Monday, March 10, 2008

Let Us Sing Together = Torah Tzivah Lanu Moshe

Saw this going around:



Let us sing together
One and all a joyous song.

Let us sing again and again,
Let us sing again and again,
Let us sing again and again,
One and all a joyous song.

instead of

Torah, Torah,
Torah, Torah,
Torah Tzivah Lanu Moshe,

Morashah kehillas Yaakov,
Morashah kehillas Yaakov,
Morashah kehillas Yaakov,
Torah Tzivah Lanu Moshe.

Which came first? I don't know. The credits at the end credit Cal Scott for "original music," but I don't know if this is included in the original music. And even if not, perhaps it came from some other source which was the source of both.

According to Imdb, this was made in 1989, which was not so long ago. I know I grew up on "Torah Tzivah Lanu Moshe," but am not sure when I first heard it -- but asking other people, it predated '89. So this would presumably not be among the original music of Cal Scott. But whenever you have A and B which are parallel, there are four possibilities:
  1. A and B developed separately. (unlikely)
  2. A got it from B
  3. B got it from A
  4. A and B both got it from C
It is quite possible that there was an earlier song, either with or not with the same secular lyrics, that both got it from. Just like in the previous case, Leadbelly played "Pick a Bale of Cotton" in 1945, but the song was much, much earlier than that.

2 comments:

thanbo said...

We learned that tune for Torah Tziva Lanu Moshe in first grade at Ramaz in 1971. All the stuff at the beginning of the siddur, Modeh Ani, Tora Tziva Lanu MOshe, Mah Tovu.

L.E. Green said...

Assuming you're still maintaining this...

Hey! It's Eli, from the YouTube channel Jewish Music Toronto. It's thanks to your post that I've found a little more info on this song (I'm working on a Simchat Torah video at the moment, and wanted at least one kids' song in there).

Anyway, I did a little more digging and, so far, what I've found is that it's originally a Czech folk song, according to this choir PDF.

If you happen to be interested in checking out my channel, you can find it on YouTube or Patreon.

G'mar Chatimah Tova!

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