Traditional Italian Sephardic melody

arranged by Joshua Jacobson

Purchase sheet music from the arranger

sample PDF

purchase CD here

Voicing: SATB

Language: Hebrew

Holiday: Simchat Torah

Difficulty: moderately easy

Country: Italy

Solos: none (optional soprano and tenor/high baritone)

Instruments: soprano recorder and optional hand drum and/or tambourine

Lyrics: traditional (perhaps Shalom Ben Mazaltov) based on Psalms and Song of Songs

Year arranged: 2002 (traditional melody transcribed c. 1723)

Timing: 2:10

Tempo: moderately fast

First Line: Akhar Nogenim ashir shirah

description: Benedetto Marcello had a successful career in Venice as a lawyer and politician, but he also managed to make a name for himself as a musician. His best known work is Estro poetico-armonico (1724–27), a musical setting for voices and instruments of the first fifty Psalms, as paraphrased in Italian by his friend Girolamo Giustiniani. Ten of the settings are based on melodies transcribed from the synagogues of the Venetian Ghetto. This arrangement takes its cue from the lyrics, with a parade-like joyous rhythm and open-fifths rugged harmonies.

Full lyrics (translated from the Hebrew):

Following the musicians,
I sing my song.
I rouse the dawn,
uttering my morning psalm.
Come, my beloved, sound the harp!

You are the most beautiful
Of all the maidens
playing the drums.
Your eyes are like doves.
Come, my beloved, sound the harp!

The winter is past, the rains are over.

Blossoms are seen on the hillsides.

Behold, your lover has turned and gone.

Come, my beloved, sound the harp!