AVI AVI

---

AVI AVI (Heb. אָבִי אָבִי; "My father, My father"), refrain of "Bore ad anna," kinah by a certain Benjamin sung on the Ninth of *Av in the Sephardi rite. The fifth verse of the original version makes a derogatory reference to the Trinity, and was modified in some western communities. The tune, though substantially the same from Aleppo to London, exhibits interesting local variations. The European-Sephardi style is illustrated best by the Bayonne version: most of the typical Sephardi characteristics disappeared, however, in the London variant. The Oriental versions are in the maqām Bayāt-Nawā and combine the melodic phrases at random to form a typical Eastern "endless melody." In some communities the hymn is sung in *Ladino under the title "La paloma" ("The Dove").

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

M.J. Benharoche-Baralia, Chants hébraiques traditionnels … de Bayonne (1961), 98–99, no. 131; E. Aguilar and D.A. de Sola, Sephardi Melodies (1931), 53, no. 59; Idelsohn, Melodien, 4 (1923), 168, no. 135; 179, no. 177.

[Hanoch Avenary]