J O U R N A L
OF SYNAGOGUE MUSIC
November 1979 / Heshvan 5740
VOLUME Ix
Number 3
CONTENTS
The Influence of Salomone ROSSI'S ,
Music: Part III Daniel Chazanoff 3
Something Different:
A Dozen New Ideas Samuel Rosenbaum 14
Some Thoughts On
the Hazzanic Recitative Max Wohlberg 82
DEPARTMENTS
VIEW OF N EW M USIC
Shi rat Miriam L'Shabbat, by Miriam Gideon
Anim Zemirot, by Simon A. Sargon
B'ni, Michael Isaacson
Music for a Mourners Service, by Max H elf man
All the World, by Herbert Fromm
Eli Tziyon, by Herbert Fromm
Areshet Sefatenu, by Stephen Richards
B'yom Din, by Herbert Fromm
JOURNAL OF SYNAGOGUE music, Vol U Did X , N U Wb& 3
November 1979 I Heshvan 5740
A braham Lubin
editor: Samuel Rosenbaum
editorial board: J acob Barkin, David Brandhandler, Israel Gold-
stein, Morton Kula, Saul Meisds, Solomon Mcndelson, Morton
Shames, Moses J . Silverman, Hyman Sky, Pinchas Spiro.
Yehudah Mandd
of the cantors assembly: M orton Shames, President;
Abraham Shapiro, Vice President; Ivan Perlman, Treasurer; Saul
H ammerman, Secretary; Samuel Rosenbaum, Executive Vice Presi-
dent.
journal of synagogue music is a quarterly publication. The sub-
scription fee is $12.50 per year. All articles, communications and
subscriptions should be addressed to J ournal of Synagogue Music,
Cantors Assembly, 150 Fifth Avenue New York 10011.
Copyright © 1979, Cantors Assembly
THE INFLUENCE OF SALOMONE ROSSI'S MUSIC:
PART III BY DANIEL CHAZANOFF
Daniel CHAZANOFF
(A continuation of an article on the subject published in Volume
IX, No. 1, March 1979)
ROSSI'S FOUR PART COMPOSITIONS FOR STRINGS
Rossi's first two books of instrumental compositions dated 1607
and 1608 contain a total of 13 works in four parts.l J ust as his trio
sonatas include three string parts and a continue so do the four
part works contain four string parts and a continou. In publication
order they are listed as follows:2
1. Sinfonia a 4, Book I; No. 16 (1607)
2. Sonfonia a 4 alia quarta alta, Book I; No. 17 (1607)
3. Gagliarda a 4 detta Venturino, Book I; No. 18 (1607)
4 Gagliarda a 4 detta Marchesino, Book I; No. 19 (1607)
5. Sonata a 4, Book I ; No. 20 (1607)
6. Sonfonia a 4 & a 3 si placet, Book II; No. 22 (1608)
7. Sinfonia a 4 & a 3 si placet, Book II; No. 23 (1608)
8. Gagliarda a 4 & a 3 si placet, detta la Zambalina,
Book II, No. 24 (1608)
9. Sinfonia a 4 & a 3 si placet, Book II; No. 25 (1608)
10. Sinfonia a 4 & a 3 si placet, Book II; No. 26 (1608)
11. Canzon per sonar a 4, Book II; No. 33 (1608)
12. Canzon per sonar a 4, Book II; No. 35 (1608)
13. Canzon per sonar a 4, Book II; No. 35 (1608)
The list of four part works contains six sinfonias, three galliards,
three canzonas and one sonata. Of the 13 four part works, why did
Rossi give the title sonata to only one? Since the term sonata meant
a work to be sounded on instruments, Rossi could have called them
1 Fritz Rikko and Joel Newman, Editors, Salomone Rossi Sinfonie, Gagli-
arde, Canzone, 1607-1608, (Bryn, Mawr, Pennsylvania, Mercury Music Corp.,
1971). Vol. I.
2Rikko and Newman, op. cit.„ Table of Contents.
This is the ninth in a series of articles on the music of Salomone Rossi
by Daniel Chazanoff. Dr. Chazanoff's studies on Rossi were made possible by
a research grant from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.
The author has had twenty-five years of experience as a teacher, per-
former, conductor and administrator. His accomplishments are currently listed
in three international and two national biographicals.
all sonatas. However, we are faced with a period of great experi-
mentation, when titles were interchangeable. As pointed out by
Newman, the baroque sonata, independent instrumental music and
baroque chamber music were inseparable.3 Thus, while the 20th
work in Rossi's Book I of 1607 is entitled, Sonata a 4, it is stylistic-
ally a canzona in four parts, utilizing both imitation and counter-
point.
TABLE 1:
THE STRUCTURE AND LENGTH OF
ROSSI'S 4 PART COMPOSITIONS
1. Sinfonia (Bk. I, #L6)-2 part form-both sections of
7 bars each are repeated.
2. Sinfonia (Bk. I, #17)-2 part form-both sections of
7 and 6 bars respectively are repeated.
3. Gagliarda (Bk. I, #L8)-2 part form-both sections
of 7 and 13 bars respectively are repeated.
4. Gagliarda (Bk. I, #L9)-3 part form-first section of
10 bars is repeated, second section of 6 bars is not
repeated, third section of 6 bars repeated.
5. Sonata (Bk. I, #ZO)-as pointed out, this work is a
canzona-it is in one section with contrapuntal devel-
opments bars long.
6. Sinfonia (Bk. II, 4&2.)-2. part form-both sections of
7 and 16 bars each are repeated.
7. Sinfonia (Bk. II, #23)-in one section of 15 bars with
no repeat.
8. Gagliarda (Bk. II, #24)-2 part form-both sections of
6 and 13 bars each are repeated.
9. Sinfonia (Bk. II, ^25)-2 part form-both sections of
9 and 11 bars each are repeated with first and second
endings.
10. Sinfonia (Bk. II, ^6)-2 part form-both sections of
13 bars each are repeated with first and second endings.
11. Canzon (Bk. II, #33)-2 part form-both sections of
22 and 35 bars each are repeated with first and second
endings.
12. Canzon (Bk. II, #34)-2 part form-both sections of
19 and 27 bars each are repeated with first and second
endings.
3 William S. Newman, The Sonata in the Baroque Era, (Chapel Hill: The
University of North Carolina Press, 1959), P. 19.
13. Canzon (Bk. II, #35)-2 part form-both sections of
21 and 24 bars each are repeated with first and second
endings.
In studying the structure and length of Rossi's four part string
works, we find some discernible trends. These indicate that:
1 . thesinfonia, galliard and canzona are the shortest to longest
forms in that order.
2. the composer used repeat signs only in works one through
eight and repeat signs with first and second endings in works nine
through thirteen.
3. the composer utilized one, two and three part forms in
works one through seven and only two part forms in works eight
through thirteen.
4. there is a movement in the direction of greater development
as we go from the first to the thirteenth four part work.
THE FOUR PART SINFONIAS
If the name Rossi was not attached to the very first Sinfonia
a 4 (Book I, No. 16) of 1607, it could easily be mistaken for a
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Bach chorale, written 100 years later. Compare the opening two
measures of Rossi's Sinfonia with that of Bach Chorale No. 31.
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One might say that the Bach work contains chromaticism while
Rossi's work does not. This argument is quickly negated by measure
9 of the Violin I part in Rossi's Sinfonia.
^
While Rossi's first Sinfonia a 4 anticipated the Bach chorale
in the 18th century, it also looked back to a form which had its
roots in the 15th and 16th centuries, i.e., the pavan. Towards the
end of the 15th century, it was a slow, walking dance in duple
5 Henry S. Drinker, The 389 Chorales of J . S. Bach (Association of
American Choruses, Choral Series No. 1, 1944), P. 20.
6 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., P. 1.
time. 7 By the end of the 16th century it was also used as a stately
processional. 8 The stately nature of the pavan is taken from pavano,
the Italian for peacock, according to Elson.9 Once again, we find
an interchangeable title; there is evidence that this sinfonia is a
disguised pavan. The slow stately character coupled with a duple
meter point to the stylistic characteristics found in the pavan.
Further, the pavan travelled in the company of the gal Hard, a quick
dance in three pulse meter, from the end of the 15th century.10
The pavan is notably absent from Rossi's works of 1607 and 1608
but its presence is found in this sinfonia.
The second Sinfonia a 4 (Bk. I, #L7 of 1607), opens like a
pavan, as did the first. But the second section, in contrast, opens
with a canonic episode, in the first and second violin parts. Note
the imitation.
