timmypowg saves the day

[theyellowhobbit]

I'm reading the 3rd chapter of Eicha/Lamentations¹ which has a different tune from the rest of Eicha. I've never done it before, but 2 years ago in Israel I heard someone do it and she had a very pretty and haunting melody. I tried to remember it, but inevitably didn't remember it in its entirety. However, the woman who read it was at Koach Kallah last year, so when we were ice skating I talked to her, and asked her to sing it for me again.

I thought this time I knew it, and could easily learn chapter 3. However, things didn't seem to be lining up. It goes in sets of 3 verses, and it fit the first 2 verses, but I had to stretch it for the 3rd verse. And I shouldn't have to stretch it, it should fit.

It turns out if you google "Eicha Trope" the first link actually has the melody that I was taught, as opposed to the one that other people around here know. So I could learn it again from there.

However, it's too high for me. So I called timmypowg:

Me: Can you do me a musical favor?
Him: Sure
Me: I'm reading the 3rd chapter of Eicha, and I have a recording of the melody, but I'm having trouble transposing it for some reason. Can you transpose it for me?
[some discussion about computery stuff]
Him: Download audacity. It will let you change the pitch. If it won't read it then I can transpose it for you, but this will be easier.
Me: Ok. Thanks!

So then I downloaded the software, fed the recording in, got rid of the first few seconds where the lady introduces it, and then lowered it a few steps. Now I can sing it!

And elfsdh is going to help me go over the pronunciation when I know it better to make sure I didn't learn it wrong.




¹It's called "Eicha" because that's the first word in the Hebrew. Eicha literally means "how." Hebrew names for books and chapters and stuff can be quite fun sometimes, since they pretty much always name something after the first important word in it. Thus Exodus is "Shemot" in Hebrew, which means "names" and Deuteronomy is "Devarim" which means "things." The 5 books of the Torah translate to In the Beginning, Names, and He said, In the Wilderness and Things. Gotta love Hebrew.

Comments

[timmypowg.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I'm glad it worked. Good luck!

[sen-ichi-rei.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Are you coming to the service on Saturday night? Eicha is really pretty...

[timmypowg.livejournal.com]

Probably!

Also, "in the wilderness" is much better than "numbers", as far as that goes. And doesn't dvarim mean more like statements? The JPS says it's basically "words".

[elfsdh.livejournal.com]

JPS is the better translation. The first verse of אלה הדברים is closer in meaning to "these are the statements that Moses said to all the Israelites ..." than "these are the things..." meaning, "this is the speech Moses gave..."

[crewgrrl.livejournal.com]

Isn't Eicha more like "Alas"?

[elfsdh.livejournal.com]

It's "How is it" as in: "How is it that the city that once teemed with people now sits desolate?" (Note: In that translation, I switched around the order of the object and subject to conform to more standard English)