The most famous Odessa dance tune in the world: a klezmer freylekhs older than a hundred years, now carrying a new Russian poem. Performed by Riglis Band.
Ask anyone raised around Odessa, or around Russian-speaking Jewish life anywhere, to hum a Jewish dance, and there is a good chance it will be this one. Its name is a time: 7:40. Legend says it is the hour the first morning train pulled into Odessa, and the whole platform would break into this melody to meet it.
The tune came first, and it came without an author. It is a freylekhs, a fast circle dance played at every Jewish wedding and celebration, and for more than a century it has been the sound of a party getting started. What it never had, until now, were words that told a story.
Some songs describe a culture; a very few become its signature. 7-40 is the second kind. Three seconds of this melody and a listener is instantly inside Odessa: the markets, the sea, the jokes told with a shrug, the wedding where everyone dances whether they can dance or not.
It is also proof of how a melody can outlive every name attached to it. No one can tell you who first played 7-40, and it does not matter, because everyone can play it. That is the strange power of a folk tune: it belongs to no one because it belongs to all.
"7-40 is Odessa in one melody. Give it words and you hand a whole city to someone who has never been there."
- Walter J. Kin, on the project's approachThe melody is traditional Odessa klezmer, its composer unknown; the project’s arrangement of it is new. The Russian poem is an original work by Olga Anikina, written for the project, not a translation of any earlier text. Each new contribution is credited by name, because this encyclopedia believes authors should be remembered while it is still possible.
| Melody | Traditional Odessa klezmer (freylekhs), arranged by Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Russian poem | Olga Anikina (commissioned) |
| Performance | Riglis Band |
| Production | Walter J. Kin (RIGLI) |
| Project | Jewish Songs for All / JewishSong.org |
The project’s version is in Russian, with Olga Anikina’s poem, performed by Riglis Band. The full Russian text and a kids’ room for parents and teachers are on the Russian page.
You may watch, share, and enjoy this recording freely. For performances, recordings, film and media placements, and printed arrangements of the project's version, licensing is handled simply and respectfully by Rigli Publishing.
The project’s arrangement and the new Russian poem were created for RIGLI: the poem by Olga Anikina, the production by Walter J. Kin, Member of the Dramatists Guild of America, published by Rigli Publishing as part of JewishSong.org. The traditional Odessa melody belongs to the whole Jewish people.