Cantors Assembly Journal of Synagogue Music

JOURNAL

F SYNAGOGUE MUSIC

FEBRUARY 1971/SHEVAT 5731

Volume III

Number 2

CONTE NTS

The Influence of J ewish Music
and Thought in Certain
Works of Leonard Bernstein

Notes on Music Old and New

Abraham Lubin 3
Max Wohlberg 15

The Importance of ROSSI in the
Musical Life of the
Mantuan Court

Dr. Daniel Chamnoff 20

DEPARTMENTS

Music Section

Memorial Service, Three Psalms
FOR male voices

Solomon Sulzer 24

What Is "Optimal" FOR the
H uman Voice

Leo A. Kallen, M.D. 31

SONGS and Singers of the Synagogue

in the 18th Century Abrahum Zevi Idelsohn 43

rc , Volume ZZZ, Number 2

February 1971/Shevat 5731

Published by Cantors Assembly
editor: Morton Shames

itor: Samuel Rosenbaum

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

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

officers of the cahtors 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 10011.

Copyright © 1971, Cantors Assembly

THE INFLUENCE OF JEWISH MUSIC ANDTHOUGHT IN
CER1AIN WORKS OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN

I. LEONARD BERNSTEIN

It is a truism that the earliest experiences and environmental
background of any creative person, would almost inevitably reflect
themselves sooner or later in at least some of the artistic expressions
of that person. More often than not the earliest events and experi-
ences as well as the familial origin and circumstances of a creative
individual, are likely to have a strong and lasting influence upon the
total artistic output of that creative person.

I n the case of the American composer-conductor-pianist Leonard
Bernstein, this fact holds true at least in regard to several of his
major orchestral works to which we shall refer in the course of this
paper. It is in fact the hypothesis of this writer that in certain
major orchestral compositions, Bernstein was greatly influenced by
J ewish musical materials as well as J ewish thought and theology.

Leonard Bernstein, born a J ew, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on
August 25, 1918 to J ennie and Samuel Bernstein was the eldest of
three children born to the Bernsteins.

Samuel Bernstein was in turn the son of a Hassidic scholar and
as such was steeped in religious lore and law, thus enabling him
to appreciate spiritual values over material ones.

From the time Lenny was a child, Samuel made a conscious
and studied effort to instill in the boy what the father described
as 'the godly spirit' ('Ruach Elohim') — through religious
education and an appreciation of life's nobler pursuits*

This family origin of piety and the pursuit of religious values
had a strong influence on the life of Bernstein if only for the fact
that he chose music to be his life long vocation. For certainly the
art of music can easily be categorized as a spiritual or noble pursuit.
It should be pointed out that in Samuel's estimation music was not

1. Belonging to Hassidism, a pietistic and religious movement founded by
Israel Baal Shem Tov (1699-1761) in Volhynia and Podolia.

2. David Ewen, Leonard Bernstein, (Philadelphia: Chilton Book Co.,
1967, p. 8.

Abraham Lubin serves as Hazzan at Rodfei Zedek Congregation of Chicago.
The article was submitted to the Graduate Faculty of De Paul University in
partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music.

regarded as a spiritual endeavor. He, therefore, discouraged his son
from following any career in music. However, this attitude on the
part of the father must be understood in the following context: In
the Russian ghetto, where Bernstein's father had been raised, a
musician was a lowly, humble and impoverished fellow, and it was
this aspect of the musician's lot that the older Bernstein had wished
to avoid in his son's career.

The older Bernstein was once quoted as saying: 'From the
early sixteenth century, my family never made a livelihood in art,
and I didn't want to break this tradition." It seems that it was not
so much that Samuel tried to keep his son away from music, as
much as the fact that he feared that his son may decide to make a
living out of music. To Samuel Bernstein the idea that his son would
become a musician by profession was altogether distasteful. All this,
because of Samual's limited point of reference of what it is to be
a professional musician.

The young Bernstein excelled in his religious studies which he
received at Temple Mishkan Tefila, Boston, Mass. For his con-
firmation he wrote his own speech and chose to do so in the Hebrew
language, a fact that is significant inasmuch as two of his three
symphonies written thus far, employ Hebrew texts as an integral
part of the works.

Bernstein's academic accomplishments are no less creditable
than his well-known professional achievements. A Harvard graduate
with cum laude in music, he had an extraordinary memory and ear.
His ability to read the most complex piece of music with ease; his
talent in translating operatic and orchestral scores at the piano; his
articulation of jotting down precisely his musical thoughts have
brought him plaudits from some of the most distinguished names in
the world of music. Such men as: Dimitri Mitropoulos, Aaron Cop-
land, Marc Blitzstein, William Schuman, Roy Harris, Walter Piston
and Heinrich Gebhard all at one time or another predicted great
achievements by him.

In pursuing our thesis at this point it is most significant to
note that Bernstein, having thus far spent most of his time con-
ducting orchestras or otherwise performing in the concert hall, has
not been too prolific a composer and his total creative output to date
numbers some thirty compositions. Four of these compositions are
either Hebraic or liturgical in nature. This fact becomes even more
significant when we pause to consider that two of these works are

3. Ibid., p. 21 .

symphonies. Having written so far only three symphonies, it is quite
striking and of paramount importance to our thesis the fact that
Bernstein would choose to write two of his three symphonies with
either J ewish musical or theological content.

Bernstein, it seems, is quite aware of these two facts indicated
above. In a recent interview with John Gruen he has been quoted
as saying:

I've written only two works in the last ten years. Since I

took over the Philharmonic (N. Y.) , at the point when I finished

West Side Story, I've done just those two, neither of them for

the theater. Kaddish and Chichester Psalms, Both Biblical in a

way. Something seems to keep making me go back to that book.

And there was Jeremiah.

Of course it all ties back to Daddy. That whole tremendous

influence.'

It is this influence which we shall explore with more detail in
the following chapters.

II. SYMPHONY NO. 1 - JEREMIAH

The first published work by Leonard Bernstein was a Sonata
for Clarinet and Piano which was written in 1941. His first major
orchestral work was the Symphony No. 1, Jeremiah. This work which
was completed in December of 1942, was significantly enough
dedicated to the composer's father who had always impressed upon
his son a love for the Prophetic books of the Bible.

The first performance was given by the Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein conducting, with J ennieTourel, soloist,
J anuary 28, 1944.

The symphony contains only three movements which were re-
spectively entitled "Prophecy", "Profanation" and "Lamentation".
The last movement actually utilizes text from the Book of Lamenta-
tions in the original Hebrew. This is to be sung by a mezzo-soprano.

The work is unquestionably one which, throughout its three
movements, incorporates motifs of the J ewish musical tradition.

The renowned Jewish composer Max Helfman has made the
following comments regarding the J ewish musical motifs found in
the Jeremiah Symphony:

The two basic sources of genuine Hebraic music are: the

cantillation of the Bible and liturgical chant of the synagogue.
Like many another ancient sacred scripture, the Hebrew

4. J ohn Gruen and Ken Heyman, ThePrivate World of Leonard Bernstein,
(New York: A Ridge Press Book, The Viking Press, 1968), p. 37.

Bible, when publicly read in a house of worship, is always
chanted in a prescribed manner called canti Nation. To each
work on the printed page is attached a sign, a neume called
'trope'. In addition to its accentual and syntatical meaning,
each trope has a definite musical signification.

Though there are only twenty-eight tropal signs, these
represent many hundreds of different tonal motives, inasmuch
as the same sign has a different musical meaning depending
upon the book of the Bible at the time of its reading, and
whether the readers are of the Ashkenazic tradition (J ews from
northeast Europe) or of the Sephardic tradition (Jews of
southeast Europe).

The second source is 'Nussach', the traditional modes of
chanting the liturgy. Each mode consists of a number of char-
acteristic motives: initial, pausal, modulatory, pen-ultimate and
final. At times these motives are used literally, but most often
they are the basis for improvisation.

J eremiah is fashioned almost exclusively on the Ashkenazic
cantillation used for chanting the prophetic portion on the
Sabbath, the mode of chanting Lamentations on Tisha B'av'
(the ninth day of Ab), in commemoration of the destruction
of the Temple, and finally, on general 'Nussach' motives for
festival and penitental prayers. 5

In analyzing the work in more detail, we find that the main
theme of the first movement which is pronounced by the two solo
French horns is a direct quotation of two phrases used in the
liturgical chants of the synagogue. The first half is derived from
the "Amidah" cadence which is found in the section of the service
known as the "Eighteen Blessings". This standing silent prayer is
recited by the congregation and then repeated by the cantor in chant.
This particular cadence is chanted on festivals and is the motif for
certain prayers in the High Holy Day liturgy. The second part of
this movement's opening theme is based on the improvisational ex-
tension of the cantor when chanting the entire "Eighteen Blessings".
Both these phrases are very common in the liturgical repertoire of
the synagogue.

Below we find a comparison between the theme Bernstein used
for his first movement and the liturgical chant which contains the

5. Max Helfman, Notes on the Program, New York: Philharmonic Hall —
Lincoln Center, October 16, 1963, p. B.

germ motif of Bernstein.*

Jeremiah Symphony, opening theme
Tdelsohn: Liturgical chant.

The liturgical example immediately above is by the renowned
J ewish musicologist A. Z. Idelsohn.'

The opening theme by the horns is heard again in the second
and third movements, in various situations, indicating how important
a theme this is in the total scheme of the symphony. It is indeed
the integrating element of the entire work.

The second movement "Profanation" is based almost entirely
on a number of cantillations which are used to chant the Prophetic
sections of the Bible during the Sabbath morning service.

In the first eight measures Bernstein quotes seven of these
melodic formulae known as 'Ta'amin" (cantillations) . They are
introduced by the flutes and clarinets: 8

Bernstein : "Profanation" theme

Compare the above melodic line with the quotation below which
are cantillations used in chanting the Prophetic portion of the
Bible according to Idelsohn. 9

Idelsohn: Prophetic cantillations

After a short extension of Bernstein's "Profanation" he in-
troduces yet another one of these cantillations: 10

Bernstein: "Profanation" theme — extended

The above compared to the corresponding canti Nation below
quoted by Idelsohn reveals a striking resemblance between the two
examples.

Idelsohn: cantillation example."

I n the final movement "Lamentation", we have for the first time
the introduction of Hebrew texts from the Book of Lamentations,
to be sung by a mezzo-soprano soloist.

Motifs used for the texts are based on the traditional cantilla-
tions used in chanting the Book of Lamentations. This book is

6. Leonard Bernstein, Jeremiah Symphony. (New York: Harms, Inc.,
1943), p. 3.

7. A. Z. Idelsohn, J ewish Music In Its Historical Development, (New
York: Schocken Books, 1967), p. 140.

8. Bernstein, J eremiah, p. 14.

9. Idelsohn, J ewish Music, p. 53.

10. Bernstein, J eremiah, p. 15.

11. Idelsohn, J ewish Music, p. 53.

chanted on Tisha B'av", the holiday commemorating the destruction
of the Temple and the City of J erusalem in 70 A.D.

Bernstein: opening line of "Lamentation". 12

In examining this melodic line, we note in the fourth and in the
sixth measures a melodic turn of three notes down the scale within
the interval of a minor third. This is repeated again later on in this
movement in a much slower tempo:

Bernstein : "Lamentation" motif continued. 13

Let us now compare the above two examples from Jeremiah
with Idelsohn's table of Lamentation cantillations:

Idelsohn: Table of "Lamentation" cantillations. 14

We find that in the third, seventh, eighth, thirteenth and four-
teenth measures, the same melodic pattern occurs. Note also the
similarity between Bernstein's melodic line in the seventh measure
of the first example illustrated and the second measure in Idelsohn's
example cited immediately above.

Commenting about this symphony the Jewish musicologist
Israel Rabinovitch wrote: "It is worthy of note, too, that right from
the beginning, Bernstein submitted to the fascination which J ewish
themes held for him." 15

Arthur Holde wrote of Bernstein: "In his symphonic poem
Jeremiah he expressed a fervor which seemed to spring from a
powerful religious impulse" 16

Another Jewish musicologist, Albert Weisser in commenting on
Bernstein's Jeremiah wrote that it is a "work of undoubted brilliance
and felicitous lyricism" which "evokes a happy mixture of the
Hebraic and the American.""

Finally it is worth noting that on May 16, 1944 the Jeremiah
Symphony received the New York Music Critics Circle Award as
"the outstanding orchestral work by an American composer" intro-
duced that season.

This last fact reaffirms our contention that in the final analysis,
the worth of any creative expression must be judged solely by the

12. Bernstein, Jeremiah, p. 47.

13. Ibid., p. 50.

14. Idelsohn, Jewish Music, p. 54.

15. Israel Rabinovitch, Of Jewish Music, (Montreal: The Book Center,
1952), p. 302.

16. Artur Holde, Jews in Music. (London: Peter Owen, 1960, p. 344.

17. Albert Weisser, The Modern Renaissance of Jewish Music, (New
York: Bloch Publishing Company, Inc., 1954), p. 159.

inner qualities of strength and beauty which it may or may not.
possess. Any other consideration such as we have pursued here, is
significant only insomuch as it was our purpose to study the work
from a musicological or ethnomusicological point of view.
III. SYMPHONY NO. 3 - KADDISH

With the exception of one short liturgical work Hashkivenu, 18
for four-part mixed chorus, cantor and organ, which Bernstein wrote
three years following his Jeremiah, it was not until two decades later
that he was to write another major orchestral work, his third
symphony, the Kaddish.

This symphony is the belated result of a joint commission by
the Kussevitzky Music Foundation and the Boston Symphony Or-
chestra, on the occasion of the Orchestra's seventy-fifth anniversary
in 1955. The work is for an unusually large orchestra, mixed chorus,
boy's choir, Speaker (woman), and soprano solo. The particular
Hebraic nature of the work has prompted Bernstein to request the
Boston Symphony to waive the premiere performance in favor of the
Israel Philharmonic. The Boston Symphony graciously consented
and the first performance took place in Tel Aviv, Israel in December,
1963 with Mr. Bernstein as conductor, Miss J ennie Tourel as soloist
and Hannah Rovina, of the Habimah Theater, as the speaker.

The Kaddish Symphony is in three movements and ends with
the inclusion of a Finale section.

To the J ews of the world, the word 'Kaddish' (Sanctifica-
tion) has a highly emotional connotation, for it is the name
of the prayer chanted for the dead, at the graveside, on memorial
occasions and, in fact, at all synagogue services. Yet, strangely
enough, there is not a single mention of death in the entire
prayer. On the contrary, it uses the word 'chaye' or 'chayim'
(life) three times. Far from being a threnody, the 'Kaddish' is a
compilation of paens in praise of God, and, as such, it has basic
functions in the liturgy that have nothing to do with mourning. 19

Whereas in his Jeremiah Symphony Bernstein made enormous
use of J ewish musical sources, with the Kaddish Symphony he creates
his own themes and musical motifs which have abolutely nothing to
do with any particular Jewish musical origins whatsoever. It is,

18. Synagogue Music by Contemporary Composers, (New York: G.
Schirmer, 1952).

19. J ack Gottlieb, Program Notes, Symphony No. 3 Kaddish by Leonard
Bernstein, Columbia, Stereo KS 6605.

10

however, in the philosophical and theological implications of this
work, that we detect the influence of J ewish thought and traditions.

The use of such a well-known Jewish liturgical text as the
"Kaddish" prayer, in the rubric of the work is in itself an obvious
admission to the basic impact which such materials have upon the
creative personality of Leonard Bernstein.

Bernstein used the text of the "Kaddish" not only for its con-
tents, but also as a point of reference and departure whereby he
could express his own personal credo as it were, in relationship to
his philosophy as a J ew and as a member of the human race.

The Kaddish prayer proved to be the perfect vehicle for Bern-
stein to question on the one hand the destructive tendencies of man
in a corrupt and threatened universe, and on the other hand observ-
ing the fact that man cannot destroy himself as long as he identifies
himself with God.

The Kaddish text, which is sung three times in the course of
the symphony, is, as it was pointed out earlier, a prayer recited by
the J ew on the occasion of the death of a beloved member of the
family, The prayer has as its theme, the sanctification and adoration
of God as well as the supplication for life and peace. The occasion
of death then, demands a reaffirmation of our belief in the God who
"giveth" and "taketh away".

