יהודי קטן אני | Yehudi katon ani | I am a Little Jew (1912)
Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)
Lyrics: From Ha-Zamir
Tune: Ben-Yehuda
The text of this song was published in Ha-Zamir (Odessa 1903: p. 32). A different melody was published in Ta'ame Zimra le Shire Ha-Zamir (Warsaw, 1904: pp. 40-41).
“Yehudi katon ani” expresses love and longing for Zion. "I am a little Jew, but I am full of might and courage, and my love for my poor nation is very deep". The following verses describe the land and how to go about settling there. Once there, in the Jewish homeland, the Jew will work the soil, protect himself and his land, and stay strong. But if a war starts, the Jew will fight back, overcome his enemies, and call for peace; "this is what a little Jew can do".
The melody, composed by Idelsohn (Ben-Yehuda), combines a modal framework with a tonal one. There are two parallel modes; an Ionic hexachord and a Dorian hexachord with a leading tone (in bar 21), which gives the melody a dual modal feel. Although the text is written with Ashkenazic pronunciation, the melody briefly shifts to the Grammatic (Sephardic) pronunciation. Idelsohn was trying to compose in a new style, more "Oriental" and less European, and thus experimented with the modal framework.
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