With Permission
The last-minute elimination of a song from Sliney Elementary School’s spring concert last week has dismayed a number of parents and children. It has also raised questions about why the choir director agreed to let one parent influence the fate of a song.
Songs from the musical “Sing!” were on the program, including the well-known “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen, but a day before the performance, “Hallelujah,” was pulled. According to a parent, who heard the news from her child, one parent objected to the song due to its religious content and based only on that parent’s objection, the school administration agreed to ban it. The children and some parents were told that it was school policy. These parents had different views.
Two different explanations were offered. According to the parent, the kids were told it was the decision of principal Mary Margaret Gethings. But, in a letter to parents, music teacher Ted Samodel said pulling the song was his decision, an adjustment in the program. He did not give specific reasons as to why he pulled a song he had been in charge of rehearsing for months. Nor did Samodel state if any religious issue was part of the decision.
In 2010, Samodel, then Branford High’s director of instrumental music, abruptly left his teaching position in the middle of the spring term, following an inquiry from the State Department of Children and Family Services (DCF) concerning disparaging remarks students say he has made for years. He was later re-instated and transferred to Sliney. Click here to read the story.
Hallelujah was first released in 1984. In commenting on the song, Cohen, who was Jewish and a Buddhist monk, said of the song’s meaning, “It explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value.”
Click here to listen to a performance of the original song by Pentatonix.
And here’s a clip from the film, “Sing!”
While the original song can be described as a love song in a relationship gone bad, the version performed in “Sing!” was adapted to portray a character who sings about making mistakes, then stands before the lord of “Song” to sing Hallelujah.
The parent said that many parents and children were very upset, and some kids came home crying after rehearsal. Several wrote letters to Gethings. The kids had been rehearsing the program since December.
In her detailed letter to Gethings, the parent cited district policy (6115.1), which states that no religious belief or non-belief will be promoted. It encourages all students and staff members to appreciate and tolerate each other’s religious beliefs and will use all opportunities to foster mutual understanding and respect. Students can be excused from participating in activities that are contrary to their religious beliefs.
The parent said that banning the song from the performance violated the policy “because it missed the opportunity to encourage appreciation and tolerance of religious belief.”
She added that the student did not have the opportunity to be excused from the single song and that parents and children did not have the opportunity for dialogue.
The parent also contacted Samodel, the Sliney music teacher leading the choir. He said in an email that the song was not banned, but rather he made an “adjustment in the program,” something he reiterated in a subsequent email. Both the parent and Samodel said that the students did an outstanding job with the concert.
Three other parents also signed a letter to Gethings, expressing their approval of the song. “Mr. Samodel and the kids worked hard on the song,” they wrote, “and it is a beautiful piece of music. Hallelujah is a Hebrew word meaning praise. It is a love song…. A message much needed in our schools these days.”
In a conversation, with the Eagle, Gethings maintained she was unaware of the parents’ displeasure and echoed Samodel’s statement that there was an adjustment in the program. She would not say why the song was pulled from the program.
Schools Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez said, “The teacher told the parent [that the program was changed] and the parent didn’t accept the answer.” He said that changes are made in curriculums “all the time… that happens sometimes. We support the teacher.”
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Biblical allusions aside, there is zero religious content in this song. If the parent in question objected to schoolchildren singing about orgasms, she might be on to something.
Despite the absurdity of this situation, Cohen devotees should rejoice at any measure to curtail the further bastardization of this masterpiece, as the man himself desired.