Skip to main content

Full text of "Cantors Assembly Journal of Synagogue Music"

See other formats 


JOURNAL 

OF SYNAGOGUE 



MUSIC 



September 1970/Elul 5730 

Volume III 

Number 1 



CONTENTS 



A New Look at Music 
In Jewish Education 

Letter From Israel 

Synagogue Chants of the 
Twelfth Century 

Salomone Rossi, Ebreo 

Outstanding Jewish Musician 
of the Renaissance 



Judith K. Eisenstein 3 

David Bagley 9 

Israel Adler 11 

Dr. Daniel Chazanoff 24 



DEPARTMENTS 



Music Section 



Kiddush, L. Lewandowski 
V'Shomru, Hugo C. Adler 
Zocharti Loch, E. Kirschner 



Reprise 



Under this heading we shall republish important articles 
in the field of Synagogue music not easily available to the 
general public today. 

The Kol Nidre Tune, A. Z, Idelsohn 

(Reprinted from the 1931 Hebrew Union College Annual.) 



29 



33 



journal of synagogue music, Volume III, Number 1 

September 1970/ELul 5730 
Published by Cantors Assembly 

editor: Morton Shames 

managing editor: Samuel Rosenbaum 

editorial board: Lawrence Avery, Gerald H. Hanig, Saul Meisels, 
David J. Putterman, Moses J. Silverman, Pinchas Spiro, Dr. Max 
Wo hi berg. 

associate members: Irving Kischel, Chairman, Louis Klein, Abra- 
ham Shapiro, Harry Weinberg. 

officers of the cantors assembly: David J. Leon, President; 
Yehudah Mandel, Vice President; Kurt Silbermann, Treasurer; 
Morton Shames, Secretary; Samuel Rosenbaum, Executive Vice 
President. 

journal of synagogue music is a quarterly publication. The sub- 
scription fee is $5.00 per year; $10.00 per year for patrons. Second- 
class postage paid at New York, New York, All articles, communica- 
tions and subscriptions should be addressed to Journal of Synagogue 
Music, Cantors Assembly, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York 1001L 

Copyright © 1970, Cantors Assembly 



A NEW LOOK AT MUSIC IN JEWISH EDUCATION 

Judith K. Eisenstein 

The proper way to take a new look at music in Jewish Education 
would be to make a survey, with a carefully worded questionnaire, 
and to conduct interviews and personal observation of activities 
across the country. One ought to ascertain, for example, how many 
specialists in music education are employed, and what training in 
music, in education, in Jewish music each one has been subjected 
to. One should measure the time devoted to music in all of the in- 
stitutions from nursery school through youth groups and summer 
camps. A careful study would need to be made of the materials 
available in each institution: the instruments, recording machines, 
books, records. Perhaps someone could investigate all the children's, 
or youth choruses and orchestras, their size, the quality of their 
singing or playing, the quality and difficulty of the music selected 
for performance, and finally, one would ask how many youngsters 
who continue into the field of music devote any portion of their 
talents to the Jewish world, either as composers, performers, musi- 
cologists or teachers. After all the statistics would have been 
gathered, one could presumably draw unchallengeable conclusions. 

None of this has been done. Nearly forty years ago this writer, 
with the rash courage of youth, published an article as part of a 
master's thesis from Teachers College, Columbia, setting forth in 
brave terms a program for music in Jewish education. At the time 
there was scarcely any need for a survey. The handful of people 
who were active in the field all knew each other. The field under 
consideration was limited to the schools, to formal education on the 
elementary, and to a slight degree, on the secondary level. The 
materials available were minimal: a few books of songs published 
in this country, were available for distribution to the schools but 
were rarely distributed in quantity; some of us could get hold of 
old European publications, such as the songbooks of the Tarbut 
schools, copies of some of the music of the Russian Jewish nationalist 
composers, the tomes of liturgical music of the nineteenth century, 
and if we were very lucky some volumes of Idelsohn's Thesaurus. 

Judith Eisenstein is a well known composer, teacher and musicologist who 
has devoted herself particularly to music for Jewish children. She is a member 
of the faculty of the School for Sacred Music of J.I.R.-H.U.C; is the editor of 
a number of comprehensive volumes of Jewish songs for young people. The 
Union of American Hebrew Congregations this winter will issue a major 
volume on Jewish music by Dr. Eisenstein, "A Heritage of Music/' 



Recordings were almost non-existent, except for cantorials and 
Second Avenue Yiddish songs and dances. The tape recorder had 
not been invented, and the word "creative" had not come into the 
educational vocabulary. There were no academic institutions where 
people could be trained in the field, so that teachers were necessarily 
auto-didacts. No English text on the history of Jewish music had 
yet appeared. We had to scrounge for materials, take dictation, make 
our own arrangements, make do with bad pianos (I sometimes won- 
der that we all maintained any sense of pitch!) and plead with 
principals for time. 

Today, even without a scientific survey, one knows that the 
situation has changed beyond recognition, certainly with regard to 
opportunities for some kind of training, and to the availability of 
materials. The existence of schools of Jewish music, Colleges of 
Jewish Music, Cantors Institutes, the establishment of some libraries 
of Jewish music, the spread of music councils and organizations for 
promotion, the awareness of the value of folk instruments, the 
development of the LP record and the tape recorder, but above all, 
the tremendous impact of the State of Israel, with its output of 
art and popular and folk music and dance, its vigorous pursuit of 
the music of its ingathered communities, its facilities for study and 
research — these are only some of the factors in the vast expansion 
of the past four decades. 

With the expansion of the field has come some degree of expan- 
sion of our view of the scope of music education, beyond the confines 
of the classroom, into the summer camp and the youth organization. 
There has also been a rapid burgeoning of special music produced 
for children's choirs, religious services. There are extant a few cur- 
ricula for music in the early grades through the Junior High School, 
that have appeared in different parts of the ccountry in the past few 
decades. Certainly a great many more teachers of music are on the 
staffs of schools and centers. The role of the hazzan in many 
synagogues has been extended to that of music educator, and in a 
few instances composers of merit have been invited to conduct 
seminars, courses, lectures, or some form of teaching in youth camps. 

The general impression of growth and progress could be re- 
inforced here and there by some of the delightful incidents that 
come to one's attention: for example, we hear of a group of young 
NFTY boys and girls making a careful study of Yiddish art songs, 
under the leadership of LazarWeiner, and preparing to perform them 
in a concert. One comes across a recording of a charming children's 



choir, singing a tasteful and graceful musical service by Abraham 
Salkov. One visits a BBYO leadership training camp, and hears 
young people singing in parts, — not as a choir, but as the whole 
of the congregation at Friday Evening Service, — singing with youth- 
ful, fresh, clear voices, the music of the late Max Helfman, and of 
their teacher Richard Neumann. Individual youngsters in all parts 
of the country are playing guitars, and, in the wake of the Folk- 
Rock-Renaissance attention to modal chords, they are able to pro- 
vide more appropriate music to the songs of Israel than were many 
teachers of four decades ago. All of these experiences would have 
been undreamed of in the early thirties. 

On the other hand, a statistical survey might well reveal that 
it is too soon for complacence. There are still very few trained music 
educators with Jewish education operating on a full-time basis, in 
direct contact with the children and the youth. It will reveal that 
printed music is rarely purchased in quantity, — that one copy per 
school or organization will serve as a source from which words are 
lifted and mimeographed in English transliteration for general dis- 
tribution to all age groups, (and subsequently for littering the 
floors of classrooms, synagogues, assembly halls.) It will show that 
much of the fine material listed in the bibliographies of the National 
Jewish Music Council is already out of print, or otherwise impos- 
sible to find in ordinary sources of distribution. A study of time 
allotment will undoubtedly show up a prevalence of brief assamblies 
or even briefer classroom music periods, with perhaps an increased 
allowance immediately before holidays. More detailed examination 
would probably reveal almost complete absence of instrumental 
music, or of listening to recorded art music. Choral groups will turn 
out to be unison singing clubs, and cantatas are medleys of old 
familiar songs. 

While we cannot yet document this gloomy estimate with facts 
and figures, we can only offer a set of personal experiences, — 
enough to shake the optimism that might have been induced by the 
series listed above: 

Item: A curriculum for Junior School Children lists for listening 
Bloch's Sacred Service alongside Fiddler on the Roof, with no ex- 
planatory or discriminatory notes. 

Item: A camp schedule allows time for "creative arts" during 
which no creative activity takes place, except that the teachers has 
composed the music. 



Item; A record for little children produced in 1970 contains 
I Have a Little Dreidel (from the Home Study project of the 
twenties, at a time when misguided arts and crafts teachers tried 
to teach babies to make dreidels out of clay! ) and Ahat sh'tayim, le- 
malah ha-yadayim, one of the old didactic "language songs" which 
was discarded by a forward-looking teacher back in 1932 in favor of 
genuine play songs and imaginative singing games. 

Item: In the name of Hasidism, loud handclapping, foot- 
stamping and grotesque gesturing accompany the raucous singing of 
synthetic East-European sounding songs, which vulgarize some noble 
texts. 

Item: A teacher sits at a piano (still out of tune!) Back to his 
students, teaching Once there was a Wicked Wicked Man line by line, 
verse by verse, trying to make sure the children are letter perfect in 
each line before proceeding to the next. One or two children are 
singing loudly. The rest are throwing spit balls, hitting each other 
on the head, and otherwise creating havoc in the classroom. 

Item: A teacher plays a loud accordion, singing the latest song 
he has picked up with a few errors from an Israeli record, trusting 
that the "kids" will pick it up after him, complete with errors, 
humming, inventing their own words, or simply clapping and stamp- 
ing. He can't hear them, in any case. 

Item: At a Friday evening service in a summer camp, the 
campers sing, switching from the soprano part to the alto to the 
tenor, Tzaddik Ka-tamar Yif-rah from the middle of the psalm 
setting composed by Lewandowski for four part chorus. This is des- 
cribed as traditional Jewish liturgical music, and nobody knows the 
name of the composer. 

Item: A little boy of nearly thirteen, sits huddled over a record- 
ing of teacher or hazzan singing a Haftarah from beginning to end. 
He is learning his Bar Mitzvah portion by rote. He is not aware of 
the existence of 4t ta-amay neginah." 

Item: A group of youngsters perform a rock service composed 
by a non-rock composer, with all solos sung by a non-rock hazzan, 
with any new ideas spoken, and only the old revered texts rendered 
in the idiom of last year which is already "out/* This is recorded 
and distributed as "new music of the synagogue." 

