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Friday December 1, 2006

Why does Chanukah music sound so bim-bam-boring?

by janet silver ghent

I love Jewish music. The classical choral works of Salamone Rossi. The modern pieces of Michael Isaacson and Stephen Richards. The folksy tunes of Mah Tovu, Linda Hirschhorn and Craig Taubman. Even the shmaltzy showpieces of Louis Lewandowski. Every time I sing them on Rosh Hashanah, I get chills.

I believe music is a direct line to the spirit, and it led me back to Judaism, rekindling a flame that had never really died.

But when it comes to Chanukah music, can we talk? I find it mostly bim-bam-boring, the Jewish equivalent of “The Little Drummer Boy.” It’s monotonous, in a pretty limited palette, with an even more limited text. Think “Sivivon” or “Chanukah O Chanukah.” Are these doleful, droning melodies supposed to put us in the mood to rejoice, or am I missing something?

Some of it isn’t really very Jewish. “Maoz Tsur” has a melody that came out of Germany and was reportedly adapted in a hymn by Martin Luther. What’s more, the best-known classical work with a Chanukah theme is “Judah Maccabeus” by Handel. No, he wasn’t writing for a Jewish audience.

Of course, there are some wonderful songs: Taubman’s “Celebrate Chanukah” album, my favorite, includes Hirschhorn’s ”Chanukah/ Solstice,” Judy Frankel’s “Hanuka,” Peter Yarrow’s inspiring “Light One Candle” and Debbie Friedman’s “Not by Might,” Not By Power,” among others. But these songs are small lights in an overwhelmingly dim field.

Why is most Chanukah music so uninspiring?

I asked a couple of friends in HaShirim, my South Bay Jewish chorale. Noting that it is unfortunate that Chanukah falls around the same time as Christmas, leading to unfair comparisons, some wondered why so many great Jewish songwriters had ignored Chanukah. Some said it was because Chanukah is a minor holiday.

My brother had his own theory: “Because Irving Berlin was too busy writing Christmas songs.”

Not to mention Mel Tormé and Jerry Herman — and my favorite Christmas song, “O Holy Night” (“Cantique de Noel”), composed by Adolphe Adam, who was indeed Jewish. Then there are the Christmas albums by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. The list goes on.

I asked Dawn Reyen, who directs the secular Aurora Singers in Palo Alto. The group’s December program includes several Chanukah favorites and a variety of contemporary Christmas songs.

“It’s more of a holiday for children, not something that moves something profound in the human spirit,” she said, “so most of the music is geared more toward 6-year-olds. Because of the escalating visibility of other holidays, there’s a feeling of needing to scramble with more Chanukah music, so there’s a lot of quickly written, cheesy music out there, trying to make it a heavier holiday than it was intended to be.”

“Sivivon,” and “The Dreydl Song,” she said, are “delightful children’s songs, but not music that will move your soul.”

But maybe I’m too critical. Those songs from childhood ignite a spark when my choral groups perform them at senior residences or in concert, and I feel blessed to be part of that experience.

One Christmas morning, my husband and I joined other members of the Aurora Singers at Lytton Gardens in Palo Alto. He and I located the Jewish residents, and we went from room to room singing Yiddish and Hebrew songs.

“Shemen Zach,” a Hebrew Chanukah song, struck a chord with a woman who had lived in Israel, and when my husband sang “Raisins and Almonds” (“Rozhinkes mit Mandeln”), he wasn’t the only one awakening a memory of his mother. One woman hadn’t heard the song since her mother sang it in the Old Country, and her eyes brimmed with tears.

Thanking us, she handed us a doll that had been given to her that day, asking us to give it to a child. But in truth, she gave us a far greater gift, the gift of connection.

Janet Silver Ghent, former senior editor of j., is a freelance writer/editor living in Palo Alto. She can be reached at ghentwriter@gmail.com.

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