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Der Meistersingers of Athens – What’s Up with the Tune for Maoz Tzur?

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Maybe it’s because I grew up listening to Xmas carols. Maybe it’s because what passes for Jewish music these days is frequently Jewish words grafted onto pop or rock instrumentals. Or maybe it’s because the perpetually waning enthusiasm I see in our young people today might be stemmed if we helped them tap into their neshomas rather than strengthening their connection with secular culture.

I suppose it’s really all three and more. But the bottom line is this: the one thing I despise about Chanukah is the pervasive, annoying, and distinctly un-Jewish niggun the whole world sings to Maoz Tzur – evoking not the heroism of the Hasmoneans but the flaky ambivalence of “Rock of Ages” and the red-suited jolliness of “Good King Wenceslas.”

It should come as no surprise that our popular Maoz Tzur sounds so goyish. It’s been traced back to an old German drinking song, and before that to the 16th Century hymns of the Benedictine Monks. I guess it fits right in with the inescapable practice of gift-giving, also borrowed from Christian society.

I know there are those who don’t object to borrowing Gentile melodies for our niggunim. But why can’t we borrow something that’s worth borrowing? Why do we have to embrace a tune that sounds like it should be accompanied by fat carolers sporting white cotton beards? And if we have to sing it, why can’t we limit it to Maoz Tzur and not repeat it endlessly in Lecha Dodi, Birkas HaChodesh, Shabbos morning kedusha, and twice in Hallel?

Above all, why doesn’t it bother us that on this of all holidays, the season when we celebrate the integrity of Jewish culture, we define our celebration by embracing the culture of Eisav, the culture that continues to dominate us in our final exile and which stands between us and the coming of Moshiach?

What’s that? You don’t know any other niggun? Call me, and I’ll hum a few for your over the phone.

Check out Rabbi Goldson’s latest articles at yonasongoldson.com.

Originally Published December 2008

60 comments on “Der Meistersingers of Athens – What’s Up with the Tune for Maoz Tzur?”

  2. I treasure the tune usually used for ma’oz tzur, as it is one of the few specific practices that I received as a mesorah from my father, and he from his. As a person who wasn’t raised in a Torah observant home and became observant as a young adult, I don’t have many practices that came to me this way –as a direct mesorah from my family. Although there is nothing different about the tune I use from that used when I was a yeshiva student, or from the one used in my shul today, or from the one the original poster doesn’t like, I treasure it as a rare and precious inheritance.

  5. While looking for info re the NaNach movement in Israel I found a number of Youtubes including this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbYPn-q-4SA with what I found to be an incredibly upbeat niggun, as apparently did countless young people, NaNachs and non-NaNachs whom you can see joyfully dancing to it (I believe the fact that the NaNachs
    themselves are problematic is besides the point in this instance, where kids from all over seem to connect with some pintele Yid). It was only much later that I learned the niggun is a take-off of a secular song Dragostea din tei (I ran into it on YouTube as well). Maybe my middle-age is showing since I’m not too familiar with techno, but until I found it I could’ve sworn (Ok, not sworn) that a couple of savvy Jewish kids who knew what might appeal to the youth-at-risk soul, had composed it. But it’s one heck of a take-off.

  6. Gary, I respectfully disagree with thee. For some reason, thou hast taken a minor point and made it major.

  7. Jastrow’s generation was also responsible for biblical translations that used Old English. With the demise of that style, MUCH has been lost in translation. In the Hebrew Publishing Company translation of the 1920’s, you will find that the English “thou” corresponds to the Hebrew singular “atah,” while the English “you” corresponds to the Hebrew plural, “atem.” (I noticed this just last year, while using just such a Chumash in shul.)Unless you can actually understand the Hebrew, you will not perceive this distinction from a modern translation.

    Gary:

    How many contemporary English speakers actually know the difference between singular thou and plural ye? Very very few. Maybe if all our translations were written in Early Modern English AND came with an introduction explaining the pronouns… but then again, who reads introductions?

  8. Regarding “Rock of Ages”:

    “Rock of Ages” is the “loose” English translation of Maoz Tzur that was written by Marcus Jastrow & Gustav Gottheil. Jastrow was one of the premier Talmudists and Biblical lingusists of his time, and his works are still widely used.

