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If you've been to a Jewish wedding, you've probably heard this niggun (tune). It also doubles in some circles as the Jewish version of "X and Y, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G".
The wedding thing is presumably how James Corden came to know it.
#t:84
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The wedding thing is presumably how James Corden came to know it.
#t:84
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I say niggun, rather than song, because it is mostly sung now without words. See this rendition, from 1997, where the track is titled, literally, “O, O, O, Ay, Yay, Yay” (Track 2).
https://www.allmusic.com/album/everything-you-need-for-a-jewish-wedding-mw0001010685
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https://www.allmusic.com/album/everything-you-need-for-a-jewish-wedding-mw0001010685
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But it wasn’t always this way.
(A) That signature lilting opening was originally monotonous, as in this recording from 1961.
(B) The song does in fact have words. This track is titled "Ketzad Merakdin" - as opposed to "Niggun X" like most others.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LjsAAOSwDKpZl2wd/s-l1600.jpg
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(A) That signature lilting opening was originally monotonous, as in this recording from 1961.
(B) The song does in fact have words. This track is titled "Ketzad Merakdin" - as opposed to "Niggun X" like most others.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/LjsAAOSwDKpZl2wd/s-l1600.jpg
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The lyrics ask: “Keitzad merakdin lifnei hakallah?” – how do we dance before the bride? – a question asked in the Talmud.
(The answer, by the way, is that you celebrate her as if she is beautiful regardless of whether she is.)
https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.16b.12
Lyrics sung in 1969.
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(The answer, by the way, is that you celebrate her as if she is beautiful regardless of whether she is.)
https://www.sefaria.org/Ketubot.16b.12
Lyrics sung in 1969.
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Note that the monotonous opening is universal at this point.
In this 1968 recording, every band member gets a solo on the song, and none performs the familiar lilting opening.
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In this 1968 recording, every band member gets a solo on the song, and none performs the familiar lilting opening.
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They almost get there in this rendition from 1978, but the deviations from the monotone are really emphatic rather than melodic.
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As late as 1992, you have the same basic monotone, albeit with something of a trill one tone below (rather than the minor third above as usually heard today).
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So when and how did the song evolve into the niggun we know and (before this thread at least) love today?
A key stepping stone, I suggest, was this fusion of the two, from 1986. This is the earliest full-throated recording of the modern-day version that I am aware of.
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A key stepping stone, I suggest, was this fusion of the two, from 1986. This is the earliest full-throated recording of the modern-day version that I am aware of.
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That is unlikely to be the origin of the modern version. So where did it come from?
Enter R' Baruch Chait, an influential Jewish composer in the 1970s. These are probably his three biggest hits: most Jews (inc secular Israelis) will be familiar with at least one of these.
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Enter R' Baruch Chait, an influential Jewish composer in the 1970s. These are probably his three biggest hits: most Jews (inc secular Israelis) will be familiar with at least one of these.
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In 1976, his group Kol Salonika released "Songs of Shabbos". Most of the tracks were traditional tunes, but one of the original compositions was "Yom Zeh", to be sung at the Sabbath lunch table.
Note the vocalised coda - a recurring minor third interval, sung to "oy oy oy".
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Note the vocalised coda - a recurring minor third interval, sung to "oy oy oy".
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To conclude this thread with self-immolation, here is a snippet of the song being sung at our wedding (c.2013).
Note our momentary discombobulation when he starts singing the lyrics - but also that he sings them too with the two notes, rather than the monotone.
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Note our momentary discombobulation when he starts singing the lyrics - but also that he sings them too with the two notes, rather than the monotone.
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