VN'O-
Chromatic alteration appears seven times in this sinfonia com-
pared with only once in the first Sinfonia a 4 giving evidence of
harmonic experimentation.
This work is entitled Sinfonia a 4 alia quarta alta. In Italy,
at the beginning of the 17th century, the sinfonia served as a
prelude to choral works. The term alia quarta alta allows the work
7 Ruth Halle Rowen, The Emergence of the String Quartet (Unpublished
Masters Thesis, Columbia University, N.Y., 1941), P. 48.
8Curt Sachs, Our Musical Heritage (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
1955) P. 148 citing Arbeau's Orchesographic, 1588.
9 Louis C. Elson, Elson's Pocket Music Dictionary, Oliver Ditson Co.
(Bym Mawr, Pennsylvania: Theodore Presser Co., Distributors).
10 Rowen, loo cit.
11 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., P. 3.
to be played a fourth higher to accommodate the key of a vocal
composition which is to follow.'*
By the third Sinfonia a 4, Rossi has abandoned the pavan-like
opening in both the first and second selections in favor of imitation.
Note the two violin parts in the first four measures.
UfoA- _ 1 1 m - .»
nMHI
J I J • •
— # — A — J 1 —
This opening is followed, in the next three measures, by a
dance-like setting resembling the pavan. Observe the chordal nature
of the four string parts.
12 Rikko and Newman, op. cit.. Preface
13 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., P. 14.
14 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., P. 15.
9
The basic structure of the trio sonata is emphasized in the
title of the work, i.e., Sinfonia a 4 & a 3 si placet. An optional third
part for the viola allows the work to be played by two violins and
a 'cello of by a string quartet if the viola is used. 15 Thus, the work
can stand with or without the viola because of the continuo part.
In the fourth sinfonia a 4 (Bk. II, #23-1608) entitled Sin-
fonia a 4 & a 3 si placet (same title as the third sinfonia), we en-
counter a three pulse meter rather than a duple meter for the first
time. Once again, the viola part is optional. This one section work
of 15 measures, without a repeat, alternates between imitative and
dance-like episodes resembling the galliard. It also contains five
different meters (?2?§?)
Once again, the fifth Sinfonia a 4 (Bk. II, #25-1608) has an
unusual feature. The second violin opens the work, followed by the
first violin in rhythmic imitation on the second half of the second
measure.
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In the second section, we find an example of broken line writ-
ing. All four strings pause for a quarter note rest twice within
three measures. Compare this with an excerpt from Beethoven's
Eroica Symphony written 200 years after (observe the quarter note
rests in a passage where only the strings of the orchestra play) which
follows the Rossi example.
15 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., Preface.
16 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., P. 21.
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17Rikkoand Newman, op.' cit.,' P. 22.
18 Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 (Eroica), opus 55 (New York: Boosey
and Hawkes, Hawkes Pocket Scores, No. 110).
11
In the sixth and final 4 part sinfonia, Rossi opens with a slow,
chromatic theme in the second violin part. The first violin enters
on the second half of the third measure. In this case, the first
violin does not imitate the second violin either rhythmically or
tonally; the opening is treated as a contrapuntal dialogue. Note
measures one through six of the two violin parts.
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Later in the work, Rossi creates a dance-like section which
exhibits a vertical chord structure. Measures 18 and 19 illustrate
this - VM
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19 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., P. 23-24.
20Rikkoand Newman, op. cit., P. 25.
THE FOUR PART GALLIARDS
Rossi wrote three galliards in four parts; two of these appeared
in Book I of 1607 and one in Book II of 1608.21 The titles bear the
names of distinguished families, i.e., Gagliarda a 4 detta Ventuzino,
Gagliarda a 4 detta Marchesino and Gagliarda a 4 & a 3 si placet
detta la Zambalina.22
As mentioned earlier by this writer, the galliard, a quick three-
pulse dance had its origin in the 15th century along with the slow
duple meter pavan. The pairing of the pavan and galliard, for
courtly dancing, led eventually to the formation of the dance suite;
in Italy, it bore the title, sonata da camera.
The most unusual feature of the three galliards is found in the
increasing number of metric changes as we move from the first to
the third as follows:
1. Gagliarda a 4 detta Venturing-contains nine meters
2. Gagliarda a 4 detta Marchesi no-contains twelve meters
(3 3333633333 3)
4'2'4'2'4'8'2'4'2'4'2'4
3. Gagliarda a 4 & a 3 si placet da la Zambalina-changes
meter in every measure save only one measure or 18
meters
THE FOUR PART CANZONAS
Of the four canzonas, the first one entitled Sonata a 4 was
written in 1607 and the remaining three in 1608.23 All four works
exhibit elements of the canzona style; the elements were discussed
previously by the writer. However, while the first and third canzones
begin and end in the same meter, the second and fourth contain a
number of metric changes.
The four canzonas also display a number of chromatic altera-
tions, While the first contains only four chromatics, the second
(Bk. II, 333-1608) and the third (Bk. II, 334-1608) contain
31 and 38 chromatic changes respectively. The fourth canzona (Bk.
II, 335-1608) has fewer, with 16.
21 Rikko and Newman, op. cit., Table of Contents.
22 Rikko and Newman, Op. cit., Preface.
23 Ibid.
THE CONTEXT OF ROSSI'S SONATAS
In the 20th century context, the sonata is most generally
thought of as a work for a solo instrument with piano accompani-
ment; the piano sonata and solo sonata for a particular instrument
are exceptions to the rule. Our thinking along this line has become
bound by the tradition of the late Italian baroque and reinforced by
the classic and romantic periods of northern Europe.
In contrast, the early Italian baroque witnessed the birth of
the sonata with no preconceived notions regarding numbers or kinds
of instruments associated with it. In its early stage of development,
the sonata became an experiment in sound and the vehicle for
expression in instrumental music. Further, the sonata fashioned
the first school of violinists in the hands of Salomone Rossi when
he specified instruments of the violin family in his compositions
of 1613 and 1622.
While his books of 1607 and 1608 called for viols or recorders
and basso continue the early 17th century allowed for alternate
instrumentation. This practice was no doubt made necessary by
player availability. The use of violins rather than viols in modern
performance is therefore legitimate.
Ulrich is emphatic in stating that "Salomone Rossi stands at
the very beginning of the line of composers who gradually developed
violinistic music. "24 He cites Rossi's use of :25
1. parallel thirds
2. note against note style (monody)
3. dialogue-like passages between the violins.
Rossi is also credited with having established the instrumenta-
tion of the trio sonata. 26 Yet, while two violins and a basso continuo
part form the scaffold of his string works, we need to know that
Rossi wrote three to six part sonatas. But even more important,
historically, is the fact that the violin became the performing medium
for string literature, replacing the viols, beginning with Rossi's Third
Book of Sonatas dated 1613.
While Rossi wrote no four part string compositions after 1607
and 1608, these works stand as important because they established
the voicing which led to the string quartet.
24 Homer Ulrich, Chamber Music, (New York: Columbia University Press,
1948). P. 63.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid.
SOMETHING DIFFERENT:
A DOZEN NEW IDEAS
Samuel Rosenbaum
Hazzanim and sensitive observers of the evolving prayer prac-
tices of most American Jews must look with alarm at the diminish-
ing opportunities for the performance of high quality traditional
and contemporary music. The concern is elicited not only because
of the poorer and much less authentic sounds which are being heard
in our synagogues. Or, because long cherished prayer traditions
which allowed for the creation of that unique ruah of meditative
and contemplative davening experience are being replaced by a
summer-camp style of raucous prayer. But also because whole sec-
tions of our musical treasures will wither and die. And, because
composers who might like to devote their talents to enriching that
heritage, will no longer have a forum in which their creativity can
be heard and enjoyed.
That is a continuing and ominous problem with which we have
dealt before and will continue to deal with for so long as the Almighty
gives us the strength and courage.
But if the traditional opportunities for serious synagogue music
are closed off, if this music can no longer be heard as a regular ingre-
dient of a well-planned religious service on a regular basis, we must
find those special occasions on which such music will still be welcome
and appreciated. Whether such special performances can also inspire
congregations to demand more of the same on a regular basis we
cannot predict. But, at least, it is a way of bringing that music
to the fore. Hopefully, sensitive congregants will get the message.
If not, we can at least have the satisfaction of knowing that at
some special times of the year fine music may again be heard in our
synagogues.
