The Hallelôt in the Yemenite Dīwān (Hebrew)

The hallelôt have not yet been examined as a poetic genre, a fact that hampers the musicologists. A preliminary listing is given, of printed and manuscript texts in a quantity which seems tolerably representative, all together 289 items. The musical analysis is based on 97 hallelôt recorded over the last twelve years.

Compared with the niswad and sirot, the hallelôt take up little space in the Yemenite diwan. There are further differences: the hallelôt, though rhymed, are not written in any quantitative meter; their origins are usually unknown; the language is Hebrew, rarely Aramaic, but never Arabic. It should be noted that they appear already in the oldest known diwan manuscripts.

The content of the hallelôt is for the most part identical with that of the niswad and sirôt. The opening is usually eulogistic - in praise of the God of Israel or the guest of honour. There follow references to biblical figures, biblical events, the mizwôt, and the yearning for redemption in Zion. All these are linked to the opening eulogy, thus creating a sense of one unified blessing.