Chanukah Suite is an original

chorale composition Chorale settings refer to a wide variety of musical compositions, almost entirely of Protestant origin, which use a chorale as their basis. A chorale is a simple melody, often based on Gregorian chant, written for congregations to sing hymns. Chor ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

composer

Jason Robert Brown Jason Robert Brown (born June 20, 1970) is an American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and playwright. Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards for his work on ''Parad ...

. The work was debuted in December 2005 at the

Walt Disney Concert Hall The Walt Disney Concert Hall at 111 South Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Center and was designed by Frank Gehry. It was opened on October 23, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Av ...

in two performances by the

Los Angeles Master Chorale The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional Choir, chorus in Los Angeles, California, and one of the resident companies of both The Music Center and Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1964 by Roger Wagner to be one ...

. Composed in three parts and lasting just over 8 minutes, the work is based on an innovative merging of traditional

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

songs with up-tempo

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock-n-roll, and rock 'n' roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from African ...

rhythms and harmonic fanfares.

I. S'vivon/Al Hanism

''S'vivon'' means

dreidel A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl, ( ; , plural: ''dreydlech''; ) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in Europe and Latin America ...

, and the first section of the piece evokes the celebratory nature of

Hanukkah Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...

, imploring , or ''spin, spin, spin,'' as a reminder that (Hanukkah is indeed a good holiday). . . ''Al hanisim'' is a paragraph from the Jewish prayer service (

Amidah The ''Amidah'' (, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' during each of the three services prayed on week ...

) added during the post-Biblical Festivals of Chanukah and

Purim Purim (; , ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Genocide, annihilation at the hands of an official of the Achaemenid Empire named Haman, as it is recounted in the Book of Esther (u ...

in which they thank God for Miracles.

II. Mi Yemalel

The ''Mi yemalel'' passage asks ''Who can retell the things that befell us?'' and speaks of the stories of heroes and wise men of every age, announcing their arrivals with the repeated exclamations ''Sh'ma! Sh'ma!'' or ''Hark! Hark!'' Musically this passage features bright piano work and joyful hand clapping.

III. Finale: Ma'oz Tsur

''Ma'oz Tzur'' or ''Rock of ages'' lifts a song of praise to God's saving power, the tower that sheltered and arms that protected, against all enemies. The finale features repetition of the lines by four soloists in different

vocal range Vocal range is the range of pitches that a human voice can phonate. A common application is within the context of singing, where it is used as a defining characteristic for classifying singing voices into voice types. It is also a topic of stud ...

Recordings

The Los Angeles Master Chorale. Grant Gershon, conductor. Lisa Edwards, piano

Choral compositions {{classical-composition-stub