26th March 2021 – Shabbat and Pesah are almost here
And today we’ll listen to an iconic song of the time of Pesah, in several versions. Yes, I won’t surprise you: it is Chad Gadya!
Hello, how are you? I am really looking forward to partying and also to rest. In my country, they are holidays on Thursday and Friday of the next week, so already today many people is starting to chill…
I won’t write a lot today, but I want to share the multicultural connections of this song, Chad Gadya, as an icon of brotherhood! Enjoy and have a great and inspiring Pesah!
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Chad (or Had) Gadya
The Jewish Music Research Center dedicated an edition of the “Song of the month” to Chag Gadya in April 2014. Read it here. As usual, the work by Edwin Seroussi, and in this occasion, also by Ofer Ronen, is outstanding. They say:
“Had Gadya (Aramaic: One only kid [young goat]), one of the most popular songs sung at the Passover seder in some of its contemporary Israeli versions. Written in Aramaic, Had Gadya appears at the very end of the Passover Haggadah. It is a cumulative song, with each verse adding another motif to the story. It begins with a kid bought by the “father” (of the singer-subject of the song), which in the next verse is eaten by the cat, which is bitten by the dog, and so forth.“
Read it all here.
The charming Moishe Oysher!
Click the picture to listen to Chad Gadya by Moishe Oysher:
A Bukhari version by Ezra Malakov!
The presence of Jews in the land of Uzbekistan is documented for more than 1000 years and some historians state that Jews are settled in Bukhara since the time of the King David. Read this previous edition about the Jews from Uzbekistan. And enjoy a version of Chad Gadya in Judeo-Tajik, the language of the Bukharian Jews, by hazzan Ezra Malakov.
Ezra Malakov was born in 1938 in Shahrisabz, Uzbekistan and moved to Queens in 1992. I got this info from the website of the Sephardic Music Festival.
Click the picture to listen to Chad Gadya by Ezra Malakov and band:
A Spanish version by Estrella Morente!
Estrella is a star in flamenco. She is nowadays 40 years old and she is an active and respected artist. Estrella is not a Jew but I was pleased when she included this song from the Sephardic tradition in her second album, Calle del Aire (2000).
Click the picture to listen to Tangos del Chavico by Estrella Morente:
And an Italian version by Angelo Branduardi!
Angelo Branduardi is considered one of the main minstrels of Italian music from the XX century. He was born in 1950 near Milan and soon after the family moved to Genoa, where his music studies and his career started. The album Alla Fiera dell’Est, called like this song, was released in 1976. It was inspired in popular tales from all over the world and he selected this one from the Jewish tradition.
Click the picture to listen to Alla fiera dell’est by Angelo Branduardi: