When will that be?

“Yibone ha-mikdosh ir tziyoyn temale, then will that be” – sings Márta Sebestyén in the title-giving song of the album The rooster is crowing by the Muzsikás Ensemble.


Márta Sebestyén and the Muzsikás Ensemble: The rooster is crowing (3'06"). From the CD The rooster is crowing. Hungarian Jewish folk music (1992). – The CD was released outside of Hungary under the title Máramaros: The Lost Jewish Music of Transylvania.
(We have already written about this album, with reference to the alleged Jewish roots of the song “Bella ciao”. The Muzsikás Ensemble visited those old Gypsy musicians who used to play on the feasts of the Hasidic Jewish communities of Maramureş, destroyed in 1944, and collected from them the former songs of these communities.)

Szól a kakas már Majd megvirrad már Zöld erdőben, sík mezőben sétál egy madár. Micsoda madár, Micsoda madár Sárga lába, kék a szárnya Engem odavár. Várj, madár, várj Te csak mindig várj Ha az Isten néked rendelt Tiéd leszek már. Mikor lesz az már, Mikor lesz az már? Jibbone ha-mikdos ir Cijon tömale Akkor lesz az már.

The rooster is crowing Soon it will be daylight In a green forest, in a smooth meadow A bird is strolling. What kind of bird is it? What kind of bird is it? Its feet are yellow, its wings are blue It is waiting for me. Wait, bird, wait Always wait for me. If God ordered me to you I will be yours. When will that be? When will that be? Yibone ha-mikdosh, ir Tziyoyn temale Then will that be.

That is, when…?

In vain we turn to the leaflet of the CD for explanation. There we can only read the legendary story about the genesis of the song in the words of the musicologist Bence Szabolcsi:

The Hasidic rabbi Eizik Taub came around 1780 to Nagykálló as a melamed (teacher) of the children of the local rashekol (president of the Jewish congregation), and later he became the rabbi of the same town. A great lover of the nature and of poetical spirit, once while walking in the fields, he heard the song of a little shepherd, and he felt an irresistible urge to learn it. So he purchased the song for two forints. As soon as they made the bargain, the rabbi learned the song and the shepherd boy forgot it. Since then the Jews of Northern Hungary feel this song their own, and they sing it in all their religious feasts, because they interpret its text as allegorically speaking about the coming of the Messiah.


Of a Hungarian shepherd boy even a Tzadik can only buy an authentic Hungarian folk song. This is also attested by Bence Szabolcsi: The rooster is crowing “is, both in the text and in the melody, a not too noteworthy variant of a well-known Hungarian folk song, with forcibly inserted Hebrew lines.” (“Népdalok” [“Folk songs”], in Az Egyenlőség Képes Folyóirata, 1921.) Later we will have more about these “forcible insertions.” But first let us try to find out how a more or less typical Hungarian folk song could become such a popular Hasidic Jewish song?

Imre Ámos (1907-1944) from the Hasidic community of Nagykálló: Waiting for the dawn, 1939

An answer to this question can be found in the modality of this song. Jewish music – both Klezmer and liturgical cantorial songs – is based similarly to Gregorian music upon different modes or scales, in Yiddish shteygers. One of these modes, the Ahavoh rabboh, named after the opening words of the morning prayer of the same name which is recited in this mode, is especially popular among Hasidic Jews. A great number of Klezmer pieces of Hasidic origin and tish nigunim – songs sung on Shabbats and high holidays at the Rabbi’s table, often in ecstatic mode – are built upon this scale.

The Ahavoh rabboh corresponds to a modified Phrygian scale – from here its Yiddish name freygish, used in Klezmer music – where the third tone is raised by a half note: mi-fa-si-la-ti-do'-re'-mi'. Just like most Eastern European folk songs, so this scale does not have a definite “owner”: Spanish Flamenco uses it and calls it “Gypsy scale,” while in Arabic and Turkish music it is known as hijaz maqam. And a closer look at our folk song, The rooster is crowing reveals that it is built upon the very same Phrygian scale with the raised third tone. Thus the Jewish community could absorb it without any changes into the framework of their own traditional musical world and identify with it.