    When compared to current English-language writing style, Jastrow and Gottheil’s translation might appear to be “flaky.” However, those who wrote about the classics during that era wrote in the style of the classics. In our time, no one writes that way, and few people can read the classics in the original English.

    Jastrow’s generation was also responsible for biblical translations that used Old English. With the demise of that style, MUCH has been lost in translation. In the Hebrew Publishing Company translation of the 1920’s, you will find that the English “thou” corresponds to the Hebrew singular “atah,” while the English “you” corresponds to the Hebrew plural, “atem.” (I noticed this just last year, while using just such a Chumash in shul.)Unless you can actually understand the Hebrew, you will not perceive this distinction from a modern translation.

    Newer is not necessarily better.

  9. The question is not whether something is “Jewish” but whether there can be music that is PURELY Jewish. Shlock Rock would qualify as the former, but not as the latter. “Ein Od Milvado”, Aharon Razel, Sinai Tor, Yosef Karduner, Motzitz, Carlebach, I would all classify as Jewish in spirit and content, but they have definitely been influencedby other genres and musical traditions.

    Sfardi slichot might qualify on both counts (plus, they’ve got a beat you can dance to, I mean, sing to), but I don’t know enough about other local music traditions to be able to say if it’s “purely Jewish”. (I should ask my neighbor, the retired bus driver.)

    Maoz Tzur, OUR Maoz Tzur, has been with us for such a long time, that surely it qualifies on count one if not count two.

    We’ll probably have to wait until Eliyahu HaNavi comes to tell us what is both “authentically and purely Jewish”. I have a fantasy that the rebuilt Beit Hamikdash will feature tunes by the Beatachons. Don’t get me started with the Pips moves. Bimheyra b’yameinu and all that.

  10. I don’t think calling any minhag Yisroel “evoking not the heroism of the Hasmoneans but the flaky ambivalence of “Rock of Ages” ” is the right thing to do.

    I love the Maoz Tzur and think it is a very dveikusdik tune when song properly.

  12. If you’re going to copy a particular genre or style, at least copy the best of it. I’m amazed how our “artists” so often copy the most insipid, boring tunes.

  14. Ron–Check out Don Byron’s coverage of the great Mickey Katz. Katz did klezmerized versions of popular American songs in the 50’s and 60’s, with Yiddish-laced lyrics, such as the hilarious “Haim Afen Range” and “Seder Dance”. Byron, who happens to be a non-Jewish African-American, fell in love with klezmer and subsequently with Mickey Katz’s “in your face” Jewish humor and in-jokes. In addition to the quality of the music, Byron points out almost reverently that being so openly ethnic in the bland ’50s took a lot of chutzpa. And pride. The disc features the vocals of the incredible Loren Sklamberg.

  17. And I love the way Yossi Piamenta combines several different genres. Plus, he’s a great musician.

  18. Ron–No, I’m not a musicologist, but I DO play one on television.

    Academic credentials are not the only valid measure of knowledge. I have a neighbor who is a retired bus driver who happens to be an incredible source on maq’am, bakashot, and classical Arabic music, Western classical music, and opera.

    Where do you think the musicologists derive their theories if not from listening and from talking to people who have been lisening for years? Theory is limited; as Dick Cavett has observed that in our society, we tend to believe that exegesis saves.

    I love klezmer. Generally products of cross-cultural ferment are the most interesting

  19. Shunamit, if you’re not a musicologist, as you acknowledge, then listening with your ears and giving an opinion isn’t only of limited value, it’s probably worth a lot less than an article in Wikipedia!

    I like klezmer music myself.

  20. Neil wrote:

    For the record (no pun intended based on where this tread has gone), I told my instructor I wouldn’t sing the vocals. I still got an “A”.

    You must have sounded like a broken record!

  21. Hi Ron–Anybody who quotes Wikipedia as a source gets an automatic “F” in this course.

    I know you didn’t claim that klezmer was frum, but it astounds me how many “purists” put forth or imply that.