To quote some of the words of the "Kaddish" prayer:

Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout

the world which He hath created according to His will. ...
May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life for

us and for all Israel; and say ye, Amen.

May He who establisheth peace in the heavens, grant peace

unto us and unto all Israel; and say ye, Amen. 20

As we can clearly see, man's praise of God and his yearning for
life and peace are the dominant themes of this prayer.

Bernstein, in his own original text narrated by the speaker in
the course of the symphony, indulges in a "Din Torah' (Court Case
or J udgment by Law) and accuses God of a breach of faith with man:

. . . Lord of Hosts, I call you to account! . . .

And don't shrug me off. . . 21
. . . You ask for faith: where is your cwn?22

20. Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book (Philadelphia: The Rabbinical
Assembly of America and the United Synagogue of America, 1960), p. 39.

21. Leonard Bernstein, Kaddish Symphony No. 3, (New York: G.
Schirmer, Inc., 1965), p. 33.

22. Ibid., p. 34.

11

■ . . Your covenant! Your bargain is with Man!

Tin God! Your bargain is tin! . . .23

It is this onburst on the part of the author, that many critics
found objectionable and the text has been condemned for "blas-
phemy".

Such "blasphemy", if indeed it is that at all, has its precedence
in the Bible with the story of J ob and it also has its roots in the
Hassidicand folk tradition of the J ew.

The second movement "Din Torah", is a direct influence of the
"Kaddish of Rabbi Levi Isaac of Berditchev". 24

In his program notes on the Kaddish Symphony, J ack Gottlieb
writes regarding this point:

Mr. Bernstein feels strongly the peculiar J ewishness of this

man-God relationship: in the whole mythic concept of the J ew's

love of God, from Moses to the Hassidic sect, there is a deep

personal intimacy which allows things to be said to God that

are almost inconceivable in another religion. 25

Any criticism of Bernstein's text as being blasphemous, reveals
immediately a total lack of understanding of the basic character of
J ewish thought and theology, on the part of the critic.

Arthur Cohn, in his review of the Kaddish, writes:

It is a plea (almost a demand) that God not only should

put man's house in order but also God's. The text has more

power than the music. It has the zeal of the believer, even if its

Hebraicness refuses to deal with musical archaeology. 26

Bernstein reveals his true faith when he finally in subdued tones
and with humility pleads:

Forgive me, Father, I was mad with fever.

Chaos is catching, and I succumbed.

Have I hurt you, Father? Forgive me . . .27

23. Ibid., p. 35.

24. Rabbi Levi Isaac of Berditchev (1740-1809), Hassidic leader. His cen-
tral doctrine was "love for Israel" and he uttered fervent prayers as a defense
advocate asking Divine mercy for the J ewish people. His "Kaddish" prayer
in the form of a "Din Torah" (trial scene) with God in the Yiddish vernacular,
is a classic folk song.

25. Gottlieb, Program Notes.

26. Arthur Cohn, "To the Beloved Memory of John F. Kennedy, Sym-
phony No. 3 Kaddish, Leonard Bernstein", American Record Guide, J uly,
1965, pp. 1014-1015.

27. Bernstein, Kaddish, p. 46.

. . . We are one, after all, you and I:
Together we suffer, together exist.
And forever will recreate each other. 28

As we have already mentioned before, Bernstein does not resort
to any J ewish musical elements in his Kaddish, in order to express
his Hebraic traditions, but rather he prefers to use for example,
the twelve-tone row for a number of his themes, unlike his J eremiah
Symphony. However, Bernstein's choice of a Jewish liturgical text
combined with his own original text makes this work a highly
personal expression of deep faith in his God and in Man.

Another work of Bernstein which again is deeply religious in
nature, is his Chichester Psalms. Completed on May 7, 1965, this
composition is the composer's first since the Kaddish Symphony of
1963.

The work was commissioned by the Dean of Chichester, Sussex,
England. It was featured at the music festival which is held there
every summer and co-sponsored by the three cathedrals of Win-
chester, Salisbury and Chichester.

Stanley Sadie in a review wrote: "At an essentially Anglican
Festival, it seemed curious to have psalms sung in Hebrew, and to
music frankly in the language of West Side Story. " The work is
"an enormously spirited piece swinging gaily along in an infectious
septule rhythm, slipping in facile fashion from one key to another." 29

The choice of psalms and the spirit of the entire work again
reveals an anguish and a restless concern on the part of the com-
poser. In the midst of his despair, however, he tries to look for
anwers through the exploration of the Psalms as it relates to his faith.

In anger he shouts ferociously:

Why do the nations rage,

And the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves.

And the rulers take counsel together.

Against the Lord and against His annointed. 30

In contrast he soon susides with:

Lord, Lord,

My heart is not haughty,

28. Ibid., p. 87.

29. Stanley Sadie, "Chichester Southern Cathedrals Festival", The Musical
Times, September, 1965, pp. 693-694.

30. Psalm 2:1-2.

Nor mine eyes lofty,

Neither do I exercise myself

In great matters or in things

Too wonderful for me.

Surely I have calmed

And quieted myself,

As a child that is weaned of his mother,

My soul is even as a weaned child.

Let Israel hope in the Lord

From henceforth and forever. 31

The work concludes with a setting of the classic text of the
Psalms:

Behold how good,
And how pleasant it is,
For brethren to dwell
Together in unity. 32

It is reminiscent of the Kaddish in that the use of contrasting
moods and ideas are presented in juxtaposition of each other, thus
effecting a total feeling of anger and doubt on the one hand and
hope and faith on the other.

As Peter Gradenwitz once wrote: 'We can feel the composer's
pre-occupation with subjects laden with inner nervous tension but
a slightly nostalgic touch." 33

This "inner nervous tension" is the feeling of a man concerned
with the world around him. Bernstein proves to be religious in his
creative expressions and the influence of his Jewish heritage is
poignantly referred to, in his attempt to find some possible answers
to the complex questions of our time.

31. Psalm 131.

32. Psalm 133:1.

33. Peter Gradenwitz, "Leonard Bernstein", The Musical Review, August,
1949, pp. 191-202.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:

Bernstein, Leonard. Jeremiah Symphony. New York: Harms, Inc., 1943.

Bernstein, Leonard. Kaddish Symphony No. 3. New York: G. Schirmer, Inc.,
1965.

Ewen, David. Leonard Bernstein. Philadelphia: Chilton Book Co., 1967.

Gruen, J ohn, and Keyman, Ken. The Private World of Leonard Bernstein.
New York: A Ridge Press Book, The Viking Press, 1968.

Holde, Artur. J ews in Music. London: Peter Owen, 1960.

Idelsohn, A. Z. Jewish Music In Its Historical Development. New York:
Schocken Books, 1967.

Rabinovitch, Israel. Of dewish Music. Montreal: The Book Center, 1952.

Weisser, Albert. The Modern Renaissance of Jewish Music. New York: Bloch
Publishing Company, Inc., 1954.

ARTICLES:

Cohen, Arthur. "To the Beloved Memory of J ohn F. Kennedy Symphony No. 3
Kaddish, Leonard Bernstein". American Record Guide, J uly, 1965, pp.
1014-1015.

Gottlieb, J ack. "Program Notes". Symphony No. 3 Kaddish by Leonard Bern-
stein. Stereo, KS 6605.

Gradenwitz, Peter. "Leonard Bernstein". The Musical Review, August, 1949,
pp. 191-202.

Helfman, Max. "Notes on the Program". New York: Philharmonic Hall —
Lincoln Center, October, 1963, p. B.

Sadie, Stanley. "Chichester Southern Cathedrals Festival", The Musical Times,
September, 1965, pp. 693-694.

NOTES ON MUSIC OLD AND NW

Max Wohlberg

It is now universally admitted that the benefits of modern
technology are greatly offset by their subsequent evils. Witness the
pollution of our air and water supplies, the depletion of our natural
resources, the noise of our cities and the deterioration in the quality
of our food.

It should come as no surprise that even our own profession is
not immune to the ill effects of modern inventions. I am alluding
to the pernicious, illegal and immoral practice of reproducing music
protected by copyright by Xerox and other means. By doing so we
are depriving the com poser- whose music we like-of his just com-
pensation. We are perpetuating a grievous injustice on the publisher
by preventing him not only from profiting but also from recouping his
investment.

Consequently, we have witnessed in the last decade the dis-
appearance of a number of publishers of J ewish music. Ironically, this
widespread, clandestine reproduction is taking place at a time when
the budgets of our congregations are expanding at an unprecedented
rate. Somehow money is found for everything but music.

Cantors, rabbis and congregations, I feel, should be alerted
to the evils of this despicable practice and promptly cease to support
or to countenance it. The words of I ago come to mind: "who steals
my purse steals trash ... but he that filches from my good name
robs me of what not enriches him and makes me poor indeed."
Appropriating without recompense the creation of another is to both
rob his purse as well as his fame.

With the diminishing number of publishers of Jewish music
it is a comfort to acknowledge the considerable role in this area of
the Cantors Assembly. Almost since the beginning of its existence
the Cantors Assembly saw fit either to reprint out-of-print volumes
of synagogue music to to publish new music. However, since its
interests are geared, in the main, to the needs of its members its role
(as a publisher) differs from that of commercial publishers.

The aim of the composer is to give voice to his imagination and
to his inspiration. The publisher invests his money in a publication

Dr. Max Wohlberg is Professor of Hazzanut, Cantors Institute, Jewish
Theological Seminary of America.

16

that he hopes will be financially rewarding. The Cantors Assembly
can fulfill two purposes: To supply the music which its members
desire and to provide the music which its members should have. The
first, not to be belittled, is a pure case of supply and demand. The
second, serving as instruction and indoctrination may ultimately
affect the nature of the demand.

Thus, if the aim of the composer is artistic and the interest of
the publisher is financial the goal of the Cantors Assembly is utili-
tarian and instructional. It is satisfying to note that roster of volumes
published by the Cantors Assembly represents both types.

Among its recent publications are works by Zave! Zilberts, Israel
Alter, Todros Greenberg, Salamon Rossi and Issachar Fater.

Zilberts, a superb melodist and fine composer, excelled in secular
songs (choral and solo) as well as in "Neginos Yisroe!," a Sabbath
service for the Reform synagogue and in "Music for the Synagogue,"
a collection of miscellaneous compositions. But he was unsurpassed
in such magnificent settings (for male chorus) as "Al Naharos Bovel,"
"Heye Im Pifiyos," "Achenu," "Mizmor Shir Chanukas Habayis"
and (for mixed choir) "Havdoloh," "Adonoy, Adonoy," "Moh
Oshiv," "Ya-aleh" and "Un'saneh Tokef." Equally popular are his
settings (solo and piano) for "V'shomru," "Mah Godlu," "Haneiros"
and "Hal'luyoh."

The "Complete High Holiday Liturgy" (for Hazzan) just pub-
lished by the Cantors Assembly was skillfully edited for correct
accentuations by Hazzan Moshe Nathanson with informative fore-
word by Hazzan Samuel Rosenbaum. The manuscript, covering texts
from S'lichos to N'iloh, was in the archives of the Cantors Assembly
and was augmented by items from the library of Hazzan David
Putterman.

The music is, of course, melodious and the nusah is reliable. It
is conceived for tenor and covers most of the liturgy. It is a sub-
stantial book of 136 pages and every cantor should be able to find
in it numerous items to replenish and to refresh his repertoire.

"N'ginos Todros," subtitled "An Anthology of Music for the
Sabbath," is by the competent exponent of traditional hazzanut,
Todros Greenberg of Chicago. There he succeeded in surrounding
himself with a group of devoted admirers, students and colleagues.
One of the latter, Hazzan Moses Silverman, supplied an affectionate
foreword for his book.

In 1961 these friends of Greenberg joined together to publish
"Heichal Han'ginah V'hat'filah," a most impressive volume contain-

17

ing music (for solo and choir) arranged by Sholom Kalib for Hanu-
kah, Purim, weddings, funerals, selected recitatives and Yiddish
songs. The present book is scored for choir with cantor solos and is
limited to the liturgy and zemirot for Sabbath eve.

As everything Greenberg writes is permeated with the old-
style, hartzig type of bravura chazones one is filled with nostalgia
for the days when these phrases served as the source of our youthful
inspiration. In fact, they still captivate the listener. The solos are
written for a tenor.

Much credit is due Hazzan Sholom Kalib, who supplied alto-
gether appropriate arrangements. They accentuate the inherent
quality and mannerisms of these compositions. Even amateur choirs
should experience no difficulties in learning the music. Congregations
will, I know, be pleased.

Israel Alter's work is justly famed and much appreciated through-
out the cantorial world. Many of his recitatives have achieved uni-
versal popularity. He is also a prodigious composer. His repute in the
now somewhat diminished area of the hazzanic recitative is unique
inasmuch as he is among the very few who, while adhering to a well
established format, is also cognizant of musical evolution and is ex-
perimenting with newer melodic elements and, in some measure, with
a more contemporary treatment of the traditional motifs. Often, a
seemingly novel phrase is actually an ancient motif and the result is
a process of musical atavism, a process deserving both our applause
and our encouragement.

I n each new volume by Alter we encounter a greater use of con-
trast, more frequent and smoother modulations, a "cleaner" more
"classic" line, a welcome avoidance of excessive vocal range and a
pleasing musical form. Alter is, of course, an excellent B'aal Nusah.
While nusah purists may question the presence or absence of an
occasional phrase the evidence of good taste, hazzanic competence
and esthetic considerations abound on every page.

Of special merit is his concern for and fidelity to the text. In a
word, he utilizes his mind as well as his heart. He both reflects and
emotes. I n my classes at the Cantors I nstitute I have placed some of
his books on the required list. 'The Festival Service," recently pub-
lished by the Cantors Assembly is heartily recommended.

The appearance of Salamon Rossi on the scene of J ewish music
in 16th- 17th century Italy was both unique and regrettable. Unique
in that he had neither predecessors nor successors. Regrettable be-
cause neither time nor place was propitious for the recognition of his

18

contribution. Had he appeared two hundred years later in central
Europe he could have struck roots and attracted disciples.

Edward Birnbaum, Alfred Einstein and Eric Werner have written
scholarly articles on Rossi. Dr. Hugo Weisgall delivered an excellent
analytical paper on his works at the 1953 convention of the Cantors
Assembly. Noah Greenberg recorded some of his music. But our only
source, with many imperfections, remained the volume edited by
Naumbourg and D'indy in 1877.

After much delay, two volumes of the Rossi's works have now
appeared-a third is in prospect-edited by Fritz Rikko with a pre-
face by Hugo Weisgall. It is published jointly by the J ewish Theo-
logical Seminary and the Cantors Assembly.

The volumes are magnificently produced. The printing and bind-
ing are excellent. These books should occupy a place of honor in
every Jewish library and particularly in a music library. As the
compositions represent a style associated with the Renaissance and
Baroque periods I am not certain that they will achieve current
popularity. However, a judicious use of this style with its indepen-
dently flowing melodic and rhythmic elements, its tranquil quality
and smooth counterpoint could considerably enrich our repertoire.

The dictum V'chol h'amarbeh I'sapeir hare zeh m'shuboch
may, it seems to me, with full justification be applied to the tragic
period of the Holocaust. While a not insignificant multilingual litera-
ture has dealt with most aspects of this awesome calamity, no volume
has appeared to deal specifically with the severe loss in the area of
music. In fact, numerous talented and promising musicians were
cruelly slaughtered during this period. The decades between the
two world wars were musically fruitful and noteworthy. Quite prob-
ably, given the opportunity, these now decimated musicians could
have fructified and immeasurably enhanced both the quantity as
well as the quality of contemporary J ewish music. We have, there-
fore, eagerly awaited the publication of Issachar Fater's "Jewish
Music in Poland Between the Two World Wars."

A product of that era and musically active in that area, the
author has, with dedicated industry and utter devotion, collected the
biographies of numerous well known and little known composers,
cantors, conductors, instrumentalists and folk singers. He has also
written a number of longer biographic sketches of such men as:
D. Eizenstadt, A. B. Bernstein, M. Gebirtig, A. B. Davidowitch, B.
Huberman, Reb Saul of Modzitz, G. Sirota, Y. Kaminsky, H. Kohn,
M. Kipnis, Y. Shlossberg, M. Shneier, P. Sherman and others. He has

also provided a foreword consisting of a birds-eye view of the period
and has appended over 70 pages of music (choral and solo).