Here are some program ideas, tested and proven, which are
worth considering:
I
I have found that the combination of fine music and appropriate
non-liturgical poetry, well read and well sung, can evoke a satisfying
and telling spiritual experience.
Samuel Rosenbaum is the Hazzan of Temple Beth El, Rochester, New
York, Executive Vice President of Cantors Assembly and Managing Editor
of the "J ournal of Synagogue Music."
15
Here are some sample programs, Included as well are the
poems chosen to accompany the music. The texts are provided the
congregation SO that they can follow, not for congregational reading.
A congregation, no matter how cultured, cannot read poetry, together,
at first sight, and really understand what they are reading, to say
nothing of having it evoke a thoughtful mood.
The poetry should be read by an experienced reader who
thoroughly understands the poems and who knows how to project.
Needless to say, the performance of the music must be impeccable
and of the highest order if the combination is to achieve its pur-
pose.
All services were conducted at Temple Beth El, Rochester,
New York. This writer was the Hazzan and he also read the poetry.
The choir, 12 voices a Capella, was conducted by Professor Samuel
Adler of the Eastman School of Music.
SABBATH EVE SERVICE
AT SEASON OF YOM HASHOAH
Adonai Malach, Psalm 93 (Page 14), Julius Chajes
Introduction to "Yizkor," Samuel Rosenbaum
Ani Maamin, Traditional
(I believe, with complete faith, in the coming of the Messiah. And
even though he may tarry, nevertheless will I wait each day for him
to come.)
In The Silence, from 'Yizkor,"* Samuel Rosenbaum and Sholom
Secunda
Barchu (Page 15), Ernest Bloch
With Everlasting Love (Page 15)
Sh'ma and V'ahavta (Page 15), Ernest Bloch
Israel, Nelly Sachs
Mi Chamocha (Page 18), Ernest Bloch
But Look, Nelly Sachs
V'shamru (Page 20), Hugo C. Adler
It all depends on how you look at it
I never saw another butterfly
(From the poems by the children of Terezin)
Kaddish (Page 20), Max Helfman
Amidah (Dybukk Nigun) Joel Engel
Grant Us Peace, May The Words, Herbert Fromm
Psalm 151, Karl Shapiro
Kiddush, Traditional
Aleinu (Page 37), Traditional
Mourner's Kaddish (Page 39)
Yigdal (Page 41), Leoni
* Copyright Ethnic Music
INTRODUCTION TO "YIZKOR"
Remember
The holy
The innocent
The slaughtered six million
Yizkor!
Remember
What was done
To fathers and mothers
To children
To women
To brothers and sisters.
To the holy
The pure
The innocent
The slaughtered six million.
Let his name be forgotten
And cursed be his seed
Who forgets
How our people lay
Tortured, shamed,
Bespat, defiled;
Marked, each one
For outrageous death.
Remember!
Remember!
It was their last, hopeless hope.
Remember!
"Remember my yahrzeit!"
"Remember my name!"
The dying begged
Of those with breath still in them.
"Remember my yahrzeit!"
"Remember my name!"
So we shall remember
At least this once more.
We will burn again
Six black tapers
And sanctify anew
Our gray sadness.
Samuel Rosenbaum
IN THE SILENCE
In the silence
You can hear
The signs of the serafi m
F rom hi gh above the f i rmament
As Levi Yitzhak,
Once of Berditchev,
Fills the night with his pleading:
Why?
How can a father
Torment a blind child?
Is not a blind child
Still a child
To his father?
"Whom does Man seek
In the dark?
You!
"And when he stumbles-
And falls
From whom does he
Hide his face?
From You!
"When he is hurt
To whom does he turn?
To You;
Only to You!
"And You —
Wrapped seven times in blue,
Reigning in glistening glory,
You sat
"For what?
"Could you not see
The black of their night?
Could you not hear
As they cursed their day?
Could you not feel
How each stone
Burned
To tear itself
From the hell of earth
Up to You!
"And you—
Had nothing to say?
At whom were you angry?
Whom did you spite?
Great,
Powerful God!
"When there on earth
Someone called
You stuffed your ears
And never heard
The weeping of the stars.
"Did you not suffer too
In their pain?
How long could you play
At eternity?
Samuel Rosenbaum
And waited!
Israel,
more nameless then,
still ensnared in the ivy of death,
in you eternity worked secretly,
dream-deep
you mounted
the enchanted spiral of the moon
towers,
circling the constellations disguised
by animal masks —
in the mute miraculous silence of
or the battering charges of Aries.
Until the sealed sky broke open
and you,
most daredevil of sleepwalkers,
fell, struck by the wound of God
into the abyss of light —
Israel,
zenith of longing,
wonder is heaped
like a storm upon your head,
breaks in your time's mountains of
Israel,
tender at first, like the song of a bird
and the talk of suffering children
the source of the living God,
a native of spring,
flows from your blood,
Nelly Sachs
BUT LOOK
But look
but look
man breaks out
in the middle of the marketplace
can you hear his pulses beating
and the great city
girded about his body —
for fate
has muffled
the wheel of time-
lifts itself
on the rhythm of his breathing.
Glassy displays
broken raven-eyes
sparkle
the chimneys fly black flags
at the grave of air.
But man
has said Ah
and climbs
a straight candle
into the night.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW YOU LOOK AT
Terezin is full of beauty.
It's
v clej
And through the street the tramp
Of many marching feet I hear.
In the ghetto at Terezin,
It looks that way to me.
Is a square kilometer of earth
Cut off from the world that's free.
Death, after all, claims everyone,
You find it everywhere.
It catches up with even those
Who wear their noses in the air.
The whole, wide world is ruled
With a certain justice, so
That helps perhaps to sweeten
The poorman's pain and woe.
THE BUTTERFLY
The last, the very last,
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
Perhaps if the sun's tears would
sing
against a white stone.
Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly 'way up high.
It went away I'm sure because it
wished to
kiss the world goodbye.
For seven weeks I've lived in here,
Penned up inside this ghetto
But I have found my people here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut candles in
thee
Only I
mother butterfly.
That butterfly was
Butterflies don't liv
In the ghetto.
THE 151st PSALM
Are You looking for us? We are here.
Have You been gathering flowers,
Elohim?
We are Your flowers, we have always
been.
When will You leave us alone?
We are in America.
We have been here three hundred
years.
And what new altar will You deck
us with?
Whom are You following, Pillar of
Fire?
What barn do You seek shelter in?
At whose gate do You whimper
In this great Palestine?
Whose wages do You take in this
New World?
But Israel shall take what it shall
take,
Making us ready for Your-hungry
Hand?
Immigrant God, You follow me:
You go with me, You are a distant
tree:
You are the beast that lows in my
heart's gates;
You are the dog that follows at my
You are the table on which I lean:
You are the plate from which I eat.
Shepherd of the flocks of praise,
Youth of all youth, ancient of days,
Follow us.
A PRE-PESAH SABBATH EVE SERVICE
'THE SONGS OF FREEDOM"
The Pesah Paradox (Introduction to the Hagadah) , Hazzan Samuel
Rosenbaum
Kadesh U'r'chatz, Traditional
Ha Lachma Anya, Traditional; Israeli
Kiddush, Sholom Secunda
Mah Nishtana, Israeli Tune
Avadim Hayinu, Adapted from Hugo C. Adler
B'tzeis Yisrael, Psalm 114, Sholom Secunda
Pischu Li, Psalm 118, Sholom Secunda
Freedom, Now!, Cantor Steven Richards
Seder Songs, Traditional
Dnyenu
Adir Hu
Eliyahu Hanavi
Seder Night, A Tale, Sholom Aleichem, Translated by Samuel
Rosenbaum
Yerushalayim, Rappaport
Chad Gadya, Traditional
SOME SABBATH EVE SERVICES IN CELEBRATION
OF JEWISH MUSIC MONTH
SOUNDS OF THE SABBATH
Selections from "A Sabbath Eve Liturgy"
by Heinrich Schalit
Shabbat Shalom!
We extend the fellowship of the Sabbath in the words and
music of a few noble Jewish creative spirits. Some may consider
this hour to be a time for prayer; others may look upon it as a
sacred concert. Still others may welcome it as an oasis of Sabbath
peace.
There will be no announcements. The Sabbath eve prayer texts
are well known and not in need of translation. The texts of the
poetry are provided for those who may want to follow as they are
read, and for those who would like to become more familiar with
the words by re-reading them at some future time.
