Hanukkah songs for choir, in four parts

Hanukkah begins at sundown on Friday 4 December 2026 and runs for eight nights, to nightfall on Saturday 12 December; since the first night is a Friday, the Hanukkah lights are lit before the Shabbat candles. If your choir, your community or your family wants to sing in harmony by the first candle, there's time: three weeks is plenty for two songs, even for singers who don't read music. This guide gives you the songs, every part to learn by ear, and a plan.

The two songs

Maoz Tzur ("Rock of Ages") is the Hanukkah hymn. Its Hebrew words are a medieval poem whose first five stanzas begin with the letters of the name Mordecai, the poet's signature, and its tune has been traced to an old German folk song, though scholars disagree on how old the tune is. Our four parts are built on the harmony A. Z. Idelsohn printed in his songbook of 1911 or 1912. It's a good first harmony song: steady, singable, and many in the room will already know it. Learn it here: all four parts, or straight to the soprano, alto, tenor or bass.

Oy Chanukah is the bright one, in Yiddish: a Hasidic tune with words by Mordkhe Rivesman, printed in Susman Kisselgof's songbook for Jewish schools and families of 1911 and 1912, arranged by Pesach Lvov. Our four parts keep the two upper voices printed under Lvov's name. It moves faster, so give it a little more time. Learn it here: all four parts, or the soprano, alto, tenor or bass.

Both are on our Jewish songs page, with songs for Passover and Shabbat.

Why only these two

Every song here comes from a printing old enough to be free for everyone to sing, share and arrange. Some favourites, like I Have a Little Dreidel, Sevivon and Mi Yimalel, are newer, and their words or tunes are still under copyright in much of the world, so we've left them out rather than guess. If there's an older Hanukkah song you'd like in parts, write to us.

Three weeks to the first candle

• Week 1: the words and the tune. Everyone learns the tune first, whatever their part. Say the words in rhythm before you sing them: Hebrew in Maoz Tzur, Yiddish in Oy Chanukah. Each song's page has them.
• Week 2: your part. Each singer learns their own line, a phrase at a time.
• Week 3: together. Sing with the other parts, then with your part alone against them, until it holds.

1Learn the tune, whatever you sing

The tune is the soprano's line in both songs. Sing it until you could hum it in your sleep. Every other part makes sense against it, and when you lose your place, the tune is how you find it again.

2Hear your part on its own

Open your part's page and play it alone, following the words, two or three times before you sing. Then sing along quietly, one phrase at a time, adding the next phrase only when the last one is secure.

3Sing it with the others under it

Play every part with yours louder, then softer each time, until you're carrying it yourself. If the other parts keep pulling you onto the tune, there's a guide on exactly that: how to hold your part.

A note on the Hebrew

Neither song, as we sing it, uses a name of Hashem that's changed outside prayer: Maoz Tzur's verses speak to Hashem as "You", and Oy Chanukah is in Yiddish, where "Got" is sung as it is. On our other Hebrew songs, where the words name Hashem, we sing the substituted forms customary when singing outside prayer, as each song's page says.

After Hanukkah

The same page has songs for the Passover seder and for Shabbat, so a choir that learns these two has its next songs ready: Jewish songs, part by part.