What are the best Jewish songs and tunes for weddings?
My band Mappamundi (it means “Map of the World”) has played at many Jewish weddings since 1994 and I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite music for preludes, ceremonies, and receptions. There are many kinds of Jewish music. The most popular for marriages are: 1. From Israel, songs in Hebrew, “folksongs” written since the birth of the modern nation. Also there are many popular Israeli folkdances and somebody is guaranteed to run forward and start the dance when the music strikes up… “Hava Nagila” is the most common example and no wedding is complete without the circle dance called the hora. 2. From Eastern Europe, songs in Yiddish and klezmer tunes, slow and fast. Often the chair dance (when bride and groom are lifted on chairs, sometimes holding two corners of a handkerchief, sometimes each with a handkerchief) is done to a freylekh. 3. In recent years, we have had more marrying couples requesting Sephardic songs, usually sung in Ladino (a medieval Jewish language derived f