If Causality Is Impossible, Genesis is Recurrent, by Anthony Hecht
Psalm 95, Lechu Neranenah
Praying the Sunset Prayer, J acob Glatstein
Psalm 97, Adonai Malach Tagel Ha-aretz
I Look Up To the Sky, Samuel HaNagid
Bar'chu, Sh'ma, V'ahavta
Psalm of the Fruitful Field, A. M. Klein
Mi Chamocha
A Sense of Thy Presence, Ruth Brin
V'Sham'ru
Shabbat, A Sample, Midrash
The Pauses Between Notes, from American tradition
Kiryah Yefefiyah, An Ode to J erusalem
City of Beauty, Yehuda HaLevi
May The Words
Tales of the Hasidim
ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Heinrich Schalit was born in Vienna in 1886. After studying
at the State Academy of Vienna and winning the coveted Mozart
Prize for excellence in composition, he was appointed organist and
choirmaster at the great synagogue in Munich. It is there that he
began to compose for the synagogue and to develop a unique melodic
as well as harmonic style in the setting of the Hebrew liturgy. The
two outstanding works which Schalit composed during his Munich
tenure were the "Friday Eve Liturgy" (from which all of tonight's
selections are taken) and a setting of Yehuda HaLevi's famous
poem, "I n Eternity." In 1933, he left Germany to continue his
career as organist of the Great Synagogue in Rome, Italy. After
a three year stay in Rome, Schalit came to America where he has
held posts in Rochester at Temple B'rith Kodesh as well as in
Providence, Rhode Island and Denver, Colorado. He is now retired
and living in Evergreen, Col.
Besides the above mentioned works, Schalit has contributed
greatly to the American synagogue creating another Friday Eve
Service plus a complete Shabbat morning service, a Hebrew cantata,
"Builders of Zion," many anthems and other choral works such as
the anthem, "Kiryah Yefefiah," which we shall present this evening.
The abrupt appearance of a yellow flower
Out of the perfect nothing, is miraculous.
The sum of Being, being discontinuous,
Must presuppose a God-out-of-the-box
Who makes a primal garden of each garden.
There is no change, but only re-creation
One step ahead. As in the cinema
Upon the screen, all motion is illusory.
So if your mind were keener and could clinch
More than its flitting beachhead in the Permanent,
You'd see a twinkling world flashing and dying
Projected out of a tireless, winking Eye
Opening and closing in immensity —
Creating, with its look, beside all else
Always Adamic passion and innocence,
The bloodred apple or the yellow flower.
Anthony Hecht
PRAYING THE SUNSET PRAYER
I'll let you in on a secret, Nathan,
about how one should pray the sunset prayer.
It's a juicy bit of praying,
like strolling on grass,
nobody's chasing you, nobody hurries you.
You walk towards your creator
with gifts in pure empty hands.
The words are golden,
their meaning is transparent,
it's as though you're saying them
for the first time.
Praying the sunset prayer
is quite a little business.
Nathan, if you don't catch on
that you should feel a little elevated,
you're not praying the sunset prayer.
The tune is sheer simplicity,
you're just lending a helping hand
to the sinking day.
It's a heavy responsibility.
You take a created day
and you slip it
into the archive of life,
where all our lived-out days are lying together
The day is departing with a quiet kiss.
It lies open at your feet
while you stand saying the blessings.
You can't create anything yourself, but you
can lead the day to its end and see
clearly the smile of its going down.
See how whole it all is,
not diminished for a second,
how you age with the days
that keep dawning,
how you bring your lived-out day
as a gift to eternity.
What else did our forefathers do
when they went out into a field
to stroll through a prayer?
I used to indulge in fasting, Nathan,
punishing my flesh,
until once in the middle of a sunset prayer
I heard scornful words.
It was my grandfather's voice.
I'd know it anywhere.
Why are you fasting like this?
Why are vou punishing your body?
Because it gave you
an occasional crumb of pleasure?
People who look better than you do are already in
their graves.
What are you doing to the human image?
Who cares about your sins, anyway?
Who gets the worst of your transgressions?
How can it be right to torment yourself
until you have no strength left
for even a thought of penance,
my precious penitent sinner?
A healthy fat Tsadik
could knock you over with a sneeze.
Nathan, right after the sunset prayer I broke my fast
and said to myself:
First I have to bargain with the divine world
about the values of my good deeds.
A good deed here, a good deed there,
it's like haggling over a ducat.
But I mustn't put on airs
about my little transgressions.
One must be man enough
to be able to forgive himself.
J acob Glatstein
I LOOK UP TO THE SKY
I look up to the sky and the stars,
And down to the earth and the things that creep there.
And I consider in my heart how their creation
Was planned with wisdom in every detail.
See the heavens above like a tent,
Constructed with loops and with hooks,
And the moon with its stars, like a shepherdess
Sending her sheep into the reeds;
The moon itself among the clouds,
Like a ship sailing under its banners;
The clouds like a girl in her garden
Moving, and watering the myrtle-trees;
The dew-mist — a woman shaking
Drops from her hair to the ground.
The inhabitants turn, like animals, to rest,
(Their palaces are their stables);
And all fleeing from the fear of death,
Like a dove pursued by the falcon.
And these are compared at the end to a plate
Which is smashed into innumerable shards.
Samuel HaNagid
PSALM OF THE FRUITFUL FIELD
A field in sunshine is a field Who clamors for a witch's brew
On which God's signature is sealed; Potioned from hellebore and rue;
When clouds above the meadows go, Or pagan imps of fairy band,
The heart knows peace: the birds fly When merely field and meadowland
low. Can teach a lad that there are things
field at dusk! field at dawn! That set upon his shoulders wings?
golden hay in the golden sun! Even a cow that lolls it's tongue
field of golden fireflies Over a buttercup, swells song
Bringing to earth the starry skies! In any but a devil's lung.
You touch the mind with many a gem; Even a sheep which rolls in grass
Dewdrops upon the sun's laced hem: Is happier than lad or lass,
Young dandelions with coronets: Who treads on stones in streets of
Old ones with beards: pale violets brass.
Sleeping on moss, like princesses: Who does not love a field lacks wit,
Sweet clover, purple, odorous: And he were better under it!
Fat bees that drowse themselves to And as for me let paradise
sleep Set me in fields with sunny skies.
In honey-pots that daisies keep; And grant my soul in after days
Birds in the hedge: and in the ditch In clovered meadowlands to graze.
Strawberries growing plump and rich. „ ,. ... .
3 3 M M A. M. Klein
A SENSE OF THY PRESENCE
Among the many appetites of man
There is a craving after God.
Among the many attributes of man
There is a talent for worshiping God.
J ews who wandered in deserts beneath the stars
Knew their hearts were hungry for God.
J ews who studied in candle-lit ghetto rooms
Thirsted longingly after God.
But we who are smothered with comfort
Sometimes forget to listen to God.
Help us, Lord, to recognize our need,
To hear the yearning whisper of our hearts.
Help us to seek the silence of the desert
And the thoughtfulness of the house of study.
Bless us, like our fathers in ancient days,
With that most precious gift: a sense of Thy presence.
Brush us with the wind of the wings of Thy being,
Fill us with the awe of Thy holiness.
We, too, will praise, glorify, and exalt Thy name.
SHABBAT, A SAMPLE
When God was about to give the Torah to Israel He summoned
the people and said to them: "My children, I have something
precious that I would like to give you for all time, if you will accept
My Torah and observe My Commandments."
The people then asked: "Master of the universe, what is that
precious gift You have for us?"
The Holy One, blessed be He, replied, "It is the world to
come! "
The people of Israel answered: "Show us a sample of the world
to come."
The Holy One, blessed be He, said: 'The Shabbat is a sample
of the world to come, for that world will be one long Shabbat."
Otiyot d'Rabbi Akiva
THE PAUSES BETWEEN THE NOTES
A great pianist was once asked by an ardent admirer: "How
do you handle the notes as well as you do?"
The artist answered: 'The notes I handle no better than many
pianists, but the pauses between the notes-ah! that is where art
resides."
In great living, as in great music, the art may be in the pauses.
Surely one of the enduring contributions which J udaism made to the
art of living was the Shabbat, "the pause between the notes." And
it is to the Shabbat that we must look if we are to restore to our
lives the sence of serenity and sanctity which Shabbat offers in
such joyous abundance.
