The Dayyenu Tune

[margavriel]

For some time now, I’ve been wondering what the origin is of the tune for Dayyenu that is now used almost universally. My father once heard a friend say that they had seen in some article that “the Dayyenu tune is over 1,000 years old”, but this is obviously ignorance and folly. The tune sounds quite 20th century - hardly likely - late 19th century

Comments

[lipman_]

Idelsohn has it! Interesting. I suppose there's no further information there, is there?

[margavriel]

As I stated above in the post:

"On the page, Idelsohn provides no further information about the tune’s origin, and he does not seem to have anything about it in the introduction. And yet - [t]here was something interesting. [... F]or this tune, unlike for most others in the book, the words are transcribed not in any form of Ashkenazic Hebrew, but in Zionist, Sephardified Hebrew."

[lipman_]

Yes. I suppose there's no further information to be found by you.

[margavriel]

You mean in this specific volume by Idelsohn, or at all?

[jonbaker]

day day yenu - we often joke at the seder about pronouncing a curse on the ancient Japanese: die die Ainu. Although it makes some linguistic sense, since the root word is day, not da, so the first sillable is day. It's not "this is our wine" (da yeinu)