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Five Hebrew Love Songs

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Soprano, Tambourine, Piano & Violin

Note from Composer

In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.

Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.

In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet, and the Efroni Choir in Israel commissioned me to adapt them for SA, violin and piano, leaving me now with five (!) different versions of the same work: SATB and string quartet; SATB, violin, and piano; SA and string quartet; SA violin, and piano; and the original soprano, violin, and piano. The choral parts are exactly the same for the different accompaniments, so that if the choir wants to perform the version with string quartet, the chorus can sing from the piano/violin score and the conductor can lead from the quartet version.

Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

The Text

i.

TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)

Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.

A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

ii.

KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)

Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!

Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!

iii.

LARÓV (MOSTLY)

“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”

“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”

iv.

ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)

Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.

What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

v.

RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)

Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.

He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.

Hila Plitmann, b.1973

Duration

8.5 minutes

Year of Composition

1996

Licensing

GIA Publications

SATB, Tambourine & String Quartet

Note from Composer

In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.

Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.

In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet, and the Efroni Choir in Israel commissioned me to adapt them for SA, violin and piano, leaving me now with five (!) different versions of the same work: SATB and string quartet; SATB, violin, and piano; SA and string quartet; SA violin, and piano; and the original soprano, violin, and piano. The choral parts are exactly the same for the different accompaniments, so that if the choir wants to perform the version with string quartet, the chorus can sing from the piano/violin score and the conductor can lead from the quartet version.

Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

The Text

i.

TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)

Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.

A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

ii.

KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)

Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!

Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!

iii.

LARÓV (MOSTLY)

“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”

“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”

iv.

ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)

Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.

What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

v.

RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)

Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.

He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.

Hila Plitmann, b.1973

Instrumentation

SATB Chorus
Tambourine
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello

Duration

8.5 minutes

Year of Composition

2001

Licensing

GIA Publications

Purchase

US: GIA Publications
UK: Musicroom
World: Music Shop Europe

SATB, Tambourine, Piano & Violin

Note from Composer

In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.

Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.

In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet, and the Efroni Choir in Israel commissioned me to adapt them for SA, violin and piano, leaving me now with five (!) different versions of the same work: SATB and string quartet; SATB, violin, and piano; SA and string quartet; SA violin, and piano; and the original soprano, violin, and piano. The choral parts are exactly the same for the different accompaniments, so that if the choir wants to perform the version with string quartet, the chorus can sing from the piano/violin score and the conductor can lead from the quartet version.

Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

The Text

i.

TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)

Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.

A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

ii.

KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)

Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!

Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!

iii.

LARÓV (MOSTLY)

“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”

“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”

iv.

ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)

Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.

What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

v.

RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)

Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.

He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.

Hila Plitmann, b.1973

Duration

8.5 minutes

Year of Composition

2001

Licensing

GIA Publications

SA, Tambourine & String Quartet

Note from Composer

In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.

Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.

In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet, and the Efroni Choir in Israel commissioned me to adapt them for SA, violin and piano, leaving me now with five (!) different versions of the same work: SATB and string quartet; SATB, violin, and piano; SA and string quartet; SA violin, and piano; and the original soprano, violin, and piano. The choral parts are exactly the same for the different accompaniments, so that if the choir wants to perform the version with string quartet, the chorus can sing from the piano/violin score and the conductor can lead from the quartet version.

Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

The Text

i.

TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)

Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.

A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

ii.

KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)

Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!

Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!

iii.

LARÓV (MOSTLY)

“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”

“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”

iv.

ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)

Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.

What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

v.

RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)

Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.

He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.

Hila Plitmann, b.1973

Instrumentation

SA Chorus
Tambourine
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Violoncello

Duration

8.5 minutes

Year of Composition

2001

Licensing

GIA Publications

Purchase

US: GIA Publications

SA, Tambourine, Piano & Violin

Note from Composer

In the spring of 1996, my great friend and brilliant violinist Friedemann Eichhorn invited me and my girlfriend-at-the-time Hila Plitmann (a soprano) to give a concert with him in his home city of Speyer, Germany. We had all met that year as students at the Juilliard School, and were inseparable.

Because we were appearing as a band of traveling musicians, ‘Friedy’ asked me to write a set of troubadour songs for piano, violin and soprano. I asked Hila (who was born and raised in Jerusalem) to write me a few ‘postcards’ in her native tongue, and a few days later she presented me with these exquisite and delicate Hebrew poems. I set them while we vacationed in a small skiing village in the Swiss Alps, and we performed them for the first time a week later in Speyer.

In 2001, the University of Miami commissioned me to adapt the songs for SATB chorus and string quartet, and the Efroni Choir in Israel commissioned me to adapt them for SA, violin and piano, leaving me now with five (!) different versions of the same work: SATB and string quartet; SATB, violin, and piano; SA and string quartet; SA violin, and piano; and the original soprano, violin, and piano. The choral parts are exactly the same for the different accompaniments, so that if the choir wants to perform the version with string quartet, the chorus can sing from the piano/violin score and the conductor can lead from the quartet version.

Each of the songs captures a moment that Hila and I shared together. Kalá Kallá (which means ‘light bride’) was a pun I came up with while she was first teaching me Hebrew. The bells at the beginning of Éyze Shéleg! are the exact pitches that awakened us each morning in Germany as they rang from a nearby cathedral.

The Text

i.

TEMUNÁ (A PICTURE)

Temuná belibí charuntá;
Nodédet beyn ór uveyn ófel:
Min dmamá shekazó et guféch kach otá,
Usaréch al pańa’ich kach nófel.

A picture is engraved in my heart;
Moving between light and darkness:
A sort of silence envelopes your body,
And your hair falls upon your face just so.

ii.

KALÁ KALLÁ (LIGHT BRIDE)

Kalá kallá
Kulá shelí,
U’ve kalút
Tishákhílí!

Light bride
She is all mine,
And lightly
She will kiss me!

iii.

LARÓV (MOSTLY)

“Laróv,” amár gag la’shama’im,
“Hamerchák shebeynéynu hu ad;
Ach lifnéy zman alu lechán shna’im,
Uveynéynu nishár sentiméter echad”

“Mostly,” said the roof to the sky,
“the distance between you and I is endlessness;
But a while ago two came up here,
And only one centimeter was left between us.”

iv.

ÉYZE SHÉLEG! (WHAT SNOW!)

Ézye shéleg!
Kmo chalomót ktaníim
Noflím mehashamá im.

What snow!
Like little dreams
Falling from the sky.

v.

RAKÚT (TENDERNESS)

Hu hayá malé rakút;
Hi haytá kasha
Vechól káma shenistá lehishaér kach,
Pashút, uvlí sibá tová,
Lakách otá el toch atzmó,
Veheníach Bamakóm hachí rach.

He was full of tenderness;
She was very hard.
And as much as she tried to stay thus,
Simply, and with no good reason,
He took her into himself,
And set her down
In the softest, softest place.

Hila Plitmann, b.1973

Duration

8.5 minutes

Year of Composition

2001

Licensing

GIA Publications

Music Catalog