Anonymous
CITY OF BEAUTY
City of beauty and joy- I might fly to you,
First among cities — Kiss your stones
city, faithful to your princes- And embrace your dust.
city, faith to your princes —
Whenever I remember the splendor Poem bv Yehuda HaLevl
And multitude of your hosts;
My soul does yearn
To dwell in your courts.
that like a dove
27
Yehuda HaLevy (1080-1145), the great poet and religious
philosopher of the Middle Ages, is one of the most important repre-
sentatives of Hebrew poetry. He lived in Cordova, Spain, and died
on his pilgrimage to J erusalem.
TALES OF THE HASIDIM
A Man on Earth
They asked Rabbi Pinhas: 'Why is it written: 'in the day that
God created a man on earth,' and not 'in the day that God created
Man on earth?"
He explained: 'You should serve your Maker as though there
were only one man on earth, only yourself."
The Place of Man
They asked Rabbi Pinhas "Why is God called 'makom,' that
is, place? He certainly is the place of the world, but then he ought
to be called that, and not just 'place.' "
He replied: "Man should go into God, so that God may sur-
round him and become his place."
He Is Your Psalm
Concerning the words in the Scriptures: "He is thy psalm and
He is thy God," Rabbi Pinhas said the following:
"He is your psalm and he also is your God. The prayer a man
says, the prayer, in itself is God. It is not as if you were asking
something of a friend. He is different and your words are different.
It is not so in prayer, for prayer unites the principles. When a man
who is praying thinks his prayer is something apart from God, he
is like a suppliant to whom the king gives what he has begged from
him. But he who knows that prayer in itself is God, is like the
king's son who takes whatever he needs from the stores of his
father."
I n Praise of Song
Rabbi Pinhas always spoke in high praise of music and song.
Once he said: "Lord of the world, if I could sing, I should not let
you remain up above. I should harry you with my song until you
came down and stayed here with us."
When Two Sing
Rabbi Pinhas said: "When a man is singing and cannot lift
his voice, and another comes and sings with him, another who can
lift his voice, then the first will be able to lift his voice too. That
is the secret of the bond between spirit and spirit."
28
The Bees
Rabbi Rafael of Bershad said: 'They say that the proud are
reborn as bees. For, in his heart, the proud man says: 'I am a
writer, I am a singer, I am a great one at studying.' And since
what is said of such men is true: that they will not turn to God,
not even on the threshold of hell, they are reborn after they die.
They are born again as bees which hum and buzz: 'I am, I am,
I am.' "
What You Pursue
Rabbi Pinhas used to say: "What you pursue, you don't get.
But what you allow to grow slowly in its own way, comes to you.
Cut open a big fish, and in its belly you will find the little fish
lying head down."
Peace
Concerning the words of the prayer: "He who maketh peace in
his high places, may he make peace for us . . ." Rabbi Pinhas said:
"We all know that Heaven (shamayim) came into being when God
made peace between fire (esh) and water (mayim). And he who
could make peace between the utmost extremes, will surely be
able to make peace between us."
With The Evil Urge
Once, when Rabbi Pinhas entered the House of Study, he saw
that his disciples, who had been talking busily, stopped and started
at his coming. He asked them: "What were you talking about?"
"Rabbi," they said, "we were saying how afraid we are that
the Evil Urge will pursue us."
"Don't worry," he replied. 'You have not gotten high enough
for it to pursue you. For the time being, you are still pursuing it."
The Barrier
Rabbi Pinhas said: "On the sabbath, people come to hear words
of teaching. They are full of fervor — and on the very first weekday
everything is exactly as it was. For just as the senses, so memory
too meets with a barrier. As soon as the holiness of the Sabbath
is over, all are a thousand miles away from it, and no one remembers
it any more. It is as when a madman recovers: he is unable to
remember what happened in the days of his madness,"
Martin Buber
A SABBATH EVE SERVICE DURING HANUKKAH
A HANUKKAH SING
The story of Hanukkah as retold in the Oratorio, 'The Redemp-
tion,"* by Abraham Ellstein and Samuel Rosenbaum and these
familiar Hanukkah songs:
* © Copyright by Belwyn-Mills Music
Hanerot Hallalu, Itzhak Edel
The Lights We Have Kindled, Rabbi J oseph Klein, Hugo C. Adler
Al Hanissim, Herbert Fromm
A Song of Hanukkah, Samuel Adler
J udah's Song of Praise, Samuel Adler
The Feast of Lights, Samuel Adler
0, The Kleineh Lichtelach, Morris Rosenfeld
Mi Yimallel, Herbert Fromm
Maoz Tzur, Arr: Samuel Adler
HANEROT HALLALU
Hanerot hallalu anachnu madlikin
Al hanissim, v'al hat'shuot, v'al haniflaot
She-asita lavotenu bayamim hahem bazman hazeh.
THE LIGHTS WE HAVE KINDLED
Lord, Thou hast in ages past And the lights we have kindled
Redeemed Thy people I srael I n festive glow,
With loving kindness and with Recall to usthe braveand valiant
salvation Maccabees
And acts of wondrous might. Who fought for justice and for liberty;
God, we give to Thee our thanks Their priestly dedication
And glorify Thy holy name Won for Israel
For Thy mercy and compassion The right to worship Thee,
In the days of old. Almighty God.
A SONG OF HANUKKAH
Hanukkah, Hanukkah! And while we are singing
Hanukkah, Hanukkah The candles are burning low:
A festival of joy One for each night
Hanukkah, Hanukkah They shed a sweet light
For every girl and boy To remind us of days long ago.
A holiday, a jolly day
For every girl and boy.
Spin the whirling dredel all week long
Tell the age-old story,
Sing a happy song.
JUDAH'S SONG OF PRAISE
Halleluyah!
El hamikdash bah Yehudah
Po hashemen hu matzah
Into the Temple J udah came,
Found the oil and lit the flame,
Come all ye people praise the Lord
J oin this day in one accord.
THE FEAST OF LIGHT
We have come to banish night
Banish it with candle-light.
All the little candle rays
J oin to make a mighty blaze.
Vanish darkness, vanish night
Hanukkah is the Feast of Light.
Thou who didst save us from ev'ry
peril
Help us now to fight all evil.
Thou art our Helper, Thou art our
Savior
Thou art our Strength and Redeemer.
OY,
Oy, ir kleine lichtelch
Ir dertzeilt geshichtelech,
Maiselech on a tzol.
Ir derzeilt fun blutikait,
Beryshaft un mutikait,
Vunder fun amol! (2)
Ven ich ze aich shminklendik
Kumt a cholem finklendik,
Ret an alter troim!
Yid, du host gekrigt amol,
Yid, du host gezigt amol,
Got, dos gloibt zich koim! (2)
IHR KLEINE LICHTELACH
Oy, ir kleine lichtelech,
Ayere geshichtelech
Vekn oif main pain,
Tif in hartz bavegt es zich
Un mit trem fregt as zich
Vos vet itzter zain? (2)
Mi y'mallel g'vurot Yisrael
Mi yimneh?
Hen b'chol dor yakum hagibor
Goel ha-am.
Bayamim hahem baz'man hazeh
Makabi moshiah ufodeh
Uv'yamenu kol am Yisrael
Yitached, yakum veyigael.
Y'MALLEL
Who can retell the deeds of Israel
Who counts them?
Each generation brings a redeemer
One great name.
Hark!
At this season in those ancient days
Maccabee won all his people's praise
And today again as once they dreamed
Israel, united, rises up to be redeemed.
ROCK OF AGES
Maoz tzur yeshuosi
L'cho noeh I'shabeach
Tikon bes tefilosi
V'shom todah n'zabeach
L'es tochin matbayach
Mitzor hamnabeach
Oz egmor beshir mizmor
Hanukkas hamizbeach.
Rock of Ages, let our songs praise Thy saving power;
Thou amidst the raging foes, wast our shelt'ring tower.
Furious they assailed us, but Thine arm availed us,
And Thy word broke their sword
When our own strength failed us.
Children of the martyr-race, whether free or fettered,
Wake the echoes of the songs, where ye may be scattered.
Yours the message cheering that the time is nearing
Which will see all men free, tyrants disappearing.
SOUNDS OF THE SABBATH
Selections from "Shabbat Hamalkah"
A new service for Sabbath Eve by Sholom Secunda
Kindling the Sabbath Light, Raskin
Mizmor: Shiru Ladonai, Psalm 98 (Page 8)
Come Let Us Sing, Psalm 95
Barchu (Page 15)
Ahavat Olam (Page 15)
Sh'ma Yisrael (Page 15)
Psalm of the Fruitful Field, A. M. Klein
Mi Chamocha (Page 18)
Tales of the Hasidim
V'shamru (Page 20)
Kaddish (Page 20)
The Voice of Wisdom, Rokeach
Yihiyu L'ratzon; May the Words (Page 25)
I have Been One Acquainted with the Night, Frost
Alenu (Page 37)
Meditations
Shehashalom Shelo
KINDLING THE SABBATH LIGHT
From memory's spring flows a vision tonight,
My mother is kindling and blessing the light;
The light of Queen Sabbath, the heavenly flame,
That one day in seven quells hunger and shame.
