Composed By: Nira Chen

Arranged By: Joshua Jacobson

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Purchase sheet music at World Music Press

Voicing: SATB

Language: Hebrew

Difficulty: moderate

Country: Israel

Solos: none

Instruments: clarinet, flute, percussion (optional piano)

Lyricist: Song of Songs

Publisher: World Music Press

Year Composed/Published: c. 1960 (arranged 1992)

Timing: 3:30

Tempo: slow

First Line: Dodi Li va’ani lo

description: When European Jews began to return to the land of Israel at the beginning of the twentieth century, they were determined to create an ideal new life, based on the ancient Hebrew civilization. Among the manifestations of this new life-style was a body of popular secular songs whose texts were taken from the Old Testament and whose melodies were in tune with the rhythms and scales of the Middle East. Nira Chen's Dodi Li provides an excellent example. The text is taken from the greatest Biblical love song, the Canticle of King Solomon. The exoticism of the melody is reinforced by the repeated horah rhythm and the modality, vacillating between Dorian and Aeolian. In this arrangement, the amorous quality of the text is the springboard for a sensuous interpretation. In this sensuous arrangement, the tempo is slow and languid, the dynamics expressive.