{"id":89053,"date":"2021-02-18T10:07:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T08:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89053"},"modified":"2021-02-18T10:07:07","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T08:07:07","slug":"the-perfect-combination-of-melody-and-the-hebrew-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-perfect-combination-of-melody-and-the-hebrew-word\/","title":{"rendered":"The Perfect Combination of Melody And The Hebrew Word"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"89053","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":79834,"related_cahpter":"680","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A new series - this time: Yehezkel Braun ","content":"

Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014), \u201cHallelujah,\u201d from \u201c<\/span>Three Hallel Psalms<\/span><\/a>,\u201d for choir<\/span><\/p>\n

Similar to Psalms 110, 111 and 112, Psalm 113 also has been set to music many times, especially in the context of church vespers (with the title \u201cLaudate pueri Dominum\u201d). But today, let\u2019s listen to the version of the Israeli composer Yehezkel Braun. Braun also composed for Psalms 111 and 112, which also open with \u201cHallelujah,\u201d with an awareness of their use in liturgical settings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Braun was one of the most prolific and best-loved Israeli composers. His melodic inspiration was breathtaking, direct and uncomplicated, expressing an optimistic Israeli spirit from the time of the Yishuv, and the early years of the State. He grew up in Rechovot, and served in the Jewish Brigade during World War Two. Only then did he turn to official musical studies. He refused to follow the fashions of the day, and searched for the perfect match of melody and the Hebrew word. Like many of his generation, Barun specialized in traditional Jewish music, and in the styles of different Jewish ethnic traditions, and integrated many of these materials into his own music. The Christian liturgical music that he also was intrigued by was actually the monastic singing, Gregorian chant that goes back to antiquity and medieval times. In order to understand this music more deeply, he even spent an extended period at a Benedictine monastery in France.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The word \u201challelujah\u201d serves here as a chorus, with a variety of harmonies, and in a mode (mixolydian) that echoes that long-lost Israeliness. The complex, variegated rhythms give the piece an almost Balkan flavor, and also enable the composer the flexibility to integrate the Biblical text into the structure of the work. Try, for instance, to join with the choir when they sing <\/span>mimizrach shemesh ad mevo\u2019o<\/span><\/em>, and you get a sense of the complex tempo, together with the vitality and power of the work as a whole.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three Hallel Psalms (or \u201cThree Psalms of Praise\u201d) was commissioned for the 11th Zimiriyah (International Choral Festival) that took place in Israel in June of 1979. In 1984 Braun wrote a setting of the liturgical Hallel (Psalms 113-118) for choir and soloist and orchestra. The first movement of this work is a revision of his earlier setting of Psalm 113, the third movement of \u201cThree Hallel Psalms.\u201d Braun\u2019s Hallel Service was commissioned in 1984 by Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Minneapolis to celebrate its one hundredth anniversary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shahar Choir, conducted by Gila Brill\u00a0
\n<\/span>Israeli Music Festival,\u00a0 Tel-Aviv Museum, 1\/10\/2014<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/zsiBl1e3hD0","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"The Psalms In Classical Music","main_caption":"The Perfect Combination of Melody And The Hebrew Word","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"A new series - this time: Yehezkel Braun ","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":false,"preview_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/zsiBl1e3hD0","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89060,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89053\/revisions\/89060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}