Simchat Torah "Praylist"
Oct. 4th, 2010 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuThank you to everyone who made suggestions of tunes to use for my Simchat Torah davening. It went really well; I got a lot of compliments.
To review: my criteria were that melodies had to (1) be respectful of the text; (2) be relevant to the text; (3) fit the text without repeating words, vocables, or unreasonable melismas, (4) be reasonably fast (it's a long service); (5) be witty; (6) as much as possible, fit into the mode (e.g., weekday minor or Amida pentatonic) of that part of the service; (7) work a cappella.
Amazingly, those criteria were not too limiting, in part because of the great suggestions I got. So, herewith, the "praylist":
Rhapsody in Blue for Ha-el b'ta-atzumot uzecha
OK, so this was the one exception; it had nothing to do with the text. But I wanted to start from the first note letting people know to listen up, and the opening interval for the traditional melody for Ha-el is (modulo an octave) the same as the opening clarinet glissando from Rhapsody in Blue. So I did that trill and gliss just on the first syllable (Ha!) and then continued with the traditional melody; to make sure people got the joke I then used the main theme from RiB for b'fi yisharim -- it fit the words perfectly, and the blues mode is actually the same as the prayer mode there.
O Mein Papa for Avot
Father, fathers. I chose this before Eddie Fisher passed away, but it was fitting. Again, the correspondence between the melody and the nusach was quite good, and with only a couple of extra eighth notes it scanned perfectly, ending at Magen Avraham. It was then a trivial segue into:
Singin' in the Rain for Ata gibor... mashiv haruach
Rain, rain. A no-brainer. I did Ata gibor to the intro, then jumped to the last bars of "I'm singin' -- singin' in the rain" for mashiv ha-ruach --- umorid hagashem.
Main Theme from Superman for Gevurot
Superman, strength. I took![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sethg_prime's suggestion here, although in davening I muffed it and I don't think it was recognizable. It's another good fit for the nusach and the number of syllables. I switched to the traditional melody at the very end, to segue into a completely straight Kedushah.
(Talkin' 'bout) My Generation for Ledor vador
Generation, generation. This simply doesn't work. I tried anyway and shouldn't have. There's not enough melody to the song. I switched back to nusach pretty fast; it was also important to give people their first real taste of the yom tov tune for Amidah right away to show my respect for the traditions.
Traditional congregational sing-along melody for Ata v'chartanu
As Tom Lehrer tells us, you need a tune the people can hummmmm (or sing along to) or they'll get bored.
Eight Days a Week for Vatiten lanu
Eight days, eighth day. Another no-brainer; fits perfectly with just enough left over at the end to use the traditional end-of-paragraph melody, which is only two notes different from the end of the A section of the Beatles' song.
(I'll Build a) Stairway to Paradise for Ya'aleh v'Yavo
Ya'aleh means "Let us ascend" -- in this case, meaning to the Temple Mount. So the text corresponds reasonably well, and it's Gershwin so the melody is a good match for the Jewish prayer modes. It fits the text reasonably well, if you repeat a measure of the Gershwin every so often. But I had trouble getting it started. I don't know if I'd do that again. Maybe next time I'd try "Stairway to Heaven" instead.
Memories (from Cats) for Zochreinu
Memories, memories. Eh.
It's Priest from (Sweeny Todd) for Birkat Kohanim
How else to introduce the priestly benediction and summon the priests to the front of the room? Well, actually, I didn't. This would have been waaaaaaaay over the line of good taste. (Well, pity.) But it would have scanned perfectly.
Rainbow Connection for Sim Shalom
It was surprisingly hard to come up with a peace-themed song that met all the criteria above. Too many of the good ones require a band or are otherwise unworkable in the context of a prayer service. Or they mention Jesus. Rainbow Connection, on the other hand, fit really well and talks about our yearning for an ideal place.
Walk Like an Egyptian for Betzet Yisrael mi-Mitzrayim ("When Israel walked out of Egypt")
Oh,qaqaq and your feathery alter-ego, thank you thank you thank you! This was the one that brought the most compliments (at least from our generation; the older folks loved "O Mein Papa"). It scanned perfectly, it was funny and unexpected without being disrespectful, and it was recognizable even as an unaccompanied vocal line.
Everything else I did straight. I used the Portuguese melody for the short Psalm Hallelu et Hashem kol goyim; I used the most common melody for the opening of Hodu lashem ki tov but demonstrated that if you do it right it scans better with both the shatz and the kahal splitting each line; I used the Purjes Odecha because my favorite melody has been done to death recently and I haven't heard the Purjes in ages.
So it was a lot of fun for me and, I think, it rewarded the people who actually showed up on time for the last day of the holiday season. Yes, I find it more meaningful when I'm asked to lead Geshem on Shemini Atzeret, but this was a nice change of pace.
And most importantly, it was a chance to embellish our prayers -- admittedly in an unusual way, but in a way that, I hope, by being "logocentric" in its humor and (dare I say) wit, got people to think about the words instead of falling into a rut after all these weeks of holy days.
