https://youtu.be/KPbau_F91IERa'u Banim Et GeburatoThis setting for 'Ra'u Banim' was composed by Emile Jonas (1827-1905) during his long tenure as the choirmaster of the Portuguese Synagogue in Paris. A composer with more than 15 operatic works to his credit, including a collaboration with Georges Bizet, he also found time to be the musical director of the French Imperial Guard. His operatic and military music backgrounds are clearly evident in this composition which became widely known, not only amongst French Sephardim, but also - thanks to the Alliance Israélite Universelle - in communities throughout North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. In the early 1970's, over a 100 years after it had been written, this piece - slightly modified - became part of the repertoire of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation of London. Its introduction, at the initiative of Hazzan Eliezer Abinun, would have been no trifling matter as it represented a departure from life, as the community knew it, in two respects: 1. It was a new and unknown melody. 2. It was applied to a text that had not previously been set to any formal composition. Notwithstanding its successful integration into the London minhag, this 'show-stopping' piece has yet to make landfall in the S&P enclaves of either the Netherlands or the United States. This should be rectified, particularly in New York, where it would make a resplendent choral addition to what surely is one of the most admired Friday night services anywhere in the world. And where, appropriately, it would find itself in the company of another sublime composition of Parisian provenance, Naumburg's 'Veshameru'. What say you? Please like and share.For an mp3 of this recording please visit my website, where there are over 70 selections available for downloading.http://danielhalfon.com/multitrack-recordings/