The volume is beautifully produced (published by the World
Federation of Polish Jews) and is graced by the touching introduc-
tion of the eminent Dov Sadan.

Although I haven't as yet read every article and every biography
in the book I have, with each sampling, learned something new and
filled in some lacuna in my own fund of information. While all of
the content is informative and much is inspiring some of it is heart-
rending. Such a one is the biography of Yisroel Shayewitch (p. 390)
born in 1910 -died in 1941.

While it is painful to cavil with so precious a book a few faults
are too glaring to be overlooked. Thus one regrets the absence of
biographic dates in a number of cases. While understandably, some
of the sources for these dates have vanished, nevertheless in many
instances with a little more perseverence the needed information
could have been acquired.

For example: The year of death for Ya'akov Goldstein is not
given. For David Katzman neither year of birth nor year of death are
given. Yet the sons of these men are in the United States and could
have surely supplied the information. The essential dates for Moshe
Kusevitzky are given while those for his brother Jacob, who pre-
deceased him, are omitted. Again, these dates are readily available.

These dates are also omitted in cases of Chaim Fershko, Moshe
Rudinow and Yitzchak Sherman. The first of these is alive, well and
active here. The second is survived by his widow now in California
and the third has members of his family residing here. Surely abun-
dant untapped sources were available.

Perhaps I am too demanding. However, since I know of no one
else who would undertake this mitzvah of fraternal piety, I regret
every blemish marring the perfection of so vital a book.

These shortcomings notwithstanding the volume must be part
of every Jewish musician's library, Incidentally, the Cantors Assem-
bly, through Samuel Rosenbaum, helped in the realization of this
highly treasured memorial volume with a sizeable grant.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ROSSI IN THE MUSICAL LIFE

OF THE MAN1UAN COURT Dr. Daniel Chazanoff

What we know of Rossi's life can only be gleaned from the
various creative activities with which he was involved. From 1587 to
1628, Salamone served the Mantuan Court in various capacities —
as viol player, singer, violinist, conductor and composer. His im-
portance in the musical life of the Court, and the high esteem which
he enjoyed in the eyes of the Gonzagas and the Court nobility are
reflected in several developments. One indication is found in a ducal
order of 1606/ In that year, Rossi was granted permission, by Duke
Vincenzo I, to dispense with the wearing of a yellow badge pre-
scribed for all J ews; this rule was established by the Lateran Council
in 1215.2 This was intended, in the Duke's words, as a demonstration
of 'how dear to us is the service that Salamone Rossi the J ew has
performed for us for many years past by his virtue in music and
playing'. 3 Birnbaum gives the ducal order verbatim (see Eduard
Birnbaum, J udische Musiker am Hofe zu Mantua von 1542-1628,
Vienna, 1893, p. 22). A second indication of his importance is borne
out by the names of persons to whom he dedicated various musical
compositions. While dedications were expressions of duty, reverence
and gratitude during that period of history, Rossi's were evidentally
to nobility with whom he had more than a casual relationship. His
first publication, the First Book of Canzonets for Three Voices
(1589) was dedicated to the Duke of Mantua. 4 The reader will recall
that only two years before in 1587, De'Rossi entered the service of
the Duke; his dedication, therefore, expressed both duty and grati-
tude. The names of nobility which appeared in other works were" . . .
Felicita Guerrera Gonzaga, Marchioness of Pallazuolo; Francesco
Ludovico Gonzaga, another member of the ducal family; Alessandro

1. Peter Gradenwitz, The Music of Israel (New York: W. W. Norton and
Company, 1949). p. 137.

2. Ibid.

3. Cecil Roth, The J ews in the Renaissance (Philadelphia: J ewish Pub-
lication Society of America, 1959), p. 289.

4 Ibid., p. 291.

This is the second in a series of articles on the music and life of Salamone
Rossi by the Director of Music of the City School District of Rochester, New
York. Dr. Chazanoff is also an accomplished cellist, conductor and musicolo-
gist. His studies on Rossi were made possible by a grant from the National
Foundation for J ewish Culture. The first article in the series appeared in the
September 1970 issue of the J ournal of Synagogue Music.

21

Pico, Duke of Mirandola — the same who later invited the musician
to his Court; the Duke of Modena and Reggio; the Count of San
Secondo; Guglielmo Andreasi, Count of Rhodes; the Prince of
Guastalla ..."5 and others.
VIOL-PLAYER

With the accession of Duke Vincenzo I to the throne in 1587,
Rossi entered the ducal service as a viol-player. In the tradition of
the Renaissance when books of madrigals were 'apt for voyces or
viols', Salamone also sang at Court like most viol-players 6 (it should
be noted that vocal compositions were freely transcribed for viols,
recorders and other families of instruments during this period. Con-
versely, viol-players drew upon madrigals as one source of literature.
Other sources included abstract instrumental forms with no specified
instrumentation and freely transcribed dances of the period). As late
as 1622, according to Roth, Rossi was still employed by the Duke of
Mantua as a viol-player, at an annual salary of 383 Nre7This is a
curious fact since the composer abandoned writing for the viols after
1608 when his Second Book of Sinfonias and Galliards was published.
His third and fourth books of instrumental compositions were con-
fined to instruments of the violin family. These were published in
1613 and 1622 respectively.
VIOLINIST

Two important events in music history must have influenced
Rossi to move from viols to violins in his instrumental writing. First
was the creation of the violin, having both the size and shape as we
know it today, by Gasparo (da Salo) Bertolotti, founder of the
Brescian School of Violinmakers around 1560. Within a few years,
violinmaking was also flourishing in the workshop of the Amati
family in Cremona. 8 The close proximity of Mantua to both Brescia
and Cremona gave Rossi the opportunity to try some of the earliest
violins made. A second event which must have influenced him to
use the violin was the advent of the opera in Italy, around 1600, at
the palace of Count Bardi in Florence. Once again the location of
Mantua favored experiments with the new art form — especially,
since CI audio Monteverdi, the first great composer of opera, was in
the service of the Gonzagas. If we look for the place where Rossi
first used violins rather than viols it was probably in the realm of

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid., p. 288.

7. Ibid., p. 289.

8. Karel Jalovec, Italian Violin Makers (Landen: Paul Hamlyn, rev.ed.,
1964), p. 20.

22

dramatic music. There are two reasons for this, i.e., the ability of
the violin to project its sound farther and the violin's greater dynamic
range. This occurred on J une 2, 1608, when his first composition for
the stage was performed. His was the first intermezzo for Guarini's
comedy, L'ldropica for which Monteverdi wrote the Prologue. Three
additional intermezzi were contributed by other Mantuan composers. 9
It was on the same occasion, during wedding festivities at the Court
that Monteverdi's opera, ARIANNA, was also given with Rossi's
sister, Madama Europa in a principal vocal part. 10 (The Prince of
Mantua was married on that date.") It is likely that Rossi chose
these festivities to inaugurate the use of violins. The first great
school of violinists is clearly marked by his Third Book of Sonatas
for instruments of the violin family published in 1613, only five years
after his first composition for the stage.
CONDUCTOR

Salamone Rossi is also mentioned as conductor of the ducal
orchestra by several writers. The virtuoso conductor as we know it
did not come into being until the nineteenth century, when Felix
Mendelssohn instituted the Gewandthaus concerts in Leipsig. The
conductor of Rossi's time led while playing an instrument in an
ensemble. Generally, this was done by a keyboard instrument player;
Monteverdi is known to have conducted his operas from a keyboard.
In the case of Rossi, it was probably done while playing the violin.

A communication of 1612 attests to the fame of Rossi and the
ducal orchestra. In that year Alessandro I, Prince of Mirandola and
Concordia asked the State Counsellor of Mantua to send him the
J ew Salamone and his company to give a concert. This was in honor
of guests attending a visit from the Prince's father-in-law, the Duke
of Modena. 12
COMPOSER

The Encyclopedia Delia Musica lists thirteen books of com-
positions by Salamone Rossi published between 1589 and 1628, and
two works written for the stage. These are as follows: B

1 — The First Book of Canzonets for three voices 1589)

9. Leo Schrade. Monteuerdi, Creator of Modern Music (New York: W. W.
Norton and Company, 1950), p. 239.

10. Eric Blom (ed.), Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London:
Macmillan and Company, 1954), VI 1 , 244.

11 Roth, loc. cit.

12. Ibid.

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

23

2 - The First Book of Madrigals for five voices accompanied

by the chitarrone (bass guitar) (1600)

3 - The Second Book of Madrigals for 5 voices with basso

continuo (1602)

4 - The third Book of Madrigals for 5 voices with basso

continuo (1603 )

5 - The First Book of Sinfonias and Galliards for 3 to 5

voices (1607)

6 - The Second Book of Sinfonias and Galliards for 3 to 5

voices (1608)

7 - The Fourth Book of Madrigals for 5 voices with basso

continuo (1610)

8 — The First Book of Madrigals for 4 voices with basso

continuo (1614)

9 — The Fifth Book of Madrigals for 5 voices (1622)

10 — The Third Book of variation Sonatas, Sinfonias, Galli-

ards, etc. (1623) — the date may be a misprint since
a number of authors give (1613) — also, the date of the
Fourth Book (1622) would have to be after the Third
Book

11 — The Fourth Book of variation Sonatas (1622)

12 — Hebraic Psalms and Chants for 4 to 8 voices (1623)

(The J ournal of Synagogue Music, February 1967, p. 20,
gives the title as Hashirim Asher Lish'lomo, The Songs
of Solomon for 3 to 8 voices, 1623)

13 — Madrigals for voices with basso continuo (1628)

In addition, two works for the stage include one Inter-
mezzo for Guarini's play, L'ldropica and one Intermezzo
for Monteverdi's opera, Maddalena.

Rossi's works clearly indicate a movement from Renaissance to
Baroque style in both vocal and instrumental music. His First Book
of Canzonets (1589) was contrapuntal-polyphonic while the Madri-
gals for 2 voices with basso continuo (1628) are monodic in style.
In the same manner, the instrumental works of 1607 and 1608 were
written for the viols and were vocally oriented. The last two books
on the other hand are Baroque in both style and instrumentation
containing both monody and provision for instruments of the violin
family. These facts leave little doubt that Rossi was an innovator
considering publication dates.

24

MUSIC SECTION

MEMORIAL SERVICE

3 PSALMS
for Male Voices

by
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WHAT IS "OPTIMAL" FOR THE HUMAN
VOICE?

Leo A. kallen,M .D .

The Physiological "Optimal"

If man is animal, he is different from the other animals in so
many ways as to be unique among them. J ulian Huxley has a book
about it that discloses how Man Stands Alone. He has been singled
out as the laughing animal, and so on; but he has rarely been distin-
guished as the cooking animal. Yet the very complex and diversified
activity which is cooking food before eating it, instead of eating it
raw, is not to be found among other animal kind. In terms of the
organs and sensibilities involved, cooking food has a kinship to sound
reshaped into song and speech. Of course, the conclusion of cooking
is normally eating, the input of food, while the conclusion of organic
sound-making is regularly output, the expression of air which the
ears hear. It is not established that cooking requires specially de-
veloped brain functions; talking, of course, does. This is one reason
why animals with vocal organs like the human can't talk even if they
can eat like humans.

Eating, like talking, engages certain sequential movements of
the tongue, lips, jaw, palate and other muscled organs. The ordering
of these movements into song and speech comes later, both phylo-
genetically and in the development of the infant. All animals have to
eat to live. But those who talk have acquired this faculty in order to
live with one another. Practically all animals are able to make vocal
noises in order to express pressures, intra-organic or environmental.
The human animal alone reshapes vocal expression into social com-
munication. This is different from communal vocalization. Frogs do
a lot of communal croaking, barnyard fowls a lot of communal cackl-
ing, packs of hounds or wolves, communal howling or barking. They
make these relieving sounds together as response to some disturbance
which excites; among humans, similar herd noises may be heard at

Reprinted from LOCOS, April 1959

Dr. Leo Kallen, now retired, was formerly Associate Attending Surgeon,
Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital, New York; sometime Lecturer and
Consultant in Voice and Speech Pathology, Department of Public Speaking,
Graduate School, Brooklyn College, New York; Consultant in Otolaryngology
and Phoniatry, National Hospital for Speech Disorders, New York.

32

football and baseball games, prizefights, wrestling matches, revivals,
and political rallies. They go with grimaces, gestures and other move-
ments of face and of body and together with them express emotion.
They do not communicate ideas. They describe what Malinowski
has called "phatic communion." The structuring of noises made in
breathing, eating, drinking, loving, laboring, etc., which we call
language (literally tonguing) does communicate ideas. Ideas refer
to experiences-objects, events, relations, which they themselves
are not. They are embodied in the patterned sounds and symbols
which have become the human surrogates for all things, the substance
of spirit and the vehicle of meaning. Without words mental events
could not long survive, nor be remembered. They are sounds in whose
formation and retention the hearing and voicing mechanisms con-
tinually cooperate. Perhaps, as has been suggested, the earliest efforts
at communicating ideas were closer to music than to words. Today,
however much used in combination, words and music embody diver-
gent developments, each with its own characteristic and ultimately
incommensurable grammar and rules of composition. Yet all languages
disclose basic musical qualities peculiar to themselves, as such words
as ode, threnody, tragedy, comedy, indicate. They are variants upon
the Greek oide meaning song; melody belongs with them.' Wagnerian
opera embodies a strenuous effort to assimilate words to music, and to
impart to music, via the leit-motif, the denotative function of words.
Indeed, it has been even hinted that animal communication has a
musical quality, especially characteristic of the mating season. Darwin
tells of the gibbon, hylobates agilis, a species of ape native to India
whose males make their mating calls by sequences of loud, but
pleasant, semi-tones of an octave's range. Students of chimpanzee
speech have found it advantageous to symbolize the sound sequences
with musical notations. Human poetry, and often prose, can be
similarly marked.

Often it is in some such context as this that the development of
speech from infancy is studied, analyzed and guided. Even students
who doubt the theory of recapitulation are likely to find it a useful
tool on occasion. 'Calling" long precedes speech and is prolonged in
the formation of inflection and intensity, rhythm and mdism.2"Lall-
ing" expresses both well-being and discomfort. The quiet half-
melodious murmurings that adults are often heard to make have
been interpreted as mature modes of it. Developed into song, it
diversifies infantile expression of undifferentiated well-being or dis-
comfort into articulate voicing all the moods a human being may
pass through. Men could, as J espersen remarks, sing out their feelings

33

long before they were able to speak their thoughts.

The vocal quality of what is sung or spoken is, of course, a
function of the body-structure and intraorganic dynamics of the ner-
vous systems, vital organs and musculature of the singer or speaker,
as they respond to their surroundings, just as the tone and timber
of a musical instrument are functions of the materials and form of
of the instrument as it responds to the player's action upon it. In
both cases the response would be a total response. Thus, the charac-
teristic pitch, intensity and intonation, which, among other parts of
the vocal complex, the larynx is the seat of, focalize and express a
total configuration of intraorganic behavior and external response.
As heard by the singer or speaker, they exercise a significant cyber-
netic function, and the modes of feed-back shape the sequences of
phonation. In certain dynamic situations they may set up and sustain
optimal balances between the biochemical energies and bodily mech-
anics of the muscle systems in play. One such situation is the
dynamics of posture and vocalization in the mood of joy or elation,
with their expansiveness. The sounds produced are sonorous and
come easily. Their dynamic base is the optimal meshing of the
vibrator-activator system (involving the larynx and the mechanism
of respiration) with the vibrator-resonator system (involving the
larynx again but with the bucco-pharyngeal mechanisms).