Let us hear an example of such a freygish piece from the traditional Eastern European Klezmer repertoire: the Yiddish folk song Az du furst avek – “When you leave” in the interpretation of Joel Rubin (clarinet in C) and Joshua Horowitz (tsimbl). Apart from the freygish scale, the rubato introduction and the slow, protracted, but strict rhythm also confirm the kinship of the two songs:


Rubin & Horowitz: Az Du Furst Avek (3'23"). From the album Bessarabian Symphony. Early Jewish Instrumental Music (1994).
(Joel Rubin and Joshua Horowitz in this album attempt to reconstruct the late 19th-century Jewish instrumental music. Similarly to the “historical trend” known from the performances of Baroque music, they also play on period instruments, and try to revive the authentic practice of musical performance, characterized by fluctuating rhythms, rich ornamentation, frequent use of glissandos, and generally a rendering which stood much closer to vocal technics. Their album, however, is much more than a simple excursion of cultural archaeology: it is enjoyable and living music played in a sensitive and emotionally rich manner.)

Rooster on the margin of the Kaufmann Haggadah, published by us in the internet

But let us now return to the text of the song. Apart from the last strophe, it is a typical Hungarian love song. The bird allegory of the lovers is well known from several Hungarian folk songs. The last strophe, however, is a late interpolation added by the Hasidic Jewish community – perhaps by Eizik Taub himself – which radically reinterprets the whole song.

The Hebrew line of this strophe is a verbatim quotation from a late Medieval piyut, a Jewish liturgical poem. The piyut called Tzur mishelo was composed by an unknown poet in Northern France, not later than the second half of the 14th century. This poem quickly spread among the Jewish communities of Europe, and it is still sung on every Shabbat at the festive board, as the introduction of the after-meals blessing Birkat ha-mazon. – It is interesting to note that the today widespread melody of Tzur mishelo is built around the same Ahavoh rabboh mode like The rooster is crowing.

The strophes of Tzur mishelo follow the individual blessings of Birkat ha-mazon which say thanks to God for the meal, for the land given to the Patriarchs, and then they supplicate the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of the Temple.

The rooster is crowing took over from these supplications the first verse of the last strophe of the piyut: יבנה המקדש עיר ציון תמלא, in Ashkenazi prononciation: Yibone ha-Mikdosh, Ir Tziyayn temale. That is: “The Temple will be rebuilt and the City of Sion repopulated.” Then will that be!

This strophe elevates this song to the heights of the Song of Songs. As in the traditional Rabbinic interpretation the lovers of the Song of Songs allegorically represent the longing of the Everlasting One and His people for each other, so the singer of The rooster is crowing as a representative of the Jewish people in exile is longing for her lover, the Everlasting One, with whom she can unite only in the Messianic times to come, after the return to the Promised Land and the rebuilding of the Temple of Jerusalem.

This is how the most popular Hungarian Hasidic song was born from the marriage of a Hungarian folk song with a potentially Jewish melody and of a love poem elevated to transcendental heights.

The “bridegroom”-piece of a Persian Jewish double portrait, c. 1846. Its Persian-language inscription written in Hebrew letters is: Târ-zan ʿArus ben Shelomo – “ʿArus ben Shelomo playing on tar.”

But the story is still far from its end. It is just like the piyut Tzur mishelo has a mysterious ability to inspire love poems. A thousand kilometers to the south from Nagykálló, in Sephardic Jewish communities the Tzur mishelo is intertwined with a very popular love song, although here the base of kinship is the melody rather than the text. Sephardic Jews sing to the melody of this piyut the song known both as Los bilbilicos cantan – “The nightingales are singing” – and La rosa enflorece – “The rose is blossoming.”


Savina Yannatou and the Primavera en Salonico: Los bilbilicos cantan – “The nightingales are singing” (4'11"). From the album Άνοιξη στη Σαλονίκη (Spring in Saloniki, 1995).
(From this CD of Savina Yannatou, collecting the songs of the former Sephardic community of Thessaloniki, we have already quoted two songs in two posts, here and here. This song, originating in Anatolian Sephardic communities, is our third favorite. The word bilbilico, ‘nightingale’ comes from Turkish bülbül, provided with a Sephardic diminutive suffix, while the expression “the moon is wounded” is a formula borrowed from high literature for the slowly vanishing moon.)

La rosa enflorese hoy en el mes de may mi alma s’escurese firiendose el lunar Los bilbilicos cantan con sospiros de aver, mi alma i mi ventura estan en tu poder. Los bilbilicos cantan en los arvos de la flor, debacho se asentan los ke sufren de amor. Mas presto ven, colomba mas presto ven con mí, mas presto ven, keridha, corre i salvame.

The rose is blossoming now, in the month of May, my soul is getting dark as the moon is wounded. The nightingales are singing sighing with desire my soul and my fate is in your hands. The nightingales are singing on the blossoming trees under them are sitting those suffering of love. Hurry quickly, dove, hurry quickly to me, hurry quickly, my dear, hurry, save me.

