Songbook: Collection of Hebrew Songs for Kindergarten, Elementary School, and High School

Introduction

The lack of a Hebrew songbook for Jewish schools in the East is known and felt by all Hebrew teachers generally and music teachers, in particular. Although several collections have been produced of late, apart from their being slender, they are flawed in content and form. They are deficient in Jewish folk melodies, precisely where [folk music] alone should be the foundation of a songbook for our people. The authors also erred in their form of presenting the songs, as they wrote the Hebrew words in non-Hebrew characters and used Ashkenazic pronunciation, and with this, they made the books inaccessible to pupils in schools where European languages are not taught at all. Therefore, such pupils cannot possibly read them and the pupils in the East, who speak Hebrew with Sephardic pronunciation, find the language of the poems incomprehensible, as they are written with Ashkenazic pronunciation.

Therefore, the leaders of the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden and, particularly, Drs. James Simon and Paul Nathan, deserve immense praise for being aware of this deficiency and for undertaking to publish for kindergartens, primary schools, and teachers’ seminaries a Hebrew songbook fit for its purpose.

In compiling the book and the contents of the songs, I was guided by the songbooks of civilized nations, which allow pupils to sing about everything they know, about whatever has a place in their world, and about important matters that should be called to their attention and given their affection. I created a special section for songs “from children’s lives” and another for “play songs” and games; songs to sing while walking and doing calisthenics; a special section for “nature songs” in order to attract the Jewish pupil to nature—and a special section for Jewish “folk songs.” I also included “occasional songs” for various events such as festivities associated with the school, the Land [of Israel], or the [Jewish] people.

I adopted the melodic content from folk tunes, either Ashkenazic or Sephardic, since they all have one foundation—a Jewish source (mekor Yisrael). These songs are designated as “Folk Tunes.” I also collected sundry tunes from different Jewish composers.

At times I included foreign tunes that were integrated into Jewish cultures, and converted them, marking them as “received tunes” or “foreign tunes.” For the remaining songs, I composed the melodies myself.

As stated, this book is intended for kindergartens, primary schools, and teachers’ seminaries, and accordingly I chose the quality of the songs, from simple to difficult. For kindergarten children, whose vocal range does not exceed one octave, I provided songs that are simple in content and that offer small and easy melodies in terms of voices, intervals, and meter, so that the pupils’ young mouths can accommodate them comfortably.

For primary-school pupils, those aged six to thirteen, I included songs of higher quality, the tunes of which have melodic content, most of which are performed in two voices. Music teachers in the schools of the East should be mindful of their pupils’ voices because boys in the East do not have the soprano range that one finds in Europe. Instead, their voice is alto, which can be divided only into high alto and low alto. [ . . . ] I did not include many melodies for three-part voices because they would be hard to perform, especially in the East, where voices are lacking, since a high soprano would definitely be needed for them.

I presented a third type of song, intended for teachers’ seminaries, in three and four voices because among the students in these schools, aged seventeen to twenty, the “voice of youth” becomes the “voice of man.” Therefore, they already have a tenor or bass and should sing in a three- or four-voice chorus in order to accustom themselves to harmony and to broader forms of melody than just the simple tune. Where boys’ voices cannot be added to them, the teacher should select melodies in two voices that are suited in quality to tenor and bass.

Having arranged the lyrics in Hebrew characters, reading from right to left, in order to make them functional for all Jewish pupils, I also had to revise the established pattern of musical notation, which goes from left to right. Therefore, I reversed the notes and wrote them from right to left so as to match the Hebrew lyrics. If those performing these songs seem to find this change in values strange, they should realize that it is better to change the notation than to change the way Hebrew is written. What is more, I am not the first to make this reversal; I was preceded by the Arab musicians-of-old in their songbooks. In fact, there is nothing about reading the notes from right to left but a habit that each performer will come to understand.

This aside, I have tried to select melodies that will be dear, and understandable, to all Jews, wherever they live.

This book is the first of its kind in Jewish literature in both content and form. Its intention is to teach the Jewish people a chapter of song and melody so that they will develop feelings that are refined, full of ethics, beauty, and of all that is sublime and sacred in man.