Product Description
Akëda is based on the prayer "El Maleh Rakhamim" which is one of two main Jewish liturgies commemorating the deceased (the other one is the "Kaddish.") The music is written in a free, single movement, improvisatory-like form. The traditional eastern-European melody of "El Maleh" is the main "text," which pulls liked a thread throughout the movement. The different musical gestures surrounding and illustrating it, function as "commentaries" (Midrashim.) Simulating the "journey" of a prayer, from the abyss upward to the highest height, so does the music in this movement cruise from the lowest range all the way up to the top octaves of the instrument.
The Hebrew word "Akëda" means "binding" or "sacrificial offering" as the binding of the sacrifice in the story of Abraham and Isaac: "..., and Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, upon the wood." (Genesis, 22,9.) The prayer of "El Maleh Rakhamim" appears in several different versions. The version used for "Akëda" is the one specifically chanted during "Yom Hashoah" in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.