The Maccabeats Provide Rich Hebrew Harmonies on Voices From the Heights

Last year, I became aware of the Maccabeats, the Jewish a cappella group from Yeshiva University that created the YouTube sensation Candlelight, a tribute to Hanukkah to the tune of the Taio Cruz song Dynamite. Months later, I enjoyed their second holiday video, this time an homage to Purim set to Pink’s Raise Your Glass, but it wasn’t until this fall that I discovered that the group had recorded an entire album.

Given my love of harmony and my fascination with Judaism, to say nothing of how impressed I was with the two songs of theirs that I had already heard, I wanted to hear more than the few quick samples that were freely available, so I decided to download Voices From the Heights, the 12-track album this 14-member men’s group released in early 2010. Featuring the vocal talents of Chanina Abramowitz, David Block, Michael Greenberg, Noey Jacobson, Josh Jay, Nachum Joel, Ari Lewis, Mordy Prus, Jeff Ritholtz, Buri Rosenberg, Meir Shapiro and Yonatan Shefa under the direction of Julian Horowitz and Immanuel Shalev, the album includes a mix of sacred, traditional and pop music.

Despite the amount of time I spend on the computer, CD is still the format I tend to prefer for my music, so I haven’t mastered the ins and outs of MP3s yet. Hence, it’s possible I missed something, but as far as I can tell, buying this album does not entitle the downloader to any sort of information about the album beyond the track list. Lyrics, explanations of songs and names of the performers are all absent, and I had to do quite a bit of searching to sniff some of these out. I’m not sure if it’s any different with the physical copies of the CD, which don’t seem to be available at this time, but a little something in the way of album notes would have been nice here, especially since nine of the 12 songs are sung in Hebrew.

I’m only complaining, though, because these songs are so gorgeously done and it would be nice to have a more solid idea of what they are saying. While the Hanukkah and Purim songs have a contemporary and light-hearted feel to them, especially when the videos are factored in, nothing on this album has a comical edge to it. However, there is some variation in tone and style, with some songs feeling somber and others upbeat. Hebrew is a beautiful language, and when I listen to most of the songs here it makes me want to become more familiar with it. I can’t see myself singing along anytime soon, but the intricate arrangements certainly are a delight for the ears.

It’s a nice gesture to folks like me who don’t understand Hebrew that three of the songs are in plain old English. One of these is the closing track, One Day, originally performed by Matisyahu, a Hasidic reggae singer who conceived it as an anthem of hope and peace. It makes a very optimistic way to end the album as they sing, with just a hint of Jamaican accents, of their desire for harmony and joy among people. A very altruistic song. Countering the buoyant feeling of this track is the venting of Daniel Powter’s Bad Day, which became a mega-hit in part because it was used to accompany the departures of American Idol contestants during the show’s fifth season. This one has a more melancholy edge to it, but it’s still incredibly catchy with lots of doo-woppy back-up.

My favorite of the English tracks, however, is Go the Distance. While I enjoyed the late 1990s Disney animated feature Hercules well enough, this song was the only moment in the movie that I absolutely loved. I just found the music gorgeous and the sentiment stirring. This song has a very different feel than the others on the album because it feels like we are getting the plaintive personality of an individual, whereas the rest of the tracks seem to reflect more of a group mentality. That’s not to say that the soloist doesn’t have a rich wall of back-up here, but his expressive tone and the slight liberties he takes with the melody make this really feel like his song, which takes on interesting layers in this specifically Jewish context.

Two of the Hebrew songs sounded familiar to me despite my inability to understand the words. I assumed at first that Lecha Dodi was simply a Hebrew translation of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, but I discovered that the lyrics are actually an ancient Sabbath prayer composed in the 1500s by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz. The song feels fervent and reverent as the voices build on each other, weaving poignant harmonies revealing depths of passion. The next track, HaMalach HaGoel, begins with a brief but beautiful prayer set to Brahms Lullaby, after which it shifts to a completely different melody, one of the loveliest on the album.

Among the remaining tracks, my favorite is probably the lament Arim Roshi. You don’t need to understand what they’re saying to get the gist of this plea for divine aid conveying the general idea of Psalm 121: “I lift up my eyes unto the hills; from whence cometh my help?” As soon as I heard this, the melody reminded me of Michael Card’s My Help, which covers similar territory, so I wasn’t surprised to see the English translation. It seems that he must have been drawing from traditional sources in its composition. This track feels like a chant by a choir of those in desperation. Slightly shivery and simply gorgeous.

The other tracks include peppy opener Ma Rabu; cheerful song of praise Arim Roshi; Oseh Shalom, a prayer for peace that tests the upper range of the leading vocalist; the interestingly paired Shaleshudis Medley; Ma Avarech, which begins like a benediction and ends like an elegy; and Israel’s national anthem, HaTikva.

This album has a different feel to it than the viral videos for which they are famous, but the tight harmonies and overall musical excellence are the same. If you love a cappella music, give the Maccabeats a try. You don’t need to understand Hebrew to appreciate the artistry of these songs.