Four Yiddish Songs - One Melody

This article discusses four early modern Yiddish booklets containing songs that were to be sung to the same melody: one concerns the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670 (n.p., n.d.); the second describes two Jews who were executed for theft in Prostějov in 1684 and refused the offer to convert in return for a pardon (Wilmhersdorf 1684); the third depicts the effects of a plague epidemic on the Jewish community of Prague in 1713 (1st edition n.p., n.d., 2nd edition Amsterdam 1714); and the fourth (two editions, both n.p., n.d.) is a rhymed prayer, asking God to eliminate all misfortunes and evil decrees, including an ongoing plague epidemic, apparently composed in Prague in 1680. According to all four, the melody to be used when singing them was niggun akeda, a melody strongly associated with the Binding of Isaac (Gen. 22). It was originally used in the synagogue to accompany liturgical poems relating the biblical narrative and other cases of Jewish martyrdom. In addition to contextualizing the four texts within Yiddish literature, this article explores the relationship between text and melody in general, and the particular significance of niggun akeda.