Composer’s Note:

Yah Ribon is the first of three songs in composer Francine Tresters “Neshot Hayil” (Women of Valor). The cycle was commissioned by saxophonist Kenneth Radnofsky and is a piece based on Jewish texts that honor women. Violet Gilboa Radnofsky, curator of the Harvard Judaica Division at Harvard University Library, chose the three texts of “Neshot Hayil.” In the program notes from the premiere performance, Radnofsky writes: The first, Ya Ribon Olam, was written in Aramaic by Rabbi Yisrael Nagarah, a poet in Gaza, in 1628. It is sung on Shabbat. All three poems have been sung or chanted in prayers around the world by Jews (both Ashkenazim and Sephardim) from the time they were written and up through today.”