Why this tune?
For this week’s tune, I’m, going back to my ongoing Torah Tunes project with a song for this week’s portion, Beha’alotcha (בְּהַעֲלֹֽתְךָ֙). The song was inspired by the story of the Israelites’ journey through the desert starting in Numbers 9. The lyrics reference the cloud that covered the Tabernacle during the night. When the cloud lifted in the morning, this was a signal that the people could continue their journey until, as the song says, “the cloud commands us to sleep.” I added a reference to the silver trumpets (10:2) they crafted to communicate with a people on the move.
This song is a musical experiment, an attempt to build a song with many fewer words than I usually write. I’m playing with different rhythms and melodies over the steady marching pattern, focusing on sound and rhythm as much as the meaning of the lyrics.