One could continue ad infinitum with an inventory of similar 
items. The total is a reflection of the attitude toward music in the 
adult Jewish community whose musical activity today is centered 
mainly in the synagogue. The basic flaw is that leaders and educa- 



tors regard music principally, if not entirely, as a "come-on." The 
immediate result of such an attitude is a sort of see-sawing between 
a catering to nostalgia on the one hand and a mindless pursuit of the 
latest fad on the other. It leaves no room for musical literacy, the 
simple recognition that we are not any longer a musically pre-literate 
people, and are capable of learning from musical notation at least as 
readily as our Christian hymn-singing neighbors. It leaves no room 
for the serious compositions of contemporary composers whose experi- 
ments in new sound make some demand on the mind of the listener, 
and are therefore set aside for the so-called Hasidic, or Rock, or even 
Israeli-style religious music. It leaves no room for the strange line 
of oriental Jewish melody, and the enrichment which it offers both 
to our musical vocabulary and to our Jewish experience, — ignoring 
it in favor of rehashed East-European tunes. It leaves no room for 
the subtleties of an art song or the intricacies of chamber music, 
which cannot be heard above the wail of the sentimental popular 
song or the noise of the electric band. 

The most dangerous aspect of this condition is that it is con- 
stantly being justified verbally, on the one hand by spurious musi- 
cological arguments, and on the other hand by the careless use of 
valid education concepts. The musicians tell us that in all periods 
of Jewish history our people borrowed freely from the melodic reper- 
tory of their neighbors: in the middle ages from troubadour and 
minnesinger song, from church chant and chorale; in later times the 
hasidim themselves, from gypsy tunes and marching songs of passing 
military bands. And some of the greatest hazzanim of all time made 
free to sing the words of scripture and prayer to the setting of Italian 
operatic arias. This affords the "Hekhsher" they seek for persistent 
parody, for setting words to the latest popular song, or a close copy 
of it. This is done without making the distinction between the con- 
dition of the "golus Jew" of past centuries and the Jew of America 
in our day. The former had no access to the techniques of Western 
composition, was excluded from the courts and the concert halls and 
the opera houses. He used what he heard as well as he could, infusing 
the simplest song with his own sense of joy, or longing, or mystic 
striving. The latter is in the forefront of every sophisticated musical 
activity, in the study and appreciation of the music of the past, in 
the experiment in, and support for, the sounds of the present and 
the future. He is too musically aware to borrow unconsciously, — 
too urban and urbane to relapse sincerely into the naivete of our 
ancestors. 



8 

The educational justification is based on catch-words which 
are — if not deliberately misinterpreted, then badly misunderstood. 
"Contemporaneity/' "relevance," "creativity," "self-expression," 
even "religious experience," and "love of Israel." It is hard to quarrel 
with such worthy aims, which are stated in curricula, on the jackets 
of records, and in the sermons introducing new musical services. But 
it is urgent that someone stop and examine the precise meaning of 
every one of these terms, and determine whether they are in fact 
being realized to any degree in the hubbub of activity. 

Is this perhaps an unduly dark picture of the true state of 
affairs? This writer would be only too grateful for a study which 
would disprove it. But let the study be made with vigor and honesty. 
Let it go beyond mere statistics, to a meticulous definition of terms 
such as those listed above. And then let a group of musicians plus 
educators and religious leaders sit together and think. They must 
start with a clear understanding that music is not a "come-on," but 
a vital and integral part of our heritage, the voice of a people, like 
the Hebrew language and the Yiddish language, and the prayer and 
the poetry and the festivals and the days of mourning. They must 
discard the old notion of music as a tool for learning something else, 
a mnemonic device for learning text or grammar. If Hebrew teachers 
want to use it that way, let them. But a curriculum for music in 
Jewish education has nothing to do with all that. It must provide for 
the discriminating ordering of a total musical heritage, and for laying 
down of considered guide lines in adding to that heritage. It must 
stretch the minds and hearts of the young, and engage the highest 
reaches of their imagination. It must take into account a variety of 
techniques, beginning with the introduction of notated music, and 
going on to the spontaneity and informality of the rock generation. 

But a curriculum on paper will never function without teachers. 
Even at this late date we need to urge that the training of teachers 
be incorporated seriously into the schedules of our schools of higher 
learning. We cannot rely entirely on the good offices of hazzanim 
who are still primarily the sweet singers, the religious functionaries, 
and who can at best give only secondary time and interest to the 
youth. There must be somewhere for the young musician, the gifted 
teacher, to get formal training in the music of Jewish life, so that 
he need not guess and scrounge as did my generation so many years 
ago, but can come swiftly to join all of us in the realization of the 
goals we establish for our work. 



LETTER FROM ISRAEL 

David Bagley 

We recently received a very moving letter from Hazzan David 
Bagley now serving Bet Knesset Hagadol in Ramat Gan. He 
reports, with great feeling, the events which marked the recent 
observance of Yom Hazikaron, a day of memorial for those soldiers 
of Zahal, (Israel's army) who had given their lives in defense of 
their homeland. 

Dear Sam: 

I feel it as my duty to publicize my impression of a recent event 
here in Israel. I thought that you might be interested enough, to 
make public (in which ever way you see fit) these feelings and im- 
pressions. I was invited to participate in a memorial service for 
Zahal, erev Yom Hazikaron, and here is what I saw and felt that 
evening. 

The invitation for my participation, was extended to me by 
the Ramat Gan branch of Yad Lebanim. This particular organiza- 
tion is comprised of bereaved parents; of those that lost either sons 
or daughters in all of the wars for the liberation of Israel This is 
primarily a memorial organization. 

Upon my arrival, I saw that each of the families, upon arriving, 
received a candle and a book of matches. They then proceeded to 
take their places among the rest of the assembled. 

The official memorial ceremony began at 8:30 in the evening, 
with the sound of sirens. A boy of no more than four, together with 
his young mother, arrived to light the torch. It turned out that this 
little boy has just been orphaned. His father was killed at the Suez 
canal two weeks earlier. I recited a part of the Psalms, then a boy 
of eight came to the podium to recite the Kaddish. He, too, had lost 
a father, in the Milchemet Sheshet Hayamim. You can imagine the 
feelings that went through my heart and mind. It was an unforget- 
able sight. There were poem recitations by brothers and sisters, all 
of whom have felt the pain of death. 

Suddenly, all of the lights were turned off and there was a 
terrible silence. The names of the departed were being read. The 
families present were asked to light a candle as the name of their 
dear one was read. Then, out of the darkness I saw one light, two 
lights, three lights, then many lights. I do not know how many, 
but there were many. The sky was illuminated with the candle lights. 
A total of 354 from Ramat Gan. Sam, have you ever seen 354 candles 



10 

all lit at the same time? Have you ever seen so many lights being 
lit in protest, and for no reason? Yes, all the names have been called 
and summoned to take their respective places among the Kedoshim of 
our history. The families are asked to rise for the El Male Rachamim. 
It is my duty to bring to heart and to call all of these souls that rest 
tachat kanfe hashchina. Many of them refuse to come out, for 
there, tachat kanfe hashchina have they found their menucha 
nechona. Yes, they have been "Laid to rest/' My voice, choking 
with tears, begins to sing out loud, "El Male Rachamim." 

I am wrestling with my feelings and emotions, I can not face 
it; I feel that I am breaking up. I see before my eyes the little boy 
of four, the boy of eight reciting the Kaddish. I see before my 
eyes widows, orphans, bereaved parents, and grand-parents. I see 
before my eyes innocent young sons and daughters dying for no 
reason. And I, I must say in public EL MALE RACHAMIM. 
I should like to ask of Him, Where is the Rachamim? However, the 
answer comes immediately, shochen barmomim. I can't reach Him 
for His answer rests on High. I proceed with the Male, then I reach 
a point where I say in a form of pleading "Lachen Baal Harachamim" 
I beg of you! Let it be the end! Please oh please, let it be the end 
of our mourning. 

I finished the Male and while drying my tears from my eyes, 
I noticed that the candles were rising. Yes, the bereaved arose and 
proceeded in a line to go "up". Suddenly, I saw these innocent souls 
lined up, I saw them in white, in tachrichim. No, I am not going 
crazy, I see shrouds moving, I see them standing in line to see the 
Almighty and to complain that there is no reason for them to be 
there. I even hear them complain that the shrouds are not their 
size "they do not even look good in them". The families proceed to 
the top of the building and place their candles in a pile of sand. 
All 354 candles light our path. 

I am dazed, I am not myself, I can't come to myself. I proceed 
to my car and drive home. I open the door of the house, all is dark, 
except for the little Ner Zikaron which I, together with the entire 
community, are asked to kindle. I sit alongside of the little Ner 
Zikaron, and begin to notice that even this little candle is restless, 
nervous, and frustrated. It seems to me that the little flame is 
troubled as to why he must burn, or exactly for whom does he burn. 
For which soul was he lit, and exactly whom does he represent? I 
look and look at the flame, close my eyes and ask myself how 
honest was I when I said El Male Rachamim. Was I positively 
sure that He is male rachamim? 



11 
SYNAGOGUE CHANTS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 

The Music Notations of Obadiah the Proselyte 

Israel Adler 

A manuscript discovered in the Cairo Geniza collection of the 
Cambridge University Library in March 1965* was the subject of 
one of the most stimulating discussions in the Music Section of the 
Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies, held in Jerusalem in July 
last year. The leaf contains a number of verses from the Bible and 
a portion of a piyyut — a liturgical poem — written together with 
their melodies in the first half of the twelfth century. The significance 
of the discovery was fully appreciated by scholars familiar with the 
paucity of early Hebrew sources of musical notation. Indeed, until 
quite recently no more than about twenty such documents, dating 
from before the Emancipation (viz. the late eighteenth century), 
were known, most comprising no more than a few lines. Among the 
more important are notations of the te'amim (accents for biblical 

* We are grateful to Dr. Nehemia A I Ion y, discoverer of the fragment, for 
bringing it to our knowledge, and to the Cambridge University Librarian, 
for permitting us to publish it. 

cantillation), transcribed by Christian humanists of the beginning of 
the sixteenth century — Johannes Boschenstein, Johannes Reuchlin 
and Sebastian Munster. Of the period prior to 1500 there were only 
two with musical notation — one with the opening verses of the Song 
of Solomon, in an illustrated Bible written in Spain ca. 1400 (the 
Mosseri ms., whose present whereabouts are unknown); the other a 
leaf, from the Geniza collection of E. N. Adler, containing a piyyut 
Mi al Har Horev together with its melody, written in neums. This 
latter discovery had aroused great interest for it was the earliest 
notation of a Hebrew melody brought to light, but the efforts of two 
generations of musicologists and historians notwithstanding, many 
important aspects remained unresolved, such as the date and place 
of its composition, and particularly, its musical content. Some pro- 
gress was achieved at the beginning of last year when the scribe was 
identified (by Professor A. Scheiber of the Budapest Jewish Theo- 



The recently identified music notations of Obadiah the Norman proselyte 
have taken our knowledge of Jewish music back hundreds of years. Dr. Israel 
Adler, who has lectured and written on the musicological significance of these 
eleventh-twelfth century fragments, is Director of the Music Department of 
the Jewish National and University Library, and of the Hebrew University's 
Jewish Music Research Centre. 



