With the rise of Islam and the expanding Arab conquests throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Spain, the vast majority of the Jews of Antiquity found themselves living in lands where Arab culture and language predominated over all local traditions. Jews of these lands absorbed, integrated...
A project by Edwin Seroussi and Sarah Ross
This project aims to map, analyze and make German Jewish liturgical music (minhag Ashkenaz) accessible to the scholarly community and to the public at large. The historical period under investigation dates from the early 19th century up to World War...
The Jewish Music Research Centre and the Jewish Music Collections at the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Kyiv: An Historical Record
By Edwin Seroussi (September 2021)
Jewish Music Collections of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine in Kyiv, aka the “Beregovski Collection...
Reading Esther Warkov's groundbreaking PhD thesis from the 1980s.
In 1979 Esther Warkov, a young American PhD student in ethnomusicology, came to Israel to study the music of first-generation Jewish immigrants from Iraq. From 1979 to 1981 Warkov worked under the direction of Prof. Amnon...
The dramatic immigration of the Ethiopian Jews from their country of origin to Israel in the 1980’s and 1990’s has moved the hearts of people all around the world. Upon the initiative of the JMRC, a joint French and Israeli research team was set up in 1985 to document in detail the liturgy of the...
“From Berlin to Jerusalem and Back - The Letters of German-Jewish Musicologist Edith Gerson Kiwi (1908-1992),” is a joint venture of the Europäisches Zentrum für Jüdische Musik (Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover, Germany) and the Jewish Music Research Centre (Hebrew University of...
A.Z. Idelsohn in Jerusalem, center with glasses. Surrounding him are likely some of his musical informants. David Yellin is seated in the foreground. Exact date of photograph unknown
Is music intrinsically political? The best-known Jewish song in the world is “Hava Nagila” (“Come, let us...
On March 15, 1899, the distinguished scholar, cantor, composer and avid manuscript collector Eduard Birnbaum of Königsberg published a short article modestly titled “Unsere erste Musikbeilage” (“Our first musical supplement”) in Israelitischer Lehrer und Kantor, an insert of the Berlin-based...
- 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.