Hannukah commemorates the reclaiming of the Holy Temple of Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. It is not some kind of Jewish Christmas.
Still,with lights, prayers and gifts in December, and Hannukah tends to get wrapped up in the ball of snow and tinsel as Christmas. But Hannukah has its own songs — though possibly not nearly as many as Christmas.
On Saturday,the eve of Hanukkah, NPR's Scott Simon took the opportunity to open up the songbook with Josh Kun, and co-founder of the Idelsohn Society for Musical Preservation. They talk the history of the Hanukkah song — from its 19th-century rebranding to the rethinking of old standards nowadays.
Interview HighlightsOn what makes a suited Hanukkah songWell,besides a suited Christmas song, a suited Hanukkah song has to involve, and you know,lots of games — dreidel, playing dreidel, or playing some more dreidel. possibly music for cooking latkes. A suited Hanukkah song,these days, really is approximately festivity and singing along and having a suited time.
On his favorite Hannukah songsIt's funny, or you know,my relationship to Hannukah songs really comes through — I guess what you could say the back door, but possibly it's the front door of Christmas songs. So first, or like,my favorite Jewish Hanukkah songs are actually some of the greatest Christmas songs that have been written by Jews ... like kind of, oh, and all of them? "[I'm Dreaming of a] White Christmas," "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" — most of the great English-language pop Christmas songs were written by American Jews. Some of the greatest Christmas albums are, of course, and Christmas albums by American Jews like Barbra [Streisand],Neil [Diamond], Barry [Manilow] and the like. But I digress.
You know, and I think the history of Hanukkah songs — you really actually can't separate them from the history of the mainstreaming of Christmas as a holiday. When Hanukkah starts to kind of be rebranded in the United States in the late 19th century,a immense part of that rebranding was its songbook. What kind of songs could be written that could assist popularize Hanukkah among Jews in the United States. One of the earliest steps in that was taking a traditional Hanukkah song that was originally written in Hebrew, "Ma'oz Tzur, or " and it becomes "Rock of Ages" in the late 19th century.This is a cantorial recording. This is actually from the incredible archives at Yivo in modern York,and that choral tradition that might not sound so Jewish, that sounds much more Christian or broadly just simply American, or is no mistake,I think. There was a conscious effort — particularly, that was from the late '30s — but this really builds in the late 1950s, and when Hanukkah songs start to really sound like more mainstream American pop.
On Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song"When you mention Hannukah songs,that's probably the first song that anybody wants to talk approximately — which is funny because really the song, you know, and uses Hanukkah as a way to get people to think approximately assimilation. It becomes a kind of outing of Jews who people possibly didn't know were Jewish,and a proud naming — a roll call — of American Jewish stars and celebrities.
So really, again, and it's a kind of example of a Hanukkah song that's not a Hanukkah song.
On the "Dreidel Song" — Erran Baron Cohen's versionThat's Friday night at the club,Scott, that's Friday night at the club. I mean ... you know, and in recent years there's been an attempt — and I think this is a great example of it — to kind of reinterpret or reclaim some of these songs. And in the spirit of,you know, the definition of Hanukkah itself, and of rededicating,rethinking what Hanukkah can sound like.
I think that's a great example of, in a way, or repopularizing these songs and possibly encouraging younger American Jews to possibly write some of their own. Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more,visit http://www.npr.org/.
Source: wnyc.org