Halikha LeKeisarya, poem by Hannah Senesh

biographical data, historical context, analysis and presentation of an unpublished musical work composed about the poem

Abstract

This study deals with the poem הליכה לקיסריה - Halikha LeKeisarya (Walk to Caesarea) by Hannah Senesh (1921-1944), a Jewish poetess born in Hungary, whose life was ended in 1944, aged 23, by firing squad, during World War II. Her work, after the end of that war, received the attention of specialized critics, who revealed her diaries, poems and letters to the world. Due to the expressiveness of the poetic text of A Walk to Caesarea, a song was conceived based on the jewish scale, historically used by the Jews in prayers set to music, especially for the presentation of this article. As a methodology, the authors used information about the poetess available in books and internet sites, especially the publication in Portuguese of the book Hannah Senesh – diários, poesias e cartas (2011), organized by Frida Milgrom (1959), as well as the Grove Dictionary of Music (1994), the book Expressão e Comunicação na Linguagem da Música (1989) by Sergio Magnani (1914-2001) and the work by Bohumil Med (1939), Teoria da Música (1996). Thus, data on Hanna Senesh, on the Art song as a historical factor in the social development of the context in which this genre is composed, on the creation and structural organization of a Brazilian Art song conceived for the realization of this study constitute the corpus of this article. The text is completed by the presentation of the score of the referred Art song, conceived from the Jewish scale, together with its performance, whose access is possible through QR Code. The main objective of this study is to value the name and work of Hanna Senesh, who continues to inspire, even after her death, respect for her work, including the creation of musical works based on her poetry, thus confirming the importance of his literary production as an emotional vehicle for generations after the time in which she lived.