In these 15 years we have performed Jewish religious music from the last five centuries, from 9 different countries.
These included: Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Israel, and it was a journey through the history of synagogue music in Ashkenazi and Italian communities, which were available to us in written form as music sources.
Added to this was the music of Sephardic Jews from Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco as well as the music of oriental communities from the Middle East originating in Iran, Iraq, Bukhara, Syria and Yemen, whose music and texts are hundreds of years old and have been passed down orally ever since. If we add these, we have heard Jewish religious music and traditions from around 20 countries.
Ashkenazi (Western European+American) synagogal music
Let’s start with Louis Lewandowski (1821-1894), the namesake of our festival, whose two works of synagogue music “Kol Rinnah u’T’flillah” and “Toda we Simrah” were the first to provide traditional prayer melodies with modern arrangements in the style ofthe 19th century and to compose the entire liturgical year for cantor, choir and organ accompaniment. You will hear 3 of these compositions at the beginning of the opening and closing concert. “Enosh”, “L’Dovid Boruch” and “Zaddik kattomor”.
His music not only shaped the style of prayer in liberal and orthodox synagogues in Berlin and the German-speaking world, but also exerted its influence on many other cultural centers in Europe in the 19th century as well as in Israel and the USA in the 20th century.
In the 19th century, the emergence of new synagogal music was closely linked to the emancipation and social equality of Jews.
A similar phenomenon already existed at the beginning of the 17th century in the small Italian city of Mantua, where Jews had to live in their district (ghetto) but could move and work freely in non-Jewish society duringthe day.
Salamone Rossi (1670-1728), who worked as a musician and composer at the courtof Mantua in the Baroque period, wrote numerous instrumental and vocal works with secular texts over the course of four decades.
He was also the first Jewish composer to publish a collection of 33 motets with Hebrew prayer texts. These include the “Adon Olam” as an example of the polychoral style developed in Italy. Abraham Caceres (1718-1740), who belongs to the late Baroque period, came from a Sephardic family in Amsterdam. He wrote this beautiful piece for the inauguration of the Portuguese Synagogue, which can still be visited today.
If Berlin was the center of synagogal music with Louis Lewandowski and a model for composers who wanted to realize the spirit of renewal in their compositions, Salomon Sulzer’s (1804-1890) “German Blessing” in Vienna and later Max Löwenstamm ‘ s (1814-1881) “Howu Ladonoj” in Munich should be mentioned in the same breath. Salomon Sulzer was the first Chasan (cantor) in modern Europe who impressed with his extraordinary musical, intellectual and charisma. Many cantors from all over Europe traveled to him to learn from him.
His reforms were an inspiration for Samuel Naumbourg (1817-1880) in Paris as well as for composers of the so-called choral school tradition in Eastern Europe, including those centered in Odessa. Works by all the aforementioned composers will be performed.
Naumbourg, equipped with a solid training in traditional chants from southern Germany and Vienna, combined these with the influences of French art music and opera to create unique compositions, which can be heard in the piece “Etz Chayim ” when the Torah is raised.
A further development of the musical style from Vienna and Berlin can also be found in Eastern European choral music. We experience highly emotional and romantic music for cantor, choir and organ, which on the one hand is oriented towards traditional church service music, but on the other hand permeates it with “Russian soul” and develops it further.
An example of this is the “Adonoi Z’choronu” by David Nowakowski (1848-1921) .
Finally, we turn to 3 contemporary composers from the USA. The Adon Olam by Charles Davidson (*1929), in which he underpins the text with jazzy motifs, the universally popular Samachti BeOmrim Li by Charles Osborne (*1950) and the probably most popular setting by Meir Finkelstein (*1951) L’Dor va Dor, which has spread far beyond the borders of synagogues.
The music of Israel
The introductory piece Ya-ala, Ya-ala was written by Avraham Eilam-Amzallag (*1941 ), a composer who immigrated from Morocco. It transports the listener to a completely different North African world of sound.
From the 20th century, we can take inspiration from the compositions
„Dror Yikra“ von Yehezkel Braun (1922-2014) und „Shir Hanoded“ von Paul Ben-Haim (1897-1984) (beide Komponisten aus der Weimarer Republik ausgewandert) erfreuen, die sich beide besonders mit den Einflüssen Volksmusiken beschäftigten und diese in ihre Kompositionen integrierten und damit einen wesentlichen Anteil an der Schaffung einer neuen modernen israelischen Musik hatten.
The concert ends with two songs by one of the greatest
Israeli singer and songwriter, Naomi Shemer (1930-2004) and the arrangements masterfully written for her by Gil Aldema (1928-2014). Sheleg Al Iri is one of the most beautiful settings and Yerushalayim Shel Zahav, the song that became the second (unofficial) national anthem of Israel.
I hope that all concertgoers will enjoy the diversity of synagogue music.
Regina Yantian
