FROM THE EDITORS
Volume XXII includes studies of Jewish Music from around the world. Authors provide their insight and analysis on Jewish music in England, Algeria, Israel and America. In our effort to explore a range of Jewish music activities, this volume engages the reader in synagogue music practices in Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions as well as a discussion of biographies of Jewish musicians.
In her study “Prayer for the People: The Cultural Anthology of Progressive Anglo-Jewish Liturgical Song,” Rachel Adelstein documents recent practices. She contextualizes the practices she observes within the history of Anglo traditions in England referencing the main collections of liturgical music in England. Her approach focuses on looking at the repertoire that is sung at Progressive synagogues as an anthology of their history. Situating the practice of congregations as a multi-layered concept of “homelands,” Adelstein effectively decenters one particular locale noting the range of musical influences from Western Europe and America.
“Music-Accents Relations in Biblical Cantillation: The Tradition of Algiers” by Emmanuel Aïm focuses on the disjunctive accents that have syntactical pauses. Analyzing the Shabbat and weekday reading contexts, Aïm describes the underpinning of the fundamental aesthetic of the Algerian cantillation tradition. With limited prior scholarship on this topic, Aïm bases his work on recordings and published studies with musical transcriptions. The musical analysis of cantillation of several Torah readers in this study provides evidence that some accents (sof aliya, tarha and yetiv) vary due to their grammatical position. The qadmaaccent has a more significant function for Algerian Torah readers. The author notes that there are individual interpretations of accents within a common range. Aïm thus articulates the shortest melodic phrases for high level accents (I and II) will have limited to no embellishments with an increasing frequency of more ornate phrases with lower level accents (III and IV). Thus, Aïm shows a range of practice of Algerian cantillation with commonalities and individual interpretation.
“Arab Musical Culture in a Jewish Liturgy: the Arab Maqam as a Central Component in the Jerusalem-Sephardi Liturgy” by Essica Marks focuses on present day practices in Israel. Viewing various synagogues and individuals in Israel that are part of the Jerusalem-Sephardi tradition, a designation of a Sephardi-Mizrahi demographic in Israel, Marks focuses on a central musical element in prayer, Maqam [Arab modes]. She draws from work with Cantors Abraham Caspi and Ezra Barne’a. She describes the Maqamat [plural] used for Sabbath services and describes the interrelationships of Maqam to improvisation and modulation. Melodies sung in synagogue are drawn from popular Arab music throughout the Twentieth Century. Marks comments on how these close-knit communities maintain this practice.
“A Colloquy of Jewish Studies, Music, and Biography” by Lily E. Hirsch and Amy Lynn Wlodarski, is a written version from a session at the Jewish Studies and Music Panel held at the American Musicological Society Conference in Rochester, NY AMS Nov 9, 2017. Hirsch and Wlodarski serve as moderators and participants in a discussion of active and prolific musicologists: Howard Pollack, David Josephson, Evan Rapport and Ralph P. Locke. Each scholar views their research and that of others in a discussion of how their own position as Jews or non-Jews impacts the research of Jewish composers and musicians. Amy Beal provides concluding remarks reflecting on the new arenas of topics and approaches to uncover new insights.
This issue of Musica Judaica covers a range of topics and approaches and encourages our readers to learn new contexts of Jewish music. So too the book review section draws from a range of topics and scholars working in American, Europe and Israel. The book reviews published first appeared in Musica Judaica Online Reviews.
Arbie Orenstein and Mark Kligman
Volume XXII includes studies of Jewish Music from around the world. Authors provide their insight and analysis on Jewish music in England, Algeria, Israel and America. In our effort to explore a range of Jewish music activities, this volume engages the reader in synagogue music practices in Ashkenazi and Sephardi traditions as well as a discussion of biographies of Jewish musicians.
In her study “Prayer for the People: The Cultural Anthology of Progressive Anglo-Jewish Liturgical Song,” Rachel Adelstein documents recent practices. She contextualizes the practices she observes within the history of Anglo traditions in England referencing the main collections of liturgical music in England. Her approach focuses on looking at the repertoire that is sung at Progressive synagogues as an anthology of their history. Situating the practice of congregations as a multi-layered concept of “homelands,” Adelstein effectively decenters one particular locale noting the range of musical influences from Western Europe and America.
“Music-Accents Relations in Biblical Cantillation: The Tradition of Algiers” by Emmanuel Aïm focuses on the disjunctive accents that have syntactical pauses. Analyzing the Shabbat and weekday reading contexts, Aïm describes the underpinning of the fundamental aesthetic of the Algerian cantillation tradition. With limited prior scholarship on this topic, Aïm bases his work on recordings and published studies with musical transcriptions. The musical analysis of cantillation of several Torah readers in this study provides evidence that some accents (sof aliya, tarha and yetiv) vary due to their grammatical position. The qadmaaccent has a more significant function for Algerian Torah readers. The author notes that there are individual interpretations of accents within a common range. Aïm thus articulates the shortest melodic phrases for high level accents (I and II) will have limited to no embellishments with an increasing frequency of more ornate phrases with lower level accents (III and IV). Thus, Aïm shows a range of practice of Algerian cantillation with commonalities and individual interpretation.
“Arab Musical Culture in a Jewish Liturgy: the Arab Maqam as a Central Component in the Jerusalem-Sephardi Liturgy” by Essica Marks focuses on present day practices in Israel. Viewing various synagogues and individuals in Israel that are part of the Jerusalem-Sephardi tradition, a designation of a Sephardi-Mizrahi demographic in Israel, Marks focuses on a central musical element in prayer, Maqam [Arab modes]. She draws from work with Cantors Abraham Caspi and Ezra Barne’a. She describes the Maqamat [plural] used for Sabbath services and describes the interrelationships of Maqam to improvisation and modulation. Melodies sung in synagogue are drawn from popular Arab music throughout the Twentieth Century. Marks comments on how these close-knit communities maintain this practice.
“A Colloquy of Jewish Studies, Music, and Biography” by Lily E. Hirsch and Amy Lynn Wlodarski, is a written version from a session at the Jewish Studies and Music Panel held at the American Musicological Society Conference in Rochester, NY AMS Nov 9, 2017. Hirsch and Wlodarski serve as moderators and participants in a discussion of active and prolific musicologists: Howard Pollack, David Josephson, Evan Rapport and Ralph P. Locke. Each scholar views their research and that of others in a discussion of how their own position as Jews or non-Jews impacts the research of Jewish composers and musicians. Amy Beal provides concluding remarks reflecting on the new arenas of topics and approaches to uncover new insights.
This issue of Musica Judaica covers a range of topics and approaches and encourages our readers to learn new contexts of Jewish music. So too the book review section draws from a range of topics and scholars working in American, Europe and Israel. The book reviews published first appeared in Musica Judaica Online Reviews.
Arbie Orenstein and Mark Kligman