Hey Harmonika and Mayim, Mayim are dance songs from Israel. In Hey Harmonika the singer is recalling nostalgically the exciting dances of the good old days in Galilee. Mayim, Mayim is an exuberant reinterpretation of an ancient Biblical text. Isaiah’s prophecy of the triumphant return to God in the “days to come” has become a modern hymn to the miracle of water making the desert bloom and reviving a desolate land and its people.
Both of these songs are forms of the Horah, a dance which was brought to Israel by immigrants from Romania one hundred years ago. Although now associated with the Middle East, this circle dance, with its characteristic syncopated rhythm, has its origins in Eastern Europe.