When these two systems work together in such wise that the
organs engaged are in the position of greatest mechanical advantage,
effort is minimal, vocalization attains its maximum of strain I essness
and sonority. The respiratory, vibratory and resonation functions are
in dynamic reciprocation. Lung-pressure is the slightest needful to
translate breath into the sound quality the singer or speaker desires.
This condition is usually denoted by the term "pneumo-phonic
balance." The parts thus mechanically coupled are said to be in
resonance. The feel of this resonance, as the listener hears it, is
expressed by such terms as rich, mellow, full, wholesome, healthy,
ringing, sonorous, spinning, soaring, facile, free, etc'

Feedback and Echo

A listener who thus experiences what he hears is himself in
physiological resonance with the vocalizer. Also his entire body-
pressure, his gestures, grimaces, subvocal voidngs, indpiently and
perhaps overtly, echo the dynamic stance of the vocalizer. It is
because of this echoing (the common word is "empathy") that he is
able to evaluate the singer's or speaker's quality of voice and skill of
voicing. If he finds them faulty, it is because the coupling of the sys-

34

terns has not been brought to balance, and a condition of strain often
amounting to dysfunction obtains. The dynamic reciprocity of the
physical forces required for optimal vocalization is the same whether
the vocal izer is singing or speaking. The augmenter role of consonants
in speaking does not modify this requirement nor affect its ideomotor
sequences. In dynamic reciprocity, the relationship between the
systems in play is the most advantageous mechanically, and thus
"optimal"; the organs involved achieve the best results with the
least effort. They function without strain and its consequent fatigue.
Unhappily, many ways of speaking or singing, customary in a society,
habitual in an individual, and perpetuated by our educational estab-
lishments, are divergences from the optimal conditions that the
organism would spontaneously move into. Speaking and singing, as
generally practiced, divert largely from the original state, and their
diversions are rendered traditional by "voice culture," which so
often identifies the customary and the habitual with the natural.
Since nature regularly tends toward the optimal this identification
must be interpreted as a corruption of the natural, tending to per-
petuate functional inefficiency, strain, fatigue, wasting of energy,
spoiling of naturally good voices.

Beauty as a Social Convention and
Beauty as a Function of the "Optimal"

The corruption begins with the very young child. The hygiene of
the voice would seek the prevention and cure of the dysfunctions
which custom, habit and education establish as "natural," and qualify
as "beautiful." But beauty as the consequence of optimal functioning
is the beauty of health, and so different from the beauty of a cultural
convention as not to be appreciated as such. Each culture has its
own criterion of vocal beauty. Thus the Chinese sing with a forced
nasalized falsetto which grates upon Western ears, while according
to one story, the tuning up of a Western orchestra was music to
Chinese ears, and the composition played after the tuning up was not.
When it comes to the use of the human organs of speech, it can be
shown that certain cultural conventions damage them just as the
custom of binding the feet of girl babies damaged the feet, or the
Ubangi custom of ringing their women's lips damages the lips, or the
Western practice of shaping shoes without regard for the natural func-
tion of the human foot injures not only the foot, but consequentially
may affect the entire body. Very often "voice-culture" works like
shoes, corsets, and other articles of dress that prevent the body from
attaining the condition of greatest mechanical advantage. The plea-

35

sures and satisfactions they bring are the reverse of the pleasures
and satisfactions of optimal function and natural good health.

Obviously, it is the latter which should be the aim of the schools.
The means to achieve this aim would be a science and art of the cul-
tivation of the voice that should render the optimal condition from
childhood constitutive of all vocalizations, and would thus prevent
the damage that automatically flows from the vocal folkways and
mores of the culture. The physician is usually called in when the
damage has been noticeable, and his ordinary service is remedial and
corrective, rather than preventive and constructive. His role is small
alongside the role of the family, the school and the job. Because of
them, vocal dysfunction is a social problem before it becomes medi-
cal. By the time a patient seeks a doctor the damage may be such that
the best the best doctor can do can not avail against the continuing
contagion from the patient's human surroundings. The time to begin
insuring against such vocal contagion is childhood, before social cus-
tom has become personal habit, when it is still possible to establish
the alternative ways of vocalizing which the optimal pattern enables.
At this time, the learner can pass from conscious endeavors at such
vocalizations to its unconscious practice, and the practice be so firmly
built into habit that the contagion from his surroundings is reduced
to a minimum. That it can be entirely shut out is unlikely; that it
can be largely reduced I believe to be certain. But only a reform in
the hygiene and training of the voice can do this.

What holds for the speaking and singing of the plain citizen
holds even more for the professional artist and virtuoso. True, the
vocal troubles of the professionals often have their springs elsewhere
than in the vocal mechanisms. They may be consequences of their
relations with other persons, of conflicts and anxieties in their per-
sonal histories. But, perhaps more frequently than not, they are the
products at last of "technique," learned as the "right" use of the
voice, but actually a mode of habitual abuse, wrong from the start.
The story of the professional's troubles is the old familiar one. Too
frequently, it begins with instruction in physiologically incorrect
methods. It develops with recourse, when fatigue is felt and failure
is experienced, or a succession of voice teachers, each with a method
of his own of curing the trouble. Whether any such teachers have
acquired the science and art needful for treating a sick voice appears
on the record, very doubtful. Too many case histories disclose that
the voice sickness in question began with "voice-culture" The role
of every voice teacher, rightly understood, is to help bring a normal
voice to the highest and freest level of performance within its powers.

To play this role, the teacher must know the physiological mechan-
isms involved in voice dynamics, and must understand its relation to
his pupil's personality. And this means that the teacher must have
some insight into the nature of personality, and not treat the pupil
as nothing hut a voice-producing individual. As of now, neither the
profession, nor the schools (with some exceptions) nor the laws set
such minimal standards for teachers of voice, although they do for
other professions. In consequence, many voice teachers ascribe func-
tions to different components of the vocal apparatus which have no
ground in the known facts. Much that they teach is fanciful or based
on current fad; it causes qualitative misuse and from this the quan-
titative deformations proceed. Dyskinesias of the singing voice are
countless; their names are legion, and far, far too many of them are
directly attributable to modes of voice production taught by singing
teachers.

The Uses of Voice os Science, Pseudo-Science, and as Art

Yet there has become available during the last hundred years
and more, a growing body of scientific information concerning the
human voice and its production. The information has been brought
by the sciences of acoustics, anatomy, physiology, pathology, psych-
ology, psychosomatics, and so on. It has enabled a truer understand-
ing of the human voice, and a more scientific approach to the teach-
ing of the singer's and speaker's art. With the development of radio,
talking movies, television, and other media of expression and com-
munication by voice and its ever deepening and expanding scientific
investigation, this art together with every other vocal art, has been
brought into the foreground of public interest. There is today hardly
a science which does not occupy itself with one or another aspect of
the human voice, from the varied disciplines of physics, biology and
physiology, to those of psychology, anthropology, sociology and
education,

The studies which such sciences produce are, however, addressed
by experts to experts. They are of little practical value to the vocalist
or his teacher. It has been suggested that this may be why voice
teachers are disposed to regard them as intrusions into art. The
scientific data, they say, might be right enough, but they are no help
in teaching how to sing or declaim, because they do not and can not
disclose how they are to be used in order to get the feel and sound
of well produced tones. Knowing such data, they argue, never con-
tributes to the formation of vocal skill and vocal beauty. Moreover,
the scientists are regularly changing their minds; their truths of

37

today may be made into errors tomorrow, by some new experiment or
discovery. But good singing has been good singing through the ages,
and teachers have taught it regardless of what science has had to say
about voice at any time. Indeed, there is a widespread opinion
that today's singing is inferior to the singing of the pre-scientific age.
So what has the science of voice to do with teaching a singer the skills
which bring his voice strength and beauty?

Now this argument, it seems to me, rests on a confusion. The
relation of a teacher of voice to his pupil is perforce intimately per-
sonal; he is the pupil's guide, philosopher and friend regarding the
management of his voice. As a rule, he can be helpful only in terms
of his personal experience, and not of scientific findings. That, as
many case histories attest, this experience is often misleading, is a
fact of record so uncomfortbale that it is usually ignored or denied.
The result is a state of mind which resists the resort to the science
of voice by the teacher of voice, and at the same time complains of
decadence in the singer's art and the singing teacher's methods, yet
refuses or is slow to explore what means there are to improve the
condition and how to use them. Some critics have suggested that
these refusals are due to a vested interest in the status quo, and that
this becomes manifest in the regularity with which pupil, or artist,
or other teacher, is blamed when the pupil does not improve, or the
artist's voice begins to fail. These critics suggest that the charge that
science is an intruder on the profession of the voice teacher may be
a rationalization of this vested interest.

If this is the case, then the voice teacher is blind to his own
interest. For the science of voice can be invaluable to the practice of
his profession. The phoniatrist, as the specialist in this science is
called, commands special techniques for securing the kind of infor-
mation concerning a pupil which makes teaching voice more surely
successful. This information is the science of the specific bases on
which a voice is built up, of the rules by which it is built up, and of
how these rules are discovered and applied. A teacher possessing this
information knows how and why a voice goes wrong or fails to de-
velop, and what preventive steps he might take. The science of voice
both protects him and his pupil from a large proportion of the mis-
haps of their occupations. It is an insurance. It is an insurance also
in the light of the undisputed fact that many people have learned to
sing and sing well without any other help than an unshaken belief in
their teachers. We should not forget, however, the many more who
have not, and who might have, had their personal faith been supple-
mented with the methods and findings of the science of voice.

38

These findings are the phoniatrist's contribution to the under-
standing and management of vocal experience. By their means he
assesses the voice both qualitatively and quantitatively. He correlates
this information with the findings of a personality study involving
the student's psychosomatic stance, his constitution, his attitudes
and the like. His result is a configuration on which the teacher can
rely for appraising and managing the singer's voice alike when he is
well and when he is sick. Such configurations make possible an objec-
tive, instead of the customary subjective discriminations between the
"good" and "bad" qualities of a singing voice. They enable a meeting
of minds among critics of voice, which do not otherwise meet. The
phoniatrist is a physician, a hygienist of the voice, not a singing
teacher. If medical intervention is indicated, he applies among other
techniques orthophonic ones, and advises the teacher what remedial
measures are best suited to the case in hand, in order to remove the
causes and remedy the conditions of the vocal disorder.

Such a collaboration of the phoniatrist and the voice teacher
may not solve every problem of the singing voice. No single discipline
of the healing art is by itself a cure-all for all the ills to which man's
voice is heir. But in relation to the professional vocalist in particular,
the data of phoniatry offer an insurance against its occupational
hazards, derived from the findings in the clinics, the laboratories, the
classrooms and the studios, and checked against one another. They
are findings subject, like all scientific findings to constant revision
in the light of experiment and new discovery. They are not infallible,
but they are more reliable than anything which claims to be infallible
with respect to the training of human voice in song and speech.

The Idea of "Optimal" in the Care and Cure of the Voice

Thirty years ago,' when I first began to call attention to the
matter, the self-confirming and self-strengthening of habitual dykin-
esia of the voice was largely a sealed book. The relationships are more
commonly observed and more widely discussed today, but they still
do not receive the study and treatment they should have, particularly
in the case of children. Invoking as causes the Oedipus complex, the
status of the only child, the mutual jealousies of siblings, can hardly
be said to contribute much to the adequate disposal of the associated
dyskinesia. Nor is invoking general posture, the diseases of childhood,
hidden organic disorder, etc., adequate. Certainly all likely causes
ought to be investigated. The place to start is where the condition is
explicit rather than conjectural. Medical art has in some cases been
able to disclose a causal connection between "neurasthenia" and flat

feet or other not so overt organic deficiencies; and it has been able
by such devices as arch supporters and postural changes to help,
even to cure, the "neurasthenic." The relationship between character,
conduct and dyskinetic vocal mechanisms deserves similar considera-
tion and tratment. Everybody knows that voice and articulation are
among the most telling projections of personality; that nothing an
individual feels or thinks which isn't first carried by the way he gives
voice and affected as he gives voice. Tension or imbalance in his
vocal apparatus can as often be a cause of man's maladjustment with
his surroundings as a sign of such maladjustment. Time and again
I have found orthophonic therapy of vocal dysfunction to improve
the health and behavior of a child, where other forms of treatment
have failed.

Conclusion

More than a generation of experience has led the author to the
conclusion that if maladjustment gets signal expression via the voice,
the voice is as signal a point to begin correcting the maladjustment.
But, first and last, endeavor should be concentrated on prevention.
There is need for a planned public hygiene of the voice to save it from
misuse and strain from the day a child enters kindergarten until
it is well past puberty and the establishment of the adult voice. Such
a hygiene would make for lasting physical and mental health. It
belongs with cleanliness, fresh air, correct diet, exercise, immunization
agaist infection, etc., as a necessity of civilized life. For those who
make their living as speakers, singers, actors, orators, teachers, radio
announcers, and others whose voices are paramount tools of their pro-
fesssions, maintaining such a hygiene at least so long as they practice
their professions, is obviously indicated. In the present state of their
arts, they have much to unlearn in order to establish that optimal
condition on which free, resonant, wholesome vocalization depends.
This is always the condition of vocal health, and thus of vocal effi-
ciency and vocal beauty.

1. According to Webster, the word melody stems from the Greek meloidia
(a singing, choral song) from meloidos (melodious) from melos (song) +
aoidos (singer) : thus, a sweet or agreeable succession or arrangement of sounds,
tunefulness. Ode from Greek oide (a lyric song) stands for a composite of words
(spoken or sung) and music, suitable to accompaniment by the lyre. Threnody
[(Greek threnoidia from threnos (dirge) + oide (song) ] signifies a funereal
song, a song of lamentation. Tragedy (Green tragoidia), literally a goat-song
(tragos (he-goat) + oide (song) comes supposedly from the singers being
clothed in goat skins, symbolically related to fertility rites. Melodrama = melOS
(song) + drama (from dran, to act), thus, action of a romantic and sensational

40

character in which song and instrumental music is interspersed. Comedy (Greek
comoidia) is a combination of komos (a festal procession,, an ode sung at it)
and aeidein (to sing)

2. The word melism. used by professionals, is not listed in the dictionary.
It signifies vocalization characterized by musical attributes. Webster's Diction-
ary defines lallation as the imperfect enunciation of the letter r whereby it
sounds like 1, but the word is derived from the Latin lallare to sing lala, or
lullaby, thus implying the sense of soothing, quieting, calming. Crying, on the
other hand, is defined as making a loud call or cry as in pain, anger, want, etc.;
shouting. Cry stems from French crier, from Latin quiritare (to raise a plain-
tive cry, scream); thus, to lament audibly, to weep, to implore. In the pro-
fession it has become customary to mean by "lalling" or "lallation" only
well-being, but mothers and others of the laity hear in the sounds both well-
being and discomfort. I believe it would be professionally advantageous to use
lallation in the latter sense. This would somewhat limit the logical extension
of crying, as a technical term, but again there is some crying which to lay
adults communicates well-being. Lalling and crying are two modes of utterance
that diverge from a common matrix expressive of them both.

3. The word mellow, evidently, has no direct relationship to the Greek
word melos (song). According to Webster it comes from the Middle English
melwe (sweetness, tenderness; not coarse, rough or harsh) from Anglo-Saxon
mearu by substition of 1 for , (soft, tender); Latin mollis; Greek malakos
(mature, soft with ripeness). Applied to sound, mellow signifies purity, round-
ness, fulness (maturity), which bears a sensory relationship to the feeling of
richness.

The words wholesome (whole), hale and health are derived from M.E.
hole and hale (complete, all well) from the A.S. hal (well, sound, healthy).

Weal and wealth stem from the A.S. wel (a sound prosperous and healthy
state) ; thus, well-being, welfare, prosperity, richness.

4. In 1933 I discussed most of these matters in an address before the
Eighth Annual Convention of The American Society for the Study of Speech
Disorders. My theme then was 'Typical Forms of Vocal Dysfunction".

A typical case from the author's files is that of a little girl of ten who
had suffered from chronic hoarseness since her fourth birthday. The cause of
the condition was primarily an organically-fixed habit of using her voice. Her
condition was typical. Her history recalled little beyond the fact that she had
lost her voice at the age of 3>/2 while she was suffering from a severe upper
respiratory infection later complicated by pneumonia. It took fully three
months for her to get well, following which she continued to be under the
watchful attention of her doctor. Periodic physical examination showed her
to be in general physical good health. But her voice, which had become
abnormally low and hoarse, continued so, and at no subsequent time showed
any improvement.

The only child of a musician and his wife, she had had the tenderest care.
During phoniatric examination, she sounded very "breathy" as well as abnor-
mally low, with the characteristic muted, indrawn quality of utterance not
uncommon to such conditions. Her behavior was consistent with her utterance;
she seemed cowed and unsocial; showed none of the traits which psycho-
analysts attribute to the condition of being an only child. On the other hand,

41

Adlerians might have interpreted her behavior as a use of her vocal inferiority
to wield power over her parents if they could have reconciled this interpretation
with the fact that the use of inferiority in other relations failed to bring the
results she wanted.

