Adler has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School since
1997, while remaining professor emeritus at Eastman.
SOLOMON ANCIS (1873-1945) was a cantor, choral director, educator, and
composer whose most lasting contribution is his substantial body of liturgical
settings for male-voice chorus. Born in Luba, Volhynia, in the Ukraine, he sang
in cantorial choirs in that region and then in Odessa, where he worked with
many great hazzanim. He immigrated to America in the early 1920s and
settled in Los Angeles, where he was an active member and officer of the Jewish
Ministers Cantors Association of California (the Hazzanim Farband). He conducted
its chorus for a time, and wrote and arranged music for its concerts. Many of
his settings became standard repertoire for orthodox cantors and synagogues
in particular, although most of his music remains in manuscript.
HERBERT FROMM (1905-1995) was one of the seminar, and most prolific,
synagogue composers in America from the 1930s on - especially in Reform circles.
Born in Kitzingen, Germany, he studied at the State Academy of Music in Munich.
He immigrated to the United States in 1937 and became organist and music director
of Temple Israel in Boston, where he remained throughout his life. Fromm worked
with Paul Hindemith at Tanglewood, and in 1945 he earned the first Ernest Bloch
Award for The Song of Miriam. His many important sacred works include
three Sabbath services and Atonement Music.
RAYMOND GOLDSTEIN (b. 1953) is associate conductor and resident composer-arranger
for the Jerusalem Great Synagogue Choir, for whom he has written more than 550
settings. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, he has served since 1978 on the faculty
of the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, and since 1991 at the Tel Aviv Cantorial
lnstitute.
MICHAEL ISAACSON (b 1946) earned his doctorate in composition at the
Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Warren Benson and Samuel Adler.
He then taught and conducted at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland
Institute of Music, and in California at Loyola Marymount, California State
University at Long Beach, and U.C.L.A. He also founded the Israel Pops Orchestra
and has produced and conducted various recordings with them as well as other
orchestras. Well known as a composer of both liturgical and secular Jewish music,
Isaacson has published more than 400 works and produced more than 40 recordings.
LEO LOW (1878-1960) was one of the most prominent conductors of Jewish
choruses in his era and the most celebrated champion of the Yiddish folk choral
art in Europe and America. Born in Volkovysk, in the Grodno province of Russian
Poland, he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory in 1900. In 1908 he became
choirmaster of Warsaw's culturally sophisticated Tlomacki Synagogue, where he
also functioned as resident composer/arranger Appointed to direct Warsaw's Hazomir
Choral Society - Europe's most prestigious Jewish secular chorus - Low became
the chief musical force within Warsaw's exciting Jewish cultural renaissance
and introduced a powerful Yiddish folksong element into Hazomir's perspective.
He immigrated to the United States in 1920 and became director of the Patterson,
New Jersey, Choral Society and of the National Workers Farband Choir, the socialist/labor-oriented
chorus in New York. He composed important Yiddish choral and solo settings and
was equally involved with writing for the synagogue.
AARON MILLER (1911-2000) was born in Oswiecim (Auschwitz), Poland, to
a family of Bobover Hassidim. As a child, he entertained at various Hassidic
courts and ceremonies, sang in his father's cantorial choir, and then formed
his own traveling choir. Immediately after the Holocaust, Cantor Miller immigrated
to America and served a number of orthodox cantorial posts His many compositions
were based on his improvisations.
ALEXANDER OLSHANETSKY (1892-1944) was one of the most prominent composers
and conductors associated with the American Yiddish theater. He was also highly
regarded as a synagogue choir director, and he wrote a handful of (unpublished)
liturgical music that is clearly theatrical in nature. Olshanetsky was born
in Odessa, where he had a traditional Jewish and a modern Western-oriented Gymnasium
education. He immigrated to the United States in 1922 and almost immediately
became involved with the Yiddish theater - initially with Maurice Schwarz's
Yiddish Art Theater, for which he wrote incidental music and the well-known
song Shiru, and then with the popular "Second Avenue" medium,
with which his name became ubiquitous from 1925 until his death. Two of his
most famous Yiddish theater songs are Mayn shtetele belz and ikh hob dikh
tsufil lib.
Boston-born JUDITH SHATIN (b. 1949) holds a master's degree from The
Juilliard School and a doctorate from Princeton University. Since 1979 she has
been a professor at the University of Virginia, where she heads the Center for
Computer Music. Shatin has an abiding interest in electronic music, but her
opera includes many pieces for traditional instrumental and vocal media as well.
