14. Wanevāvo

Due to its character and content, this piece is close to one of those for Shavuot in our selection (e.g. Hāle luya wanevāvo). The melody for the present prayer is for Ber’hān Sarāqa and for the New Moon. The beginning conveys formulations that are close to the legislative portions about the holiday in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but also in Exodus. As noted, the framework acts as a standard introduction to any prescriptive text for holydays of the Beta Israel liturgy followed by Psalm 81:4-5. They come together with a statement that aims at giving an eternal character to any commandment. God is saintly and kind with those who listen to Him. The prayer ends by praising God and quoting from Psalm 33.

This piece contains two sections based on the same melodic formula, which provides a good illustration of the organization of form in the liturgical music of the Beta Israel.

The music of the entire piece is contained in the soloist’s first enunciation. The formula (A) contains two motifs (a and b), both gravitate around the same note. The first section is antiphonal: the soloist’s formulation (A=a-b) is repeated by the choir (A=a-b). The second section is in the hemiola pattern; it contains the same motifs but they are distributed differently than in the first one: