This is a great tune with a lovely sentiment, in a terrific choral arrangement by a really nice guy. In other words, what’s not to like?

This song will be familiar to those of you who sang with us during the Fall 2021 session—that crazy time of lockdown, during which 207 singers valiantly rehearsed at home every week over Zoom. A total of 80 of us uploaded recordings to our office team, when we couldn’t really go anywhere. Looking back on that time, I am astounded that we pulled it off.

When Linda Powell and I were putting together our Fall 2024 session program, it seemed like a good piece to bring this setting back to our concerts, especially since we have never performed it live for our concert audiences. If this piece is new to you, you’re in for a real treat.

The lyrics are often sung on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, which runs from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. The text to “Hine Ma Tov” is the first verse of Psalm 133. It’s joyous and uplifting. Yes, it’s in a minor key, but so are most Jewish folk tunes. This doesn’t mean that it’s sad, however, just that it’s minor.

For you music-theory nerds: because of the way it’s written, the middle phrase pops into what theory nerds call the “relative major.” By that I mean that the middle section feels like it’s in G major instead of the prevailing E minor—which might contribute to the sense of joy that we find in singing it.

But where did the tune, which is the basis for the arrangement, come from?

Take a listen here to this version of the traditional Hebrew folk song by Otir.

This is the basic melody of the arrangement we’re performing by Neil Ginsberg. The singer, Otir, is a woman of French Jewish origin now living in the US.

The lyric with which most of us can identify, I believe, is “Behold, how good and pleasant it is that brothers dwell together.” I’ve recorded a Hebrew pronunciation recording that will be on our YouTube channel, so everyone can feel comfortable with the language. Here are a few words that I want to highlight for you:

• The Hebrew word “tov” means “good.” For example, “Boker tov” means “good morning.”
• Hine (often spelled “hiney”) means “here,” as in “here it is.”
• The “ma” literally means “what,” but in this context it’s more like “how,” as in “how good.”
• “Brothers” is the literal translation of the word achim, but it can also mean “siblings.” A generous interpretation of achim could be “all of us,” which is a sentiment that I support, especially since we’re singing together in a choir.

There are actually two folk melodies to this text that are the most familiar to Americans. One is the tune above that Otir sings. The other is a tune that Harry Belafonte sang on his album from 1960, “Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall.” Both tunes are in a minor key. The one that we’re performin is in triple time (or, as Neil Ginsberg arranges it, in 6/8 time, with two sets of three pulses per measure).

When we were getting ready to produce our virtual video of this piece in the fall of 2021, I reached out to Neil Ginsberg and received this very thoughtful reply by way of a video introduction to our performance. In this video, Neil speaks eloquently for a minute and half about what an arrangement is. Neil did this in response to a question from one of the 7^th-graders whom he was teaching at the time. I won’t try to summarize it here; his own words are great! Give a listen—it’s followed directly by our performance—and then come back here.

I must tell you: I just went back watched our video of this song, and it brought tears to my eyes. I’m still crying a little as I write this. They are tears of joy and appreciation as I behold this incredible thing that we did together, all of us working so hard to keep our merry band of singers and conductors and office staff and board and volunteers going during lockdown. And it is actually a beautiful expression of the song’s lyrics: how wonderful it is that we dwell together, and even better that we sing together. So many of the 80 singers from that video are still singing with us; that’s yet another reason for tears of joy. Julie Dent, a former member of our Hyde Park choir, even recorded herself from Spain after she moved there—yes, she kept on singing with us remotely from across the pond. That’s dedication!

Okay, I’ll come back to the present now! How wonderful indeed it is that we all get to make music together and to sing “Hine Ma Tov” this fall in person. Neil Ginsberg’s arrangement is a thing of real beauty. Everyone gets to sing the first part of the tune at the very beginning; the tenors and basses get that same part of the tune halfway through. If you’re an alto, you don’t get much of the tune after that, but don’t worry: it’s a splendid alto part that really has its own life and character, with some superb rhythmic drive, especially in the “lai lai lai” section at the end, when we all are singing that Jewish nonsense syllable (think of the end of “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel)!

I know you will love this piece. After 15 weeks we’ll be ready to rock! Happy singing.