The “bride”-piece of a Persian Jewish double portrait, c. 1846. Its Persian language inscription, written in Hebrew letters is: Rahel dar hâl vasmeh keshidan – “Rachel painting her eyebrow.”

And finally let us hear The rooster is crowing as performed by its most authentic interpreter, Rabbi Eizik Taub’s sixth descendant in a direct paternal line, Rebbe Menachem Mendel Taub, the Rabbi of the Kaliver – “of Nagykálló” – Hasidic dynasty. I do not know how fluent the Kaliver Rebbe is in Hungarian, but in any case The rooster is crowing is sung by him with an unmistakable accent of Szabolcs county, the traditional region around Nagykálló. In Jerusalem, on every Shabbat, in Hungarian.

Sephardic tales I

To Zoli Ábrahám

Ensemble Lyrique Ibérique: When King Nimrod. From the CD Romances judéo-espagnoles (1992).

The members of the Ensemble Lyrique Ibérique – Dominique Thibaudat (voice), Nabil Ibn Khalidi (oud), Pierre Rigopoulos (zarb and bendir) – perhaps have not even published any more common CD. This one, however, is worth more than the complete discography of some other. They choose songs from the whole Sephardic world, and they perform them with the dynamism which is so much missing from most Western European Sephardic CDs. (Compare for example this version of King Nimrod with the entertainment version by the Raices.)

Kuando el rey Nimrod al kampo saliya Mirava en el syelo i en la’streyeriya Vido lus santa en la djuderiya K’aviya de naser Avraam avinu. Avram avinu, padre kerido padre benditcho, lus de Israel! La mujer de Terah se kedo prenyada De diya en diya, el le preguntava. De ké tenech la kara tan demudada? Eya saviya el byen ke teniya. En fin de mueve mezes parir keriya Iva kaminando por kampos i vinyas, A su marido, tal, no lo deskuvriya. Topo una meara, ayi lo paririya. En akéya ora el nasido avlava: Andadvos mi madre, de la meara. Yo ya topo kyen m’aletchara, Malah del yelo me akompanyara, Porke so kriyado del Dyo benditcho.

When King Nimrod went out to the fields He looked upon the sky and the stars He saw holy light above the Jewish quarter Because in that time father Abraham was born. Father Abraham, our beloved father, our blessed father, the light of Israel! The wife of Terah became pregnant Her husband asked her day by day: Why has your face changed so much? She knew well the treasure she was carrying. After nine months she wanted to give birth She roamed on the fields and in the vineyards She did not disclose her secret to her husband She found a cave and there she gave birth. In that hour the newborn spoke: Go away, my mother, from the cave. There will be someone to feed me, An angel of heaven will accompany me For I am the servant of the blessed God.

Savina Yannatou and the Primavera en Salonico: The dream of the princess. From the CD Άνοιξη στη Σαλονίκη (Spring in Saloniki, 1995).

Savina Yannatou in her more than twenty CDs sings the traditional songs of the whole Mediterranean and even more distant lands (in one of them for example a Moldovan Hungarian – „Csángó” – song, in Hungarian). This first CD of her, presenting the results of an ethnomusicological research in Thessaloniki, was completely dedicated to the music of the once numerous and rich Sephardic population of Saloniki. (For our favorite song in this CD see another tale.)

El rey de Francia tres hijas tenía La una labrava, la otra cusía, la más chica de ellas bastidor hacía. Labrando labrando sueño le caía. Su madre que la vía, aharvar la quería. – No me aharveš mi madre, ni me aharvaríaš Un sueño me soñaba, bien y allegría. – Sueño vos soñabaš, yo vo lo soltaría. – Me aparí a la puerta, vide la luna entera. Me aparí a la ventana, vide la estrella Diana. Me aparí al pozo, vide un pilar de oro con tres pajaricos picando el oro. – La luna entera es la tu suegra. La estrella Diana es la tu cuñada. Los tres pajaricos son tus cuñadicos. Y el pilar de oro, el hijo del rey, tu novio.

The King of France had three daughters One weaved, the other sew and the youngest of them embroidered. As she was working, a dream fell upon her. Her mother saw it and wanted to beat her. – Don’t beat me, mother, don’t beat me I have seen a dream, joy and happiness. – If you saw a dream, I will solve it for you. – I stood at the door and saw the full moon. I stood at the window and saw the morning star. I stood at the well and saw a golden column, three little birds were picking the gold. – The full moon is your mother-in-law. The morning star is your sister-in-law. The three little birds are your nephews. And the golden column is the son of the king, your bridegroom.