    Finally, looking for sources in books is ultimately a shadow of listening with one’s own ears. I believe in the case of klezmer’s relationship to other local genres, the empirical evidence of listening trumps written theory.

  23. Shunamit, now you may have actually rebutted my point — because you’re arguing that klezmer does not merely borrow from other musics, but is essentially a variant version of a widespread form of music known well to many other cultures. If that is true, then I stand corrected. I don’t actually think you’ve proved the point but at least it is an assertion contrary to mine. I would note that, FWIW, the Wikipedia article on klezmer does not straightforwardly support such a hypothesis. Another source says, quite more like my view of the matter than the one suggested here, as follows (emphasis mine):

    Klezmer took on some of the style of the music of surrounding cultures in Central and Eastern Europe, and continued to do the same in The U.S. The influences include Russian, Ukrainian, Bessarabaian, Romanian, and German folk musics as well as Western art and popular music. All this is leavened with a Middle-Eastern sensibility derived partially from the music of the Ottoman empire, but also from an unbroken stream of liturgical music stretching back to biblical times in the Land of Israel. Through all the assimilation, klezmer was unmistakably a Jewish music, easily identified as such by people familiar with related genres.

    Moving on, I didn’t say anything about klezmer being “frum.” I think my point, to the contrary, was that if we can posit any music as ever having been frum, presumably the songs of Leviim would be that music.

    I don’t think my failure to qualify what I meant by “our” makes me Ashkenazi-centric. I meant “us Ashkenazim.”

  25. Keep in mind that, in some cases, the non-Jewish Eastern Europeans, including Gypsies, picked up and adapted Jewish tunes. It was a two-way street.

    The Jews never lived in a cultural vacuum. Never. This is a haredi myth. One only need look at where the Land of Israel is located to realize there was always traffic of non-Jews. It bridges Africa and Asia.

    Influences of “goyish” culture can also be seen in how various Diaspora communities adoption various host affectations and notions. It was always a “two-way street.”

  27. In fact, there’s a Bartok work (Rhapsody No. 1) that has an opening theme a whole lot like part of Rebbe Nachman’s nigun. Bartok traveled a lot in Hungary, Transylvania, etc., researching native folk music I once had some email correspondence with Ben Zion Solomon about this resemblance of tunes.

    This CD has Szigeti (violin) and Bartok (piano) performing this piece:
    http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Debussy-Sonatas-Rhapsody-Szigeti/dp/B0000023EI

    Keep in mind that, in some cases, the non-Jewish Eastern Europeans, including Gypsies, picked up and adapted Jewish tunes. It was a two-way street.

  28. Neil: We didn’t lip-synch, but there were a bunch of us – not even frum, just staging a holiday concert protest, singing “cheese whiz” (forget what the song might have been) and other similar ‘doesn’t quite sound like’ alternatives to objectionable words.

  29. Ron Coleman–I’m no musicologist, but i’ve been listening to World Music since before it became respectable or popular. Gypsy music, various types of slavic music sound much the same as klezmer, especially if you listen to the old-time classic klezmer. Take a look at the liner notes on albums by Dave Tarras and Naftuli Brandwein–they openly acknowledge swallowing up the non-Jewish music of their surroundings.

    The Breslov Research Institute’s volumes on classic Breslov tunes are compiled by Ben Zion Solomon, who IS a trained musicologist. Among other fascinating topics, he discusses how Breslov was a crossroads point for many ethnic groups, and how this enriched the developing traditions of Breslov niggunin.

    “We don’t have to be so ready to abandon the claims to our culture”, you say, but what if significant part of our culture is musical syncretism?

    Besides, whether or not klezmer is uniquely Jewish, it is in no way specifically frum, and neither were a lot of the people who played it.

    Also, your Ashkenazo-centricity ignores a vast tradition of Jewish music from Edot Hamizrach. Why is that any less “our culture” than fun music picked up by travellers across Eastern Europe?

    The only thing “authentically Jewish” is Torah. Everything else is just Maishe Rabeynee in shtreimel and kapoteh.

  30. I said

    klezmer which is, like Yiddish, a uniquely Jewish amalgam of musical traditions.