12 

logical Seminary, and Professor N. Golb of the University of 
Chicago), as Obadiah the Norman proselyte. Now the principal con- 
cern of Jewish musicologists has shifted to the manuscript discovered 
by Dr. Allony, which is also in the hand of Obadiah. The Cambridge 
fragment enabled us to decipher Obadiah's notation and thus to study 
the musical content of both documents.* 

Before the connection between the Adler fragment and Obadiah 
the proselyte had been established, scholars assigned the date of 
the manuscript to anywhere between the eleventh and fourteenth 
centuries, and its place of origin from northern to southern France, 
north Italy to some country in the East. Now that Obadiah has been 
identified as the scribe of both manuscripts we can more accurately 
determine the date and also, it would seem, the place of origin. 

A brief presentation of this remarkable personage will be helpful. 
Our main source of information is his autobiography, the so-called 
"Obadiah Scroll/* written in biblical Hebrew of which fragments 
(seven leaves) have been preserved in the Cairo Geniza. We also have 
a letter of recommendation that Rabbi Baruch ben Itzhak of Aleppo 
gave to Obadiah, and a leaf from a prayer book which — so he testifies 
— he copied in his own hand. Recently, Professor Scheiber has dis- 
covered another Geniza fragment, with a piyyut composed by Oba- 
diah. There have been attempts to associate Obadiah with another 
fragment written by an anonymous proselyte, but this ascription 
is doubtful. 

Obadiah was born in Oppido (today Oppido Lucano) in Apulia, 
south Italy, to a noble family of Norman origin and was baptized 
Johannes or Giovan'. His father's name was Dreux and his mother's 
Maria. The date of his birth is not known but it can be assumed not 
to have been earlier than 1050 or later than 1075. In contrast to his 
older twin brother, Roger, "a man of the sword and war," Johannes 
was "a man who sought wisdom and understanding in books." 
Apparently he was destined for the priesthood or a monastic order, 

* A full discussion of the two musical fragments recorded by Obadiah was 
undrtaken by the author in Les chants synagogaux notes au Xlle siecle 
(ca 1103-1150) par Abdias, le proselyte normand in Revue de musicologie, 
vol. II (1965), pp. 19-51. This article, which, inter alia, surveys the contribu- 
tions of research workers who have studied these sources, emphasizes the 
musicological problems involved in the transcription of the notation of the 
melodies. The Judaistic aspect was more fully treated in a lecture given by 
the author during the Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies: The new 
music fragment of Obadiah the Norman proselyte and its importance for 
Jewish music research. 



13 

in keeping with the custom prevailing among noble families of desig- 
nating the older son for chivalry and the younger for the church. 

For some time certainly Johannes-Obadiah was connected with a 
monastic order, as is evidenced by his knowledge of neumatic nota- 
tion, which at that time was practiced only in monasteries. The date 
of his conversion, September 1102, is given us by Obadiah himself, 
on the same leaf of the prayer book he copied: 

Obadia the Norman proselyte, who entered the Covenant of the 
God of Israel in the month of Ellul in the year 1403 of the 
Seleucids, which is 4862 of the creation of the world. 
He, Obadiah the proselyte, has written by his hand. 
We do not know if Obadiah converted to Judaism in the country 
of his birth — Italy — or after his departure for the East, where we can 
trace his journeyings in Bablylon, Syria and Palestine down to the 
year 1121. Nor have we any knowledge of the immediate motives for 
his acceptance of the Jewish faith. The "Obadiah Scroll" relates two 
incidents that might have influenced him in some degree. One was the 
conversion to Judaism of Andreas, Archbishop of Bari, which took 
place apparently in Constantinople, during Obadiah' s (then still 
Johannes) youth, between the years 1066 and 1078. The other was 
a dream Obadiah dreamt, reflecting the persecution of the Jews in 
Europe before the First Crusade (1096-1099). But most important 
of all is the atmosphere prevailing in these years of the First Cru- 
sade, in which the Normans of south Italy played an active part. 
While the religious yearnings of his brothers sought an outlet in a 
triumphant earthly pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem, Oba- 
diah' s embracing of the Jewish faith may be explained in the same 
light though it led in a different direction. 

In our present state of knowledge it is difficult to determine the 
order and chronology of Obadiah's travels. He set out for the East, 
it seems, close to the date of his conversion in 1102. It also appears 
that his sojourn in Baghdad, where the Jewish community provided 
for his needs, occurred during the first part of his wanderings. Here 
he embarked upon the study of Hebrew. In the "scroll" referred to 
we read: "And it came to pass after this and Yitzhak, Head of the 
Yeshiva, commanded that Obadiah be taught the Torah of Moses 
and the Prophets, in the writing of God and in the language of the 
Hebrews/' The account of his stay in Aleppo, where the community 
also took care of him, relates events which took place after 1113. The 
latest date given in the "scroll" is September 1121, when Obadiah, 
having left Damascus, met in Banias in Palestine, Solomon the 



14 

Karaite, who tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade him from going down 
to Egypt. Obadiah, we may assume, settled in Egypt after that year, 
for all writings related to him have been found in the Cairo Geniza. 

The identification of Obadiah as the scribe of the fragments with 
neumatic notation in the Adler and Cambridge Geniza collections is 
based upon comparison of the Hebrew script in both, and with an- 
other fragment in the prayer book in the Cincinnati Geniza collection, 
which — as already stated — Obadiah declares is written in his own 
hand. There is no doubt that all three fragments in the square oriental 
script are by the same author. In addition to the general similarity 
of the lettering, the alef, very like a Latin "k," is strikingly charac- 
teristic. This form of the alef is found in cursive Hebrew writing of 
the period, but its appearance in the square script seems exceptional. 

Knowing that Obadiah was the scribe of these music fragments, 
we can fix their date more precisely. They must have been written 
after September 1102 and before 1150, and in the East, for we 
know that Obadiah acquired his knowledge of Hebrew during his 
stay in Baghdad. 

Problems of Transcription 

But these data, however interesting, are only of secondary im- 
portance. Our chief concern lies in the musical content of the manu- 
scripts. We shall, therefore, have to solve the problem of deciphering 
Obadiah's musical notation. Prior to the discovery of the Cambridge 
fragment major difficulties were encountered. We shall not enter 
here into all the details of the argument; we shall confine ourselves 
to a statement of the problem and a summary of the conclusions 
reached in the light of the Cambridge fragment. 

In neumatic as in modern musical notation exact transcription 
of a melody can be achieved only with the aid of a clef. In the Adler 
fragment (hereafter referred to as ms. A), the letter dalet appears 
as a clef from the sixth to the tenth lines. The clef-letters most fre- 
quently found in notated manuscripts of his period are F and G, 
usually indicating the notes fa and do. Logic implies that the dalet 
here represents the Latin letter D, that is to say, apparently the note 
re. This, indeed, was the conclusion of one scholar (Avenary). An- 
other attempt at transcription was based on the assumption that 
dalet equals do. A third related dalet to sol How widely these inter- 
pretations diverge, is immediately apparent if we compare the 
transcriptions.* 



15 






fol hor h6 r«v ho *a mt df 

f in - yon qa -»ov 'a - M^d 'im - m« * df ho-mo <• j«K 






:# 



:"-r. _•._.!* ■ # * 
*ol hor hd -r«v 



. ":-■ * -9-9 —♦__-. r^ 

ha -'a - mtdi 



* • •?•_■• •_]•_"• ^*7^P 



' in - r«n *»o - lav *tf - tn>»d *iw - ma - dt* Vfmg - Ivh 






"- * ; ♦ '^-7$ 



^~- 



*al har ho r«\ 



# • 

h« - 'a - nYi-«7 



in - yon qa jav'a- mod f ir» - 



o .»-_■■ 
4?ke~mo - Jth 



In these examples the author has presented the clef interpretations of the 
three scholars quoted, but has followed his own reading of the manuscript 
in giving the note-for-note transcription. 



In the Cambridge fragment (hereafter called ms. B) Obadiah 
in addition to the clef letter dalet, also used other Hebrew letters 
from alef to zayin, but it seems that in this manuscript, too, the 
dominant clef is the dalet. Theoretically speaking these clef signs 
could lend themselves to various interpretations but, in fact, only two 
alternatives seem plausible in view of what is known of the systems 
of musical notation of this period. There is no question that the 
series of letters a(lef), b(et), g(imel), d(alet), h(eh) f u(av), 
z(ayin), a(lef) in ms. B is equivalent to the Latin letters A, B, C, D, 
E, F, G, A, This series might at first sight seem parallel to the octave 
of the scale of A (la), but at this period it could also have been used 
to indicate the scale of C (do). This means that the only alternative 
to reading dalet as D (re) is to read it as F (fa). Analysis of the 
melodies, and especially of the melody of the fragment of the piyyut 
Va'eda ma in ms. B, shows that if the dalet is interpreted as the clef 
F (fa) 9 we arrive at a solution satisfactory from every aspect, while if 



16 



we take the dalet as D (re) the result is unacceptable. In parenthesis 
it may be pointed out that this method of eliminating unreasonable 
solutions is used by scholars of the Gregorian chant in deciphering 
melodies written in neums without clefs. 

As already stated we cannot go beyond this short summary of the 
arguments raised by Obadiah's notation, which has brought us to the 
following transcriptions: 

Ms. A. (Adler 4096b) 



f^~ ~ w V-»- « *- ♦— 0-rz- m *- _ :!" * .- • __ 



'a I hof hb-r«v 



- m - 9 -*— 
ha* 'a - ml-di 



_____ — ___________ ,..__ ._. 



*in*yon qo-Iav __.*G«]od'.m - mo 



df ke -mo - ich 



2 ~i 



mid - bar hin - n u tg[ 



'•'drf| 



Jw.«n ha 1 - ki. K(w)£j|l[«j bi - e - ri 

ri [»-^ oh - - ,a Y ha - nun um»a-h«m 



kt-mo - ith 



* * -* -9 -* -' *- -> *• #^» # /# * *"* * "• • i * *v^^3 



r«-holw»'ol ho ra k»h tin . 



hem ke-mo * s*h 









box h*Z - yon hoq 



'♦-dot 



- _T * ' • 






P 



dot k_*mo - s«h 



_l.3__.___ _••____ £ ■-:. . ;■. . # . . ^t ":-;-» : 

mi tot JrS - rah] Ummedjkv». - fir.r.#r. 



