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Score title
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Shirim L'Yom Tov - Four Festive Songs
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Composer
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Shulamit Ran
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Date
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2003-2005
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Instrumentation
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Chorus SATB
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Program note
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My four songs were composed in 2003 and 2005, two at a time, for the Bar Mitzvah occasions of my two sons, David and Yaron Lotan, for Koleynu, the enthusiastic, amateur choir of Beth Shalom Congregation in De Kalb-Sycamore, Illinois, where our family resides. The texts were extracted by me from my sons' Torah and Haftarah portions – the biblical passages a Bar Mitzvah celebrant learns to chant, and comments on, as part of becoming an "adult" member of the congregation.
I was filled with a sense of awe and joy upon discovering, both times, that the texts were amongst the most pivotal of biblical texts: from the story of creation – sixth day, to passages such as "Ma Tovu" (How fair are your tents...) and "Hatzneia Lechet" (and to walk humbly with thy God). This made composing these songs all the more exhilarating for me. Whenever I am present at a Bar Mitzvah and hear the 13-year old celebrant's commentary (or D'var Torah), I am struck anew by the realization that even the most seemingly dry of biblical passages, such as the enumeration of laws or listing of generations, contains in it the seeds of eternal wisdom and inspiration.
~Shulamit Ran
Shulamit Ran
