The Music of the Jews (An Historical Appreciation)
Author
Originally published as Die Musik der Juden: Versuch einer geschichtlichen Darstellung ihrer Entwicklung (Zurich, 1951) and reprinted in 1960 and in 1975 (New York: A.S. Barnes) with a translation from German to English by H.S. Stevens. This book is a 'non technical' survey intended for laymen and is one of the earliest and most naïve post-Idelsohnian attempts to trace the entirety of Jewish music in a unileniar historical narrative.
Material Type:
Books
Year:
1953
Gibt es eine juedische Musik?
The unique musical style of Eastern-European Jewry
Author
Appeared also in Hungarian Liturgical Music II (1994-1995), 59-71.
Material Type:
Articles in Journals
Year:
1992
Modulation as an Integral Part of the Modal System in Jewish Music
Problems in the Study of Jewish Music
Author
Surveys problems in the research of Jewish music, from historical and methodological points of view, and suggests ways of improvement. It is an extract of the opening keynote address to the one of the most ecumenical congresses on Jewish music held after WWII. It delineates the future challenges of the field, with emphasis on the assembly of documentation. It does not problematize Jewish music but takes it for granted.
Material Type:
Articles in Books
Year:
1982
Samuel Adler
American composer, conductor, author, and professor
Samuel Adler was born in Mannheim, Germany (1928). His father was Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer. The family came to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts. There the young Samuel Adler displayed his musical talents at an early age. He became his father’s choir director when he was only thirteen and remained at that post until he began his university studies.
1928-
Ray Musiker
Clarinetist, Saxophonist, Educator and Composer
Born in 1927 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Ray is the fourth generation in a family of Klezmer musicians. As a child, Ray learned to play Klezmer dance music at Jewish weddings. His parents immigrants to America from Northern Russia. From his parents, Ray inhererited a love of Eastern European Jewish music from Russia, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
1927-
Kurt Weill
A German-born Jewish composer
1900- 1950
Akiva Zimmermann
Historian of Chazzanut, Journalist and Author
Akiva Zimmerman was born in 1936 in Tel Aviv. He attended the Shalva Gymnasium, enlisted in the Intelligence Corps. He would also serve in the military rabbinate. Akiva Zimmerman worked as a bank employee, while devoting all his spare time to the study of chazanut.
1936 - 2016
- A Polka Mazurka
- Niggun of the Meggid of Mezerich From the album, "The Hasidic Niggun as Sung by the Hasidim." This dance niggun is the seventh and last in a series of niggunim sung by Bratslav Hasidim as they dance after the Shabbat evening service on Friday night. Some have attributed the niggun to R. Dov Ber, the meggid of Mezerich.
- Kol B'ru'ei (Padua, Italy) From the album, "Italian Jewish Musical Traditions from the Leo Levi Collection (1954-1961)." The poem depicts "all creatures" singing and praising the unity of God, and was recited in the Italian rite during the daily morning prayer. This melody was sung only on Rosh Hashanah (New Year) in the Italian tradition of Padua.
- Yigdal From the album, "Judeo-Carribean Currents, Music of the Mikve Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Curaçao," performed by Gideon Zelermyer. The Yigdal is part of the ceremonial section of the liturgical order of Shabbat and the Holy Days in the Curaçao synagogue. It is one of the ending hymns of the service.
- Eres Chiquita y Bonita From the album, "Judeo-Spanish Moroccan Songs for the Life Cycle," sung by Alicia Bendayan from Tetuan. This is a song about courtship, related to the Jewish rituals that mark the events of the life cycle.
- Sweet Shalt Be My Chant From the album, "Kulmus Hanefesh," performed by Yair Harel on voice and tar, and Matti Kovler on voice and piano. A sacred hymn attributed to Rabbi Yehuda ha-Chasid, this is a Chabad tune with a near-Eastern arrangement.
- Lyr II From the album, "The Music of the Mountain Jews." Lyr is a genre found among all Turkish peoples, consisting of long, complex compositions usually comprised of three parts.
- Gilu ha-Galilim (Rejoice Galileans) From the album, "Nights in Canaan, Early Songs of the Land of Israel (1882-1946)." This is a Second Aliyah (1904-1914) song which became an integral part of the historical repertoire of Hebrew song. Both native-born and newly arrived pioneers sang this song in all circumstances.
- Saperi Tama From the album, "With Songs They Respond: The Diwan of the Jews from Central Yemen." This is a girdle poem by Se'adia ben Amram. Saperi Tama is sung to many melodies and is one of Yemenite Jewry's most common poems.