: ^V* -»[•!• L # ""•y^-V"S^V» '♦ * ♦ * ~^F^^^ 



z«-k ah wc-ya-vi feo-t&k ht-'a 



non k*-mo - leh] 



17 



■ to -- "V • • 9 9 






£ 



* • f#) • 



r*j * * ♦ ♦ 



q[uJy-yamb»-lo le-hem we-16 rna 






$ * ■ • r^r. ^* *"i r- «"^ •"* O . . ♦ r^l* # * • ^ ."; w* •♦^i 



J el ha^.lo - fcpm) 'a -d«-t( ^[0- i*U 






Kfya * r«W 



W*-^i«l 



Ms. B (Cambridge T.S.K5/41) 



RECTO 



da* mah 






« . <l«b-to«r 









-— -■- — --^ — 






VERSO 



1. J*r.,*vit t 7 



barOW hctgge - vero-sji' yiv tah ba-'do - nay 




v« - ho - -yah a - do - nay mlvta 



18 

2.Pr«v., w,| 



be-toh el o-do - nay be U P I lib - b« ^ a 

*#*- »l b» - naf - ka cil +*ii-*» - fcn 



— v v — -» ---— ■ — m- — ■ 9 — 

bt - kol de-ra-Ke - k a da - «e - hu 



wt -[hC»] ye- ya{ t«r or hole ka 






as -re d-dom ma - $a hoW - mah 



-* - ~ -♦ ^ — • ♦ m * — * ^ 

to - 'a -dan* y«-<?o( te-vu - n*h 



5 


■Jot, 

A 


v,n 


















w 









- 






,v# 






C ■ 








'W ~~ { ^ 




/I 


n * 




— # — 


— *— 


— •-— 


~» ■ 






i> *. 




"*" * 


* 


r 

















bin-n«h oS - r$ e-no? yo kf-hen-m> e-16 



r * » » 



v mO-*er »0d day «jl tim - «» 



Before embarking upon any discussion of the melodies recorded 
by Obadiah we must stress the irrefutable evidence presented by our 
sources that his collection of melodies consisted of more than the two 
leaves that have reached us. One of the two pages of ms. B begins 
with the verse Baruch hageuer and the other with Va'eda ma. Which 
is the verso and which the recto of this leaf? This question can be 
answered with the aid of the "Direct" (custos), the mark placed at 
the end of each staff indicating the first note of the next one. The 
"Direct" at the end of the last staff of the page beginning with the 
verse Baruch hagever is the note F (/a), while the first note on the 
following page is D (re). It follows that the page starting with Baruch 



10 

hagever is the verso of our leaf, which had a continuation, starting 
on the note F (fa), on a leaf which has not yet come to light. The 
recto is therefore the page that begins with the words Va'eda ma, and 
it is clear that this text is only the final fragment of the piyyut. 
Thus this leaf indicates that ms. B originally consisted of at least 
three leaves. 

Nature and Origins of the Fragments 

In examining the nature, origin and purpose of the melodies we 
must distinguish between the chants recorded in ms. A and on the 
recto of ms. B, and the chant on the verso of ms. B. 

Ms. A presents a piyyut that has been defined as a eulogy on 
Moses, intended for the festivals of Shavuot (Pentecost) or Simhat 
Torah (the Rejoicing of the Law). It consists of six couplets, each 
ending with the word Ke'moshe ("as Moses") that serves as a refrain 
followed by an additional text based on a quotation from Isaiah. The 
author of this liturgical poem, a certain Amr, whose identity is as yet 
uncertain, inserted his name in the form of an acrostic in the piyyut. 
The text on the recto of ms. B is also a piyyut of which only the con- 
clusion has been preserved: 

"And I shall know what, and I shall know what I shall say in 
the gates, 

And what shall I say, and what shall I say, and what wilt Thou 
answer? Teach me!" 

Neither the purpose nor the author of this fragment has been 
determined. While the chant of five verses on the recto of ms. B 
belongs to a repertoire of ancient synagogue cantillations of anony- 
mous authorship, as will be shown, the piyyutim recorded in ms. B 
belong to the corpus of religious (liturgical or para-liturgical) poems 
with which hazzanim (cantors) and congregations were infatuated 
throughout the Middle Ages. Very often the hazzan himself was 
composer of both the piyyut and the melody to which it had been 
set, or had adapted the melody from an existing model. In these 
compositions the hazzan of the period was inspired chiefly by a 
desire to present something new to his audience. Thus any attempt 
to mould the melodies of these piyyutim in the traditional style 
of synagogue cantillations seems to have been remote from his 
intentions. Further rabbinical authorities of the period show that 
in the Christian West as in the Islamic East hazzanim did not hesitate 
to introduce foreign tunes into the synagogue service. 



20 

The chant of the piyyut Mi al Har Horev, recorded in ms. A and 
that of Va'eda ma on the recto of ms. B are compositions in the stylr 
of the western monodic chant of the Middle Ages. While the second 
piece is too fragmentary to suggest immediately recognizable parallels 
with this repertoire, analysis of the first — Mi al Har Horev — permits 
identification of formulas characteristic of passages of the Gregorian 
chant. There is a striking similarity between the first lines of each of 
the six couplets of the piyyut Mi al Har Horev, and the first period 
(up to the caesura), of the first lines of the tracts of the eighth 
mode whose structure and melodic materials almost always follow the 
same pattern. 

How did these two melodies recorded by Obadiah originate? 
Quite possibly they were composed by Obadiah himself or by some- 
one else coming from the West — perhaps one of the European hazza- 
nim who sought refuge in the East in that period of Crusades and 
persecution of the Jews. It has been suggested that they are pieces 
from a Gregorian repertoire, borrowed and adapted to Hebrew texts 
by Obadiah. But as long as no similar Gregorian chants have been 
identified, whatever resemblances exist can reasonably be attributed 
to the influence, natural in a composer, Jewish or Christian, brought 
up in a Christian environment. Indeed, it would be astonishing 
for Obadiah, a convert to Judaism, deliberately to borrow a melody 
from the religious service of the "uncircumcised" (as he himself 
pejoratively referred to his former co-religionists), and introduce it 
clandestinely into the sanctuary of his new faith. 

The fact that he was led to record, and perhaps also to compose, 
synagogal chants, leads us to suppose that he was closely associated 
with cantors and teachers — two callings that often went together 
in that time. There is even some ground for assuming that, in the 
light of the social conditions then controlling the office of cantor in the 
East, Obadiah himself exercised this profession. In many cases it was 
the foreigners and refugees, coming from the Mediterranean countries, 
who served as cantors and teachers in the East, especially in Egypt. 
We know that Obadiah found it difficult to earn a living and it is 
quite feasible that he did so by performing the functions of a cantor 
or by teaching new melodies to other cantors. This hypothesis is sup- 
ported by our knowledge of the extraordinary popularity of hazzanut, 
and the desperate efforts made by the cantors to learn something new. 
They imported piyyutim into Egypt, even from the south of France, 
and documents of the period indicate that hazzanim went to the same 
lengths to plagiarize their colleagues as they did to prevent others 



21 



from stealing their own piyyutim. In these circumstances it is easy 
to imagine that Obadiah's ability to record and transmit melodies by 
writing them down, was regarded by these Oriental cantors, unaware 
of western achievement of musical notations, as an almost miraculous 
stroke of good fortune. 

The question whether Obadiah himself was the author of the 
melodies to these piyyutim or merely recorded another's compositions, 
remains open. We can, however, be certain that in the chant of the 
five biblical verses on the verso of ms. B — one verse from Jeremiah, 
three from Proverbs and one from Job — we have not a new compo- 
sition but a faithful transcription of a traditional synagogal cantilla- 
tion that Obadiah learned from one of the Oriental communities in 
which he lived after his conversion. Indeed, initial attempts to identify 
this piece have established that it has been faithfully preserved up 
to our own day in the oral tradition of several Jewish communities in 
the East and in the Mediterranean countries. 






U«W«tm, Toledo 



Ba-rCW ha^ge 



*er O - *«*' yiv-tah fca-*4« - nay 






Mis * l« ft« - lo moh 



btn d 




3.P*. V,4 






Or.c»t«\ «>**••*-.*' 



■iZz-^-.frz^Zm 



jov V* - *t 



ktr 



yon 






wm 



KT 



•1 39 - 481 



a - do 



Italy 






Aa yo - str mo - i«h - vc - «e 



yi$ - ra - 'el 



22 



6. Bm«*fi*+n« «f thf 

Nof+«f«W 



norm** jl 

IUty V 

Bo - rOU ot 



ifla 



taH 



o - do - n«y 



I > 



'6 



«y - n«V 



w« - ntV - ne • ♦ 



- . . ♦ # ♦ -i-# -■-.-■-.- 



K3 



I.W 









^F 



W* * *«i 



4«d * d«y yi4 - lo (nan 



G - rw« - ItV ad - dol 'al (col f - to * htm 



^M&3-£jr&£tt^^ 



** VibJ«5*- r«ki Vwii-iiA la-do. ha-y wa-yo-mt-vw 1c - V*t«V 



f=^--j^-=r^t^m 



« - U 



Vit - »%G me - ItW ha - '3 - la 



^^ii 



fc!^ 



bt - ♦« 



»«t 



yit • v**\ 



23 

This cantillation in the mode of E, finalis in E and mediant D, 
with a range limited to the fourth D — G (occasionally reaching A), 
is to be found among the Jews of Syria in a melody used in the read- 
ing of the Book of Proverbs, among the Jews of Djerba in the 
reading of Psalms, and among the Jews of Italy in reading Jeremiah, 
the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15), and the blessings of the Haftara. 

It is likewise correct to assign to the same group of cantillations 
the reading of the Prophets by Aleppan Jews, of Esther and Ruth 
by those of Baghdad, though among the former the range is extended 
downwards by one tone, and among the latter there is not the same 
precision of the caesura in the middle of the verse on the note D. 
But the examples prove with what fidelity this cantillation has been 
preserved in the oral tradition. 

The new musical fragment discovered by Dr. Allony in the 
Cambridge University Library is of the utmost significance for 
Jewish music research. Because of the rarity of notated documents 
the study of Jewish music is dependent on sources transmitted by 
oral tradition, exploited according to ethnomusicological methods. For 
tho first time we are able to corroborate findings of Jewish ethno- 
musicology of the twentieth century, and to establish them on 
the solid ground of so early a source in musical notation. Furthermore 
the fact that this biblical cantillation was faithfully preserved in oral 
tradition for more than eight centuries after being recorded in the 
first half of the twelfth century, gives us reason to believe that it 
already formed a part of a more ancient Jewish heritage at the time 
when it was written down by Obadiah the Norman proselyte. 



24 

SALOMONE ROSSI, EBREO (c. 1570-c. 1630): 
OUTSTANDING JEWISH MUSICIAN OF THE RENAISSANCE 

Daniel Chazanoff 

It was by chance that this writer first became aware of Salomone 
Rossi, Ebreo, in 1959 while engaged in research for a doctoral study 
on another subject. Completely unknown to me at the time, it was 
indeed a revelation to find that Rossi may have been the father of 
the trio sonata, the chamber music from which ushered in the Italian 
Instrumental Baroque. Further study on the subject was made pos- 
sible through a grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Cul- 
ture during the Summer of 1968 which the author gratefully 
acknowledges. 