ZAVEL ZILBERTS (1881-1949) was equally acclaimed in his lifetime as
a choral conductor and a composer. Born in Karlin, a suburb of Pinsk, Belarus,
he began violin studies in childhood and also sang in his father's cantorial
choir. In 1903 he graduated from the Warsaw Conservatory and in 1907 became
music director of the Great Central Synagogue in Moscow. Zilberts immigrated
to the United States in 1920 and was soon engaged as the director of the New
York Hazzanim Farband Choir - the chorus of the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association
- for whom he composed many large-scale works. In 1924 he organized the Zilberts
Choral Society, which became
a regular fixture of New York's cultural life. As a composer, he devoted himself
to three genres: Hebrew liturgical music; folk- art and quasi-Iiturgical choral
settings; and Yiddish lieder.
-Neil W Levin
Texts and Translations
B'RAKHOT L'HANUKKA
Sung in Hebrew
I. Praised be You, Lord (praised be He and praised be His name), our
God, King of the universe, who has made us holy through His commandments and
commanded us to light the Hanukka candles (lights). Amen.
II. Praised be You, Lord (praised be He and praised be His Name), our
God, King of the universe, who performed miracles for our fathers in their time
at this very season. Amen.
III. Praised be You, Lord (praised be He and praised be His name), our
God, King of the universe, who has kept us alive, preserved us, and permitted
us to reach this [joyous] season and occasion. Amen.
Translation: Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
HANNEROT HALLALU
Hugo Ch. Adler
Sung in Hebrew
We kindle these lights to commemorate the miracles, the triumphs and wonders
that You performed for our forefathers through Your holy kohanim (priests)
in those days at this season. Throughout the eight days of Hanukka these lights
are sacred; we are not permitted to make use of them, but to watch them, in
order to give praise and thanks to Your great name for Your miracles, Your triumphs,
and Your wonders.
MA'OZ TZUR
Aaron Miller
Sung in Hebrew
REBUILD THE TEMPLE, BRING ME HOME
My rock, my strength, my rescuer,
it is a delight to praise You.
Repair, restore my House of Prayer.
There I will offer thanksgiving and sacrifice.
When punishment overcomes villainous foes.
I will chant again that ancient psalm,
and dedicate anew Your altar.
EGYPTIAN BONDAGE AND REDEMPTION
My soul became glutted with horrors,
my strength was destroyed by grief,
my life embittered by hardship -
I’d become a slave in Egypt - that "Kingdom of the Calf."
But with Your mighty arm
You delivered Your special folk,
and in the midst of the Sea of Reeds
Pharaoh's legions and Pharaoh's seed
sank like stones into the deep.
BABYLONIAN EXILE AND REDEMPTION
God brought me to His holy sanctuary.
Even there I found no rest.
Oppressors came and exiled me,
for I worshiped foreign gods
and drank impure wine in strangers' shrines.
I almost passed from history's stage,
but Babylonian exile could really end.
In seventy years came Z'rubavel
and brought me back to my cherished home.
HAMAN'S THREAT AND ITS RESOLUTION
In Persia, Haman the Agagite
sought to cleave God's cypress tree
that is, to slay all Jews in Persia's realm
But this plot became Haman's snare,
his stumbling block.
You stilled his cruel arrogance,
and led Mord'khai, of Benjamin's tribe
to save God's folk
You blotted out Haman's name.
His followers-hanged, destroyed, and gone
[MACCABEAN VICTORY
In the days of the Hashmoneans
pagan Greeks rallied to subdue me
They breached the walls of my Temple's towers,
and defiled the oil reserved for worship.
You provided a miraculous feat
for Your fragrant flower, Your people Israel:
a remnant cruse of sacred oil
overlooked by the pagan spoilers,
sufficient for but one day's use,
lasted till new oil was found.
Eight nights of light shone
for the Jews,
the product of that one small cruse.
Then, teachers of wisdom, folk of discernment,
issued a decree
establishing a new festival for Jews:
Eight days, eight nights of Hanukka
Eight days, eight nights of lights.
Eight days, eight nights of song, of joy, of hope.]
Translation: Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
LIKHTELEKH (Little Lights) Leo Low
Dl KHANIKE UKHT (The Hanukka Lights) Zavel Zilberts
Sung in Yiddish
Words, Morris Rosenfeld
Oh, you little candles
You tell stories
Tales on end;
You tell of struggle,
Valor, and courage, of
A wondrous past.
When I see you flickering,
A sparkling reverie arises.
An old dream speaks:
"Jew, you warred once;
Jew, you were once victorious."
God! It seems unbelievable now! ...
God! I can hardly believe it! ...
"You had a state,
To me you were a nation,
Once you governed:
Once you had a country,
Once you had power!"
Oh, how deep the ache now!