On advice of the pediatrician, her parents first took her for treatment to
a so-called habit clinic. When, after an extended time, this brought no improve-
ment they went on a "shopping tour" among laryngologists. The
diagnosis was "chronic laryngitis", with more than a child's share of the
responding treatment. Inasmuch as there was no record of organic findings
in the larynx, some one had diagnosed "hysteria".

The first examination by the author revealed a slight hyperarmia in the
mucous membrane of the laryngeal vestibule, but the cords were pearly white.
The condition of the mucosa of the surrounding area was not such as to justify
assigning an organic cause for the child's vocal dysfunction. In' this there
figured a marked hypotonia of the cords and a lack of power to bring them
together for efficient phonation. This seemed the significant symptom, and
the treatment which followed was to correct this condition. Improvement
followed in a comparatively short period. The improvement of the voice was
accompanied by a change in the child's behavior. Her shyness noticeably
diminished, and her relations with other children became freer and more
natural.

It is a truism that we must beware of confusing certain aspects of
primarily organically conditioned hoarseness with hysteria or other psychiatric
syndrome. But truisms also bear repeating many times. Certain characteristic
forms of functional hoarseness are, of course, definitely known to be hysterical,
but the general classification "hysteria" may not only be mistaken but may be
dangerous when made in any case of functional hoarseness which happens not
to be typical. All too often, true organic dysphonia is diagnosed "hysteria"
because it shows no signs of local inflammation, while the physical treatment
of cases with visible signs consequent on primary dysfunction of the larynx
is practically commonplace. Hoarseness caused by misuse or abuse of the voice
is often treated in this mistaken way. So are the dysfunctions which grow out
of vocal disturbances incident to puberty and adolescence. So are many of the
vocal inadequacies of the small child.

Adults as well as children are subject to the self- imitative process. It is
especially important in singers in whom the vocal difficulties arise from a too
prolonged exclusion of function following some affection of the vocal tract, or
from false tensions generated while exercising so-called "saving" or "sparing"
the voice by whispering.

Alexander, Matthias F.: Man's Supreme Inheritance. Conscious Guidance and
control in Relation to Human Evolution in Civilization (With an In-
troductory Word by Prof. John Dewey). E. P. Dutton & Co., New York,
1918. The Universal Constant in Living (With an Appreciation by Prof.
G. E. Coghill). E. P. Dutton & Co., New York, 1941.

Cannon, Walter Bradford: The Wisdom of the Body. Revised Ed. W. W.
Norton & Co., New York, 1939.

Gutzmann, Herman: Spracheilkunde. 3rd Ed. Enlarged and Edited by
Zumsteeg, Harold. Fischers medizinische Buchhandlung, H. Komfeld,
Berlin, 1924.

J acobson, Edmund: Progressive Relaxation.

J espersen, Otto: Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin. Henry Holt
& Co., New York, 1934.

Kallen, Horace M.: Art and Freedom. Vol. II, Chapter XXIV, The Esthetic
Experience. Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New York, 1942.

Luchsinger, R. and Arnold, G. E.: Lehrbuch der Sprach- und Stimmheilkunde.
Springer Verlag; Vienna, Ed. II, 1959.

Malinowski, B.: Myth in Primitive Psychology. Kagan, Paul, Trench, Trubne
& Co., London, 1926.

Moses, Paul J .: The Voice of Neurosis. Grune & Stratton, New York, 1954.

O'Shea, M. V.: The Child: His Nature and His Needs. The Children's Founda-
tion, New York, 1928.

Paget, Sir Richard: Human Speech. Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, 1930.

Pear, T. H.: Voice and Personality. John Wiles & Son, Inc., New York, 1931.

Stem, Hugo: Die physiologischen Grundbedingungen einer richtigen Stimm-
bildung. Monatschrift fur Laryngologie und Ohrenheilkunde, 1911.

Tameaud, J .: Le Chant: Sa Construction, Sa Destruction. Librairie Maloine,
Paris, 1946.

Todd, Mabel E.: The Thinking Body. Paul B. Hoeber, Inc., New York, 1928.

Yerkes, Robert M. and Learned, Blanche W.: The Chimpanzee Intelligence
and Its Vocal Expression. Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore, 1925.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

With special reference to

THE BIRNBAUM COLLECTION

of the Hebrew Union College Library

By ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN. Hebrew Union College.

THE CREATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS of the Synagogal
music of the past century, root in the efforts of the Synagogue
singers of the century preceding; and the reform movement in
Jewish sacred song, which took shape at the beginning of the
nineteenth century, grows out of the valiant attempts made in
the eighteenth and even already in the seventeenth century.
That period of the planting and germination of the seeds of
much in the subsequent history of Synagogue song is entirely
neglected and forgotten; but is none the less of high historical,
musical, and Jewish cultural value. It is important not only
for the history of Jewish song, but for the general history of
music as well. It was a period in which there was enacted the
determined struggle of the Synagogal singers, D':rn, to introduce
European means of muscial expression into the ancient tradi-
tional Jewish-Oriental modes and songs. It was a hard and
long fight between the cantors, intoxicated with their newly
acquired introduction to the art of music, and the conservative
minded rabbis of that time. Beginning with the end of the
seventeenth century, we see a long line of Jewish singers and
cantors, who, despite great difficulties, tried to acquire some
musical knowledge; and, in the face of still greater obstacles,
struggled to utilize their achievements for what they counted the
beautifi cation of the service. No account of those pioneers and
their work has been written; and the scraps of information con-
cerning them that wc find in print, must be extracted from the
strong and not always high-minded opposition of the rabbis, in

(Reprinted from Hebrew Union College Jubilee Volw

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

their responsa or in their super-scrupulous ethical works, wherein
those singers of the religion were excoriated as blasphemers
and outcasts. Aside from these indirect reports, the only his-
torical material by which we can identify them and establish
the dates of their lives, is the occasional tomb-stone inscription
in Hebrew square letters, found only in the Jewish cemeteries
of the old communities of Central Europe. They share the
same lot as most of the Jewish poets of the Synagogue, in regard
to the data of their life-record; but, while the poets frequently
incorporated their names in acrostics, the musicians had no such
tool, and therefore their names were forgotten while their songs
delighted the souls of thousands and thousands. It is only
sheer accident that their creations were preserved in writing
and (still more extraodinary!) in their own handwriting. There
remains yet to be acquired a considerable quantity of fairly
rich material in the vaulable manuscripts of those Jewish singers
and musicians who first started using European means to ex-
press their musical thoughts.

Indeed it demanded great energy and patience and en-
durance and devotion on the part of that person who would
gather those remainders of yellow music sheets of the eighteenth
century, poorly written, scattered throughout the world in ob-
scure corners, with the rubbish of dusty archives of the old com-
munities in Central Europe, or in the hands of the descendants of
old chazzanic families who had not the slightest idea of their
historical value. And such a person-indeed a personality-
the Synagogue song found in the late Edward Bimbaum (18X4-
1920), cantor of Konigsberg Germany-a man who devoted
forty-five years of his life, until his death, to that tedious task-
a man who collected singlehanded more material than an entire
institution with a staff of employees would have gathered. Due
to his unique devotion to and love for his ideal, The History of
Jewish Music, the Jewish people is now in possession of a col-
lection of its songs. And due to the bibliographical foresight
of Mr. A. Oko, librarian of the Hebrew Union College Library,
who sensed the far-reaching import of the unique collection, we
are able to become acquainted with the distinctive Jewish song
of the eighteenth century.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

It required more than seven hundred years for the creation
and development of the traditional Synagogue songs of the Cen-
tral European Jews, the so-called Ashkenazim. The end of
the period in which fresh material was added to the body of
traditional song, we can set at about the middle of the seventeenth
century. That traditional song consisted (1) of the ancient
Biblical modes and their derivatives, the prayer-modes, in
the fluid form of recitative chant, which the Jews inherited
from their ancestors, the exiles of Palestine; further (2) of the
tunes for the Synagogal poetry, partly brought over from
Babylon and Palestine, and partly created in Southern Germany;
and finally (3) of those tunes called Misinai, which were created
out of the Biblical modes. The songs of those three classes,
with very few exceptions, can be considered real Jewish tunes-
in their tonality, in their melodic structure, in their motive-
development. In their character, they were folksong, rendered
either responsively or in unison, with variations for solo parts.
When we read through the rich responsa of the period between
the tenth and the seventeenth centuries, we hear the echo
of a long continuous battle in regard to the tunes, their appro-
priateness and Jewishness. By reason of Jewish instinct,
only those tunes were retained which suited Jewish sentiments
and ideas, for ideas as well as sentiments demand distinctive
tonal expression. A determining factor in the Synagogal song
of that period, and a cause for its Jewishness and its folk char-
acter, I consider the active participation of the rabbis in creating
the tunes as well as in rendering them. We know that many
prominent rabbis served at the same time as chazzanim, not
only as composers of piyutim, but also as singers. We know,
for example, that Rashi, his grandson Shlomo, 2 Rabbi Maier
of Rothenberg, 3 and above all the famous Maharil, 4 were promi-
nent tqx Tthv.

• B. Ziemlich, Berlin 1886 -mrnsnarvi p. 67.

.n»n puna ^ono n'nr prw i'z no^p irai 'Do 'tiyoe -p

* Brother of Rabbenu Tarn nu'nitnop. 243.
i^onn'ia par. n'jpi'frtonnvuo j-djdod o'-in )mi n«n iai.
« Maharil, Sabionetta isse folio 6i.

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

The persecutions in Germany did not permit of sufficiently
close approach of Jew and gentile, to invite appropriation of
their neighbors' melodies by the Jews, as was habitual in Mo-
hammedan countries; although it happened5 from time to time,
that Catholic priests borrowed Jewish tunes for the Church,
and that Jews took over some gentile tunes for the Synagogue-
a fact which caused the issuance of a protest against such pro-
miscuous interchange of melodies. Synagogue music had to
feed pretty much on itself. The precentor, being at the same
time, occupied with other communal functions, was bound to
the spot and lacked leisure to develop his artistic abilities.
True, we do occasionally find, as exceptions, famous chazzanim
who drew the attention of even the court. 6

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, a new spirit
penetrated into the Ghetto, and aroused the artistic temperament
of the chazzanim. It seems that that new flame of life-the
Renaissance, coming from Italy and spreading slowly Northward
-threw its sparks into the dark corners of the Ghetto. We
find an echo of the movement of that time in the Cabbalistic
rabbi and cantor in Frankfort am Main, Rabbi Herz Treves,
who bitterly complains against the new movement and the strange
attitude that the chazzanim took toward their holy function:
"They have ceased to be writers of Torah, Tefillin, Megillahs;

SD'TDmBD, A. Freiman's ed. Frankfort a/M 1924, p. 85

n^np) D"? 1 ? anvbi D'liorD nci« o'un ]*a mn»si n'rta ibd vnoV ibo mm
cans nh n'pn na *3 ^«pin') :ioio oi'by conn idn .rv^jia rvrvi noanni »."• 'r
n^jn p' ]B o'jji nor v:sh pr k^i nvniK nVA o-m ^D^>' tb .dhd rrv ttb d*bbi»di
.n'apn^ niv ]iu im« nw nry nb i"sj vsb o'iuop pri Vsi .t'ji 'jb^ ivj inw:
idik mm m'ayS -idt nwyS 'W 1« T'y 1 ? uvs nwyb nxn» nf?j von p . 332.

.!T l 7y!<n'«Vp,lH0N , VM,D3'nVK , 7C'n3»D □ nNQ D'SNin'l'V-llDKIHVT'V

* A Epstein: Die Wormser Minhagbticher, reprint from Kaufmann's
Gedenkbuch, Breslau 1900, p. XXIV. "Reinhard Noltz erzahlt in seinem
Tagebuche zu 1495: Item uf diese Zit ginge der pfalzgraf Philips churfiirst
mit seinem son herzog Ludwigen in die Judenschule und horten sie singen,
und gebot der pfalzgraf seinen edlen und Dienern ziichtig zu sin und die
Juden ungeirret zu lassen. Zu 1496 berichtet Noltz wieder: Item an »■
Rlargarethen tag (13 Juli. Es war ein Wochentag.) gienge die Konigin in
die Judengasz in die schul und horet sie singen. Auch aus dem Volke
stromten andachtigeZuhorer in die Synagoge, um dem Gesange zulauschen,
wie uns Liwa zum Jahre 1603 mittheilt."

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

nor do they care for the correct grammatical reading nor for
the meaning of the prayers-only for their songs, without regard
for the real sense of the words. They neglect the traditional
tunes of their ancestors" .7 Gradually there arose the interesting
phenomenon that the chazzanim devoted themselves more and
more to music, and began to consider all other communal functions
as burdens. Hence their effort to release themselves from these
tasks! From Italy, travelling singers and musicians overran
Northern Europe, spreading their new art. Italian music came
to be the synonym for music in general. 8 Under the spell of
these minstrels, the chazzanim too abandoned all their other
functions, devoted themselves to music, and started travelling
from community to community to perform their concert-services.
The Truro or chorister is the product of and largely the creation
of those Renaissance chazzanim. Its first influence, the Renais-
sance naturally exerted upon the Italian Jews, as evidenced by
the effort of the famous Jewish composer Solomon Rossi of
Mantua and of Rabbi Yehudah Leon de Modena, to arrange
regular choral music in the Synagogue in Venice, at the beginning
of theseventeenth century. It is well known that the episode
had no enduring results, A strong conservative opposition
destroyed that reform without leaving any trace, 9 unless it be
negatively in the aroused stubbornness that so strongly upheld
everything traditional, that ninety years thereafter, a prominent
rabbi 10 who was a pa was scverly punished and his life endangered
because he attempted to change the tune of the Priestly Bene-
diction, from the Sephardic to the Ashkcnazic tradition. In
Germany, despite all the orthodox attitude, we find that the

7 V. his commentary to the Prayerbook rnny-iKmxSo, Thiengen, 1560:
Preface to the Kaddish.

8 H. Rieman: Handbuch der Musikgeschichtc II. I., Leipzig 1920,
Introduction; Ibid II. 2. p. 329 ff.

9 De Modena's Introduction to Salomon Rossi's work, 1st. ed., Venice
1623; Naumbourg's ed. Paris, 1876.

V. The controversy between the Rabbis who admitted "music" and
those who were opposed, in a pamphlet printed in Vienna in quarto form
without date, headed pOB.

10 Rabbi Nehemiah Cohen of Ferrara in his apology }"7Dl)"!£D, Mantua
1715.

ANRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

opposition to that Renaissance influence on the Synagogue music,
was much less pronounced; and some communities were even
rather more favorably disposed than those in Italy itself. While
Venice saw the fight between Yehudah Leon de Modena and
the majority of the rabbis over the introducing of Music into the
Synagogue, Prague equipped its new Synagogue (built in 1592
by the famous Mordecai Meisel) with an organ and a special
orchestra organized to play and to accompany different songs
including 'Tin rob on Friday evening, which number was elabor-
ated into a concert of more than an hour's length." The same
concerts were held in almost all the nine Synagogues of Prague,
including the Alt-neu-schul in which a new organ, built by a
Jewish organbuilder, Rabbi Meier Mahler,12was installed in
1716. There is report of instrumental music in the Synagogues,
around the beginning of the eighteenth century, in the communi-
ties of Nikolsburg, Offenbach, Furth, etc. 13

Despite the antagonism toward the ars nova introduced by
the chazzanim in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and
the opposition to the choir which it created and required, the
latter innovation became an established organization in almost
every congregation or community. At the beginning of the
eighteenth century, we find from Prague to Amsterdam, com-
munity or Kahal singers consisting of a bass and a discant or
singer, that is a soprano or falsetto. These men were sustained
by the congregations, and together with the chazzanim re-
ceived the nickname •n'D'n^a (w v, -nitPDjrn,) or D'yan'n'a'r
(l?n ( DK3 ( tm'^). In Amsterdam, 14 choir singing was introduced
in 1700, and at the same time, also in Hamburg. 15 In Frankfort 16
about 1714, the institution of a choir was considered a long

11 Shlomo Singer wrote poems to be sung before Friday evening, in that
Synagogue, v. end of owtob by Sabbatai Bass, Amsterdam 1680.
UV.Vspn, o'nyn mpa, p. 257.

13 Reisebeschreibung by Abraham Levy, 1719-1724. V. Israel itische
Letterbode, Amsterdam 1884 ff.

14 v. Sluys: De Oudste Synagogen der Hoogduitsch-joodsche Ge-
meenteTe Amsterdam (1635-1671), Amsterdam 1921. p. 27.

