Ani hatsal [sic] (Shir hatunah)

Ani hatsal [sic] (Shir hatunah). I am rising (the wedding song).  Performed by Yemenite Jews (male voice and choir) on July 19, 1913.   Cylinder # 654.        1:44

This item actually combines two pieces. Ani hadal (I, the poor) is the first stanza of a poem by R. Shalom Shabazi (17th century). It is repeated three times and followed by non-sense syllables. This Yemenite song became one of the best known ones in the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine) after it was published with musical notation by Abraham Zvi Idelsohn in one of his earliest Hebrew articles titled “Yemenite Jews and their Songs” (Luah HaHaretz LiShnat 5669 [1908], text on p. 128 and melody in the supplement of music notations, pp. 4-5). This version was then arranged by several Jewish composers, such as Yoel Engel in volume 2 of his Jewish Folksongs (starts at 25:05). The second text, sung to the same melody, is Be'et ratzon tehinati, a poem from the Ashmurot, the Yemenite equivalent of the Selihot, penitential prayers recited from midnight to early morning during the month of Elul and the beginning of Tishrei. The combination of these two texts into one item is puzzling.