Shema' qoli

A famous baqqashah composed by R. Hai Gaon (d. 1038), one of the undisputed leaders of the Academy of Babylonia (today Iraq). It was adopted by the Sephardi communities as an introduction to the Yom Kippur evening service.

The Amsterdam melody chanted by Rev. Lopes Cardozo is characterized by the rhythmic contrast between its opening and ending verses, which are in almost free rhythm, while the core of the poem is based on a rigid 6/8 meter with a fixed rhythmic pattern, reflecting the quantitative Arab meter of this poem. This melody recalls the ones used for this poem in other Sephardi communities, especially in North Africa. This similarity shows the ancient pedigree of some items in the High Holiday musical repertoire of the Western Sephardi liturgy (compare Aguilar-De Sola 1857: 32, no. 32).