Results via facebook, DW, and my own googling of the search for Chanukah music
-Several recommendations of the Adam Sandler
"Hanukah Song", which.... I have mixed feelings about. Certainly, it's not melodically very good, but that's sort of the point and hardly a point of critique. It's a bit of more or less off-the-cuff shtick, though like most Sandler jokes it's been pushed too far over the years. More positively, I appreciate part of the song's sentiment. It is true that it can be lonely being a Jew in a Christian country, particularly at moments when Christian activity is at a peak. It is also true that for this reason and others, Jews take comfort in the success and prominence of other Jews. I value "the Hanukah Song" for taking a step back to appreciate that success and appreciate its context: that there are a number of Jews in Hollywood, but they are still outliers and we as a nation are still outliers. That in fact, there are so few Jews in Hollywood that one can sing a couple of songs and name them all.
On the other hand, while I think Sandler grasps that subtlety, I don't think much of his audience does. I worry that "The Hanukah Song" reinforces anti-semitic lies about Jews and the media. I don't worry a lot, but I do worry. And more seriously, I worry that "The Hanukah Song" positions Chanukah so strongly in opposition to Christmas- "the only kid in town without a Christmas tree" etc... Chanukah as an observance has very little connection to Christmas as an observance except calendar compatibility. I don't want my Chanukah music to be anti-Christmas music, I want Chanukah music that is about the Jewish significance of Chanukah.
My subtler complaint about about the song is that it conflates Judaism and observance in subtly erroneous ways. Most of the show business Jews Sandler sings about are not in any meaningful sense observant Jews, but Sandler uses observances as synecdochic allusions to tribal affiliation. Rather than just saying that David Lee Roth is Jewish, Sandler says that Roth "lights the menorah". Rather than saying that Jon Bauman and Henry Winkler are Jewish, he says that they "eat together at the Carnegie Deli". I take it as assumed that Sandler isn't actually asserting these things as statements of facts. I don't think he is claiming that David Lee Roth makes a point to light a menorah all eight days of Chanukah. Rather he is asserting that these are things that Jews do, and therefore as Jews, they are things that Roth, Bauman, and Winkler might do.
Of course, the Carnegie Deli is not a kosher deli, but that doesn't bother Sandler because he's not actually talking about Jewish observance, and he's talking about people who don't much care about Jewish observance. "The Hannukah Song" is a song about being Jewish, it's not a song about living Jewish lives.
-Several recommendations for
Anander mol anander veig, an album of remixes of classic Chanukah and other Jewish melodies. I liked a few of them, but was overall not impressed with the album, and even a few of the good ones left me scratching my head in the way that good remix sometimes does- the remix of Dave Tarras's Di Goldene Chasene was fun and clever and made playful use of Tarras's frantic note-switching, but... Dave Tarras was playing clarinet on the original. It's freaking Dave Tarras, why would you listen to even a good remix when you can listen to Dave Tarras? He's pretty close to perfection, and before the request for Chanukah music, my party playlist already had as much Tarras as I could find.
-A recommendation for Handel's
"Judas Maccabaeus", which is definitely good Chanukah music, but which I don't think I can play at my sister's engagement party. Nonetheless it's worth noting that Handel is a master of Baroque oratorio and his "Judas Maccabaeus" is overloaded with magnificent music.
-A recommendation for Shir Soul's new a cappella
Chanukah medley. I found it a little dull, but the recommender and I both went to school with one of the members of the group, so I think the appeal is mostly in "Hey look at that cool thing our friend did!" On those terms I can recommend it. The singing is bright and appealing, the dreidel play is kind of fun, and the songs are not great, but it's worth watching for a smile, I think.
-My own discovery of an
Andy Statman Hannukah medley. You know all those feelings I wrote above about Dave Tarras and how he's basically perfection on clarinet? Andy Statman was Dave Tarras's student. I don't think this medley is Statman's best work, but it is one of the best Chanukah things I have found and I highly recommend it.
-I got this album of
Michael Silverman Jewish piano tunes because if I'm going to have to play the familiar annoying Chanukah melodies, at least they won't be on an annoying synth keyboard.
-
The Chanukah Lounge is a thing that exists. It's... well, at first listen it doesn't sound all that bad, so I think I can sneak one or two of these songs onto my playlist, but the more you listen, the less is actually there. These are not songs that illuminate and add depth to the classic Chanukah melodies, they are songs that use gimmicks and tricks to try to milk the classic Chanukah melodies. On the plus side, I did discover the Afro-Semitic Experience via this record- their "Descarga Ocho Candelikas" is the best thing on the record. And the Afro-Semitic Experience has a mindblowing record called
"Further Definitions of the Days of Awe" that has me already aching to buy more of their music and just wallow in the brilliance. On the other hand, it was never difficult to find great Rosh Hashanah music, so... I guess I just accidentally found some more great Rosh Hashanah music while searching for Chanukah music. Oops.
-Some mentions of
the Maccabeats... Which, look, like the Shir Soul video above, part of the allure is no doubt that I was in youth group with one of the members of the Maccabeats, and one of my best friends was roommates with the guy who makes their videos, and the whole NYC Jewish community is very incestuous and it's cool when people you know are successful. I like that
"Candelight" and
"Burn" and "All About That Neis" are pretty explicitly positioned as a response to my complaint that Sandler's "Chanukah Song" is an anti-Christmas song more than it is a song about people who live Jewish lives celebrating Chanukah. It is obvious from the music that Chanukah actually means something positive to the Maccabeats- that unlike David Lee Roth lighting the menorah, the Maccabeats light the menorah and then watch the candles burn down. I like that at this point several years down the line, "Candlelight" has probably been permanently added to the Chanukah songbook, which is great because it's been quite a long time since anything fresh at all has been added.
-Uh... I dunno, I remember being excited a few years back when I learned that Jason Robert Brown had written a choral
Chanukah suite, but not too excited when I actually listened to it. And when I consider the choral politics associated with getting it performed, better off just listening to
"Shiksa Goddess" again.
So... this probably didn't really add much to anyone's knowledge of good Chanukah music. It might be out there somewhere but if so, I haven't really found it. But it is what it is. Freilichin Chanukah, everyone!
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