Sunday, December 25, 2011

Choir of KAJ Sings Lo Omus for Shabbos Chanukah

In honor of Shabbos Chanukah the choir of KAJ introduced a new composition of Lo Omus in Hallel.
The following audio recording was taken at a rehearsal in shul last week.
I hope you enjoy it.

4 comments:

D.C. said...

It's very beautiful, but it's not an original composition. The tune from "Odecho" onwards is See, the Conqu’ring Hero Comes! from Handel's Judas Maccabaeus.

Incidentally, that tune is also used for a popular Israeli's children's Chanukah song called הבה נרימה.

Avram said...

We never claimed that the composition was original, just new for the Choir of KAJ. In fact the idea of singing Odecho to this melody, preceded by Lewandowski’s Lo Omus is not original either as it was recorded a number of years ago by a choir in Germany which is where we took it from. I personally remember singing the original Handel composition with the YRSRH school choir and performing it at one of the school’s graduations. Some of the older generation even remembered singing it in the school choir in Frankfurt. It is a beautiful melody which fits the text and we felt was very apropos to Chanukah.

D.C. said...

I agree that it's a good use of the melody. I find it particularly apropos that the original lyrics (as well as the Israeli children's song, to a lesser extent) reflect a message of "כוחי ועוצם ידי...," and here the same tune is being used to allude to that same victory, but this time the words are "מאת ה' היתה זאת"!

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy the postings of these songs and video recordings. Any chance of doing a recording of motzei shabbos davening where Shir Hama'alos is sung?