15 V. Jahrbuch der Jiidischen-literatur Gesellschaft VI. p. 18 ff .concerning
the minutes of the Portuguese community of the year 1652.

16 V. Schudt: Merkwiirdichkeitcn der Juden, 1714, part IV

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

established one. In Prague, every Synagogue had its choral
society of volunteers, asidefromtheemployed singers. Among
the first institutions of the newly established community in Berlin
in 1671, we find that of community singers, for whose admission
the Jewish community had to obtain special permits from the
government. It seems that a permit for the bass only was
procurable, so that the other singers' residence in Berlin was
illegal. 18 Even in small communities the people were enthusiastic
over having a choir. One such example is Prosnitz 19 Moravia,

"The custom of singing -inx»-|i-a was an old one. V. Tur n'm par.
51. V. also plS'^yn lirnD, Venice 1568, vol. I, Introduction. Already Rabbi
Samson ben Eleazar the Scribe was called -iDNV-p-o.and that same name he
gave his book , Schklow 1805. He lived in the fourteenth century. In his
introduction, he tells that, as a boy of eight, he was brought from Saxony
to Prague, where he lost his parents, and remained, an orphan. There, every
morning in the Synagogue, he used to sing lOM^ina with a loud and sweet
voice. Every Synagogue in Prague had a special society called =»'3'-iotD
1BM0 -)ii3. On the tombstones of the members of those choral societies, is,
marked e'a'naroo; v. Hock: Epitaphs of Prague, ed. D. Kaufman", Pres-
burg 1892. There were alsoorchestral societies which played in the Synagogues
before the beginning of the Friday evening service. On the tombstones of
the members of these, is inscribed mprtap^Nu^o'OHponD'-ior^anDD;
and they were called iDt'^DT'D. Abraham Levy, in his Reisebeschreibung,
speaks of Prague thus: "In Prague are famous chazzanim. Among them
I found one who is a great artist and famous throughout Europe His name
isYokele Chazzan. The chazzanim use singers and also flutes and organs and
violins and cymbals and various instruments of percussion for every Friday
to receive the Sabbath. With the help of those instruments, they sing not
only 'in rt3^>; but after they finish that poem, they continue to sing several
sweet tunes for about an hour's time" Of the famous chazzan. Lipmann
Poppers (d. 1656), it is reported in the Necrologue of Hirschle Tausig Wein-
schenk, which was printed in the introduction to Sota, Wagensei I 1674 p.
83 ff.: "Von Schnitzen un Mahlen will ich schweigen still, dazu alleSeiten-
spiel Schalmeien unTrometen".

on«»3i nVni nnara km n3» n'jnp P h. (Venice 1700, F. 15) a 'dj n -1133

.trr D'"niroi q'jbot ay not 'Vaa jidutt n'33 nasn o'^opD niVnp nosai o-o-yj

".ruts nnsyn vb -idn i

»«V. L. Geiger: "Geschichte der Juden in Berlin ", Berlin 1870, notes p. 45.

»» Michael of Kempen was appointed chazzan in Prosnitz 1764. His
agreement (Chazzanuthbrief) is still preserved in thearchive of that community.
Therein it is stated that the bachelor Samuel was appointed bass, on the
salary of one half dollar per week, the community to supply Sabbath meals,
while the chazzan was to provide his food for the week days. V. Oest. Ung.
Cant. Zeit. 1894 #26

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

which became a centre for Jewish singers and song, in the first
half of the eighteenth century, and from which prominent
Jewish composers came forth, as we shall see later. A similar
attitude, we find in Hildesheim 20 in Western Germany, which like
Prosnitz served as the cradle of a considerable number of Jewish
musicians, In other communities that innovation was barely
tolerated, so that any severe calamity in the form of persecutions
or restrictions, brought among the first orders for repentance
laid upon the community by the spiritual leaders, the prohibi-
tion of " Synagogue Singing " which meant the ars nova of the
chazzanim. We meet such orders of repentance in different
countries at the same time, as for example in Selz and Brisk,**
both in Lithuania, and in Worms, 22 and Hamburg. 23

Concerning the origins, uses, and abuses of the new style
of song introduced by the chazzanim, we have two sources of
information: on the one hand, the caricature drawn by rabbis
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; on the other hand,
the music manuscripts of the chazzanim themselves. "The
custom of the chazzanim in our generation is to discover tunes
out of their minds, and to transfer tunes from the secular to the
sacred. They know not how to read the Torah because the
congregations prefer to have chazzanim to show off with sweet

» V. note #46.

" yo0> t<bv upn nnxm nismn nn« ybyoi «'n iyi3: p. 172 ,1 onn VI.
p-inn by bittmb njpnn inn dp Tan iyu ...nsn b'bz to not -bz b*-\w n'33
iS"d« .ovhd firm nw wbo r'3 aw Vs-is- n'33 yo»' k^» wjhds nryw ^nin

".n^si ]nn «oiatD3

cnin 'id -mi' nssa -nip 1 ? n3T &b ]m 010 -3 pirn mvj po>i33 Vo» iyu

ini' n 1 ? qotj '1 ]vb ]b nw\ roun nsri d p 3 13 trv nasi minn i« nruns 'ti n-iMi

.»"p mip k^i

"n«D tW'DTllniJpn 1641, BlatterfUr Jiid. Gesch. u. Lit., Mainz, 1903. flO.

byvnpmm )in pi "ir.in union ninnisa j «« njtv) jii-i on m' nb ynpn ]tni...rt

Sbj nx'iyji pipj ii3' «Vi ,n"ort

3n nD3Dn o'y kT nsnn '3s 1 ? ]"t ^snD \\vh ]o bn\ '-131 »>«i mis ]"p ,k - ^

.iibi ennn oris e'y n!?i D-oneri
*»M- Grunwald, Mitteilungen etc. 1923, p, 231, Luxusverbot der drei
Gemeinden Hamburg-Altona-Wandsbek of the year 1715, Par. 40: Kein
fremder Vorbeter darf mi! Sangcrcn in der Synagoge oder bei einem Fest-
mahl singen oder einen 1130 'a machen auser den Vorbeter der Synagoge
zu welcher der Gastgeber gehort, sonst hat der Wirt zwei Tahler Strafe zu /allien.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

voices and fine singing. Every Saturday the number of new
tunes increases-tunes which we knew not before." *4 In the
same vein, write two chazzanim, Yehudah Lcb ben Moses 25
in his pamphlet mirf'TiP, and Solomon Lifshitz 26 cantor in
Metz. Both testify that the chazzanim used to take tunes from
the theatre or the dance hall and use them for the service.
Other chazzanim were accused of taking tunes from the Catholic
church. Peculiarly enough, to the question of borrowedmelodies
Joel Sirkas responded 27 that there was no objection whatever so
long as the tunes had not been used for the Christian service, by
which judgement ha pronounced unjewish tunes permissable.
Of the same opinion was Menahem de Lonzano, 28 while Rabbi
Yehudah Hechasid and Joseph Hahn opposed strongly. 29 A
serious complaint was that the chazzzanim introduced their own
or borrowed compositions for those prayers which never before
had been sung, and that they neglected both the traditional
tunes and the principle parts of the ritual. "The chazzanim
run through the main prayers with such rapidity that even the
swiftest horse could not follow them; while on the Kaddish or
Psalm tunes, they spend so much effort and time that the annoyed
congregants begin to converse." 30

nD'-imivrtn by anl3Ki"a-|iin Frankfort a/M, 1708. F. 29 ff.

*s Cantor in Obterode Minden in Western Germany, and finally in Altona
and Hamburg, but originally from Poland. mirvvB, Amsterdam 1697,
Preface; folio XIV.

* In his book on the conduct of the chazzanim Hd'jp miyn, Offenbach
1718, Preface; folio 20.

« .i*«i ,|"Di D"iiBp)K"iB ,i'3p ]0'o .nwn n'an niawm m^xr

>• n^ya 1 ? Vna *?ip3 Sn-w 'h^k 'nV SSrh. : (Venice 1618 F. 142) nn' \-.»

□ w 3 1 3 on» -nb D'^Nyop'n 'jiu by 'v» an -un^ no in naD '^ nrvn nun <'a 'a ,- m)

mm»iD , T0D , "nnonVy5n □ wNm3 o'Dannxp warn . . ..an^ro inv am'pa o^ip

•.oi^3na3V«'3.aDypnTNinonV«n»"aot*^i»!« □ *i i u by'th

*» O'yj "7ip 1^ P'P'O in!' (Berlin, Par. 768-d. □ wiii 's'pmo'TOniBD
'.H'n nvay '3 O'lai D-nn isr vhv

DVl nap h'bl DWIJiisyV 1'K (Frankfort a/M, 1627, F. 73) rBN"lDv
kSi nDJ3n n-aa i^k cjiri wy «^» pp Vsi 'iai «npo 'ja 103 cnsn nsr mm aiu
onKDno'Dinnn'iu'j , !3B oidm ,in'n on 1 ; nbd^ □ 'dj nnD3
.DH3J nnor iVsk nmwon niapj 1 ? nino 1 ? &> . ..3"pn , ninpDnn , 3PiDra i j nuti
v. also 1'B'flnKPO Par. 6.

*° V. D'">133 n-Ptn as in Note 24.

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

Considering the fact that some of the traditional tunes
such as that for the mjb, the ffiran, or the 13-Q were also
very long-drawn, and that nevertheless no protests were uttered
against these by the rabbis, we must conclude that the reason
for the complaints was not only the prolongation of the service,
hut the introducing of the new tunes for prayers the especial
emphasis of which was not sanctioned by the necessities of the
ritual. It was for a ceremonial need, for instance, that the tune
of "113^3 was produced. The chazzan was ordered to prolong
the singing of m:Vj for two reasons: first, since it was not
permissable to annul vows on Sabbaths and holidays, he would
have to begin m:^sby daylight, and then fill the time till
sunset; secondly, to enable also the late-comers among the
congregants to hear the 'Tu^a he would have to repeat it31
Still in the time of the Maharil, there was no set tune for maVa
and he himself used to embroider the text with different tunes, 32
while Mordecai Jaffe of Prague, at the end of the sixteenthcentury,
speaks of all the chazzanim's using a certain set tune which, be-'
cause of its connection with the text, was a stumbling block to
any change of that text.33 While they did not hesitate to spend
over an hour in singing now or -iDK»-p-o, 3 « since to that usage
they ascribed a cabbalistic or mystic connotation, they opposed
violently the new tunes of the chazzanim, which had no other
purpose than a musical one.

Chazzanuth in Central Europe seems to have gone through
the same development in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-

3'MachzorVitri p. 388; pm Prague 1620 F. 70; Maharil 3"vno^n ;
Machzor Munchen (quoted in B. Ziemlich, Berlin 1886 p. 50) written in 1331,
states that in Bohemia-in Hebrew jyariN— , it was the custom already to
recite mi^ three times, each time raising the voice higher than the pre-
ceding time; while in Worms, it was habitual to recite it only twice.

J' Maharil, Sabionetta, 1556, F. 59.

" ornn vesy u o'juoe "i-ij Vd ]wh bj (Prague 1701, Par. 619) ruV
.nuprm 'Vn *it>"« tun . . ..nnbs pun nbtt fits dw ib pto . . ..«in jiiym pipno v*
'jsa on'jBn nya nixib o^is- vn nbi piro o*m!? -nobbi v.pnb 'ft'si d'djib nos\

.on'Dae pan Vnn

« V. note #17. For the description of the responsive singing of nownna
and ropj at the Talmudic Academies in Babylonia, by Nathan Bavli, v.
-)Bnv Amsterdam 1732, p. 92 ff.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C

turies, as had the Synagogue song in the Orient in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries-in that period when the piyut's flourishing
was at its height. Here as well as there we see the inclination
of the chazzanim to neglect traditional folksong and to elevate
the Synagogue music to the realm of art; and here as well as
there, the result was either a reaction or a complete failure.
First the artistic flavor caused the people to cease to understand
the song, although they favored it as a novelty and as art; and
secondly, inasmuch as the art demanded professional singers to
devote themselves to it, it excluded laymen entirely. Hence the
traditional occupancy of the position of prccentot by rabbis and
prominent men, was, by reason of the new art, impossible.
Therefore gradually ptecentorship became a matter of sweet
voices rather than of religious spirits. The best account in
caricature has been preserved in a pamphlet of the beginning
of the seventeenth century, named pyjDrKiD'pjttsntp 1 ?^"

If, until the seventeenth century, Germany had been the
supplier to Eastern Europe of rabbis and chazzanim, the one
transplanting thither Ashkenazic Jewish learning, and the other
A shkenazic Jewish traditional songs and customs, that role was
no longer hers, after the persecutions of Chmelnitzki (1648-1660)
which caused the Polish and Ukrainian Jews to leave their dwell-
ing place, and to migrate Westward. In the course of a very
short time, a Polish influx colored the character of many a Central
European congregation; or, in some instances, separate Polish
congregations were established. Toward the end of the seven-
teenth century, Rabbi Zelig Margolis of Kalish complains
bitterly against those rabbis, religious teachers, and chazzanim,
who, for the sake of material returns, left their native places
and migrated to the rich German communities. Not approving
of such action, he travelled instead to the Holy Land. 36 In
fact we find, around the same time in Germany, Holland, and
even Italy, many rabbis and cantors of Polish origin. Especially
a famous chazzan Jokele of Rzeszow of Poland made a furor

*» First in MS. at the end of lp"Vr by Ephraim Lenschitz, written about
1402, in Lublin, first published in Amsterdam as a placard. V. Heb. Bibl.
II. p. 155-158.

J'o'mp^man, Venice 1715, Introd.

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

through his tremendous voice and wonderful singing. We
find him now in Prague 37 as chazzan; now in Amsterdam, where
he was painted by a famous Dutch artist; and, in 1715, in Metz
where, while he was officiating on the feast of Shabuoth, a terrible
calamity occurred at the Synagogue, fatal to many worshippers. 38
A great many of the Ashkenazic chazzanim in Amsterdam were
from Poland, as for example Michael hen Nathan of Lublin
(1700-1712) who, as the first to introduce choral singing of bass
and singer into the Xmsterdam Synagogue, caused heated con-
tention in the Synagogue over this innovation. 39 There was also
Rabbi Leb ben Eliakim of Horochow Volin, 1730, and Baer of
Glogow in 1745, and Abraham Sigal of Hollishah, etc. 40 We
find similar examples in many other communities such as in
Fiirth 4 ' and Hamburg. Those Eastern European chazzanim
introduced the Polish style of singing into Central European
Synagogues, until their type of song became so much a part of
chazzanuth that even the German chazzanim were obliged to
give it to their congregations.

The eighteenth century manuscripts of Synagogue song
betray a striking monotony of style and texts. The Jewish
singers adopted that peculiar rococo style which flourished so
widely in the eighteenth century. Altogether neglecting the
fluid Oriental recitative chanting, they developed the rhythmical,
metrical, melodic form, utilizing the minuette, andante, allegretto,
aria, rondo, polonaise, preludio, adagio, Siciliano, and Waldhorn.
The texts selected to be intoned were of hymn or laudation
character, such as Hn ro 1 ?, Psalm 95, vnp, numm hx, ]\1H !w,

" V. above-mentioned Reisebeschreibung byA. Levy in Letterbode

Amsterdam.

J* In the Memoirs of Glickl von Hammeln, ed. D. Kaufmann, p. 325;
Benjamin Kreilsheim in his pamphlet fD'anp^n, Berlin, 1722.

» V. Sluys, loc cit. (Note #14).

<• Ibid.

oppmiKBnFurth, 1679, by Meier Tarnopol who was Rabbi in Oet-
tingen, and whose father-in-law, Chayim Zelig, was chazzan in Fiirth. The
latter was originally chazzan in Lemberg in Poland, and in 1660 was compelled
to emigrate by reason of the Chmelnitzki pogroms. The author states also
that all the Polish rabbis and their disciples emigrated to Moravia and
Southern Germany.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

rwnp, rooa 'd, new, mn and wtt in hhn; on High Festivals
much stress was laid upon o"n W?dd, Q^iy mn m-n, etc. And
we never find an attempt of one of the composers to choose
for his musical creations, a text other than those habitually sung.
Because of this dull conformity to routine, we find in the manu-
scripts innumerable tunes for one and the same text.

