"Levavi yahsheqa ‘ofra" (My heart yearns for a hart)

Shira with tawshiḥ by Shalem Shabazi, signed Alshabazi. Towards the end of the poem the author is identified as `son of Joseph'. The words are in Hebrew and Arabic. The poem opens with a love song, and ends with yearning for salvation in Zion. 

This recording features Menachem Arussi and the Kiryat Ono men's and children's ensemble sing in a responsorial manner: the soloist sings the opening hemistiches, and the ensemble responds with the closing hemistiches. Drumming on tin pan and drum accompany the rhythmical singing. Tempos are set by the beat of the tin pan. All the stanzas are sung to the same melodic formula, in which the tawshih has its own melody. (Bahat, 1995: 263). The performance ends with the blessing Vekulkhem berukhim.