    Shunamit wrote:

    It’s an amalgam, all right; clearly influenced by gypsy, Russian, Ukrainian and Hungarian traditions, with a surprisingly strong Middle Eastern influence thrown in. It’s great music, but it’s not “uniquely Jewish”. Nothing we know now is.

    That’s silly. I said the amalgam — the particular way in which those influences were combined — was uniquely Jewish. You didn’t say anything to contradict what I said, and in fact you echoed everything I said except my conclusion, without in any way explaining why you think I’m wrong.

    We don’t have to be so ready to abandon the claims to our culture!

  31. A note about Chassidic garb # 18 – Where does the Streimel come from? Do you earnestly think Moshe Rabbeine did wear one?

    Or, for that matter, black hats and white shirts?
    The list could go on…
    The saran wrap we’ve desperately tried to wrap ourselves and our children in is not completely intact, and many of our kids have found an escape route. For those of you whose kids have not ventured from the fold, yasher koach. But, atleast speaking for myself, I have not been so fortunate. And the tighter I tried to wrap them in, the larger they made the hole. If I wouldn’t have learned to tolerate the infiltration of the outer culture, I might have lost my whole gang. I was very inspired by everything Jewish, but I chose that. My children, on whom I’d imposed my chosen beliefs and lifestyle, were a little less than enthusiastic. Perhaps our forefathers had to make some concessions to their secular culture as well in order to keep their own on the derech…

  32. Ron Coleman wrote,
    “When the Beis HaMikdosh is IYH restored we can be treated to the beauty of the leviim in song, but until then, music — like most art — is not a strong suit of the Jewish people.”

    Actually, Jewish composers wrote many of the most memorable tunes for the Broadway stage (that’s only one example). OK, they may have been less than frum, and their styles may have been borrowed from here and there, but the composing genius was their own.

  34. “There is fundamentally no listenable “pure Jewish music” on the planet, though I am partial to klezmer which is, like Yiddish, a uniquely Jewish amalgam of musical traditions”

    It’s an amalgam, all right; clearly influenced by gypsy, Russian, Ukrainian and Hungarian traditions, with a surprisingly strong Middle Eastern influence thrown in. It’s great music, but it’s not “uniquely Jewish”. Nothing we know now is.

    By the way, Uncle Moishe makes me ill. At least Misterrogers was calm and behaved like an adult.

    The best tapes for kids are Rav Emanuel Tehila’s. He doesn’t sing at all, but it won’t make any of you queasy on repetition, and we all actually learned something.

  35. A note about Chassidic garb # 18 – Where does the Streimel come from? Do you earnestly think Moshe Rabbeine did wear one?

    Ouy vey, it was hot enough wandering around the desert for 40 years without wearing a beaverskin hat. Recently, I read that this garb was copied from the upper classes in Poland and Hungary.

    The subject of how Jewish music isn’t Jewish has been bandied about hundreds of times on just this site alone. While that may be true, I’m still happy to have Project X to listen to, it’s foot tapping happy (minus the marches).

    My question isn’t the fact that “all the branches” sing the same rather droney Maoz Tzur, but rather, why is it that at non-Orthodox weddings and Bar Mitzvahs they still believe that the only Jewish song is Hava Negillah, which isn’t even a Jewish song, but an Israeli folk song. Pleeze. Get those bands a few Neginah CD’s.

  36. Its unfortunate to hear people dismiss, or at least minimize the importance, of following various American customs in Jewish practice. I think that the customs developed by the Jews of this country should be taken seriously; after all, the Jews came to these shores in 1654.

  37. I think Menachem Lipkin is overstating the point, but fundamentally I agree with him — the idea that this “issue” is the difference between helping “young people today . . . tap into their neshomas rather than strengthening their connection with secular culture” is, to put it mildly, not supportable. I don’t even see these topics as being on the same axis.

    I also echo DK’s plaint. There is fundamentally no listenable “pure Jewish music” on the planet, though I am partial to klezmer which is, like Yiddish, a uniquely Jewish amalgam of musical traditions. I’m surprised DK didn’t trot out one of his usual points on this, namely that, gosh, this is really an American Jewish classic, regardless of its roots, and what do you know — if it’s American, we’re supposed to resist it to be frum, right?