Oh, you little lights!
Your stories
Awaken my pain;
It stirs something deep within my heart,
And with tears it asks:
"What will be now? ...”
Note: There are six additional stanzas in the poem.
Translation: Eliyahu Mishulovin / Moshe Zeilingold
HANUKKA MADRIGAL
Herbert Fromm
Sung in Hebrew and English
MI Y'MALLEL?
Who can retell the deeds of Israel,
Who can count them?
Each generation gives a redeemer,
one great name
Hark! At this season in those ancient days,
Maccabee won all his people's praise,
And today, as once they dreamed,
Israel united rises up to be redeemed.
THE FLAMES OF FREEDOM
Samuel Adler
I. MA'OZ TZUR
Mighty Lord. O Rock of my salvation, I come before Thee to give thanks and
sing Thy praise. Build once more Thy holy house, Thy Temple, and there I will
come and bow down and praise Thy name. Let songs unbounded sound again; let
freedom echo in every heart. May Thy will prevail and peace now resound in this
our ancient land. When foe did strike in days of Hasmoneans brave, the Temple
they despoiled and the altar did defile Now rose up Judah Maccabee and fought
for the glory of his people Israel. They made an end to weeping and cleansed
anew the holy place. And they did ordain the feast of Hanukka for eight days
of joy and dedication.
II. HANNEROT HALLALU
These shining lights we have kindled, they will remind us of wonders Thou
didst perform so long ago, Which Thou didst perform for our fathers at this
season in days so long ago. On all eight nights of Hanukka, these shining lights
are holy all eight days, and we may not use them, but to look at them alone.
So that we may praise Thy Holy Name for the miracles and for all the wonders
Thou didst perform in ancient time in days so long ago.
III. AL HANNISSIM
We praise Thy name for the wondrous deeds, for miracles wrought, for victories
won. For Thy power which sustained us in those days of old at this season. It
was in the time of the priest Mattathias the Hashmonean and his sons when there
fell upon Israel Antiochus the evil Greek king. He forbade us the laws of Thy
Torah and from obeying Thy commandments and from following after Thee. And then
Thou in Thine infinite kindness didst stand up for them, didst stand up for
them in their time of trial. We praise Thy name for the wondrous deeds, for
miracles us in those days of old at this season, at this season.
IV. MI ZE HIDLIK?
See how they shine all in a row. They bring us joy and good Cheer. They
spread the word for all to know that Hanukka is here. S'vivon turn, turn,
turn; Spin the dreidl, spin and turn. Who will win, who will lose? Soon the
dreidl tells the news.
La La La …
These tiny lights they burn so bright; each light a star in the night. They
tell of battles and of wonders of heroes who fought for the right.
La La La …
Joy, joy, joy without end.
V. EL HAMMIKDASH BA Y'HUDA
Hallelujah. Into the Temple Judah came, found the oil, and lit the flame.
Come all ye people, praise the Lord, join this day in one accord.
VI. MI Y'MALLEL?
Who can retell the things that befell us, who can count them? In every age
a hero or sage came to our aid.
Hark! At this season in those ancient days, Maccabee won all his people's praise.
And today again, as once they dreamed, Israel united rises up to be redeemed.
VII. CANDLES IN THE NIGHT
Hanukka is here! Candles shining in the night, children singing with delight.
In the glow of golden light, see the faces smiling bright. All eight candles
in a row, like flames so long ago, tell us God is near. They tell us of Judah
Maccabee, who fought to set his people free, banish gloom and fear. When the
foe was overcome, and when freedom had been won, Temple cleansed once more.
Then they praised the God of Might, as we do this festive night, and forevermore.
Hanukka, Hanukka, what a holiday! Hanukka, Hanukka, time to sing and play; Hanukka,
Hanukka, see the dreidl turn, round and round, round and round as the
candles burn.
VIII. ROCK OF AGES
Rock of Ages, let our song
Praise Thy saving power;
Thou, amidst the raging foes,
Wast our sheltering tower
Furious, they assailed us,
But Thine arm availed us,
And Thy word
Broke their sword,
When our own strength failed us
Kindling new the holy lamps,Priests approved in suffering,
Purified the nation's shrine
Brought to God their offering.
And His courts surrounding,
Hear, in joy abounding,
Happy throngs,
Singing songs,
With a mighty sounding.
Children of the martyr race,
Whether free or fettered,
Wake the echoes of the songs,
Where ye may be scattered
Yours the message cheering,
That the time is nearing,
Which will see
All men free,
Tyrants disappearing
MIZMOR SHIR HANUKKAT HABBAYIT
Solomon Ancis
Sung in Hebrew
Psalm 30
A Psalm of David. A song for dedication of the house.
