RH snippets: music

[magid]

I missed the slow tune for RH Yigdal each night. I know at least one person thinks of it as a dirge, but it's not; it's just slow and pretty. Neither baal maariv chose it, and I wish it had been used, mostly because it sets the tone for me, and partly because it reminds me of Elka, who liked that tune as much as I did (I miss her off-key singing, which of course used to drive me nuts when I used to hear it).

There's a tune for V'Chol Ma'aminim that I first learned in Israel that is never used at Harvard. I sing that to myself during the davening because it helps me stay focused on the words, rather than thinking about my feet (I stand for repetition and Torah reading, which ends up being rather a lot of the time on RH and YK), and the tune that is chosen isn't evocative for me at all, just another chant without distinction. The baal musaf at the Tremont St. mechitzah minyan (Brian) used the tune, and I discovered that it's not just the tune that makes a difference: in Israel everyone was singing it together, building it into a tower of song; singing it back and forth (especially when most people aren't familiar with the tune) doesn't do nearly the same thing. (Though I'll note that other places have that strength of tune and tradition.)

I once heard a Sefardi RH song "HaBen HaNe'ekad", and failed to get a recording of it. It has a haunting melody, and I've thought about it each year since my friend Don sang it for me. Does anyone know of a recording I could get?

Comments

[ichur72.livejournal.com]

You reminded me ... one of the hard things about staying home with a little one on R"H is that there's no external music to set the mood. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to have this reason to stay away from shul. But it does seem so different and requires much more concentration on my part.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I find any davening at home much harder, since it's easier to have my concentration flit away, to thinking about all sorts of house things, etc. Even if I sing to myself, it doesn't work nearly so well with just my one voice rather than a whole community.

Is there a hashgamah minyan so you could go to part of the davening (or hear shofar, etc)?
(I remember one woman in Israel whose husband was in the army that month. She got up super-early to go to the early minyan, which got out around 8 am, so she could be home when the little ones woke up.)