In the days when Israeli schools still had singing lessons, people used to tell the following joke: A boy shows his father a report card indicating that he has failed all of his subjects except singing, in which he got an A. The father, as is the custom of the times, slaps the boy across the face. When the son wonders why, the angry father replies: "With grades like that, you dare to sing?"

With that joke in mind, it might be argued that in these difficult times in our society, Israeli music and songs are enjoying an unprecedented flourishing; unlike the father, however, we should be pleased. In today's Israel it is possible to listen to Hebrew songs, to sing them and to dance to them via dozens of radio stations (not to mention hundreds of Web sites), which play thousands of original songs every day. Performances of these songs can also be seen on television, on a special channel devoted to local music. In keeping with this trend, two recently published books on the history of the Hebrew song offer aficionados of local songwriting an interesting historical- musical duet.

The two books are very different from one another. While Natan Shahar's book is an album, published in an especially large and handsome format and containing many photographs, Eliram's is primarily an academic study. Nevertheless, they have something in common: Both authors regard Hebrew songs with appreciation and even love, considering them an important component in the historical development of Hebrew culture.

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Shahar's book offers some interesting discoveries, such as the fact that from the emergence of Hebrew songwriting in Eretz Israel in the late 19th century and until the end of the 20th century, 155,000 Hebrew songs have been written. Shahar divides the history of the Hebrew song into five periods: The first overlaps with the First Aliyah, or wave of immigration (1882-1903); the second, lasting some 20 years (1904-1923), parallels the Second and Third Aliyot; the third encompasses most of the British Mandate period (1924-1948); and the last two, within the years of Israeli statehood, with the 1967 Six-Day War as the dividing line between them.

Too complicated

For each period, Shahar describes the typical songwriters, groups, styles and musical developments in their historical context: the emergence of the Yishuv (pre-state Jewish community); the establishment of the state; various successes, failures and crises; and, of course, quite a few wars. Shahar also uses thematic cross-sections, focusing on military songs and bands, children's songs, songs for holidays and special events, Mizrahi songs, folk-style singing groups, the place and influence of Russian songs, and songbooks over the decades.

At times it seems as though Shahar makes things unnecessarily complicated for himself. For example, in trying to define the Israeli song, he distinguishes it from the "Eretz-Israeli song" - the latter being "Hebrew lyrics set to music that was composed in Eretz Israel before December 31, 1948, with the composer known by name," while an "Israeli song" is "lyrics set to music that was composed in Israel after December 31, 1948, with the composer known." Why does he choose this date, the end of 1948, and not the day of the state's establishment in May 1948? This is unclear.

This book is packed full of details about hundreds of artists and thousands of songs from the enormous repertoire that has accumulated here in over a century. However, in some places the information is sadly inaccurate. Thus, for example, in presenting the Second Aliyah period, Shahar expresses an opinion long abandoned by scholars: namely, that only the pioneer-laborers of the day are worthy of being considered part of this immigration wave. And what about the early settlers of Tel Aviv, the founders of the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design and the Gymnasia Herzliya high school, or those of the immigrants who went to live in the moshavot (veteran agricultural settlements)?

As for the songs, here, too, there are some annoying mistakes. A few examples: A colloquial version of the well-known "Ma yafim haleilot b'kna'an" ("How Lovely are the Nights in Canaan") is cited, comprised of lyrics by different poets, including Bialik, and bears no resemblance to the original song by Yitzhak Katzenelson; Naomi Shemer, surely Israel's premier songwriter, does not need to be given credit for songs that were not hers, such as "Carnival banahal" ("Carnival in the Nahal"), by Yair Rosenblum (music) and Leah Naor (lyrics); and the best-known song of the 1948 Independence War, "Bab el-Wad," was written by Haim Gouri and not by Haim Hefer. The book also seems to ignore other scholars that have studied this subject and published books, pamphlets and articles about it (foremost among them Eliyahu Hacohen, the "high priest" of scholarship on the history of Hebrew songs).

