הזבוב | Ha-zevuv | The Fly (1912)

Artist: Abraham Zvi Idelsohn (1882-1938)

The source of this song and its author are unidentified.

In “Ha-zevuv”, the singer warns a fly to flee for his life.

The melody is adapted from a Sephardic tune, which is performed with the text of "Lekha Dodi" [Come, My Beloved] a piyyut for Sabbath evening. The tune was published in an anthology of liturgical songs in Bucharest. Idelsohn included this piyyut in his Thesaurus of Oriental Jewish Melodies, vol. 4 (1923: no. 4). The melody is in a minor key.

Included in

• Sefer ha-Shirim (Book of Songs)

Scores

Original (PDF) Modernized (PDF)

Transliteration

Transliteration (PDF)