Derivation of His Name 

The pages of Jewish history are sprinkled with family names 
which bear no resemblance to a Hebraic background. Such is the 
case of Salomone Rossi, Ebreo, court musician and composer to the 
Dukes of Mantua, Italy, from c. 1587 to c. 1630. His Italianized 
name is found in a variety of spellings and versions, i. e., Salamone 
Rossi, Solomone Rossi, Salamone de Rossi, Salomone de Rossi, etc. 
In translation it is derived from his complete Hebrew name, Shelomo 
Me-ha-Adumim, meaning Solomon of the Red Ones. Hence, Shelomo 
becomes Salomone and Me-ha-Adumim becomes Rossi, the Italian 
plural of red or de Rossi, of the red ones. According to Grove, he 
proudly added 'Ebreo' (Hebrew) to his Italian name and often 
signed 'Shelomo Me-ha-Adumim' in Hebrew. 1 Saminsky adds that 
Rossi was choirmaster at the Mantua synagogue as well as court 
musician. 2 

1. Eric Blom (ed.), Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: 
Macmillan and Company, 1954), VII, 243. 

2. Lazare Saminsky, Music of the Ghetto and the Bible (New York: 
Bloch Publishing Company, 1934), p. 166. 

Dr. Daniel Chazanoff is the Director of Music for the City School District 
of Rochester, New York. He has had almost 20 years experience as teacher, 
conductor, performer and administrator from the third grade exploratory level 
through college. He is a first-rate cellist, having served at the first desks in 
the Birmingham Symphony, the Berkshire Music Festival and a number of 
radio and television orchestras. He has written extensively in his field of Early 
English Chamber music for strings and has orchestrations to his credit, as well- 
He was a Delegate to to Eighth National Conference of the United States 
National Commission for UNESCO. He is an active and participating member 
of Rochester's Temple Beth-El. 



25 

Birth and Death Dates 

This researcher has found no documents to date which establish 
the exact years of Rossi's birth and death. Most writers agree upon 
circa 1570 as the year of his birth. However, one source places his 
birth as early as circa 1560. 3 If Rossi was born around 1570 he would 
have been 19 years old at the time of his first published book of 
compositions. Since his collection of nineteen Canzonets for three 
voices was published in 1589, Freed argues that ". . . it is hardly 
likely that a boy of 19 would have sufficiently absorbed the complex 
techniques of counterpoint as it was then practiced . . ." 4 When one 
considers that Juan Arriaga, 'the Spanish Mozart' wrote a symphony, 
two string quartets, a cantata and an opera before the age of 20, 
it is not far-fetched to say that a gifted boy of 19 from a cultured 
and intellectually gifted family as the Rossis could publish contra- 
puntal music. 

The date of Rossi's death is also open to conjecture. Either of 
two events was the probable cause of his death. According to Grove, 
the death registers of Mantua list five members of the Rossi family 
who fell as victims of the 'fever' between March 1629 and June 
1630. 5 Salamone's name is not mentioned as having been among the 
five who perished. 

Another event which could have been the cause of death was 
the conquest of Mantua by Kaiser Ferdinand of Austria in 1630. 
After the death of Vicenzio II, the last of the Gonzagas, Mantua was 
besieged by Austrian troops; the Great Index gives 1627 as the date 
of Vicenzio's death. 6 The Jewish population, which had been en- 
closed in a ghetto since 1610, was called upon to man the fortifica- 
tions with all other citizens and to build new walls. They were not 
permitted to rest even on the Sabbath. When the city fell, after 
seven months of battle, the ghetto was ravaged and about 1,800 
Jews fled. 7 According to Holde, the 1,800 surviving Jews of the city 
were dispersed by Ferdinand II of Austria. 8 

3. Cecil Roth (ed.), The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (Garden City, 
New York: Doubleday and Company, 1966), p. 1615. 

4. Isadore Freed, Sacred Service (New York: Transcontinental Music 
Corp., 1954), unpaginated. 

5. Blom, loc. cit. 

6. L. B. Phillips (ed.), The Great Index of Biographical Reference 
(Philadelphia: Gebbie and Company, 1881), p. 444. 

7. Peter Gradenewitz, The Music of Israel (New York: W. W. Norton, 
1949), p. 150. 

8. Artur Holde, Jews in Music (New York: Philosophical Library, 1959), 
p. 4. 



26 

It seems reasonably well-founded to say that Rossi did not live 
beyond both the plague of 1629-30 and the fall of Mantua in 1630. 
Gifted composers such as Salomone Rossi do not suddenly stop 
writing. The last of his 13 books of published compositions appeared 
in 1628. After that date, creativity ceased. In the words of Graden- 
witz, ". . , and the short but magnificent intermezzo in the story of 
the music of Israel thus came to a sudden and tragic end/' 9 

Family Genealogy 

Several sources trace Rossi's family lineage back to the begin- 
ning of the Diaspora. The descendent of a prominent family, his 
pedigree has been traced to the destruction of the Second Temple 
in 70 A. D. When the Emporer Titus captured Jerusalem, he brought 
back to Rome four important Jewish families. 10 Of these, the family 
known in Hebrew as Min-ha-Adomim became Italianized as De' 
Rossi." 

The earliest member of that learned family to achieve promi- 
nence in Italy was Solomon de'Rossi, whose writings we come upon 
in the 13th Century. 12 His book, a primer of religious disputation, 
was intended for Jewish scholars who ". . . were inevitably compelled 
from time to time to enter into discussion on religious questions or 
to defend their faith against attack." 13 

An immediate forbear of Salomone Rossi, Ebreo, and once again 
a writer, was Azariah de'Rossi, author of the famous book Me 7 or 
Einayim which brought Renaissance standards of historical criticism 
to Jewish scholarship. 14 The title, meaning "The Enlightenment of the 
Eyes" had its genesis in questions asked by a Christian scholar with 
regard to various problems of Jewish history.' 5 Azariah de'Rossi 
considered Hebrew literature and history in the light of sources 
available only in Greek. 16 Cecil Roth refers to him as ". . . the most 
important Jewish literary figure of the Renaissance period in Italy/' 17 

9. Peter Gradenewitz, toe, cit. 

10. A. Z. Idelson, Jewish Music (New York: Tudor Publishing Company, 
1948), pp. 196-197. 

11. Cecil Roth, The History of the Jews of Italy (Philadelphia: The Jewish 
Publication Society of America, 1946), p. 13. 

12. Ibid., pp. 149-150. 

13. Ibid. 

14. Max Wurmbrand and Cecil Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (New 
York: Shengold Publishers, 1967), p. 206. 

15. Roth, op.ciL, p. 218. 

16. Ibid. 

17. Cecil Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia: Jewish Pub- 
lication Society of America, 1959), p. 285. 



27 

In the life of Azariah de'Rossi we have the first indication that 
the family, or part of it, had moved from Rome. In 1571, while at 
Ferrara, he took refuge in the country from a series of earthquake 
shocks. He is referred to as Bonaiuto (Azariah) de'Rossi, a native 
of Mantua and resident of Bologna prior to Ferrara. 18 Yet, the 
Enciclopedia della Musica refers to Salomone Rossi as *\ . . figlio 
del umanista Asaria dei Rossi (m. 1578) . . ." (son of the humanist 
Asariah dei Rossi (died 1578). ,9 If Azariah de'Rossi was not in 
Mantua around 1570 when Salamone de'Rossi was born, he was 
probably a close relative as Roth suggests. 20 Conversely, since Salo- 
mone's birthdate is not accurate, perhaps he was born before 1570 
and outside of Mantua. In that event, it is possible, as Grove's 
Dictionary states, that he ". . . is now proved to have been the son 
of the humanist philosopher, Asaria dei Rossi (c. 1514-78 )." 21 

In keeping with this heritage, ". . . it is significant and highly 
characteristic of the age, that in the same family Hebraic and secular 
interests, synagogal inspiration and court activities were so intimately 
connected." 22 One is impressed by the cultural contribution of the 
Rossis during the reign of the Gonzagas in Mantua. Grove mentions 
numerous members of the family who participated at court. 23 First 
and foremost, was Salamone De Rossi, instrumentalist (viol and 
violin), singer, orchestra conductor, composer and teacher of the 
violin. A famous singer and actress, known as 'Madama Europa/ 
from her creation of the part of Europa in 'L'idropica, an early music 
drama of Monteverdi, was either the wife or sister of Salomone. The 
close relationship is reflected in the names of her two sons, 
Benaiuto and Angelo alluding to the grandfather, Benaiuto (Aza- 
riah) de Rossi, who passed away before they were born. (Angelo may 
have been an Italianized version of Azariah). Roth mentions Anselmo 
(— Asher) de'Rossi as Madama Europa's own son, who was among 
the collaborators in Frederico Malgarini's collection of motets. 24 
(Motets are religious polyphonic-contrapuntal songs of the Renais- 
sance period). 

18. Cecil Roth, The History of the Jews in Italy (Philadelphia: Jewish 
Publication Society of America, 1946), p. 218. 

19. Claudio Sartori (ed.), Enciclopedia della Musica (Milano: G. Recordi 
and Company, 1964), IV, 61. 

20. Roth, op. cit. y p. 288. 

21. Blom, loc. cit. 

22. Cecil Roth, The Jews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia: Jewish Pub- 
lication Society of America, 1959), p. 288. 

23. Blom, loc. cit 

24. Roth, op. ciu t p. 286. 



28 

Anselmo's composition was a three-voiced motet entitled Aperi 
Oculos Meos (I Opened My Eyes). This was printed at Mantua in 
1618. 25 Perhaps a coincidence, or perhaps not, the title of the com- 
position bears a resemblance to his grandfather's book, Me' or 
Einayim (The Enlightenment of the Eyes). Holde refers to Anselmo 
as an acknowledged lute player in addition to being a composer. 26 
Still another musical Rossi was Matteo, a bass singer who appeared 
in a Mantua court pay list of 1621. 27 The literary heritage of the 
family was carried on by Bastiano de Rossi who is mentioned as a 
writer of the period. 28 Such was the lineage from which emerged the 
outstanding Jewish musician of the Renaissance — and a musical 
creator of universal importance. 

25. Blom, loc. cit. 

26. Holde, op. cit., p. 174. 

27. Blom, loc. cit. 

28. Ibid. 



MUSIC SECTION 



29 



KlDDUSH 




&Q-RUCHA-TO A-DO-HOy E-LO-fc-NU M& LUH HQ*o - Jgtf B0-& p>Rl H A ~ 



IHHI 



± 



wm 



& 



mrr 



l. f fp i 



g Ckoit Ma/y ^ ____ _ 



£0 - FEN o — MEN &0~ tyCHA-TO A- OO-H&j E-LO-Hl-NO m-UCH 



wm 



wm 



m 



p 



3 



e^t^ 



rn 



r 



frf-i? . I J j j T "F 7h r _ f r fe u 




HO-Q-LOm 



3 - -SME7? HlfrSW-JW B'* fiHT$Y0-$OY V- RO-TJC SO — NU 




^Ff-^-^-f J ^ i ; j r ^ 






— /» - HA-VO i/y- Ro * r.*w h//v» c«;- uo- ffu 




i^ 



s 



SS3 



^^= 3: 






" OT" 



30 



g= r f> J ) i j Jh^-rf^ ^ ^ ^-O c fi 






fe 



^ 



WW? 