    But surely nothing is worse than the formulaic “Jewish Music” pumped out of the same handful of studios and which serve as nothing more than sampler for wedding singers.

    When the Beis HaMikdosh is IYH restored we can be treated to the beauty of the leviim in song, but until then, music — like most art — is not a strong suit of the Jewish people.

  38. I’m sorry Rabbi Goldson, I just don’t think this is the most important issue we’re facing. Add to that the there really is no such thing as purely “Jewish music”.

    But if you want to be consistent, while you’re at it, why don’t you make the same point about the garb that some of our more “ultras” wear? (Have you seen the picture of Moslems in Siberia praying while wearing strimels?)

    The reason why you don’t is, for better or worse, we have taken many things from the cultures we’ve lived among and, over time, made them our own.

  40. Ellen L.- In 11th grade (just after become frum) my choir sang all of vocal parts of Mozart’s Requiem. Needless to say, I lip-synced everything, much to this dismay of my instructor.

  42. The non-Jewish girl who stood next to me in my junior high school choir got huffy when I wouldn’t sing Handel’s Halleluka Chorus, telling me “I don’t get why you don’t want to sing our songs…I sing your Hava Nagila.” Just a further push towards my eventually becoming a BT after the 10th grade.

  43. Before I stop singing Maoz Zur with this tune, I’d rather stop wearing non-kosher animals for a headgear…

    Where does the Streimel come from? Do you earnestly think Moshe Rabbeine did wear one?

    So obviously everything in jewish culture comes from somewhere outside and became “typically jewish” over time:
    Names of the months: babylonien.
    Reference numbers for chapters and psukim in the tanach: christian (was made to ease disputes back then)
    Who knows, perhaps Chanukka is just a jewish version of the saturnalia?

  45. Wait. Is it a violation of kol isha for me to play NTT here? ;)

    (Oh, it’s Chanukah, not Purim)

    I am a (lapsed) classically trained woodwind musician. Before I got married, I sang in a professional chorus for several years. It was thrilling to sing major choral works with ~139 other people and a symphony orchestra, but I got to the point as I was becoming even just marginally more observant where I couldn’t take it anymore.

    The standard repetoire, which classical musicians love to perform, is largely Christian (European composers were usually employed by churches), or else not safe to be translated in front of the kids (opera is not for frum Jews period). Then you have orchestras’ “Holiday Pops” concerts, which are often their biggest money makers of the year.

    Unfortunately I learned the words to every “holiday” tune, including obscure verses no one knows or cares about. Those concerts were the worst. One year the director had us sing a movement of Leonard Berstein’s “Chichester Psalms” as the token Chanukah piece. It was a bizarre choice and went over like a lead balloon, LOL. The non-Jewish audience that will tolerate sitting through “I Have a Little Dreidel” in the name of political correctness and “equal time” (blech) was completely bewildered by the Hebrew, and I cringe to think how many times HaSh-m’s name was taken in vain…

    I do think that Jewish musicians giving secular songs Jewish content has value, because that way if kids hear the tune “out there”, they associate it with, say, Uncle Moishy, rather than thinking, hey, that’s a catchy tune, I think I like this goyishe music and now I want to hear more…

    I am glad there are good Jewish kids’ choirs recording, such as the Yeshiva Boys Choir and the London Girls Choir, as I enjoy sharing my love of music with my kids this way.

  46. MBC – Miami Boys Choir. They had a very popular version of Adon Olam about 10 or so years ago. This was before the somewhat (in some people’s opinions) more polished YBC (Yeshiva Boys Choir), Shalsheles Jr. and Kinderlach, the latter who I hear all went off the derech, nebich, the result of their “fame”.

  47. Charnie: Who’s MBC? I know it’s not the Beach Boys…although Sloop John B goes well with both Adon Olam and Dror Yikrah. A common thread on this site is BT’s feeling at times as if they don’t belong. For me, singing these versions of Jewish songs and having other BT’s join in makes me feel part of a community, i.e. the BT community!

