Chanukah Suite is an original chorale composition by

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

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 24, 2003. Bounded by Hope Street, Grand Ave ...

in two performances by the

Los Angeles Master Chorale The Los Angeles Master Chorale is a professional 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 of the t ...

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

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

songs with up-tempo

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or 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 Africa ...

rhythms and harmonic fanfares.

I. S'vivon/Al Hanism

''S'vivon'' means

dreidel A dreidel, also dreidle or dreidl ( ; yi, דרײדל, dreydl, plural: ''dreydlech''; he, סביבון, sevivon) is a four-sided spinning top, played during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gamb ...

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

Hanukkah or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem) , nickname = , observedby = Jews , begins = 25 Kislev , ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet , celebrations = Lighting candles each night. ...

, 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 Amuhduh'' ( he, תפילת העמידה, ''Tefilat HaAmidah'', 'The Standing Prayer'), also called the ''Shemoneh Esreh'' ( 'eighteen'), is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the ''Amidah'' at each o ...

) added during the post-Biblical Festivals of Chanukah and

Purim Purim (; , ; see Name below) is a Jewish holiday which commemorates the saving of the Jews, Jewish people from Haman, an official of the Achaemenid Empire who was planning to have all of Persia's Jewish subjects killed, as recounted in the Boo ...

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