M 



iifaiita 



P^ 







^ 



-&&$H SC-CHZR Ll-T$f— AS MtTS'RA-ytri 



Hi \0-NU \C-CHAH-TC 



m^m 




J=--l^ 



^ 



i=^ 



IE 



^ 




t j^D^gfc S jSj 



Y-0 - SO-HU Kl-DASW-TO W-KCL HO-A-MlM V-i«AaMK0^>*WMfl'/^-«/^•V^. 



^ 



w^ 



^ 



i 



i 



£ 




3 



T 



^^^^^ 



=r 



f f 



^^S^SSS 



^ 







WP 



f 



^ 



i^l 



*e 



19 



te=^P 



^31 



o 



^ 



M 



¥ 



J 



^ 



31 



yshomru . 



U^c.AdAt 




UTX**\Ti*UU X-[ 






§111 



g £g=R 



\l'-SHOHt'-KU, yf-Nefi-Ho-EL » HA-SHt 



=&^ 



c^ 



t^3= 



P*J 






-B« LA-*-SOSESHfWlk6esi:-l>0~?W-SM f t8'M O- U>m Bi-MiWH&mpfy 




32 



Socharti loch . &./f£d, 

p %€l t nit ti#£& 5*rfflkdt//t4 wtfrtfqgvt. —^^ » ^"TTl *- 



So - <*MKT/ L<*# <TA£ -SEbN'U— $A *jiM A HA-VAS H'-U}.LO~$0 - y/CH 




RETS 



lo %'*M — oh v~ ys - MAR 



iste&s^^ 



V'StxHAWTt A— Hi £S a'— 



^^g^SSSSfSBSSi 



^-fll — Si - SOCH Bt-rft H'-U- ZA-y/£H VA- HAW MO-SI ICOf&HlS O-loMvA-HA-Hl 



^^s r^ 



us^m ^imms ^^^ 



tiAR HA ~ V£/s> >>»-><'« 




^^EpJ^ ^g^Bs 










ow* 



«. KEN tiO-MU ME'AS LO ffA~ tf«W A- 



Es.K'-GE'Hl/ CD AL KEN HO-MU ME-Af LO M 







RA-CHA-ME- HU N'— UM A-D0 - N<?Y ({A cH£M a- 






REPRISE 33 



THE KOL NIDRE TUNE 

A. Z. IDELSOHN. Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, Ohio 

THE tune of the Kol Nidre text became one of the most 
outstanding melodies of the Ashkenazic Synagogue. While 
the text, a mere renouncement of vows, is devoid of religious 
emotions, its musical setting is generally accepted as an expression 
of the deep religious feelings which move the Jewish heart on the 
eve of the Day of Atonement. There is hardly any other tradi- 
tional Jewish tune that has attracted so much attention from 
the composers of the last century. Innumerable are the arrange- 
ments for voice with piano, organ, or violin accompaniment and 
violoncello obligato. We have the exalted melody prepared for 
choir and small orchestra. And last but not least is the concerto 
by Max Bruch. In the first bars of Beethoven's C# minor quartet, 
the opening theme of Kol Nidre is recognizable. Thus, has the 
music world come to consider this the most characteristic tune 
of the Synagogue, 

It is, therefore, quite natural that the tune should have 
aroused much interest concerning its origin and its composer. 
And many writers have voiced widely varying opinions. Caught 
by the introductory motive, some believed that they found traces 
of gypsy music. Others ventured to declare the music's birthplace 
among the Marranos, in Spain, because to their ears the tune 
seems to express such fear as would suit the state of mind of the 
Marranos, escaping the watchful eye of the Inquisition, assembled 
in hidden cellars on the eve of Yom Kippur to pour out their 
contrite spirit to the God of their fathers. Others thought the 
tune a derivation of Byzantine church-song. 

Before we proceed with the investigation of the tune, we shall 
make a brief comment on the text. The oldest known reference 
to the text dates back to the 9th century. Natronai Gaon, who 
mentions Kol Nidre, says that it was not customary to recite 
it in the Babylonian academies nor in any place in Babylonia, 
but that he had heard that there were countries where it was 



34 

used. He adds that "we never heard it from our teachers. " l 
Amram Gaon says that some recite the Kol Nidre, "but the 
holy academy announced it as a foolish custom and it is pro- 
hibited to do so (i. e. recite it). M * Neither was Kol Nidre cus- 
tomary in the Palestinian ritual. As the opening of the service 
on the Eve of Atonement, the Palestinians recited Psalms 130 
and 103. 2-22. 3 Amram gives a version of the text of Kol Nidre 
entirely in Hebrew, which is about the same as that by Saadia, 
who writes the opening five words in Aramaic and the rest in 
Hebrew. 4 The same version, with slight variations is found in 
Mafczor Roumania and Roma-Italy, as is obvious from the 
comparative table given below. The text in Mahzor Aleppo 
(Venice 1527) is a fusion of those of Saadia, Amram, and Sep- 
hardic versions, in a combination of Aramaic and Hebrew. 

The original text related to vows made in the preceding year, 
but Jacob Tarn in the name of his father, Meir b. Samuel, 
shifted the reference to vows that might be made in the coming 
year. This version, speaking not of the past but of the future, 5 
was accepted by the Ashkenazic ritual only, while the Sephardic- 
Oriental and Yemenite rituals retained the old version and added 
the sentence trhvb lrby ku*» nn« omssn dv ny run Dmson ovov 
The Aleppo ritual recites first the old version and then an 
abbreviated form of the revised version according to R. Tam. 5a 

1 Comp. Asher b. Yehiel (Rosh) to Yoma VIII end: *nvz t& y:rr\i yn 
onon* m3n« "inbqp t3yo» n^n ,D"rpa k 1 ?! n'-u ab om: ~vnnb oipo biz nVi nu*tp' 
Vr irnuno uyo» «^i u'tn n 8 ? un bin .mj bo. See also Hammanhig, Kippur 56. 

* Seder R. Amram, Warsaw 1862, 47a: mosp )n:DB> ntynprr Knavio n^ bin 
}o mvyb "iidki n? Kin. 

i See J. Mann, H.U.C. Annual, vol. II, pp. 327ff. T. Soferim 19.2 gives 
these psalms for Yom Kippur. 

« Quoted by Asher b. Yehiel to Yoma I. c. 

s Comp. Hammanhig 1. c. and Asher b. Yehiel I. c. This change is prin- 
cipally based on M. Nedarim IV. R. Jacob Tarn maintained that vows that 
have been neglected cannot be annulled, Abudraham, Kippur; Asher b. Yehiel 
I. c. See Kol Nidre by Israel Davidson, American Jewish Yearbook 1923-1924, 
p. 180ff. 

**H. D. J. Asulai introduced into The Synagogue "Talmud Torah" in 
Jerusalem, the custom of repeating Kol Nidre three times according to the 
original version, and a fourth time according to J. Tarn's correction. Cf, 
Luncz, Jerusalem, Vol. I p. 3&, 



35 



Another textual correction was made by Meir Rothenburg. 
He omitted the words "n Kijn Km and airaa, 6 and inserted 
]ira N3D"inn^"i. 7 The Kol Nidre is recited three successive times. 
The Talmud prescribes that every Rabbinic announcement be 
made three times. 8 The Aleppo ritual provides that Kol Nidre 
be recited seven times. We see that the recitation of the Kol Nidre 
was not originally customary in Babylonia and Palestine. In 
those countries where it became customary, both words and 
meaning underwent revisions. Only toward the end of the 13th 
century did the text take final shape. 

The protests that became loud after the beginning of the last 
century led some Reform congregations to eliminate the Kol 
Nidre text entirely. 9 Others composed new texts or, following 
the old Palestinian custom, substituted for it Psalm 130. A. Geiger 
in his prayer-book (1st ed.), the editors of the Hamburg reform 
prayer-book (beginning with the 4th ed.) and the Gebetbuck 
fiir das game Jahr (Frankfurt a/M, 1929) edited by Seligman, 
Elbogen and Vogelstein, gave texts which utilize, for traditional 
flavor, those key phrases of Kol Nidre familiar to every Jewish 
tongue, yet voice not an abnegation of vows but the compelling 
emotions of the Jew on Yom Kippur eve. 

So far as is known there is no record as to whether Kol Nidre 
was originally chanted or simply read. The only reference to 
voice is that in M. Vitry (p. 388) which prescribes the raising 
of the voice with each repetition of the text. The first source 
that mentions a musical rendition of Kol Nidre is Maharil: 
D^irw 12 yMV pa, "Indeed, he (the precentor) shall prolong it 
with song until night." This statement suggests rather improvised 
chanting than a fixed melody. Around 1600 Mordecai Jaffe of 
Prague speaks of the rjazzanim as using a certain fixed tune 
which, because of its connection with the text, was a stumbling 
block to any change of that text. 10 From M. Jaffe's emphasis 

6 Abudraham 1. c. - Tashbez, § 134. 

1 M. Menahoth X, 3, b. Men. 65a. 

* The Rabbinical Conference at Brunswick in 1844 decided that the Kol 
Nidre text is not essential and should be abolished. 

10 Levush, § 6\9 t Prague 1701. The Hebrew text is given in my essay 
'Song and Singers, etc." in the H.U.C- Jubilee Volume 1925, p. 406. 



36 

D^rnn way n d^dp ma hi ]wh ^o, "Kol Nidre that the yazzanim 
now sing/* it may be deduced that this was still considered an 
innovation in his time. He also praises the quality of the tune 
na^n nmn n^k cms aw ah yto which means that already at his 
time the tune was highly regarded. Since, as we are led to believe, 
there was no fixed tune as yet known during Maharil's time 
(1356^1427) while at the time of Jaffe (1530-1612) the Kol Nidre 
tune was established though apparently new, we may tentatively 
posit that the tune was created between the middle of the 15th 
and the middle of the 16th centuries. The assumption that the 
statement of Jaffe indicates that the tune was composed in 
Prague will be refuted later on, by the very nature of the tune. 

The literary sources are vague and unconvincing. In order 
to determine the structure, time, and birthplace of the tune we 
must turn to a more reliable source, namely, to the tune itself. 

