בעלי המלאכה | Ba'ale ha-melakha | The Artisans (1912)
Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)
Lyrics: From Ha-Zamir
Tune: Foreign Melody
The text was published in Ha-Zamir (Odessa, 1903: p. 25-26), with instructions that Idelsohn omitted in Sefer Ha-Shirim. The instructions are for a soloist who presents artisans and their work. The choir encourages the group of children to take part in the artisan's work and repeat what the soloist describes and demonstrates. The song opens with the choir, which sings: "we are all artisans, working and supporting ourselves". The five artisans include a carpenter, a leather-worker, a blacksmith, a tailor, and a baker.
The melody is in a major key, and its source could not be identified.
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Original (PDF) Modernized (PDF)