'Israeli phenomenon'

Eliram's book divides the history of Hebrew-Israeli songs into three periods: the early period, from the first days of Jewish settlement (late 19th century) to 1963, when the era of the founding generations culminated in the advent of the Hatarnegolim group; the interim period (1964-1980), during which rock music arrived in the country; and the new period, from the early 1980s on, which saw both the development of pop and rock, including ethnic rock, which assumed a Mediterranean/Mizrahi flavor, and the nostalgic return to the old repertoire of public singalongs that led to a flourishing of singing clubs and public events. Radio and television, Eliram notes, had and still have a great influence on the development of this genre.

Eliram explored in her study which Hebrew or Eretz-Israeli songs are most popular at the singing soirees, and recruits a range of artists and scholars to expound on this question. Ariel Hirschfeld, for example, has written: "The song in its heroic period, from the 1930s to the 1960s, grew into a medium combining distinctly artistic literary and musical endeavors ... for a popular, communal performance whose definition centers on the experience of togetherness." Gil Aldema called the songs of Eretz Israel "Hebrew songs that are sung together"; according to Eliyahu Hacohen, "The corpus of songs that might be referred to as the Eretz-Israeli songs is the sum of all the songs that have been preserved and withstood the sieve of time, and from generation to generation have moved out of the songbooks and into the throats." Poet Nathan Yonathan, meanwhile, believes that "the Hebrew song is the added spirit of our existence in this country." Many of the people Eliram interviewed regard Naomi Shemer's work as the definitive example of the songs of Eretz Israel.

Eliram also addresses the issue of Mizrahi music (with origins in the Jewish cultures of Middle Eastern countries) and wonders: Are Mizrahi songs Eretz Israeli songs? No, she says. In her opinion, "it might be said that songs considered Mizrahi, or Mizrahi-Mediterranean, are rarely included in the corpus of the Eretz-Israeli songs. At public singing events, these songs are not considered compatible with the genre, with the exception of a handful that have entered the corpus." To support her claim, she cites two surveys in which the public was asked to pick the most popular Hebrew song; The surveys were conducted on the 40th and 50th anniversaries of Israel's establishment. There were almost no Mizrahi songs in the top 30 spots of either survey, although participation in the surveys was open to the entire Israeli public, in all its social strata and ethnic groups, and even though many Mizrahi songs were included in the list of proposed songs ranked by the participants.

Eliram devotes considerable attention to a unique phenomenon: public singalongs. She quotes Effi Netzer, a composer and host of such events: "This is an Israeli phenomenon. Nowhere else in the world do people come and pay money for the sole purpose of singing in public. It simply does not exist." Over the years a great many singing clubs have materialized and taken a central role in the local culture, along with folk-dancing events (which also rely on the songs of Eretz Israel).

The author also examined the repertoire of these public gatherings and reached some interesting conclusions. Not surprisingly, Naomi Shemer heads the list, as both songwriter and composer, far ahead of all others. In the lyrics department she is followed by Haim Hefer, Yoram Taharlev and Nathan Alterman (in that order); not far behind them are Jacob Orland, Nathan Yonathan, Ehud Manor and Rachel Shapira. As for prominent composers, after Shemer we find Nurit Hirsh, Alexander (Sasha) Argov, Moshe Wilensky and Mordechai Zeira. Also popular, though less so, are tunes by Uzi Hitman, Nachum Heiman and Yair Rosenblum.

Both books touch on an important side of Israeli culture and existence. We do not always sense how deeply we are imbued with songs, until they burst out of our mouths, as if by themselves. Yaakov (Yankele) Rotblit said it best in his song "Zemer shekazeh" ("Such a Song"), sung to music by Nurit Hirsh, which goes something like this: "Such a song, plays across the lips / like three drums / pounds in the chest, / and does not let you rest / during the siesta / the entire street then whistles such a song."

Dr. Mordechai Naor's book "Hatur hashmini: masa histori be'ikvot haturim ha'actualim shel Natan Alterman" ("The Eighth Column: A Historical Journey to the Current Affairs Columns of Nathan Alterman") was published by Hakibbutz Hameuchad and Tel Aviv University Press.