I extol You, O Lord,
for You have lifted me up,
and not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O Lord, my God,
I cried out to You,
and You healed me.
O Lord, You brought me up from Sheol,
preserved me from going down into the Pit.
O you faithful of the Lord, sing to Him,
and praise His holy name.
For He is angry but a moment,
and when He is pleased there is life.
One may lie down weeping at nightfall;
but at dawn there are shouts of joy.
When I was untroubled,
I thought, "I shall never be shaken,"
for You, O Lord, when You were pleased,
made [me] firm as a mighty mountain.
When You hid Your face,
I was terrified. I called to You, O Lord;
to my Lord I made appeal,
"What is to be gained from my death,
from my descent into the Pit?
Can dust praise You?
Can it declare Your faithfulness?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
O Lord, be my help!"
You turned my lament into dancing,
you undid my sackcloth and girded me with joy,
That [my] whole being might sing hymns to
You endlessly;
O Lord my God, I will praise You forever
JPS Tanakh
NUN, GIMEL, HEI, SHIN
Judith Shatin
Sung in Hebrew
Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin
Spin the dreidl,
Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin
Plenty of latkes
A great miracle took place there.
ADONAI Z'KHARANU
Alexander Olshanetsky
Sung in Hebrew
Psalm 115:12-18
The Lord is mindful of us.
He will bless us;
He will bless the house of Israel;
He will bless the house of Aaron;
He will bless those who fear the Lord,
small and great alike.
May the Lord increase your numbers,
yours and your children's also.
May you be blessed by the Lord,
Maker of heaven and earth.
The heavens belong to the Lord,
but the earth He gave over to man.
The dead cannot praise the Lord,
nor any who go down into silence.
But we will bless the Lord
now and forever
Hallelujah.
JPS Tanakh
ASPECTS OF A GREAT MIRACLE
Michael Isaacson
Sung in English
I. LIGHT THE LEGEND
Words Susan Nurenberg
Candles flashing in the night, tapers gleaming diamond bright, golden arabesque
of light - Hanukka, Hanukka. Sparkling facets shimmering flame, gaiiy dance
a fiery game, celebrate the ancient name Hanukka, Hanukka. Light the candles,
say the blessing, tell the age-old story. Maccabeans went to battle, now we
praise their glory. Shining beacons pierce the dark, beaming joy in every spark,
bright reflections on the Ark - Hanukka, Hanukka. Shadows dancing on the wall,
waxen sentries ten feet tall, light the legend for us all, Hanukka, Hanukka.
Light the candles, say the blessing, tell the age-old Story. Maccabeans went
to battle. Now we praise their glory. Candles flashing in the night, tapers
gleaming diamond bright, golden arabesque of light. Hanukka.
II. A HANUKKA DREIDL
Words: Michael lsaacson
Dreidl spinning, one great miracle happened there, happened here, happened
where? Whirling whirling, swirling, twirling. In Judea, Maccabees fought and
won Antiochus in one hundred and sixty-five B.C. Busy, busy ... Clean the Temple
of the idols, make the worship pure again. Shemen, shemen, oil, oil.
Where's the oil for the kindling? Of the holy candelabra? M'nora for
the holy candelabra, where's the oil? Where is the oil? Where is the oil? Shemen
... where is the oil? Found some, I found some, found it, found it. Here's the
oil, here is the uh-oh! Oh no! Oh no, oh no! None? Pure enough for just one
day. Just one day? A single, solitary day. Just one single day "Rededicate,"
said Judah Maccabeus, "and celebrate if for only just one day." Dreidl
whirring, blurring, reeling, turning, spinning out the miracle of oil only
for one day. A tiny little cruse of oil, small enough for just one day, lasted
two, four, six, eight days. Eight days! Energy! Illumination, incandescent brilliant
light, bright in the night, lighting up the Temple's darkness eight days, eight
days. A tiny little cruse of oil. Little better than the darkness, did the job
alone and proudly lit the Temple for eight days! Two, four, six, eight. Astonishing,
a miracle! Amazing wonder happened there, happened here, happened where? In
Judea, in the Temple, Judah let the Maccabees. Always! Always, always time to
try again, always time to win a victory, always time to light the darkness,
even, even if just for one day. Hanukka elation, Hanukka creation, Hanukka sensation,
Hanukka rededication. Dreidl, spinning, winning candles burning in the
night. Light the m'nora, sing of Judah and the fight for what is right!
Celebrate Hanukka! Hanukka!
Narrow your search
Classical Music
B'rakhot L'hanukka (Candlelighting benedictions) - 4:56 