My mother is praying and screening her face,
Too bashful to gaze at the Sabbath light's grace.
She murmurs devoutly, Almighty, be blessed,
For sending Thy angel of joy and of rest.
And may as the candles of Sabbath divine
The eyes of my son in Thy law ever shine.'
Of childhood, fair childhood, the years are long fled:
Youth's candles are quenched, and my mother is dead.
And yet ev'ry Friday, when twilight arrives,
The face of my mother within me revives;
A prayer on her lips, '0 Almighty, be blessed,
For sending us Sabbath, the angel of rest.'
And some hidden feeling I cannot control
A Sabbath light kindles deep, deep in my soul.
P. M. Raskin
COME LET US SING
come, let us sing unto the Lord:
Let us joyfully acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us approach Him with thanksgiving,
And acclaim Him with songs of praise.
For great is the Lord,
A king greater than all the mighty.
In His hands are the depths of the earth;
His also are the heights of the mountains.
The sea is His for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
hearken today to His voice:
Harden not your hearts
As you did at Meribah and Massah,
As in the days of trial in the wilderness;
When your forefathers tried My patience,
Yea, they tested Me, though they had seen My work.
For forty years was I wroth with that generation,
A people who erred in their hearts,
And did not know My ways.
Wherefore I vowed in My indignation
That they should not enter the land where My glory
dwelleth.
PSALM OF THE FRUITFUL FIELD
See Page 25
TALES OF THE HASIDIM
See Page 27
THE VOICE OF WISDOM
No crown carries such royalty with it as doth humility; no
monument gives such glory as an unsullied name; no worldly gain
can equal that which comes from observing God's laws. The highest
sacrifice is a broken and contrite heart; the highest wisdom is that
which is found in the Law; the noblest of all ornaments is modesty;
the most beautiful of all things man can do is to forgive wrong.
Cherish a good heart when thou findest it in any one; hate,
for thou mayest hate it, the haughtiness of the overbearing man,
and keep the boaster at a distance. There is no skill or cleverness
to be compared to that which avoids temptation; there is no force,
no strength that can equal piety. All honor to him who thinks
continually and with an anxious heart of his Maker; who prays,
reads, and learns, and all these with a passionate yearning for his
Maker's grace.
Let thy dealings be of such sort that a blush need never visit
thy cheek; be sternly dumb to the voice of passion; commit no sin,
saying to thyself that thou wilt repent and make atonement at a
later time. Let no oath ever pass thy lips; play not the haughty
aristocrat in thine heart; follow not the desire of the eyes; banish
carefully all guile from thy soul, all unseemly self-assertion from thy
bearing and thy temper.
Speak never mere empty words; enter into strife with no man;
place no reliance on men of mocking lips; wrangle not with evil men;
cherish not too fixed a good opinion of thyself, but lend thine ear to
remonstrance and reproof.
Be not weakly pleased at demonstrations of honor; strive not
anxiously for distinction; never let a thought of envy of those
who do grave wrong cross thy mind; be never enviously jealous of
others, or too eager for money.
Honor thy parents; make peace whenever thou canst among
people, lead them gently into the good path; place thy trust in,
give thy company to, those who fear God.
If the means of thy support in life be measured out scantily
to thee, remember that thou hast to be thankful and grateful even
for the mere privilege to breathe, and that thou must take up that
suffering as a test of thy piety and a preparation for better things.
But if worldly wealth be lent to thee, exalt not thyself above thy
brother; for both of ye came naked into the world, and both of ye
will surely have to sleep at last together in the dust.
Bear well thy heart against the assaults of envy, which kills
even sooner than death itself; and know no envy at all, save such
envy of the merits of virtuous men as shall lead to emulate the
beauty of their lives. Surrender not thyself a slave to hate, that
ruin of all the heart's good resolves, that destroyer of the very
savor of food, of our sleep, of all reverence in our souls.
Keep peace both within the city and without, for it goes well
with all those who are counsellors of peace; be wholly sincere;
mislead no one by prevarications, by words smoother than intention,
as little as by direct falsehood. For God the Eternal is a God of
Truth; it is He from whom truth flowed first, He who begat truth
and sent it into creation.
Eleazar Rokeach
I HAVE BEEN ONE ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed the watchman on his beat and dropped
my eyes unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of my feet,
When far away an interrupted cry came over houses
from another street.
But not to call me back or say good-bye.
And further still, at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.
Robert Frost
MEDITATIONS
As we look back upon the past week, an awareness of failure
oppresses us. Cares and anxieties have caused us to forget You,
God. Indifferences and self-seeking have made us neglect our
duties to our fellow men.
May this hour return us to our obligations. May our constant
care be to help one another. Give us a quiet spirit, free from the
voices within whose clamor deafens us to our neighbors' cry. Let
this be our Shabbat, our Eternal Covenant, a sign between God and
the children of Israel forever.
As the moon sinks on the mountain edge
The fisherman's lights flicker out on the dark wide sea.
When we think that we alone are steering our ships at
midnight,
We hear the splash of oars far beyond us.
ABOUT THE COMPOSER
Sholom Secunda, at 75 stands at the pinnacle of a great career
as an authentic master of J ewish musical folklore; a rare amalgam
of talent, vitality and a fantastic appetite for music.
It matters little what one's musical preferences are, Secunda
has left his mark on all of them. Theatre, synagogue, oratorio,
musical comedy, folksong, art song, opera movies and Tin Pan
Alley. His songs are as well known in Paris as they are in Tel Aviv,
as familiar in Tokyo and Amsterdam as they are in New York or
London.
His spectacular spleeper, "Bei Mir Bistu Schoen," written on
the back of a coffee-shop menu at Far Rockaway and sung, at first,
with great reluctance by the famed star comic, Aron Lebedeff, rose
to Number One on everyone's charts in 1940 when recorded by a
completely unknown vocal trio, 'The Andrews Sisters." In the
process it catapulted the three girls, the producer and Secunda to
international fame.
Over the last fifty years Secunda's life has touched, in some
tangible fashion, the career of almost every star in music, the theatre,
the synagogue, the opera, Broadway and Second Avenue. Richard
Tucker, J an Peerce, Robert Merrill, Beverly Sills, Roberta Peters,
Arturo Toscannini, Pablo Casals, Leonard Bernstein, George Garsh-
win, Molly Picon Boris Thomashefsky, Aron Lebedeff, Maurice
37
Schwartz, Joseph Buloff, the star cantors of the twenties and thirties
— Hershman, Rosenblatt, Kwartin, Sirota, Chagy. These and scores
of lesser known but highly talented and exciting men and women
who lived and worked in the world of music criss-crossed his life.
Secunda's greatest and probably most enduring achievements
are those of the last two decades. Having by choice abdicated his
role as the King of the Yiddish musical theater, he has been able
to devote himself entirely to the composition of music for the syna-
gogue, music at once traditional and at the same time melodic, and
relevant, to the needs of our time. These last years also saw the
emergence of Secunda as a symphonic composer as evidenced by
the appearance of two major classical works, the oratorios, "If Not
Higher" based on a famous hasidic tale of the great Yiddish story
teller, Y. L. Peretz, and "Yizkor" a memorial to the Six Million.
In his late sixties, when most of us are ready to relax, Secunda
embarked on still another career as journalist, music critic and
lecturer. Since then he has written an average of three columns a
week for the world's greatest Yiddish daily, "The Forward." His
subjects are as wide as the world of music itself.
Three years ago he began to serialize his autobiography in
the "Forward's" Sunday magazine section. It ran for 82 weeks.
He has delivered hundreds of lectures all across the country on every
aspect, of Jewish music.
Secunda is an enthusiastic, intuitively effective composer who
developed his natural talent to its outer limits. His music will be
sung and loved for as long as there are people who can sing.
