Oh Chanukah

Oh Chanukah (also Chanukah, Oh Chanukah) is an English version of the Yiddish Oy Chanukah (Yiddish: חנוכּה אױ חנוכּה Khanike Oy Khanike‎). The English words, while not a translation, are roughly based on the Yiddish. "Oy Chanukah" is a traditional Yiddish Chanukah song. "Oh Chanukah" is a very popular modern English Chanukah song. This upbeat playful children's song has lines about dancing the Horah, Spinning Dreidels, or Shining Tops. eating latkes, lighting the candles and singing happy songs.

According to archives at the University of Pennsylvania Library, "Freedman Jewish Music Archive", alternate names the Yiddish version of song has been recorded under include "Khanike Days,"Khanike Khag Yafe", "Khanike Li Yesh", "Latke Song (Khanike Oy Khanike)", "Yemi Khanike", and "Chanike Oy Chanike." Chanukah is and was sometimes written as Khanike as that was the standard transliteration from Yiddish according to the YIVO system.

The Society for Jewish Folk Music in St. Petersburg published two classical compositions which make extensive use of this tune:

There is no formal connection between Achron's work and Kopyt's, except for the shared tune. According to the musicologist Paula Eisenstein Baker, who published the first critical edition of Leo Zeitlin's chamber music (2008), Zeitlin wrote an orchestral version of Kopyt's piano piece sometime before June 13, 1913 (Zeitlin conducted it four times that summer) and later included this orchestral version in his overture "Palestina." Joachim Stutschewsky elaborated on Kopyt's piece in a work for cello and piano called "Freylekhs: Improvisation" (1934).

The works by Kopyt, Achron, and Stutschewsky share two distinct melodies: the one that later became "Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah" and an arpeggiated tune. In all three pieces, this arpeggiated melody comes first, followed by "Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah." However, both tunes are written together as one single melody at the top of Achron's score, and the structure of these compositions suggest that the two melodies were in fact a single one. The arpeggiated tune does not feel introductory, and it returns several times throughout Achron's work. If they were one tune and not two, then we have an interesting question: Why did only half the tune get lyrics?

(Oh), Hanukah, Oh Hanukah
Come light the menorah
Let's have a party
We'll all dance the horah
Gather 'round the table, we'll give you a treat
Dreidels (or "sevivon") to play with, and latkes (or "levivot") to eat

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Wikipedia