Skip to main content

Chad Gadya: Passover Chant

Various Artists
Chad Gadya: Passover Chant

The Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesach) commemorates and celebrates the exodus of the Jews from ancient Egypt. During the Passover meal, a traditional closing song is “Chad Gadya” (“One Young Goat,” often translated as “One Kid”), thought to have first appeared in print in 1590. Written in Aramaic (a close relative of ancient Hebrew), it has been sung not only in its original language but in the local vernacular, wherever Jews have lived.

Abraham Schwadron has collected recordings of unaccompanied singers rendering “Chad Gadya.” From his collection, he has selected twenty-five renditions in nine languages for this recording, representing a wide variety of tunes and musical styles.

The liner notes include the song’s history, a translation, and various allegorical explanations.

Track Listing

icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
101
Aramaic Abraham Schwadron 05:00
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
102
a) Aramaic, b) German, c) Yiddish, d) Yiddish e) Aramaic, f) Aramaic, g) Aramaic Leo Rosenblüth, Theodore Katz, Harry Abrams, Florence C. Lewis, Myer Fund, Moshe Moskovits, Ruth Rubin 09:17
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
103
a) Greek and Aramaic, b) Ladino, c) Aramaic, d) Ladino, e) Ladino Anonymous, Anonymous, Anonymous, Maurice Hasson, Morris Mizrahi 07:04
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
201
a) Russian, b) Judeo-Provençal Bluma Jarrick 03:36
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
202
a) Aramaic and Italian, b) Italian, c) Aramaic Fernando Belgrado, Colombo Vitaliano, Emanuele Weiss-Levi 04:08
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
203
a) Ladino, b) Ladino Isaac Behar and Edwin Seroussi 03:22
icon-circle-play svg-new-pause-button
204
a) Aramaic and Arabic, b) Aramaic, c) Aramaic, d) Aramaic and Ladino, e) Aramaic Solomon Benchetrit, Bracha Zion, Khakem Ezra Mordekhai, Haim Ha Cohen, Raphael Yair Elnadav 10:21