Kol Oud Tof Trio: Our bride asks. From the CD Gazelle (2002).

The Israelian Kol Oud Tof (“voice, oud, drum”) plays Moroccan Sephardic music. This music is usually heard with estrade-style orchestral accompaniment. The Kol Oud Tof, however, performs it in a refreshingly simple arrangement, which clearly displays the fascinating complexity of this music. Their suite De veinticinco escalones (Twenty-five scales) has not yet been published in CD, but you can see a part of it here.

Ansina dize la nuestra novia como se llama la cavesa. Esto no se llama cavesa sino toronja de toronjal ay mi toronja de toronjal ay mis campos de espaciar goze la novia con el novio. …como se llaman los cabellos. Esto no se llama cabello sino briles de lavrar. Ay mis briles de lavrar… …como se llama la frente. Esto no se llama frente sino espada reluciente. Ay mi espada reluciente… …como se llaman las cejas No se llaman cejas sino cintas del telar Ay mis cintas del telar… …como se llaman los ojos. No se llaman ojos sino ricos miradores. Ay mis ricos miradores... …como se llama la naris. No se llama naris sino datil datilar. Ay mi datil datilar… …como se llama la boca. No se llama boca sino anillo de dorar. Ay mi anillo de dorar ay mi rosa de rosal… pase la novia ante del novio La novia, el novio la novia, el novio

Our bride asks how they call the head. They don’t call it head but orange from the orange tree. Oh, orange of my orange tree oh, my spacious fields, let the bride rejoice with the bridegroom. … how they call the hair. They don’t call it hair but silk to be embroidered. Oh, my silk to be embroidered… … how they call the front. They don’t call it front but a bright spade. Oh, my bright spade… … how they call the eyebrow. They don’t call it eyebrow but the thread of the loom. Oh, thread of my loom… … how they call the eye. They don’t call it eye, but beautiful look-out. Oh, my beautiful look-out… … how they call the nose. They don’t call it nose but date from the palm tree. Oh, date of my palm tree… … how they call the mouth. They don’t call it mouth but a ring to be gilded. Oh, my ring to be gilded oh, rose of my rose garden… let the bride come to the bridegroom the bride, the bridegroom the bride, the bridegroom

Tale to size

write you the tale about the bear and the crown. let there be also the padishah of Madjaristan.

comment by Anna to the previous post (in the Hungarian version of the blog)

Once upon a time there was a bear living in the middle of a big round forest. The crowns of the high trees of the forest leaned against each other like the vault of a church. Under them there was an eternal, pleasant half-light reigning, no rain poured and no wind raged ever. The bear loved the forest very much, he loved to go around in it and to have talks with the other animals about the things of the forest. And he thought it would be like this in all his life.

Illustrations of Gennadiy Pavlishin to the Tales of the river Amur

On a day, however, the bear somehow got to the edge of the forest, of which he had known only from hearsay before. He came out from between the trees, and caught sight of the blue sky with the sun shining on it brilliantly. Unknown flowers were blooming on the meadow and deers were grazing on it, whom the bear had never seen before – their huge antlers were too large for the thick forest. “My God, how beautiful is the world outside the forest!” – the bear thought in astonishment. From that time on he went day by day to the edge of the forest to have a look at that wonderful view, until on a day he said: “I go and see what else is there in the world over the meadow.” And he left the forest without looking back any more.

Olga Belskaya: The bear who wanted to fly

Photis Ionatos: Ithaca, poem by Kavafis. From the CD “Ithaque”

