"Tradition" is the opening number for the 1964 Broadway musical ''
Fiddler on the Roof
''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 19 ...
''.
In the song, the main character,
Tevye
Tevye the Dairyman, also translated as Tevye the Milkman (, ''Tevye der milkhiker'' ) is the fictional narrator and protagonist of a series of short stories by Sholem Aleichem, and their various adaptations, the most famous being the musical '' ...
, explains the roles of each social class (fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters) in the village of
Anatevka, and how the traditional roles of people like the matchmaker, the beggar, and the rabbi contribute to the village. The song also mentions the constable, the priest, and the other non-Jews with whom they rarely interact. Later in the song, an issue involving an argument between two men about selling the other person a horse and delivering a mule (in the film, the argument is about whether a horse was 12 or 6, and in the Yiddish production, it is changed to a ''tsig'' (he-goat) and a ''bok'' (she-goat)) creates a ruckus in the village. Overall, the song sets up the major theme of the villagers trying to continue their traditions and keep their society running as the world around them changes.
Appears in
* ''
Fiddler on the Roof
''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 19 ...
'' (1964–present)
* ''
Fiddler on the Roof
''Fiddler on the Roof'' is a musical theatre, musical with music by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and musical theatre#Book musicals, book by Joseph Stein, set in the Pale of Settlement of Russian Empire, Imperial Russia in or around 19 ...
'' (1971). In the film version, the horse-mule incident is replaced by someone selling someone else a horse, telling him the horse was only six years old when it was really twelve.
Reception
The song has been described as "groundbreaking"
and "electrifying."
References
Further reading
*
1964 songs
Songs from Fiddler on the Roof
Songs written by Jerry Bock
Songs written by Sheldon Harnick
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