Mi-qolot Mayim - composer unknown

from Friday Night with the Cambridge Egalitarian Minyan by Gal Chadash (the Cambridge Egalitarian Minyan)

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Psalm 93 is the close of the Qabbalat Shabbat service. This Ashkenazi tune is a beautifully reflective way to wrap up the heady poetry of receiving/accepting shabbat into us, before the focused prose (also beautiful) of Ma'ariv begins, with a call to bless God together (next track).

Please let us know if you know the composer.

In our services this perspective-giving verse emerges in song from within the Psalm, with music that calmly acknowledges God's ultimate supremacy. The rhythmic patterns are like waves on the water. The first part, enacts the 'voices of many waters', the 'ocean-breakers'. It pulses softly, repeating words that aren't repeated in the Psalm text, emphasising the MMM in the words, especially '-im' at word-ends. Its four melodic phrases rock gently back and forth just as the natural world is perceived to be in dynamic homeostasis - swaying yet not holding sway... The melody for the 'high and mighty' second part is higher (and mightier); the downwards motion within its four phrases, and from one to the next, is reminiscent of a crashing God-wave that dwarfs the changeless to-and-fro of the sea in the first part.

Though you wouldn't know from this track (except at one point), it helps if somebody in the congregation gives an impulse on those strong beats where the tune is at rest (as heard in some cases on this track). The urge to have this is greatest at the beginning of the second part of the song, as physical impetus for each expression of God's might above the waves; some like to give the impulse as a crashing sound, others as a sung note.

lyrics

Psalms (Tehillim) 93, verse 4

Hebrew text:

{ Mi-qolot MayiM rabbiM, adiriM Mishberei-yaM; adir, ba-MaroM Adonai }

Translation following the Hebrew word order and traditional punctuation:

{ Than the sounds of waters numerous, mighty, breakers-of-ocean /
Mightier is high-borne Adonai }

With the word repetitions in the song:

{ Than the sounds of waters ... waters numerous ... mighty mighty ... breakers-of-ocean

!! Mightier is high-borne ... !! Mightier is high-borne ... !! Mightier is high-borne Adonai }

credits

from Friday Night with the Cambridge Egalitarian Minyan, released April 1, 2010

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Gal Chadash Cambridge, UK

EgalMin is an inclusive, informal and active community which is famous for its alternative, egalitarian Kabbalat Shabbat services. Being a part of EgalMin means being part of a community which takes great joy in prayer and challenges itself to engage in learning, whilst also providing a social hub for its members and continuing to be an active part of the wider JSoc community. ... more