Κωνσταντίνος Π. Καβάφης: Ιθάκη Σα βγεις στον πηγαιμό για την Ιθάκη, να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος, γεμάτος περιπέτειες, γεμάτος γνώσεις. Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας, τον θυμωμένο Ποσειδώνα μη φοβάσαι, τέτοια στον δρόμο σου ποτέ σου δεν θα βρεις, αν μεν' η σκέψις σου υψηλή, αν εκλεκτή συγκίνησις το πνεύμα και το σώμα σου αγγίζει. Τους Λαιστρυγόνας και τους Κύκλωπας, τον άγριο Ποσειδώνα δεν θα συναντήσεις, αν δεν τους κουβανείς μες στην ψυχή σου, αν η ψυχή σου δεν τους στήνει εμπρός σου. Να εύχεσαι νάναι μακρύς ο δρόμος. Πολλά τα καλοκαιρινά πρωϊά να είναι που με τι ευχαρίστησι, με τι χαρά θα μπαίνεις σε λιμένας πρωτοειδωμένους, να σταματήσεις σ' εμπορεία Φοινικικά, και τες καλές πραγμάτειες ν' αποκτήσεις, σεντέφια και κοράλλια, κεχριμπάρια κ' έβενους, και ηδονικά μυρωδικά κάθε λογής, όσο μπορείς πιο άφθονα ηδονικά μυρωδικά, σε πόλεις Αιγυπτιακές πολλές να πας, να μάθεις και να μάθεις απ' τους σπουδασμένους. Πάντα στον νου σου νάχεις την Ιθάκη. Το φθάσιμον εκεί ειν' ο προορισμός σου. Αλλά μη βιάζεις το ταξείδι διόλου. Καλλίτερα χρόνια πολλά να διαρκέσει και γέρος πια ν' αράξεις στο νησί, πλούσιος με όσα κέρδισες στο δρόμο, μη προσδοκώντας πλούτη να σε δώσει η Ιθάκη. Η Ιθάκη σ'έδωσε τ' ωραίο ταξείδι. Χωρίς αυτήν δεν θάβγαινες στον δρόμο. Άλλα δεν έχει να σε δώσει πια. Κι αν πτωχική την βρεις, η Ιθάκη δε σε γέλασε. Έτσι σοφός που έγινες, με τόση πείρα, ήδη θα το κατάλαβες οι Ιθάκες τι σημαίνουν.

....

Konstantinos P. Kavafis: Ithaca As you set out for Ithaca hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them: you' ll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you. Hope your road is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind - as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to learn and go on learning from their scholars. Keep Ithaca always in your mind. Arriving there is what you're destined for. But don't hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you're old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you've gained on the way, not expecting Ithaca to make you rich. Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you wouldn't have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

During his long journey he met many strange creatures,





saw and heard a lot of strange things,


learned a lot,


made acquaintance with the forgotten streets and backyards of the cities,


some times he got in trouble, but he always managed to fight out of it.


Finally on a day he happened to get to the land of the padishah of Madjaristan.


The padishah of Madjaristan, the terrible tyrant was just struggling with problems of succession out of his own fault.


He thus announced that his beautiful daughter came to an age to marry and was waiting for suitors. And the suitors started to arrive from the direction of the four winds, all kinds of princes and counts and selected Gypsy lads. The princess, however, did not want any of them, because long time before she had seen in a dream that none else but a flying bear would be her choice, arriving to her from a faraway land.

Cheburashka from the modern lubok series by Andrej Kuznetsov

She was sitting day and night on the highest point of the castle and watching whether there is a bear nearing who looks like a small black cloud.



Savina Yannatou and the Primavera en Salonico: Ya salió de la mar la galana (The lady has already come out of the sea), a Sephardic song from Thessaloniki, from the CD “Primavera en Salonico” (Spring in Saloniki)

Muchachicha está en el baño vestida de colorado. Échate a la mar. Échate a la mar y alcanza – échate a la mar. A la mar yo bien me echava, si la suegra licencia me dava. Échate a la mar. Échate a la mar y alcanza – échate a la mar. Ya salió de la mar la galana con un vestido al y blanco – ya salió de la mar. Entre la mar y el río mos creció un árbol de bembrillo – ya salió de la mar. La novia ya salió del baño, el novio ya la está esperando – ya salió de la mar. Entre la mar y la arena mos creció un árbol de almendra – ya salió de la mar.

................

The girl is in the bath vested in red. Swim into the sea. Swim into the sea and come back – swim into the sea. I would happily swim into the sea if my mother-in-law gave permission. Swim into the sea. Swim into the sea and come back – swim into the sea. The lady has already come out of the sea in a red and white vest – she has come out of the sea. Between the sea and the river a tree of quince has grown – she has come out of the sea. The bride has already come out of the bath, the bridegroom is waiting for her – she has come out of the sea. Between the sea and the sand an almond tree has grown – she has come out of the sea.

As soon as she caught sight of him, she immediately recognized him: no doubt, this was the bear she had seen in her dream. She has immediately led him to her father who gave them his blessing together with his crown and half of his kingdom.


And they threw a big wedding party, made merry, the dishes and drinks covered all place from Hencida to as far as Bonchida, and it would have spread even further, but the road over the mountain from Bonchida to Szék was not yet made and even the musicians from Szék had to come to the wedding over Szamosújvár. I was also there, dancing till morning, eating and drinking, seeing and hearing everything, just like I have told it now to you.

Let them live happily until they die and a thousand times more.