>What country's national anthem is based on the main theme from the Moldau?
>Israel--Hatikvah
>Yup! With an interesting change in meter but the same basic shape to
>the melody.
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It is too simplistic to say that "Hatikvah is based on Smetana's "Vltava".
The melody of Hatikvah ("The Hope") is certainly similar to "Vltava" but is
usually considered a "wandering melody" because its tune and variants are
found in folk traditions of widely separated countries. On page 222 of
Abraham Zvi Idelsohn's "Jewish Music In Its Historic Development", eight
melodic sources similar to "Hatikvah" are shown including Spanish, Polish,
Basque, Sephardic and Eastern-European Jewish secular and liturgical tunes
and Smetana.
As one would expect, there is much conjecture as to the origin of the
"Hatikvah" melody. Eric Werner is of the opinion that the "Hatikvah" melody
is simply based on the Magen Avot Mode (A B C D E F G A) and is an extended
version of the older Sephardic Hallel and Tal tunes and the Ashkenazic
"Yigdal".
More recent findings are that the melody is a quote from a
Moldavian-Romanian
folk song, "Carul cu boi" (Cart and Oxen) which Samuel Cohen adapted to
Naphtali Herz Imber's original Hebrew poem when he settled in the town of
Rishon LeZion after moving from Moldava in 1878.
There is an excellent article about "Hatikvah" in Irene Heskes's "Passport
to Jewish Music".
Cheers,
Steve
Steven Ovitsky
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