To review: my criteria were that melodies had to (1) be respectful of the text; (2) be relevant to the text; (3) fit the text without repeating words, vocables, or unreasonable melismas, (4) be reasonably fast (it's a long service); (5) be witty; (6) as much as possible, fit into the mode (e.g., weekday minor or Amida pentatonic) of that part of the service; (7) work a cappella.
Amazingly, those criteria were not too limiting, in part because of the great suggestions I got. So, herewith, the "praylist":
Rhapsody in Blue for Ha-el b'ta-atzumot uzecha
OK, so this was the one exception; it had nothing to do with the text. But I wanted to start from the first note letting people know to listen up, and the opening interval for the traditional melody for Ha-el is (modulo an octave) the same as the opening clarinet glissando from Rhapsody in Blue. So I did that trill and gliss just on the first syllable (Ha!) and then continued with the traditional melody; to make sure people got the joke I then used the main theme from RiB for b'fi yisharim -- it fit the words perfectly, and the blues mode is actually the same as the prayer mode there.
O Mein Papa for Avot
Father, fathers. I chose this before Eddie Fisher passed away, but it was fitting. Again, the correspondence between the melody and the nusach was quite good, and with only a couple of extra eighth notes it scanned perfectly, ending at Magen Avraham. It was then a trivial segue into:
Singin' in the Rain for Ata gibor... mashiv haruach
Rain, rain. A no-brainer. I did Ata gibor to the intro, then jumped to the last bars of "I'm singin' -- singin' in the rain" for mashiv ha-ruach --- umorid hagashem.
Main Theme from Superman for Gevurot
Superman, strength. I took
sethg_prime's suggestion here, although in davening I muffed it and I don't think it was recognizable. It's another good fit for the nusach and the number of syllables. I switched to the traditional melody at the very end, to segue into a completely straight Kedushah.(Talkin' 'bout) My Generation for Ledor vador
Generation, generation. This simply doesn't work. I tried anyway and shouldn't have. There's not enough melody to the song. I switched back to nusach pretty fast; it was also important to give people their first real taste of the yom tov tune for Amidah right away to show my respect for the traditions.
Traditional congregational sing-along melody for Ata v'chartanu
As Tom Lehrer tells us, you need a tune the people can hummmmm (or sing along to) or they'll get bored.
Eight Days a Week for Vatiten lanu
Eight days, eighth day. Another no-brainer; fits perfectly with just enough left over at the end to use the traditional end-of-paragraph melody, which is only two notes different from the end of the A section of the Beatles' song.
(I'll Build a) Stairway to Paradise for Ya'aleh v'Yavo
Ya'aleh means "Let us ascend" -- in this case, meaning to the Temple Mount. So the text corresponds reasonably well, and it's Gershwin so the melody is a good match for the Jewish prayer modes. It fits the text reasonably well, if you repeat a measure of the Gershwin every so often. But I had trouble getting it started. I don't know if I'd do that again. Maybe next time I'd try "Stairway to Heaven" instead.
Memories (from Cats) for Zochreinu
Memories, memories. Eh.
It's Priest from (Sweeny Todd) for Birkat Kohanim
How else to introduce the priestly benediction and summon the priests to the front of the room? Well, actually, I didn't. This would have been waaaaaaaay over the line of good taste. (Well, pity.) But it would have scanned perfectly.
Rainbow Connection for Sim Shalom
It was surprisingly hard to come up with a peace-themed song that met all the criteria above. Too many of the good ones require a band or are otherwise unworkable in the context of a prayer service. Or they mention Jesus. Rainbow Connection, on the other hand, fit really well and talks about our yearning for an ideal place.
Walk Like an Egyptian for Betzet Yisrael mi-Mitzrayim ("When Israel walked out of Egypt")
Oh,
qaqaq and your feathery alter-ego, thank you thank you thank you! This was the one that brought the most compliments (at least from our generation; the older folks loved "O Mein Papa"). It scanned perfectly, it was funny and unexpected without being disrespectful, and it was recognizable even as an unaccompanied vocal line.Everything else I did straight. I used the Portuguese melody for the short Psalm Hallelu et Hashem kol goyim; I used the most common melody for the opening of Hodu lashem ki tov but demonstrated that if you do it right it scans better with both the shatz and the kahal splitting each line; I used the Purjes Odecha because my favorite melody has been done to death recently and I haven't heard the Purjes in ages.
So it was a lot of fun for me and, I think, it rewarded the people who actually showed up on time for the last day of the holiday season. Yes, I find it more meaningful when I'm asked to lead Geshem on Shemini Atzeret, but this was a nice change of pace.
And most importantly, it was a chance to embellish our prayers -- admittedly in an unusual way, but in a way that, I hope, by being "logocentric" in its humor and (dare I say) wit, got people to think about the words instead of falling into a rut after all these weeks of holy days.