Suddenly Every Song Makes Me Cry: A Year of Israeli Music since October 7th with Dr. Tanya Sermer, adjunct faculty in the YII program
The ever-present sounds in our ears – sirens and booms, aircraft overhead, news broadcasts, the resurgence of classic memorial songs, and the outpouring of new music expressing the hopes and fears of the moment – keep the war in the constant forefront of our lives. Marking the first anniversary of October 7, we will explore what the soundscape can teach us about the Israeli experience of war over the course of the last year: the various information and symbolic meanings embedded in the Israeli soundscape during wartime; what changes in Israeli listening practices tell us about how war affects cultural consumption; and how current musical activity fits into the broader heritage of Israeli war and memorial repertoire. Click here to access the recording.
Links to the pieces included in the presentation:
הראל סקעת – פתאום כל שיר עושה לבכות
Suddenly Every Song Makes Me Cry (Harel Skaat) / September 3, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnn_NSFdyJM
*A side note: for those listening to the recording of the lecture, I made a mistake. Harel Skaat performed “Hineni Kan” on Kochav Nolad (not Hayu Leilot) which set off a revival in performance of that song.
פאר טסי – מלודי
Melody (Peer Tasi) / May 26, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onDM543bpp8
ילדים של אלוהים – קרולינה
Children of God (Karolina) / July 17, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhx9JFn-NZ0
שי המבר – בינג' ודיכאון
Binge and Depression (Shay Hamber) / August 28, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rly4aJNE4c
אביתר בנאי – חלל
Space (Eviatar Banai) / September 12, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vYK-DSKiG8
מיכל גרינגליק – יש פה מקום
There Is a Place Here (Michal Greenglick) / September 16, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvIhYC6DV9A
*We didn’t get to listen to this in the lecture, but I mentioned it. Greenglick’s brother was killed fighting in Gaza (she wrote an earlier song about him and their mother participated in the state memorial ceremony) and her partner is in the reserves. This song is about her partner coming home traumatized and her trying to support him. Notice the premise, “there is a place/there is space,” as a counterpoint to the prevalent “I have no place” or “I have no other place”.
איתי לוי & הרב יגאל כהן – נקודה של אור
Point of Light (Itay Levi and Rav Yigal Cohen) / September 25, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTNjcdjGddw
אודיה – בן אדם
Human Being (Odeya) / August 20, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upYVC1W4KeI
ישי ריבו – לולא תורתך
Luley Torat’kha (Ishay Ribo) / September 16, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mAUWMDZKXA
*We didn’t get to listen to this either. It is one of the tracks on Ribo’s new album that includes songs written over the course of the year. This is an example of a high holy day-themed piece. I recommend also listening to other songs on the album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hd2-1o83juM&list=OLAK5uy_kOwdhKxtBIIUwUoo8gML_cr_ENu4G_eJo
I also highly recommend watching the two main Israeli memorial ceremonies from Oct. 7. They give a great sense of which classic and new songs were iconic this year.
הטקס הממלכתי במלאת שנה לטבח השבעה באוקטובר ומלחמת חרבות ברזל
The State Ceremony of a Year Since the October 7 Massacre and the Swords of Iron War
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNNbkJyjD5E
טקס הזיכרון הלאומי של משפחות ה-7/10
The National Memorial Ceremony of the 10.7 Families
https://www.youtube.com/live/L2N-BxVZ4sg
Dr. Tanya Sermer is faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and also works as instructor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (Year in Israel program) and as artistic producer of the Jerusalem Oratorio Choir. She received her doctorate in musicology from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and completed post-doctoral fellowships from the Israel Institute and the Lady Davis Fellowship Trust. Her research focuses on music of Israel and the Arab Middle East, as well as Jewish and Islamic music and chant. She investigates the politics of music and sound in the public sphere, including the role of music in nation-building, protest, conflict, gender politics, and the production of space. Tanya plays piano, guitar, and Middle Eastern percussion, and performs as an instrumentalist and cantor throughout Canada, the U.S., and Israel.