Music for Jewish chorales: The Triangle Jewish Chorale Songbook

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Review: "A Chanukah Party at Temple Beth Or"
By Ken Hoover

"Chanukah, Oh Chanukah, come light the Menorah
Let's have a party, we'll all dance the hora"

The Triangle Jewish Chorale set the mood for a Chanukah party on the afternoon of December 5 at Temple Beth Or in Raleigh. The Chorale is made up of members of the Jewish communities of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary and is conducted by Jane Peppler and accompanied by Gary Berman.

The choristers, drawn together by their love of singing, have ranged from college students to professors, business people and retirees. This is not a polished group, but what it lacks in refinement is made up for in individual talents and the infectious enthusiasm of all.

The program included many traditional Jewish songs, most of them related to the celebration of Chanukah. Some were sung in Hebrew, some in Yiddish, a few in the unique Spanish/Hebrew blend of the Sephardim, and a few in English.

The concert was informal, with several selections on a printed sheet inviting audience participation.

While the only Yiddish this gentile knows is "Oy vey," it was a delight to try to sing along with "Khanukah, oy Khanukah, a yomtev, a sheyner, Alustiker, a freylekher, ...." With the patience and persistence of Peppler, I was actually able to get most of the sylables in after the third or fourth time the chorus came around.

Of note on the program were several songs of Naomi Shemer, who passed away this past summer. She was truly Israel's greatest songwriter, depicting the love of the land, its history, and the unifying belief that the people of Israel are one. Her song "Yerushalayim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold") became second only to the National anthem, "Hatikvah." She lived for many years at a Kibbutz in the Kinneret, writing songs about the daily lives of Israelis.

Especially beautiful were two songs near the end of the first half of the concert: "Kineret," a song about the lake region and a girl of the same name, and "Shir Aviv," a song about the coming of spring and the beauty of the land.

Bernie Most sang with panache a delightful rendition from the Yiddish theater, "Itsik Shpitsik." The addition of Jean Ritchie's "Now is the Cool of the Day" and Stephen Foster's "Hard Times", complemented the wistful modal lilt of the traditional Jewish tunes.

There were instrumental contributions from violin, squeeze box, clarinet, recorder, harmonica, and a chorus of kazoos.

Berman is an excellent accompanist, and he announced that he was not responsible for the sticking damper on the piano that allowed one note to vibrate longer than it should have. This is a very talented group and they made it a thoroughly delightful afternoon.

Picture: our wonderful pianist, Gary Berman.

A Nign
Adio, Querido
Al Kol Eileh
Birobidzhan
Borei Ad Ana
Buena Semana
Cuando el Rey Nimrod
Dem Zeydn's Nigndl
Du Shaynst vi di Zun
Durme, Durme
Ein Keloheinu
El Ginat Eigoz
Eliahu Hanavi
An Equal Song
Gris, Bagris
Hob Ikh Mir a Mantl (to my new tune)
Hard Times
Hu Tsa Tsa
Imi Nahtna Leviva-Li
Itsik Shpitsik
Ki Eleicha
Kineret
Krokhmalne Gas (a new tune)
Miserlou
Ma-Oz Tsur
Od Lo Ahavti Dai
Oy Ir Kleyne Likhtelekh
Shir Aviv
Shnirele Perele
Sim Shalom
Siete modos de guisar las berenjenas
Sisu et Yerushalayim
Di Svet-shap
Ta-am Haman
Ufros Aleinu (to my new tune)
This Old World
Yerushalayim Shel Zahav
Yom Zeh l'Yisrael
Zol Shoyn Kumen di Geule

Marty Lakin a''h, a retired professor of psychology at Duke University, sang bass with our group for many years. He wrote this for a local paper:

Triangle Jewish Chorale Makes Its Mark on Cultural Calendar
By Martin Lakin

The Triangle Jewish Chorale is no longer just a group of folks who like to get together to sing Jewish songs. Fresh from a triumphant appearance at the Carolina Theater in Durham at the second annual N.C. Jewish Film Festival, the chorale is acknowledged as having made its mark on our region's cultural calendar. For four years now, the chorale, founded by Gayla Halbrecht, conducted by Jane Peppler, and accompanied by Gary Berman on piano, has been giving performances in synagogues and temples as well as for secular civic occasions.

The chorale has regularly performed at Yom HaShoah, Holocaust commemorations, Hannukkah celebrations and other events sponsored by the Durham-Chapel Hill Jewish Federation and its agency, Jewish Family Service. You may have heard the group in performance at celebrations of Israel Independance Day, at installation banquets and at special meetings in the Triangle Area.

The Triangle Jewish Chorale has grown to more than thirty members who rehearse twice monthly and plan their offerings to include diverse elements of Jewish music, such as Hebrew melodies from Israel, Yiddish songs from Eastern Europe and from immigrants to the U.S., Ladino songs that were sung by descendants of Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal in 1492, and even some songs in mixed languages, such as Yiddish and Russian.

You've not yet heard the chorale in concert? Don't be the only one in your Chavurah or social group who hasn't been to one of these performances. If you want to enhance your standing with your friends, get your synagogue or temple or other Jewish organization to call Gayla Halbrecht at 620-0546 about being included in our schedule of forthcoming concerts.

In this picture, Becky Weisleder and Cheri Yanuck. They both are great singers, but neither of them reads music. Becky is a very busy professor at the UNC Dental School and Cheri is a busy clinical psycholgist, so the time they have available for learning music is short.

Chorus members who didn't read music used to have to bring cassette decks to rehearsal and catch their parts on the fly.

I developed a pretty great system if I say so myself, and it all depended on the music program Sibelius. Since I wrote most of my own arrangements, using music in the public domain, it wasn't illegal for me to input all four parts into my program.

You can save Sibelius files as midi files. Then I used the free midi program Anvil to manipulate the midi files, making four files for each song: the altos would get a file with the alto part very loud and in an easy-to-hear voicing, the other parts would be quieter and would be panned out to the sides. I would do the same for each voice part, it's remarkably quick.

I used the PrimoPDF program (free) to output .pdf files of all the music.

Then we uploaded the whole bundle to our chorale website. Members printed out their own copies of the music. That means, no more carrying around a heavy box of spare music and doing defensive extra xeroxing!

Also, everybody could download the midi files and practice on their own at home! No piano necessary!