In form and character, the tunes were rather instrumental
than vocal-and this for two reasons. In the first place, the
Jewish singers had no opportunity to listen to vocal music since
they had no access to Christian society functions or church pro-
grams and services, while they did hear the instrumental music
played mostly in the open air, by travelling musicians or military
bands. In the second place, the vivacious Jewish spirit preferred
the more sprightly music, especially of string or wind instruments.
Although the tunes are-written for the cantor and the two singers
(bass and discant) yet we never find harmony in the manuscripts,
that is, the three voices do not carry three individual parts, sing
simultaneously, and thus provide opportunity to achieve
harmonic combinations; but the manuscripts are throughout, of
one melodic line, separated alternately for the various voices.
We do not know whether this is an abbreviated method of in-
dicating only the melodic lines, while the accompaniments were
primitively extemporized ; or whether the music was sung merely
in one part or in unison. Only in the later manuscripts at the
end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century,
we meet with the attempt to write three different voices simul-
taneously, in harmony-naturally in poor harmony.

The education of the chazzan both in Jewish knowledge and
in music was the same three hundred years ago as it still is in
Eastern Europe. The above-mentioned Solomon Lifshitz
(see note 26) leaves us a description of his own education in
the second half of the seventeenth century. He studied at
the Yeshivah of David Oppenheim in Nikolsburg where he
learned Shechitah. Chazzanuth, he acquired from his father,
Moses Lifshitz in FUrth (1652-1731). He became chazzan and
shochet and religious teacher in a little place. Gradually ad-
vancing, he secured a better position where he abandoned the
Shechitah and the teaching, and devoted himself to his chaz-

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

zanuth. I n about 1709, he became the official community cantor
(KDDT|rn) in Prague. This position he could not retain ; resigned;
and went to Frankfort. In 1715, he became the cantor in Metz,
where he died in 1758. He had been fortunate in having a father
a chazzan, with whom he could study, for usually the singers
had to serve chazzanim from their childhood, travelling and
suffering with them from place to place, without any possibility
of having any general education. In the chazzanuth-brief agree-
ment between the community of Hildesheim and the chazzan
Yosef aus Bicksheim, made in 1780, paragraph 8 provides that
the chazzan must keep one singer at his own expense, and that
in case the chazzan has another singer called bass, the community
would pay the bass one half of his salary, that is one half thaler
a week, and the various households would supply him with food. 42
This sort of condition continued at least in Eastern Europe till
late in the nineteenth century. In his memoirs, Elkan Cohen
(born in Hungary, 1806) son of Lipman Bass, writes that in
his twelfth year, he was stolen by a chazzan, and brought to
the chazzan Yisroel in Prosnitz, who travelled over Moravia,
Bohemia, Galicia, and Prussia. On his travels, he came to
Budapast where the famous chazzan of that time, Dovidl
Brod (1783-1848), who had been newly appointed, accepted
him as a singer, under these conditions: "I know that you are
adrong (a special chazzanic term meaning log, applied to those
with an unmusical wooden voice); but yet if one wants to sing
he should not be frightened. You can remain with me. I will
supply you with days (the privilege of eating regularly with one
family on each of the seven days of the week, throughout the
year). Wages, I do not give; but at weddings and festal meals
(m-nyD) , you can have a collection plate, the proceeds of which
you will have to divide with the discant (falsetto singer). On
Chanukah and Purim, you may go from house to house with
the bass, and share with him what you thus gather. Erev Yom
Kippur when it is customary for the Meshorerim to be posted
in the Schul, you will receive many donations."43 The essential
requirement for a singer was not only a good voice, but foremost

*' Copied by Birnbaum; classified under catagory -vans.

«V. Memoirs, Oesterreichisch-ungarische Cantoren-Zeitung. Jhrg. 3, |6-8.

OF THE SYNAGOGUE SC.

a good memory, since the chazznnim for the most part could
not read music, or-if they could-then only with great difficulty.
Hence they were dependent upon the memory of the singers for
the retaining of their tunes or the obtaining of new ones. For
this reason, a singer with a great repertoire in his head, was
very desirable and much sought after. And for the same reason
a singer could not long remain with the same cantor, because
after handing over the entire treasury of tunes obtained from
some other chazzan, he was a useless and emptly shell, and was
compelled to go further, and start anew with the dissemination
of his treasures. With the growth of musical knowledge, it
rested with the singers to compose or to copy tunes, and to
present them to the chazzanim. We possess many manuscripts
of those singers, some of them inscribed with dedications to
chazzanim. 44 Toward the end of the eighteenth century, we
find even singers who supplied chazzanim with compositions for
remuneration. 35 After a long period of travelling from one com-
munity to the other, singers (dttod) might succeed in obtaining
the position of chazzan. Their title was usually Vnin *rn»nn
"the great singer". Some of them always retained the title
bass; while many of them, never succeeding in obtaining a
cantor position, remained singers all their lives. The previously
quoted Solomon Lifshitz traces the muscial knowledge of the
cantors in Prague in the seventeenth century, from some of their
epitaphs, e. g.

1668 JACOB THE SON OF PERETZ in the wisdom Of music

he was the chief of all singers;

lipman poppers 1656, who was a virtuoso on all string
and wind instruments (On him, a poem was written
in Yiddish, and printed by Wagenseil in his book
Sota, 1674 pg. 83.) ;

DAVIDSONOFJACOB FUTRALMACHER 1724 WhO COU/d p/a/

on different instruments, was a singer, and one of the
music scholars. 46

4J V. later under Yekel Singer.

45 V. below under Abraham Alexander.

45n«n «V i»n n p ' o i a n 'asno inn rvn nj .Vipai o'i'p to ^30 jho Tvn in
.uhdj nam wvos hy p 1 ?! .mm wioa

ANRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

The following are the composers and singers of the Synagogue
in the eighteenth century, whose products are preserved in our
library :

AARON BAER was born in Bamberg Bavaria in 1738. He
became chazzan for a short while in Padeborn, and was ap-
pointed first chazzan in Berlin in 1765. Through his fine tenor
voice and attractive singing, he gained fame in Berlin; and his
picture is still preserved in the art museum there. He was one
of the first chazzanim who obtained some musical knowledge.
As a result, he was able to write music and even to compose.

During the long period of his activity (died 1821) he gathered
compositions of all his contemporaries in a large collection of
over twelve hundred numbers, marked with the dates of the
compositions, and, in most cases, with the names of the com-
posers. He included also traditional songs. Of chief interest
in the volume, we find the oldest form of 'TnVa dated 1720,
and another variation of it marked 1783; mzt< for the High
Festivals mvh why, p codx, □ mt m ^y, mn for Succoth,
e>np for nV'y], and TDiNrrrrpi using the tune of o'rom.
All those traditional songs show no difference from their present
form. So we are sure that traditional songs were already fixed
in the seventeenth century. There is a trip for rrryj and for
the last day of nos, by Rabbi Michael Chosid, 47 who was rabbi
in Berlin 1714-1 728.

A second MS. Aaron Baer prepared in 16/0 size, probably
for his own use at services. In our library, it is #75. It is in
his own hand, neatly written, and bound in leather, with an
illuminated title page in Hebrew. Written in 1791, .it includes
447 numbers, arranged for the entire cycle of the year-for
fifty-three Sabbaths, for each day of the festivals and semi-
festivals. On the title page, Baer gives a preface significant
for the conditions in the Synagogue song of the eighteenth
century. There he states, for instance, that the reason for his
arrangement of special songs for every Saturday and fast day
of the year, was to prevent the members of the congregation
from grasping the tunes; and thus to make it impossible for
them to sing with the cantor. His intention was that a tune

47V. LandshutoetrejHnnVin Berlin 1884, p. 11.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

be sung once a year only, for "if a person hear a tune but once
a year, it will be impossible for him to sing with the cantor
during the service, and therefore he will not be able to confuse
the chazzan. It has become a plague to the chazzanim to have
the members of the congregation join the song." 45 The tunes
throughout the book are all single voice, sometimes marked
singer or bass. The names of the prayers are given above the
tunes, but there is no indication of the apportionment of the
text to the phrases and notes of the melody. The texts used
are, for Saturday: "tti rob i miynn, irormi, -iitq^d, o"n hshsa,
»np, mtrnrm "?« ; for holidays: onn»n n^nn, mix "|-nnn, mn, ton,
raenw^Tin-ia for Passover, manpN for Shabuoth, tin
1'B for Sabbath Shekolim, a Shir Hashirim Kaddish, and a
Ruth Kaddish. Some traditional tunes are utilized, as e. g.
nio-ipK, 'tti no 1 ? nTBD,4» Tn m 1 ? mrp for Friday evening before

«' -lia'yn n» B"y n:»n Va Vp owj ana 1 ? ^'nn« it'jti k n y " d a=n ' o a
naum i**i D'^n '] bv o'wjni 13 ^a ion' xbs 'oos noips mpai "mr] nrp-isn bze
•miDi .nyioa nyioi inapa nap hoi IP-ma nn ho loipoa uwxon nn« ^a ohibi
bsb pea 1 ? 'nnarn n«i^ o:n« 'nnnoto '*? v hdhd -mvi nn-on n» 4»v poo 1 ? onix
k^i ln^en nya fpn Dy "lot 1 ? «'« n»a 'k oys pn yoipn 'a .onns D>]irj ^>ni nap
a'sn ok o'omrt ^a 1 ? Kin (?>nynx yu <a nitnsai ,na-nn -jb 1 ? ^rnDn^> bzbzb ^ar
niyo dip '^a nWxi -p m^sn \t yun mnoai (!) 'onpo n 1 ? «^p na -a Dnoy d'hjo
■nw^ nan |a .janpai n^iya pnt< miaya ln^sn anyni i"n a'rinn ^la^ai ^waoi
mno'a i&ki'j HH )'a n'P'o ]Yp o-i'n n» .lrca mnoa nja'p p'Dna ]•» nnopa

.lDJ'K

49 The traditional tune of the so-called Hnna^nvso is claimed to be
an imitation of an aria in Mozart's 'The Wedding of Figaro" (#3). In
reality the Hnna 1 ? has also very much similarity to a German folksong of
Padeborn of the year 1765 (v. W. Baumker Das Katolische-Deutsche Kir-
chenlied, Vol. ill, #124). The basis seems to be an older German folk-song,
utilized both by Mozart in the aria mentioned, and by some chazzanim.
That the charzanim did not take the tune from Mozart is evident from the
fact that Mozart composed his Figaro in 1785, while the 'inna^ tune was
well known a long time before that, as proved by the manuscripts.

With respect to imitations in general, we may regard it as a rule that
chazzanim seldom consciously took over foreign songs. Adoption was mostly
due to unconscious influence. It is very interesting to note that we frequently
find motives of old traditional Synagogue tunes in works of the great classics,
as for example, a passage of a'inani in the finale of Beethoven's Seventh
Symphony. It is nevertheless certain that the a'jnani tune was established
long before Beethoven was born. Likewise, we find many Slavic motives
in Shubert's music. A casual hearing of a tune may have a great influence

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

atanywi and in the same tune, o'DrmaK for the Saturday
before atany»n. For Rosh Hashana, there are ]rhy -|!?d ( "iron
ir&o, *nm tin nemp pi^D, -]otP lyD 1 ? m y , vntn, nrs's oy rrn
o'nymnovn Psalm 150, uxoNnnrrn; for Yom Kippur: n^jr,
'tti, lay wd, n'xan ^yi, O'xan min □ W7 ten D'prro tdk,
'jn nspn, n^nn rvaw jniNn, naiN rrn *pi, nJio rrn *pi, vy 'tpk.
This constitutes the complete list of texts for which so large a
variety (447 numbers) of tunes was composed. The songs are
for cantor and singers, and do not include recitatives and
traditional tunes.

As mentioned above, this collection incorporates material
of many other composers, whose music either was well known
or found special grace in the eyes of Raer. Due to this use by
Baer, some names of Jewish composers with their creations, were
preserved. So we make the acquaintance of a certain Moshe
Pan to whom Baer always gives the title Rabbi, and from whom
he incorporated 144 selections in the last named collection.
Pan's compositions show considerable musical talent and
originality, and it seems that many other composers-also Baer
himself-imitated him. Up to the present time, it has been
virtually impossible to identify this Pan with any degree of
certainty. However by tracing his daughter who was married
to the chazzan Meier Coblentz in Offenbach near Frankfort,
who died in 1814, and on whose tombstone the father is named
Ins rwa 'an "rmn-mtron without the addition of the usual
^r, we can assume that he was still alive at that time. The
name Pun is the Jewish pronunciation of the place Peine near
Hildesheim. In the archive of Hildesheim, several Moshe
Peines are named as citizens. In Hanover, there was a chazzan
by the name of Moshe Bass who died in 1814. If the word ]KD
on his tombstone should be read ins, this may be the same
man. 50 It might thus be deduced that the Pan in question was
chazzan or singer in Hanover, On Facsimile II. of MS. Baer
there is an item marked (inb, two 'an) 'i'd'i.

on a composer. The motives nestle deep in his sentiments, and come forth
as apparently new blossoms at the creative moment.

50 S. Gronemann, Geneologische Studien. Berlin 1913, p. 157.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

Ten numbers are marked y^-naypno, probably referring
to the predecessor of Baer, Lee CHAZZAN (1736-1755).
One number is by YITZCHOK, Chazzan in Glogow, who was
the teacher of Israel Lovy (v. below). Fifteen numbers arc
marked hva and nn, both abbreviations which probably mean

Iff! W '3*1 '"ICQ INTO.* 1

Twelve numbers are marked Leon Singer, the composer
of the famous Leoni Yigdal (v. his composition on the second
facsimile).

His real name was Meyer Leon. In 1767 he was appointed
singer in the newly built Duke's Place Great Synagogue in
London, on an annual salary of 40£ sterling. His sweet voice
and wonderful singing attracted a great attendance of even
gentiles. In 1770 the Reverend Charles Wesley, hymn writer
and brother of John Wesley, paid a visit to the Duke's Place
Synagogue, which he thus recorded in his journal: "I was
desirous to hear Mr. Leoni at the Jewish Synagogue". James
Piccioto says in his "Sketches"? "Meyer Leon the humble
chorister rose to be Leoni the opera singer. He possessed a
tuneful head, and he composed light and sacred melody. He
adapted some Synagogue airs to church hymns, but he preserved
strictly his religion, declining to appear on the stage on Friday
nights and Festivals." Nevertheless the Board of the Synagogue
did not hesitate in 1772, to reduce his salary to 30£ sterling.
H ence he left the Synagogue and became a stage singer. " But
his appearance on the Boards was a failure, merely because he
had not the slightest conception of the histrionic art." After
a time, he turned back to the Synagogue choir. There he
composed tunes especially for the High Festivals which "used
to be sung in the English Synagogue until the advent of the
foreign chazzanim in 1814-1815". "The writer of the hymn

51 yr Vmv Of Leipe wrote an apology for chazzanim in answer to the attacks
upon them, and called the book n'in']n"'i(iin^«i'3T=n , n). The book
was edited by his son Leb, who was chazzan in Haslach. It was printed in
Fiirth in 1724. The Library possesses a MS. copy of that print. The book
is in satiric style and poetic form, in both Hebrew and Yiddish German.

** James Piccioto, Sketches of Anglo- Jewish History, London 1875, p.
147-8.

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

which is sung to the tune 'Leoni' was Thomas Olivers, a
Welshman n-ho was born in 1725,. became a R'eslyan minister
in 1753 and died in 1799. One day Oliver went to the Syna-
gogue, where he heard a tune which so completely enraptured
him that he resolved to have it sung in Christian congregations;
and therefore wrote for the purpose a hymn 'The God of
Abraham, Praise'. It was published in 1772 and became so
popular that eight editions had to be published in less than two
years, and it had reached the thirtieth edition in 1779. A
writer on hymnology relates how the son of an old minister once
said: I remember my father told me, during a conference in
Wesley's time, Thomas Olivers, one of the preachers, came
down to him, and unfolding a manuscript, said: Look at this.
I have rendered it from the Hebrew, giving it so far as I could,
a Christian character, and I have called on Leoni the J ew who
has given me a Synagogue melody to suit it; here is the tune and it
is to be cal I ed Leoni'. I read the composition and it was that
now well known grand imitation of ancient Israel's hymns-
'The God of Abraham, Praise'." 53 When, in 1787, the Ashken-
azic congregation in Kingston Jamaica built a new Synagogue
and asked the Ashkenazic congregation in London to recommend
to it a reader, Leon took that position and settled in Kingston.
A photograph of Leon is preserved in the Solomon collection
of the Library.