  48. And while we’re on the subject of Jewish music copied from goyish music, I’m sure most of you have seen this about the origin of MBD’s Yidden. It’s really funny!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Lb9NIiYIMA

    Ellen L, I’m another one who listens to music (does it have a good beat?) much more then lyrics, be it secular or Jewish. I do find myself singing to myself in certain parts of davening where there are niggunim that I particularly like, particulary Carlebach. Of course, breaking out into MBC’s Adon Olam is frowned upon in shul, particulary if you include the choreography.

    Just kidding about the MBC bit.

  50. Anyone want to play NTT?

    Da, Da, Da, Daaaa.
    Da, Da, Da, Daaaa…

    (sorry, couldn’t resist.)

    There are at least two “hymns” from my non-Jewish upbringing that, when I heard them set to Hebrew as an adult, gave me a rather unpleasant internal reaction; one was Maoz Tzur, and I think the other was a more nationalistic army song.

    I couldn’t help but think, who ripped off what from whom?

    Chana, giores and BT, whose kids greatly enjoy Uncle Moishy

  51. Actually, Bob, I often have difficulty focusing on the words (it might be my ADD). I’ve always been much more attuned to the tunes =} for most songs, including the rock music I grew up with. In fact, I wish I could tell you I knew what the words of Maoz Tsur meant before this year. The first day of this year’s Chanukah was the first time I actually sat down and read the English definition of the words, though I could practically sing the Hebrew in my sleep. Sadly, that’s what many tefilos can be to me unless I make a concerted effort to read the English. I’m not proud of this. But that’s for another thread.

  53. The niggun we traditionally use for Maoz Tsur is goyish? I didn’t know that. I’m with tzirelchana. It has always been my family tradition as well.(Although my kids taught us to sing a different niggun just to the “Yevanim” verse. And truthfully, who knows where many of our minhagim that pervaded our culture came from throughout the centuries? Most people know that Chassidishe garb complete with shtreimel was the way 17th noblemen dressed in some parts of Europe. Our baal tefila for Yom Kippur brought our kehilla a beautiful rendition of a Kol Nidre night prayer (not the Kol Nidre itself). I told his wife how much I liked it and she told me she brought it over from Lubovitch and taught it to him, and Lubovitch got it from some Russian parade song.
    And how many of us can still sing (and harmonize with) every Christmas carol out there, which we learned in public school back in the fifties and sixties? I actually still am moved by the music (not the words), but they don’t distill not one iota of my Yiddishkeit. I say, long live our traditional Maoz Tsur!

  55. I wouldn’t characterize the most popular melody for Maoz Tzur as presently “non-Jewish,” although it may have such origins.

    I daresay that there are exactly zero non-Jews in the world who currently sing that tune, while unforately no more than a sizeable minority of Jews do so.

    To put a more positive perspective on the use of this tune, its originators may have actually sung it while drinking before or after Jew-bashing (in the literal sense of the word). Much can be learned from the fact that many oppressors of Jews are long gone, and we sing THEIR tune while celebrating our rescue from them.

  56. Orthodox Jews are in no position to complain about “Eisav’s” music. Orthodox music is frequently the most base level of composition. Far too many harmonies rely on what can only be described as an abuse of minor thirds.

    For the record, I would love nothing more than to fight it out over music, Rabbi Goldson. In fact, I will even offer you a handicap. I will only bring “goyish” composers whose last names start with the letter B. You, sir, may bring every frum composer you wish.

  58. off topic: “Der” is singular, “Meistersingers” is the English-ized “plural” of “Meistersinger” (which, in German, is both singular and plural.

  59. I like Maoz Tzur just the way it is. It’s the melody my father sang, and believe me, he didn’t have much Judaism left, but that was one of the few things that stuck. Maybe the tune had humble origins but so do many things including the Davidic dynasty (born of incest–Ruth the Moabite) and man himself (created from dirt) Then again there are some nice secular songs that could find our way into our tradition ala the sixties fad of of singing Shir Hamaalos to Scarborough Fair (Simon and Garfunkel)

  60. 1. Rather than invite us to phone in, why not publish and record better tunes?

    2. Are tunes borrowed from Slavic non-Jews intrinsically better for us to use than the common Maoz Tzur tune?

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