In the first place we must know and bear in mind the fact 
that the Kol Nidre tune is utterly unknown to all but the Ash- 
kenazim, i.e., the adherents of the tradition and the ritual of the 
German Jews. 11 Thus is evidenced the fallacy of the assumption 
that the Spanish Jews created the tune. Nowhere do their 
descendants in the Orient or in Europe use this melody supposed 
by some to be reminiscent of their suffering as Marranos. 

But aside from all arguments based on external evidence 
the tune itself, by its elements and style, testifies to its being a 
product of the Ashkenazic Synagogue, created in Southern 
Germany, Musical science teaches us that a musical selection 
dates and places its own origin by its elements and its form, 
just as art objects, antique and modern, relate their own history 
and explain their birthplace and the period in which they were 
created. So also does a tune, be it folk, popular or art music, 
bear the stamp of a certain period, being constructed out of 
musical elements belonging to a certain people in a certain 
country. Thus we can recognize a Slavic, German, Gypsy, 
Tartaric, or Spanish tune. A Gregorian chant will easily be 

11 The Oriental and Sephardic Jews chant Kol Nidre in the Seliba or 
Tefilla modes, comp. F. Consolo, Libro dei Canto d'Israele, No. 346; A. Z. 
Idelsohn, Thesaurus of Hebrew Oriental Melodies, vol. I, No. 114; vol. Ill, 
No. 79; vol. IV, No. 259; and vol. V, No. 208. 



37 



distinguished from a Methodist hymn, and a tune by Schubert 
from an American jazz hit. But even within the music of a people 
creations of different periods can easily be recognized. Nobody 
who has any knowledge of music will take a piece of music by 
Richard Strauss as having been composed in the time of Bach, 
or the composer of a Minnesong as having been a contemporary 
of Beethoven, just as nobody will be so fooled as to believe that 
the "Rhapsodie in Blue" employs the same elements and style 
as a piece of music by Henry Purcell. The mere hearing of 
certain music is sufficient for the determination of its elements 
and style, of its people and its period. Where music is less definitely 
of a type, or where more detailed differentiations are sought, 
we must resort to careful scientific analyses and comparisons. 
The same elements of time and geography hold true with the 
Song of the Synagogue. Its oldest stratum is the Biblical modes. 
These though common to all Jewish groups of the Diaspora, 
have in the course of time developed modifications, in each 
group, which stamp them with local features, so that an untrained 
musician will fail to recognize immediately the common elements 
of the chants of the various groups. But everybody will at once 
recognize them as being of a particular and the same musical type. 
Like the other Jewish communities, so the Ashkenazim 
created during their stay in Germany Synagogue songs of different 
periods. To one of these periods belong the so-called "Missinai" 
songs. 12 They all have the same style and are constructed to a 
certain extent of the same elements. To this groups of songs 
belong: Alenu, Aboth, Hammelech, Kaddish, Wehakkohanim, 
etc., and the tune of Kol Nidre. In earlier discussions I have 
proved the similarity of the elements of these songs as well as 
their common style. 13 Here we must confine our attention to the 
Kol Nidre tune. 

" The name "Missinai" is nowhere recorded in connection with songs. 
Sefer Hasidim, ed. Freimann, Frankfort a/M 1924, § 817 applies this term 
to the Biblical modes. 

13 In my essay "Der Missinaigesang der deutschen Synagoge," Z.f. M. 
(Leipzig 1926) pp. 449-472; Jewish Music, etc. (New York 1929), chap. VIII; 
Der jiidische Tempelgesang, in Adler's Handbuch d. Musikgeschichte, 2nd ed, 
p. 149n*. 



38 

The oldest musical notation of the Kol Nidre thus far dis- 
covered is that by Ahron Beer, cantor in Berlin. 1765-1821. He 
included it in a collection of Synagogal songs, about 1765. 14 
His version contains the essential elements of the tune as it is 
known up to the present. We give Beer's version as No. 1, No. 2 
is the version that S. Naumbourg copied in 1840 from L. Sanger, 
cantor in Munich, and published with slight variants in his 
Recueil de Chants Religieux (Paris 1874). No. 3 is the form into 
which Lewandowski shaped the tune in his Kol Rinnah (Berlin 
1871, No. 107). His version became the standard form of the tune 
in the German Synagogue. No. 4 is the version used in Eastern 
Europe, which Abraham Baer gave with some variants in his 
Baal Tfillah (1877), No. 1301. 

By comparing the four versions we see that the first part of 
the tune, designated (a) is alike in all, while in the parts (b) and 
(c) marked variants are noticeable. Nearest to part (b) in 
Ahron Beer's version are Lewandowski's (b) (bl) and (cl). 
However, the (b) parts of all versions and the (c) of the first 
three have several elements in common. Those elements peculiar 
to each version are: in No. 1 the part marked I, in No. 2 the 
parts I, II and III, and in No. 4 the part (c). The Kol Nidre 
motives are marked with numbers and presented in parallel 
listings: 

in No. 1, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 

in No. 2, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. - 10. 11. 12. — 14. 15. 

in No. 3, 1. - 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. - 10. 13. 14. 15. 

in No. 4, 1. 2. 3. 7. - - 10. 11. 12. 16(?). 

From this chart we see that No. 4 has only seven motives (1,2, 
3, 7, 10. 11, 12) in common with the other versions. On the 
other hand, it has elements which are not employed in the 
other versions. Some motives are employed several times. 

The versions vary also in the order in which their component 
motives are arranged. The reason for this sort of shifting light 
from the same color material grows out of the type of song to 
which this tune belongs. We have in the Synagogue Song, the 
modal form, which consists of a number of motives that can be 

** Of this MS. an excerpt was made by E, Birnbaum, which is found in the 
H.IJ.C. Library, published in Vol. VI of my Thesaurus. 



39 

fused together to a melodic line, in an improvised manner, 
according to the momentary inspiration of the singer. On the 
other hand, we find fixed melodies with a stable structure, which 
cannot be changed. There are also tunes which retained the 
modal character and to these belong the "Missinai" songs. 
They have a fixed beginning and ending and have certain motives 
of their own which give them original characteristics. But within 
the frame of the song, these motives run fluid in the interpretation 
of each singer. In other words, each singer, while remaining 
faithful to the elements (or motives) peculiar to the tune, ex- 
presses his own personality through the order in which he uses 
them. In some localities nevertheless, the succession of the 
motives of a tune became definite; and that particular order, 
acquired — in its home — the sanction of "tradition". Hence the 
complaint of M. Jaffe of Prague that he could not correct the 
text of Kol Nidre, due to the fixed shape the tune had acquired 
among the Hazzanim in Prague. The partial freedom for the 
singer in this type of song explains the existence of the variants 
of the tunes in various localities. 

Some motives are employed simultaneously in several "Mis- 
sinai" tunes. The opening motive of Kol Nidre is found also as an 
opening to "Hammelech." Motive 1 is found in "Yotzer 'or 
ubore hoshech" and in "Alenu," motive 4 (in No. 1) in "Kaddish" 
(be'olma), motive 5 in "Aboth" and "Alenu," and motive 16 
is employed as concluding motive in "Alenu" and "Aboth" 
(cf. No. 5b). This last-named motive was retained in the Kol 
Nidre tune only in the East European version. 15 

Thus is this tune related to the other "Missinai" songs not 
only in its form and structure but also in its elements. The 
same loose form and the predominance of the motives as well as 
the manner in which the same motives are employed in various 
tunes was common in the Minnesong which flourished in Germany 
during the llth-lSth centuries. And not only in form were the 
"Missinai" tunes influenced by the Minnesong, but also in ele- 
ments some of which were borrowed and incorporated. Just as the 
Minnesinger built his music out of his folk-song and familiar 

»* Comp. J.E. vol. VII, p. 546. 



40 

Gregorian chant, 16 so Synagogue composers created their melodies 
out of their musical fund: their Biblical and Prayer modes and 
snatches of songs or styles from their Gentile environment. The 
motive 16 in version 4 which is found also in "Alenu" and 
"Aboth, M as mentioned above, is a frequent closing motive in 
the Minnesong, 17 (cf. No. 5b) the fact that it has been omitted 
from the German version of Kol Nidre (Nos. 1-3) notwithstanding. 
Since in Ahron Beer's writing of the "Alenu" and "Aboth" this 
motive is still employed, 18 it seems that the omission occurred 
in the 18th century. 

Some elements of the Kol Nidre such as motives 2, 7 and 11 
show even the influence of the so-called ars nova, of the 16th- 
17th centuries. Rooted in the Biblical modes are motives 1, 3, 5, 
12, 13, 14, obviously imitations of familiar musical figures of 
Biblical reading. Motives 1-2 are variations of darga-tebir, 5 from 
etnatha, 13 from sof pasuq, and 14 from rebia 19 — all, of the Prophetic 
mode, while motive 3 seems to be derived from the tebir of the 
Esther Mode. 

The reason for this drawing of the musical material so largely 
from the mode of the Prophets would seem to lie in the nature 
of that mode with its minor scale, and its pleading and consoling 
character so suitable to this occasion. 

These motives are all according to the Ashkenazic tradition, 
as they are used in southwestern Germany, 20 differing in several 
details from the East-European tradition. The composer of the 
tune would seem to have lived in Central Europe and have been 
reared and educated in the Southwestern tradition. This placement 
of the composer is further determined by the evident influence 
upon him of the Minnesong which flourished in southern Ger- 
many. 

»* Cf. H. Riemann, Handbuch d. Musikgesch. vol, III, p. 232ff.; A, W. 
Ambros, Musikgeschichte, vol. Ill, 3 ed., p. 271ff. 

x * See Die Jenaer Handschrijt ed. E. Bernoulli and F. Saran (Leipzig 1901), 
pp. 8-9, 40, 69. 

11 See Jewish Music, etc. pp. 148, 150. 

*» See illustrations in No. 5. 

20 Com p. J.E. vol. Ill cantillation pp. 540-545; S. Scheuermann, Die 
GottesdienstL Gesdnge d, Israelites Frankfort a/M 1912, p. 88. 



41 

In summary: The tune of Kol Nidre shows direct influence of 
the Minnesong. It is composed in great part of motives drawn 
from the Biblical mode of the Prophets. The mere fact that the 
mode of the Prophets is employed according to the Ashkenazic 
tradition and that the etnahta motive" is used according to South 
German custom, (cf. No. 5a) determines the locality of the 
composer as Southern Germany, while the influence of the 
Minnesong sets the creation into the period of the Minnesong 
probably the later part of the period, since Maharil did not know 
of a set melody for Kol Nidre. 

The composer did not intend apparently to voice the literal 
meaning of the text; he rather wanted to give musical expression 
to the intention of the text, to the emotions of the Jew as he ap- 
proaches God on the most solemn Day of Atonement. In the first 
part of the tune he expresses his contrition and his plea for 
forgiveness. In the second part he voices his hope in the mercy of 
God; and finishes in the third part with strong confidence that 
God will pardon him and inscribe him in the Book of Life. 

