הדרור | Ha-dror | The Sparrow (1912)
Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)
Lyrics: From Ha-Zamir
Tune: Felix Mendelsohn
The text of this song was published in Ha-Zamir (Odessa, 1903: p. 21), with instructions that Idesohn omitted in Sefer Ha-Shirim. A different melody was published in Ta'ame Zimra le Shire Ha-Zamir (Warsaw, 1904: p. 15).
The instructions are to take a group of seven children and have six of them sit like "baby sparrows" in a circle; one child runs around like the "mother sparrow". This child breaks into the circle and hugs her babies while singing the last three lines of the song.
In “Ha-dror”, baby sparrows (the choir) ask their mother: "please tell us, where do you hurry, where are you flying?" She answers: "I fly to my home, where six children await me". The choir responds: "what do you carry in your mouth?" to which the mother answers: "insects and flies, rich food for my children". Finally, the choir asks: "what do you sing when the sun goes down?" And the response: "I sing lullabies to my dear children".
The text is adapted to Mendelsohn's melody to Heinrich Heine’s text, from “Sechs Lieder op. 41” [Six Songs op. 41], song no. 3. “Es fiel ein Reif in der Frühlingsnacht” [There Fell a Frost on a Night of Spring], which is a tragic love song. The melody is in a minor key.
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