Yehi shalom (zemer le-berit milah)

Yehi shalom (zemer le-berit milah). Let there be peace (tune for the circumcision ceremony). Performed by Ezra ben hakham David from Baghdad on July 21, 1913. Cylinder # 658.         2:02

The informant sings the first two stanzas and half of the third one using two melodies. The first melody (stanza 1) is slow and melismatic and it shows some similarities to the melody for the same poem from Aleppo. The second melody (stanza 2 onwards) is still very popular among descendants of Iraqi Jews in Israel. Compare with the version in Amnon Shiloah, The musical tradition of Iraqi Jews (Or Yehuda, 1983), no. 51, pp. 116-7