So I hired a minibus and started to bring them after school to my home near Netanya to rehearse and learn new repertoire, most of which I wrote. After 10 years of the choir's existence, they remain Sheba's most requested numbers. Before writing them, Gronich recalls knowing little about the children's home lives and culture. He therefore supplied the children with tape recorders and asked them to bring examples of Ethiopian music from their homes. It does not even resemble African music which I know and love.
Ethiopian music is based on a five-note, pentatonic scale.
It is usually sung in unison in very high-pitched voices, with words articulated at lightning speed over the Arabic heartbeat of a drum. I immersed myself in it. Truthfully, it is not easy music for the Western ear to grasp. The words tell the story of large flocks of storks which migrate every year over Jerusalem and then pass over Ethiopia. These words, in the original Amharic, are incorporated into this happy song.