One number of the Baer MS. is marked Jeremiah Hash
B>n (Halbestadt). One is marked "by the chazzan of Hanover";
another, by the chazzan of Amsterdam; two by Zadok, chazzan
in Hamburg; one by Jacob id (which means iDP^a) of Hamburg.
Two are marked 'rTVD = TU'r I^kti, a famous composer of that
time from Prosnitz. Two are marked 'Y'd'b'd (abbreviation of
?).

As already said, outstanding in the Synagogue compositions
of the eighteenth century were their instrumental character and
their rococo style. For the benedictions for the kindling of
the Chanukah candles, Baer provides seventeen Waldhorn solos:
three for the benedictions of the first evening; and, for the fallow-
s' Jewish Chronicle, 1873: 642.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE&C.

ing evenings, two each, marked "Siciliana ", i. e. to be sung
in that tempo.

ABRAHAM Alexander MS. #49 contains four compositions
dedicated to S. Friede in Amsterdam, and includes a letter in
Judeo-German, written in 1816, in which he tells that he was
related to Aaron Baer of Berlin, and that Baer used to sing his
compositions. And he adds that he would be reasonable in
price.

YEKUSIEL of Hague, MESHORER MS. #51 B: 43-A Year-
Kaddish and MS.#l7:3-Four compositions for Friday evening.

JUDAH, CHAZZAN IN Hartzfeld MS. §51 E: 47.

i. wolf L eb MS. #91 small quarto, written 1809 in
Berlin, contains 242 numbers, one of which is seventy-two
pages. Among them is to be found a nrr rob by I . Offenbach,
cantor in Cologne, and father of the opera composer, Jaques
Offenbach. Other compositions are by Israel Lovy (v. below).

A bele MANNHEIMER MS. #55 :5.

Yekel SinG Er of Prague, called also "Yekel Bass" or
"J. Lehman". He lived at the end of the eighteenth century.
He was a productive composer, and much of his work remains
to us in manuscript. His songs became popular with the
chazzanim in Germany. He seems to have had little knowledge
of Hebrew; e. g. in theMS. #63 A:l, he marked his composition
nobjn n«a wins intending to say: I wrote for myself in general
-koVjq nja "ruro.

MS. #28 A:l and 2 is inscribed with the following dedication
written in Hebrew letters: "Meinen herzlichen Grussan-nwDn
yv tmo ■a-iVmn. Ich werde bald das Vergniigen haben, per-
sonlich aufzuwarten. Dann von allem, so viel Sie wollen.
bieses nur in Eil'. Ihr Freund, Yekel." MS. #28C:l-2 he
dedicates: " Meinem Freund Abele Wachenheimer gewidmet
mit der Bitte nicht weiter zu geben. Yekel Singer". This
was the way that the singers used to introduce themselves to
the chazzanim, presenting them with their compositions to show
their abilities. From the same Yekel, compositions are included
in MS. #55B:43, 36, 56.

shlomo SON DH El MER of Mannheim MS. #55 B:12 marked
"zu gebrauchen fur noB^woo, und towi i itona (instead of

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

NT]yD).MS. #63 E:5 has the mark: nabvp D'tem d'O' 1 ? vnp
2sna nn-QN an yvrt p lyoia-Q'K o'Tranr.

ABRAHAM SINGER of Prosnitz, father of the famous J ohn
Braham. (The latter's name was formed by the dropping of
the A of Abraham. This son was co-editor with Nathan in the
collection of Hebrew Melodies under their joint names, 1815)
MS. #18-three numbers. Singer lived in London, where he
died about 1780.

Osher Bass MS. #44 A.

NATHAN BxERof Karlsruhe MS. #43 A.

ELEAZARVOORZANGER chazzan in Amsterdam 1788-1838.
He was a descendant of an old chazzanic family which officiated
in Amsterdam 54 from 1639. The first was Eleazar the son of
Elijah Kottcnheim of Frankfort, who officiated sixty-one years,
and died in 1700, at the age of eighty-five. Eleazar's grandson,
Leb ben Wolf officiated from 1747 to 1802. Ms. #17:1.

JONAH voorzanger MS. #27:1-6

J oshua SINGER MS. #28 B :2 marked: oatraT^K e^io
^sm\ nyw p

DAVID Bass MS. #29 with two part harmony.

Meyer Koblentz, probably the son-in-law of Moshe Pan.
MS. #30.

JUDAH SHATZ MS. #50, with the remark: .pjw Tiyr
did ^5DN d'vdieti bjb *?ns"3 pN-i) pun im a-irr^smp ^jdd nrr
Ijmyu lyanwy: Boaax t« wn'b -itin kb-ind composed in 1813.

M eyer METZ MS. #65 G.

Nathan, cantor in London. MS. #76. Neatly written
in 16/0, with an illuminated title page (v. Facsimile III.), con-
taining the ritual and melodies for the wedding ceremony,
with the later additions by a chazzan in Copenhagen, written
in 1814.

J udah STETTENHEIM singer in Coblenz. MS. #33 A:l-15.

WOLF Bass (mentioned above) of Prosnitz. MS. #31:1-4

Wolf ITZIG, son of Wolf Konigsberg. MS. #55 B:14.

SALMON Hague MS. #54 F:22-23.

The oldest MS. is by ABRAHAM Caceres (DTDNpnanan)
MS. #92, written in 1739 for the Portuguese Synagogue in Am-

« V. Sluys Ibid,

65
SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

sterdam, on a poem o'^nW7; a duet for Soprano I. and II.,
to be sung on Simchath Torah. It is in correct harmony, and
built in a succession of six divisions.

Another MS. #196 by L. M. Mayer, chazzan in Aarhus
Denmark, written around 1825, has a tune for 'tw i ?3(#25)

which is entirely different from the usual miSa, being based

on the mode of the Psalm recitative according to Ashkenazic
tradition.

One of the outstanding Synagogue singers toward the end
of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century,
was ISRAEL LEVY-born in Schotland near Danzig. His par-
ents came from Poland. While he was still in his childhood,
his parents settled in Glogow, where he became Meshorer to
Yitzchok Glogow (whose composition is included in the Aaron
Baer MS.-v. above). Equipped with unusual voice and musical
talent as well as intelligence, the young Israel Levy became very
popular. In accord with the custom of that time, he organized
a group of singers, with which to start a tour throughout Central
Europe, giving Synagogal concerts.

In 1798 he came, in the course of histour, to Fiirth, in which
community the post of chazzan was vacant. He made a deep
impression with his singing, and was elected chazzan there.
(His predecessor was Isaac of Prosnitz, 1782-1795.) In the
eighteenth century, that community was one of the most pros-
perous in Germany, and very fond of music. Already in the
beginning of the eighteenth century, it had maintained a choir
of four singers; and, on special occasions, had increased it to
ten. Because of their pleasure in being entertained by music,
thejews of Fiirth secured permits for atroup of Jewish musicians,
making them legal "community officials". Chanukah and
Purim as well as weddings were celebrated with great pomp.
Indeed the head of the community found it necessary to issue
a prohibition against the engaging of more than three musicians
for entertainments. In Fiirth, the first 55 Jewish Songster with

« We here leave out of consideration, the Seder tunes: Nim'7K.;iKjiV*3,
K»u in, printed as an appendix to the noomr, published by Friedrich Albrecht
Christian "Judeo-Converso" 1677, whose Jewish name was Baruch ben M oshe
from Prosnitz. He was Christianized in Bruchsaal in 1624, became lector in

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

musical scores, was published under the name of CDnnnop,
composed by Rabbi Elkanan Henle Kirchhain, containing
fifteen songs in Yiddish for Sabbaths and festal days. It was
printed by a Jewish press. In Fiirth, Levy continued his
education and studied with eagerness, piano, violin, and violin-
cello, as well as the classic music of Mozart and Haydn. At
the same time he attained facility in the Italian and French
languages, the latter of which became and remained his ver-
nacular to the end of his days. (Here he began to call himself
LOWY) He achieved a mastery of Hebrew literature. However
his outstanding strength was his phenomenal voice. He soon
became a singer, especially of Haydn's and Mozart's composi-
tions; and was invited by the Duke (later king) of Bavaria,
Maximillian Joseph, to sing the tenor part in Haydn's "Creation"
at a court concert. Lowy also received special permission (for
the first time in the history of Germany) to give public concerts
in Niirnberg, a place where Jews were not allowed to stay
over night, and were permitted to enter only when accompanied
by a Christian woman (!). In 1799, Lowy, accompanied by
two singers, gave a concert in Niirnberg, after which the local
paper Friedens-und Kriegs Courier Nr. 67 vom 20 Marz 1799,
carried the announcement: "The three singers, especially
Mr. Lowy, who gave the musical academy on the seventeenth,
in the Bitterholz, thanks the public for the great applause and
kindly reception; and herewith make acknowledgement of the
courtesy extended them." That concert he repeated annually
for six years until he left Fiirth in 1806. Among the chazzanim,
he became famous as IsrAel GL0G0W and later as Reb YISROEL
Furth. The Library possesses in MS. #65, a collection of
fifty-six items by Lowy from his FUrth period. In those tunes,
he shows no originality, but walks rather on the path of his
colleagues, in the style of the eighteenth century. Although
he was accounted well acquainted with the vocal music of Haydn
and Mozart, this knowledge had no influence upon his chazzanic
creations. They were throughout, instrumental in character,

Leipzig; but fled from there; and returned to J udaism at the end of his days
(V. Furst I: 178 Bibl.Jud.) According to Birnbaum, he was a chazzan in
Bruchsaal. Both rare prints are in the Library.

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

and required considerable technique not only for a singer but
even for an instrumentalist.

In 1806 Lowy left Furth with the intention of going to the
metropolis of the Europe of that time-to Paris. However,
since he progressed by the old method of concert-touring, he
was kept in Metz as chnzzan for three years, ant! in Strassburg
for eight. Finally in 1816 he succeeded in reaching the goal of
his travel, Paris, where he gave concerts of secular music, and
soon became famous in musical circles as a great singer. At-
tempts were made to inveigle him into stage appearances. Wc
do not know what it was; but something held him back from
that step. At that time the Jewish community in Paris, which
had received official recognition in 1791, attempted to complete
its organization ; and to that end, planned the building of
a great Synagogue, and introduced some reforms in the service.
Therefore in 1818, the community engaged Lowy as cantor and
regenerator of the Synagogue service. In 1822 the Synagogue on
Rue Notre Dame de Nazarite was dedicated. There Lowy
organized a choir of four parts, for which he composed a service
for the entire year. Thus he was really the first to have intro-
duced a modern four part choir; Sulzer having organized his, in
the newly built Temple in Vienna in 1826; Miinchen instituting
its choir in 1832; Konigsberg, through Weintraub, in 1839;
Breslau, Berlin, Dresden, in 1840; London, in 1841; while the
Reform Temple in Hamburg, until 1880, had no regular choir
in four parts,* 6 but only boys singing in two parts.

Lowy here became LOVY, in conformity with French pro-
nunciation.

Lovy's voice was baritone-bass from lower F, while in the
high range it had tenor timbre, and reached the highest notes.

Hedied in 1832. After his death, all his reform endeavors melt-
ed away. However many of his tunes became popular not only
in Paris, but also as far as Poland; and one of them was adopted
by Goldfaden in his opera, Sulamith. Some of them were pub-
lished by Naumbourg in his Synagoga! work; and a selection
of them, with his biography, was printed by his family under
*M. Henle, Der gottesdienstliche Cesangim I sraelitischen Tempel
zu Hamburg, Tempel-akte, p. 82.

ANRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

the name "Chants Religieux", Paris 1862. To the chazzanim
in Germany, he was know as Israel Glogow, Israel Fiirth, Israel
Metz, and Israel Strassburg; and they used to sing his songs
written in those cities-all of which were composed in the old
style of the eighteenth century. But after he settled in Paris,
he disappeared from the chazzanic world. His reform attempts
made no impression on the chazzanim, as they left no trace upon
the course of modernization of the Synagogue song in the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. Although he was endowed with all
the gifts required for a reformer, this role was accorded not to
him, but to Sulzer in Vienna, to Naumbourg in Paris, and to
Lewandowski in Berlin. The explanation may be found in the
fact that Lovy was an extremist, as we see from his compositions,
whose effort was to break with the past and tradition, and to
introduce entirely new tunes-an effort in line with the general
attempt to do away with the Jewish life of the past, and create
an entirely new Jew and Judaism.

Another prominent chazzan belongs to the eighteenth cen-
tury, although his activity lasted to the middle of the nineteenth
century. He is Sholom Friede, chazzan in Amsterdam, ori-
ginally from Hamburg. He officiated for some time in Utrecht.
I n 1809 he was appoi nted f i rst chazzan i n A msterdam. Concern-
ing the pompous ceremony of his installation (interesting be-
cause indicative of the important position that the chazzan
occupied at that time), the archive of the Ashkenazic community
there, provides a detailed description. He had a fine taste
for music. His numerous collections are to be found in MSS.
#17, 31, 35, 39, 40, 42, 69.-containing in all about two hundred
numbers, in the style of the eighteenth century. He had a
love for Polish-Jewish songs; and due to that fact, we are in
possession of the early Polish chazzanuth, and of tunes in Chas-
sidic style previous to the development of Chassidism. He died
in 18.54.

JOSEPH S. Goldstein -Bass of Oberlauringen bei Schwein-
furth am Main, wrote a collection of Synagogal songs (probably
toward the end of the eighteenth century), consisting of tunes
in the usual style; and, in addition, several recitatives for High
Festivals, in the traditional modes. This is the first and only

SONG AND SINGERS OF THE SYNAGOGUE &C.

written music of that particular style, and demonstrates that
the recitative of the eighteenth century is in no way different
from the recitative of Eastern European chnzzanuth, for Gold-
stein-by his own testimony-was of German origin. In 1813
he became the bass of M oshe Raff, chazzan in Jebenhausen in
Bavaria, to whom he presented his collection, and whom "he
taught the tunes by playing them on the violin", according to
the statement of the son of Raff (providing us another sidelight
on the relationship of bass, singer, and chazzan of those days).
A photographed copy of that manuscript, the Library possesses
under the number 230.

From a glance over the entire material quoted, one should
not infer that the chazzanim entirely abolished the traditional
tunes and recitatives. On the contrary, parallel to the new and
free Synagogue compositions, the traditional modes were pre-
served-and usually very carefully, as we see in the traditional
chazzanuth of Southern Germany, copied by S. Naumbourg
in 1839, according to the singing of the Chazzan of Miinchen,
Loew Sanger (1781-1843). Those recitatives, inasmuch as they
had certainly been in tradition for many generations, give us a
grasp of the state of the recitative of earlier centuries. They
have not the elaborate chazzanic flavor of the recitatives of
the above-mentioned Goldstein, for they are much simpler. The
chazzanim of the eighteenth century, with the exception of Is-
rael Levy, did not make any effort to reform the recitative
Their only innovation was the introduction of measured melodies-
tunes in the classic style of the eighteenth century, thus paving
the path for the Synagogue composers of the nineteenth century,
in their Europcanization of the Synagogue song. The attitude
toward the free recitative, on the part of the early nineteenth
century modernizers of the Synagogue service, was different
from that of their eighteenth century predecessors. Israel
Jacobson abolished the recitative entirely;57 and, instead, in-
*' V. S. Bernfeld, History of Reform (in Hebrew), second ed. 1923, pp.

76, 77, 84.

ABRAHAM ZEVI IDELSOHN

troduccd reading without musical intonations, in the style of
the Protestant Church. Hence he abolished also the canti Nation
of the Pentateuch reading. 58 While Sulzer retained the recitative
he remodelled it according to the style of the oratorio.

Not only in Central Europe did these singers and composers
of the eighteenth century, exert influence, but also on the Eastern
European chazzanim whose creations, in the first half of the
nineteenth century, are almost imitations of those of the eighteenth
century Central European chazzanim. A large number of their
manuscripts is in possession of the Library. Of significant
historical import, as pioneers and blazers of new paths, are these
Synagogue composers of the eighteenth century. Moreover
they have left in the compositions, many tunes of genuine musical
value which await utilization, as themes, for our modern ser-