SOUNDS OF THE SABBATH
THE MUSIC OF THE SEPHARDIM
Adonai Malach, Charles Davidson
A Song for the Sabbath, Dunash HaLevi
Tzaddik Katamar Yifrach, Psalm 92: 13-14, Leo Rosenbluth
Four Fragments from the Sabbath Eve Liturgy:
Barchu, Leon Algazi
Sh'ma Yisrael, Leon Algazi
V'ahavta, Heinrich Schalit
Mi Chamocha, Leon Algazi
Meditation on Communion With God, J udah HaLevi
Three Sephardi Lecha Dodi melodies by:
Samuel Adler, Charles Davidson, Darius Milhaud
The Wisdom of Maimonides I
Leave Out My Name, from a song cycle on the Words of Tragore
by Ben Zion Orgad
The Wisdom of Maimonides II
Yihiyu L'ratzon, Charles Davidson
I Look Up To The Sky, Samuel HaNagid
Sephardi Zemirah, Yom HaShabbat, arr. Samuel Adler
The Works of God, Moses Ibn Ezra
Adon Olam, Sephardi Tune, arr. Samuel Adler
A SONG FOR THE SAB
MH
He will proclaim freedom for all his
sons,
And will keep you. as the apple of
his eye.
Pleasant is your name, and will not
he destroyed.
Repose, relax, on the Sabbath day.
Seek my portals and my home.
Give me a sign of deliverance.
Plant a vine in my vineyard.
Look to my people, hear their laments
Trend the wine-press in Bozrah,
And in Babylon, that city of might.
Crush my enemies in anger and fury.
On the day when I cry, hear my
complaint.
Place. God, in my mountain waste,
Fir and acacia, myrtle and elm.
Give those who teach, and those who
obey,
Abundant peace, like the flow of a
stream.
Repel my enemies. zealous God.
Fill their hearts with fear and despair.
Let us open our mouths, let us fill
Our tongues with praise for your
power.
Know wisdom, that your soul may
live,
And this shall he a diadem for your
Keep the commandment of your
Holy One.
Observe your Sabbath, your sacred
day.
Dunash Ha-Levi Ben Lahrat
MEDITATION ON COMMUNION WITH GOD
My thought awaked me with Thy
Name,
Upon Thy boundless love to meditate
Whereby I came
The fullness of the wonder to
That Thou a soul immortal shouldst
To he embound with this, my mortal
Then did my mind, elate,
Behold Thee and believe;
As though I stood among
That hushed and awe-swept throng,
And heard the Voice and gazed on
Sinai's flame!
I sought Thee whilst I dreamed:
And lo, Thy glory seemed
To pass before me; as, of old, the
Descended in his sight, who heard
The music of Thy spoken word.
Then from my couch I sprang, and
cried aloud:
"Blest he Thy glorious Name,
Lord!"
Judah Halevi
A PURPOSE TO THE UNIVERSE
In my view, the Bible and philosophical teachings seek to
convince us that we must not believe that everything in this universe
has been created for man. On the contrary, all things were created
for their own sake, not for the sake of anything else.
I subscribe to the view that the universe was created at a
specific point in history. I also believe that God created all items in
this universe — some for their own sake, some for the sake of others.
J ust as God willed the existence of the human species, so did He
will the existence of the heavens and stars and angels. But I am
firm in my view that the universe was created by God's will-and
we need not seek a purpose or reason, for we will only end up con-
fused by such a quest. It is enough for man to accept the view that
we are here because of Divine Will-or, if you prefer, Divine
Wisdom.
Maimonides
ASCETICISM IS AN EVIL ROAD
Perhaps you might argue: "Since envy and lust and similar
traits are evil and shorten a man's life, I will separate totally from
them and go to the opposite extreme. I will not eat meat or drink
wine; I will not marry or live in a fine home; nor will I wear good
clothing but, instead, I will don sackcloth and coarse wool like the
Christian monks."
I say that this is an evil road to follow. It is prohibited to take
this path. And the man who follows this path is a sinner. Conse-
quently, the sages commanded man not to deny hi mself any pleasures
except those denied him by the Torah. Nor should a person heap
oaths and vows of abstinence and denial on himself.
Those who are accustomed to fast frequently are not walking
the best road. For the sages have prohibited a man from afflicting
himself with constant fasting. Concerning these and similar excesses,
King Solomon admonished: "Do not be overly righteous nor overly
wise lest you come to grief."
THE EIGHT DEGREES OF CHARITY
There are eight degrees of charity- each one higher than
the other.
The highest degree is to aid a poor man by giving him a gift
or a loan, or by forming a partnership with him, or by providing
work for him in order to make him self-supporting and without
need of welfare assistance.
A lower degree of charity is one in which both donor and
recipient are anonymous.
A still lower degree is when the donor knows the recipient but
the recipient does not know the donor.
The fourth and lower degree is when the recipient knows the
donor but the donor does not know the recipient.
A lower degree is when the donor places the alms in the hands
of the recipient without being solicited.
A still lower degree is when the donor gives alms to the recipient
after being solicited.
A yet lower degree is when the donor gives less than is required
by the poor person, but does so willingly.
The lowest degree is when one gives grudgingly.
Maimonides
LEAVE OUT MY NAME
Leave out my name from the gift The first flower that blossomed on the
If it be a burden earth
But keep my song. Was an invitation to the unborn song.
Night's one kiss on the eyes of Dawn the many colored flower fades
morning And the simple light fruit
Closed eyes of morning The sun appears.
Nights one kiss grows in the star of
dawn.
Dawn plays her lute before the gate
of darkness
And is content to vanish when the sun
arises.
PEACE IS BETTER THAN WAR
One must never wage war with anyone in the world without
first attempting peaceful negotiations. This applies to both optional
and obligatory wars, as the Torah says: When you approach a
town to attack it, you shall first offer terms of peace." If the inhabi-
tants accept a peaceful solution and agree to abide by the seven
laws given to Noah, then one may not kill a single resident.
Moreover, it is forbidden to break a treaty or lie to the people
or betray them once they have agreed to peace terms.
If any army besieges a city to capture it, it must not surround
it on all four sides but only on three. The fourth side must be kept
open so that the civilian population may flee and save their lives.
Nor may the attacking army cut down the fruit trees in the vicinity
or cut off the water supply, or destroy civilian property or homes
or food supplies.
Maimonides
PEACE IN THE MESSIANIC ERA
Do not suppose that in the days of the Messiah any of the laws
of nature will cease to exist or that new creations will come
into being. In fact, the world will continue as it normally does, with
the one exception that Israel and her neighbors will coexist in peace
and the wild, predatory nations will no longer behave like wolves.
All of the fantastic visions of the Prophets concerning the
messianic era are metaphorical. As the sages have noted, 'The only
difference between this world and the days of the Messiah is that
in messianic times no nation will subjugate another."
The sages and Prophets did not long for the messianic era in
order to dominate the world or rule over the pagans or be exalted
over them. Nor did they yearn for an era of wild eating and drinking
and revelry. Rather, they yearned for the leisure and peace to study
Torah and wisdom with no one to oppress them or forbid their study.
In that era there will be an end to famine and war, envy and
strife. Goodness will prevail, and prosperity will abound; the uni-
versal occupation will be to know the Lord.
Maimonides
I LOOK UP TO THE SKY
I look up to the sky and the stars,
And down to the earth and the things that creep there,
And I consider in my heart how their creation
Was planned with wisdom in every detail.
See the heavens above like a tent,
Constructed with loops and with hooks,
And the moon with its stars, like a shepherdess
Sending her sheep into the reeds;
The moon itself among the clouds,
Like a ship sailing under its banners;
The clouds like a girl in her garden
Moving, and watering the myrtle-trees;
The dew-mist-a woman shaking
Drops from her hair to the ground.
The inhabitants turn, like animals, to rest,
(Their palaces are their stables);
And all fleeing from the fear of death,
Like a dove pursued by the falcon.
And these are compared at the end to a plate
Which is smashed into innumerable sherds.
Samuel HaNagid
THE WORKS OF GOD
Awesome are the works of God,
Marvels beyond meting-rod.
Him we cannot see, but they
Tel I of H i m by ni ght and day —
Only in such wonder-tongue
May His praise me fitly sung!
Moses Ibn Ezra
The Sephardim are descendants of J ews who lived in Spain or
Portugal before the expulsion of 1492. (The term Sephardim is
often erroneously used for other Jews of non-Ash kenazi origin.)
