Transcript:

PIZMON -- Marriage SongHere's a program from our archives.Music: Malekh Rahaman For a group of Jews with ancestral ties to Syria, this song of celebration, called a Pizmon, links the cycles of human life -- birth, coming of age, professional achievement and marriage-- to an ancient religious tradition.I'm Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.The song we're listening to was composed over a century ago by a famous Pizmon poet for one of his favorite pupils, in honor of the young man's marriage. The Hebrew words mean, in part: Accept what I offer when I sing/ Before the bridegroom with his pleasing bride/ A helpmate has come for him/ May he rejoice with her continually/ The bride of Moses, the daughter of Jacob, a man of integrity. "I think that these songs, in a sense, shape the lives that they're part of. They both reflect the cycles and give the cycles themselves depth and meaning. And they literally travel with other traditions that mark off the day." Kay Kaufman Shelemay is a Professor of Music and a Chair of the Department of Music at Harvard University. "One eats Syrian food; one sings Syrian songs. One speaks Syrian language. And one lives within a community in which all of these things have meaning in the course of everyday life. In many cases these songs sing about a past that no longer exists but they also are very much a part of a present day reality. They are a very real part of a living tradition and a living life cycle." We've been listening to a program from our archives. Check out our website, pulseplanet.com for a link to my latest project - a novel. I'm Jim Metzner and this is the Pulse of the Planet.