What’s distinctive about Ron Jeffers is that he’s a living composer who has produced a significant amount of original music and arrangements, all for sale as sheet music from various outlets including his own company, Earthsongs, and whose music is performed quite frequently if YouTube is anything to go by, and yet . . . he has no online presence whatsoever. No personal website. No blog, No (worst of all) Wikipedia entry! How is this possible? In fact, if I hadn’t looked under “Ronald Jeffers” instead of either “Ron Jeffers” or “Ronald Harrison Jeffers,” I wouldn’t have gotten much information beyond his date and place of birth and a list of his publications.
But no matter. Perhaps such reticence is refreshing in a time when all is revealed, all the time. I got quite tickled at the entry for him that I finally tracked down on the website of Oregon State University, where he is a professor emeritus in the music department. There is a brief bio for him, but the e-mail contact link doesn’t work, the “media” tab produces the message “I currently have no images uploaded,” and he doesn’t even list his publications. There is a photo of him as a rather distinguished-looked bearded gentleman (he was born in 1943), and that’s it. I’m including the picture even though it’s a little blurry. Self-promoting he is not.
By looking at his music company and his books, though, we can get a pretty good idea of what he’s about:
1. He’s interested in text and not just music. So, his main published work beside his music is a four-volume series titled Translations and Annotations of Choral Repertoire, in which he gives word-by-word translations of works in Latin, German, French and Italian, and, most relevant for our selection, Hebrew.
2. He’s interested in the diversity of music, as evidenced in the motto of Earthsongs: “One world – many voices.” The company even sells pronunciation guides and CD’s for fifty-nine different languages. Makes the three non-English languages we’re singing in this concert seem pretty paltry!
But what of our actual selection? Jeffers has taken the three traditional blessings that are sung for the eight nights of Hanukkah and put them in a haunting, minor-keyed setting. Each verse begins with the words “Baruch Atah, Adonai Elohenu, Melech haolam” (“Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the World”) and then goes on to list a blessing God has given: He has sanctified His people by His commandments, performed miracles for them, and allowed them to reach the present. Since Jeffers has provided his signature literal translation on the cover, we know that the last line means “and who has allowed us to reach season this.” In other words, God’s work is ongoing. That last word, with the basses hitting their dramatic low note, says “this:” this time, this place, this situation. This is what He has given.
Additional note: In doing some revisions to this post I ran across Jeffers’ obituary notice. He died in August 2017 after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease.
Here’s a crystal-clear performance with a small group and a sadly small number of views:
Here are the lyrics with a translation, a more reader-friendly one than Jeffers’, whose material I no longer have available:
| Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha’olam, asher kid’shanu b’mitzvotav, v’tzivanu l’hadlik ner shel Hanukkah. | Blessed are you Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who has made us holy through God’s commandments, and commanded us to light the Hanukkah candles. |
| Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha’olam, She’ahsa neesim la’avotaynu bayamim haheim baz’man hazeh. | Blessed are you Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who performed wonders for our ancestors in history at this very time of year. |
| Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melekh ha’olam, shehekheyanu v’kiy’manu v’higiyanu laz’man hazeh. | Blessed are you Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who gave us life, sustains us, and enabled us to reach this season. |
Source: “Hanukkah Blessings”–website is no longer available.
©Debi Simons