Saadia Amram 

•yuan nDNi *onm "n: \>3 niyiaan dhicki dhtj bo 

mowon uD-innen uto *ovpi mown mnaa? ,Y&m ynvp\ 
dvd irm»B3 *?y wpen wyawan iw©j *?y wpan uyatwan lwirren 
ir*?y ton nrn ovn ny nayp dhidd ny nayt? omsan ova ,nyura 
irn« ^Dh i3«3i ana mm vbo D^iaa ,ir^y «an nrn amsan ov 
]hd yn mna "in: dn o'Draw dk .crorap ira« ^sh unai mm 
1«d T« mow -non* d«i nn3 nyiap dhi ,tu i«a yn mia tu 
1«3 v« i3onn Din dk iid^m ovp as ,nyiap ]*o v» uyaro 
• • . avp dk ,nnn man *7aa ,ovp i*o yn wp 
follows Amram ^oa ,mp*yD nyupn n^aa ,np'yo 

k^i ,TT3 «*? |wa i*w r np'yo Dvpn 

,ovp »^i nyup k 1 ?! ann k 1 ?! id*k 

ainaa ,msai nn^^ n^no jna hp 

• . • rhoy\ imina 

aj Comp. the difference between the German and the East-European 
versions of the etnahta motive. The latter version is best given in Li&Ursatnmel- 
buck etc. ed. Juwal, Berlin No. 87. 



42 



Aleppo 

'Din *?3i not* *?3i ma ^3 

tODinil N31Dtm H3TT31 'yue> *?31 

iy iay» D'iis3 dvd loyanwn 
ona i3i?n d^id nrn dhiw dv 

KTI3 ^3 ,D'DtP3E? 13'3M '3S*7 13K31 
K31DK1 1DH ^31 ,113 N1' xb N3in31 

WDim Din ^31 1DN «rr «*? 
tuyanwn nyup ^3i .am «n* n 1 ? 
• • . n^oai 3^313 ,nyiatp Kin xb 
D^oyD nyat? nr flow I'inni) 
hdk *?3i ma *?3 (:d'1din 3'nNT 
yanwn nown ni3i 'Din *?3i 
av iy nrn D'iiD3n dvd D'imii 

D'*?D3 VI' 0*73 N31 D'llEDI 
l'D"p t6l 1'1'ltf N 1 ? D^D3D1 

nr onoiKi) . . . n!?D3i 3'n3i3 
.(D'Dys ny3P p D3 



Ital. 

laenpn onpn on . . . ama *?3 
enpnn *?03 * * . tnpn ]xd yx 
. * . npyo 

Sephardic (London) 
'Dim *yi3cn 'Idni ma bi 

K31-T3 '1 'D3ipi 'TOipi 'D3ipi "1131 

K3'i3 m K3Din m Kayanew m 

D'1133 DVD K3IWJD3 ^y N31DN '11 

kdv ,nrn Dms3n dv ny iay» 
nanyiaan ma n 1 ? nana .ubvh la'by 
KaiD«i 'Din xb Naomi *yia& k 1 ? 
TP'3en Tn'DP pm jin^D .not* «*? 
. . . n^oai ,]'D"p 161 i'1'i^ xb 



Ashkenazic (Heidenheim) 

'oaipi 'Dim 'idni ma ^3 
Manai .myiaen 'Dia'pi "ia'3i 
*?y fcuiDNTi toonntm .toyantMcn 
dv iy nr o'iiB3 dvd *,tunpsa 
ynbo ,naioV la'^y tan d'Iisd 

,TW 111' pi^3 ,]113 N3Din« 

xb t yba2m o'bvi .ywzv .yp'iv 

'113 xb K3113 ,y&p t^l 1'1'ltP 

. . . n^oai ** i niyia» xb Kanyiaen 



Sephardic Oriental 

D'11£)3n DVD . . . m3 *?3 

nap nrn o'lison dv iy iayp 
nrn o'nion ovdi) ahvh 13'^y 
13'^y kttb? in» omsan dv iy 
ynhz .now xb widki . . . (mhvb 
pn' 'i Niyi «n» pna tuoinnn 
. . . Tn*3&> 



Hamburg Prayer-book 

1D1 1BW ^NIP' '33 ma ^»3 

^33 ybx yivb ia'3« i!? D'ima 
rmto "|nnn '3113 n3*?^ ,D33^ 
iy nr 0*1103 dvd ^dcipdi npis 
o*?3 .naiD^ 13'Vy ton d'hm dv 



A. Geiger's Prayer-book 1854 

'ypsi nrn ^>npn *y»si *yiw> ^3 
ia3D oTaym ono hxnvr ~\oy bo 

nr D'1103 DVD 133*7 mttt ,^3^ 

.n3iD^> 13'by tan d'iidd dv iy 
yx D'B^yo ,ntoia iann ,i3tt?a 133^? 



43 



lyocn ixti inti ly^an iku'1 lby* 
onir nw ra »pi .noma -ps'jD 
Hdb> hn nta^i rannV oaa^o |m 



*?k mm to ,iaaytw "inpixa r un« 

u'niavya ,uraK isy o uaryn 

3ioan ^k to 



Sefer Mahkim 

dv ty nay^ TOO DVD . . . * 

. . . nana 1 ? ir^y tan too 
1'mbj -wan DinD iowm . . .** 
. . . nbon airoa napn ih 



Gebetbuch 1929 
ma "wk btirw *aa ma Va 

,tu yotp tuK u^ip ♦aonai noto 
dvd ,p:na ^ap waianm ir»rn 
ia*^y tan ansa dv ny nr dhibs 
•p'ya yin unon -^ ivn*?« .raiaV 
*?y to— ay to^ro to-nbo ,u*»y 
-p*?K .rfco^ nmoi nirni pan yp© 
ntpy ,ia»Vn ~p laainoa .wy niKwa 
.man itPto iaoy 



44 



(«) 



Ahron Beer, 1765 



i. fefe^ i3te ^7fr-ji,rj. J'r- Ji gs 



=^E 



1. tr. 



3S 



■^f -J~ 



^ 



^3 



*3" k 



^32 



*l * 



eg 



f-r* 



§^ 



S33 



J * 



^^ 




3. 



pi£ 



*^=r*Z*T* 



& 



tra 









$ 



Sft 



, » ^J f II i 1 



ft' t J J n i = -j-f v f^ 



fe^ 



^^^ ^ ^^ t^^ 






-#-^-#-t^ 3-y 



♦• ££•<» 



^g l-jtcj rj m 



tr. 



*=£z=^ 



r^ i 



u 






^ 



-*-*-* 



Fine 



10. 



.<*> rrn 



^t* 



i 



45 



■& ^-KF H 1 1 1 W- 




op 14 



D.S. al Fine. 



ftr \jg \tf inMRLtiujtytf . 



+-r+^ 



I 



(«) 



S. Naumbourg, 1840-74 



2.^S 



± 



=i= 



%h±#L 



fy. t \j *± = S 



?2 *" 



$ 



1. 



-&—T- 



r I J # m J 1J 



*s 



* 



r i i i r 



(^ 



2. 



4=c 



^^ 



*= f • ? f-=F= ^ x »-* 



i 



*" r- fl/Lfi'i'h H-J * J « ^-^-f 




r i a 




46 



II 






w- 



3i 



^=Fr 



• * ' .* ■ 



-<»- -J5T 



75* *-# 



^ 



^5? 




11. 



12. 



14. 



^7hr°.rtfrfr ^s 



■^fCertcrcf 



r> i x 



3= 




rr 



m 



SEQ 



^ 



*Z^Tj£ 



I 1 J d * -g 

j _j — e_z 1 



+-*- 



dr-# 



P^^^^P 



gf^jp 



-< g. X 



« m 

m 



15. 



*=F 



i 



pp 



^E 



^ 



r? rr 



L. Lewandowski, 1871 



&> 



(«) 



opening 



i 



3.<fo Wi J. jz J ' ehf 



I N N 



gJ • ¥ 



± ty J J J 1 1 ^1 J, JJJ J.tj J J J 



I 



tea 






S 



47 



1. darga tebir Prophets 



jft ins [LIS 



TT=F? 



I 3. darga tebir Es- 



1 



-*-?-* 



^J 4_Jf 



$ 



ther : sequence 

fr> J | ! ,-K 

' b * * J 1J 



Ji-J-U- 



*» — * 



H 



i r 



opening 



=t=3= 



=K=E 



±3t 



* 1 * tyj J 



fer 



s 



=p^= 



tFilW- 1 ^- 1 ^- ' ;| J ^^ 



££ 



ethnahta, Prophets | 
(b) 4. 1 5. 



^ 



T 



^ 



^ 



=» 



V-J-' " ' 



P 



7. 



(c) 10. 



m 



32Z 



TJ^Sr 



*♦-*■ ** 



-<SH 




Esther 1 



13. pesiq sof pasuqT) . 

Prophets j | 14. rebia Prophets 



^ j i j * \ J jgi^ 



V 



^ 




I (b) I 4. 



5. etnahta Prophets | 6. 






W'tTn^jtr 



IS. ^ 10. (c) I 



3. 



m 



' ^n^fjif j^ 



darga tebir Esther 



13. pesiq sof pasuq Prophets 



j^ r\ n ff i k = 



48 



&> 



6. (c) II. 



ft — r— T- 



■^-#-*-#^=^±-^: 



7. Minnesong and ars nova 




±+Z 



^ htH^^^ ^fffj 



15. 



-A-4— t- 



I3^£ 



I 



*- pe^b^ E^ 



According to Abrahams Baer, 1877 



=P 



■^ 



-<s>- 



t -x 



fc=3= 



*=£* 



^ 



1. 



■* 4 \ K Z ' 



r rlc f^' ^ c/ l 



#c 



f ji j ^wuA- l r • g ^ 



* 



fc4=f 



g 



3P=ff£ 



Ermri'ibabHf P 



f * 1 . # 



^ J » JU 



=K=¥ 



£ f * J- P x tf+iTf* 



r 



i 



A «>• to * '3 

fa — ' — * 



s^=* 



=s=^= 






12. 



*,*• r 



^af^ 



5-^2Z 



^ 4^^ i > i itn ^gii 



16. 



10. 



3» 



fcfjttef i r r iJ i Jw ^ 



ISi 



BE 



y i u -v 



49 



psJ^i 




f^=FT 






-*-#-4^ 



5&E 




(a) Mode of the Prophets 



s -^s 



T^rnn 



darga tebir 



3= 



r-*~; I : 



p ^ « * ; 



etnahta 

3 



3 



TTiJ j B 



tifha sof pasuq pesiq sof pasuq 

Mode of Esther. (East European) 






^Pt 



±3t 



3= 



[_ L_i 1 f_ 



j^y* 



rebia 



darga tebir etnahta. 

(Minnesong by Meyster Kelyn)