Legend holds that there were J ews in Spain as early as Solo-
mon's time. In any case, the settlement is extremely old. Jews
suffered persecution there during the period of the Visigoths, which
ended when the Arabs conquered the country in 711 C.E. Thus,
politically and linguistically the Jews of Spain were put in touch
with the center of J ewish life in Babylonia-Iraq and carried on the
tradition of Babylonian J ewry. The Muslim era in Spain gave rise
to the "Golden Age" of Spanish J ewry, which produced such figures
as the statesman Hisdai ibn Shaprut, the statesman, poet, and
halachist Samuel ha-Nigid, the poet Moses ibn Ezra, the poets
and philosophers Solomon ibn Gabirol and Judah Halevi, and above
all, the physician, philosopher, and halakhist Moses Maimonides.
After the Almohad persecutions of 1148, Jewish life in Spain
was concentrated in the Christian parts of the country, which, in
the course of the Reconquista, gradually extended over the entire
peninsula. The vigorous and creative Jewish community was dis-
rupted in 1391 by an outbreak of persecutions that led to wholesale
insincere conversions to Christianity, creating so-called "New Chris-
tians" or Conversos, many of whom in fact only outwardly pro-
fessed Christianity but practiced Judaism in secret and taught their
children to do likewise. The Inquisition was established to extirpate
the scandal of Christians relapsing to a previous "dead" faith, but
its work was hampered by the presence of unconverted Jews over
whom the Inquisition had no authority. Accordingly, in 'March
1492 a decree of expulsion was issued against all Jews who refused
to accept Christianity, and this edict officially remained in force
until 1968.
Some accepted conversion; others, perhaps as many as 250,000,
moved away to North Africa, Italy, and especially Turkey, where
Sultan Bayazid II admitted them gladly. The seaport of Salonika,
in particular, became a great center of Sephardim, all the important
Spanish towns and districts being represented there by congregations
that maintained their identity.
Thus was created the Sephardi Diaspora, a dispersion within
a dispersion that not only looked back to Erez Israel as its homeland,
but had been indelibly impressed by a long sojourn in Spain. The
exiles took with them the language and songs of Spain, which they
preserved with fidelity; the foods of Spain, and children's games.
R. Joseph Caro, the Sephardi author of the Shulhan Arukh (the
standard code of Orthodox Judaism) draws on words like panadas
(a kind of croquette with meat), pala (a baker's peel), or hones
(lemons) to express domestic items for which he found no equiva-
lent in the rabbinic Hebrew of his day. The Sephardim bore Spanish
personal and family names, and their world view had been shaped
by the customs and conduct of their Spanish neighbors.
A century later the formation of another branch of Sephardi
Jewry began-the Marrano Diaspora. Many Crypto-Jews had
moved to Portugal, where the danger of detection was less. From
there they slipped away in increasing numbers to lands where they
46
could cast off their Christian mask and reassume Judaism. The
freedom which Holland achieved from, Spain at about this time
made Amsterdam the great center of the Marrano Diaspora. Portu-
gese Jews moved there in great numbers, especially during the 17th
century, often totally ignorant of Jewish practice and the Hebrew
language, but anxious to learn. A magnificent synagogue was built,
and educational institutions were founded.
Subsequent migrations of Sephardim took place to England
and the Americas, as well as to centers of Western Europe such as
Bordeaux, Bayonne and Hamburg. These Sephardim differed from
the Sephardim of the East in that their day-to-day language was
Portuguese, although they also knew Spanish, which they used for
commerce and as a semi-sacred language for Bible translation. They
remained in the mainstream of West European culture, frequently
writing their vernacular in Roman rather than Hebrew script.
The Spanish language, as it was preserved by the Sephardim,
is called Ladino, Judezmo, or Judeo-Spanish. It has a number of
archaic characteristic (e.g. the preservation of original j and sh
sounds, which standard Spanish has lost, as well as peculiar lexical
and syntactical features, including loanwords from Hebrew, Turkish
and other languages) and makes a quaint and pleasing impression
on speakers of the standard language. Ladino was formerly written
in the rabbinic cursive script (the modern originally Ashkenazi,
Hebrew cursive never having been in use among Sephardim), but
with efforts at modernization in Turkey, the Roman alphabet was
adapted to Ladino and is now generally used. Ladino is still spoken
by Jews in Turkey, Greece and adjacent countries, as well as by
immigrants to Israel, the U.S., Latin America, and elsewhere. It
seems probable, however, that the dialect will be extinct within a
short time, and efforts are being made in Jerusalem and Madrid to
record the language systematically. Portuguese survived as the
language of the Marrano Diaspora until the early 19th century; it
still survives in some centers in certain fossilized usages, for example
in the prayer for the queen in Amsterdam and the announcement of
congregational honors and elections in London.
While the Sephardim do not differ from the Ashkenazim in
the basic tenets of Judaism, both groups viewing the Babylonian
Talmud as their ultimate authority in belief and practice, there are
great differences in matters of detail and outlook. Once the trauma
of persecution in Spain had worn off, many Sephardim settled in
46
places where they enjoyed a life relatively free of external con-
straints in the practice of their religion, and they had a fair measure
of security of life and property. This may be the reason why many
of them displayed a more sympathetic attitude to outside culture
and were ready to see good outside the "four cubits of the law."
Sephardim follow the codification of R. Joseph Caro (Maran "our
master"), the Shulhan Arukh, in matters of religious law without
regard to the strictures of R. Moses b. Israel Issereles, whom they
call Moram — which may mean equivocally "our teacher and master
R. Moses" or "their teacher" (i.e., of the Ashkenazim). The com-
pilation by R. Joseph Caro represents a more liberal and permissive
trend than that approved by the Ashkenazi authorities. For exam-
ple, Sephardi authorities permit rice to be eaten on Passover and
allow whole eggs found inside a slaughtered chicken or vegetables
cooked in a pot previously used for meat to be eaten with milk
products. Ashkenazi authorities forbid all such practices, and in-
stances could be multiplied.
Many differences, however, simply reflect a difference in custom
or interpretation, with no implication of leniency. Thus, a blessing
is recited on the head phylactery, only if there has been an inter-
ruption after placing that for the hand, and the straps are wound
outwards rather than inwards. The lulav used on the festival of
Sukkot is bound together without the holder used by the Ashkena-
zim and is often decorated with colored ribbons. At the Passover
home service, lettuce, rather than horseradish, is used for bitter
herbs.
The synagogue service differs considerably from that of the
Ashkenazim. The Scroll of the Law is raised before its public
reading, rather than after, and the script in which it is written is
characteristically different. The synagogue itself has a somewhat
different arrangement. The reading desk is at the west end, and
all services are conducted from it, unlike Ashkenazi practice where
certain prayers are read from the desk at the side of the ark. Their
ark is frequently a triple structure, consisting of a large closet in
the middle and a smaller one on either side. The text of the prayers
differs in detail; the involved synagogal poetry of the Kail ir is totally
absent, being replaced by compositions of the Spanish poets Judah
Halevi, Moses ibn Ezra, and Solomon ibn Gabirol. The synagogue
chants are simpler and brighter than those of the Ashkenazim,
who nevertheless find them monotonous and lacking in warmth.
Sephardim tend to be especially punctilious in their rendition of the
47
sacred scrolls. Sephardi pronunciation of Hebrew is particular to
place the tonic accent on the syllable prescribed by grammar, pre-
dominantly the ultimate, and distinguishes two complementarily
disturbed colorations (a and o) of the vowel we call kametz.
Many religious technical terms (eg., the names of the notes
used in the cantillation of the scrolls) are different from those of the
Ashkenazim, and these serve as a shibboleth which marks the
Ashkenazi as soon as he uses one of his terms.
The following list includes a few of the more common terms
(some of them are used mainly in the Western Spanish and Portu-
guese communities) :
Sephardi term
Ashkenazi term
Meaning
Arvit
Ma'ariv
evening prayer
bar mi nan
lo aleinu
(used when referring to a
tragedy)
(h) ekhal
aron
ark
(e) snoga
shul
synagogue
haggadah
seder
Passover service
hashkabah
hazkarah
prayer for (a) deceased
hazak ubarukh
yishar kohakha
blessing and congratulation
Kippur
Yom Kippur
Day of Atonement
Lag la-Omer
Lag ba-Omer
33rd day of Omer (scholars'
feast)
nahalah; anos
(Port, "years")
yahrzei t
anniversary of death
pizmonim
zemi rot
religious songs
ribbi
rabbi
rabbi, Mr.
Sefer
Sefer To rah
Scroll of the Law
tevah
bimah
reading desk
tefillot
siddur
prayer book
zemi rot
pesukei de-zimra
preliminary readings in the
morning service
Sephardi m tend to be very insistent on preserving these slight
differences, probably because they are conscious of their minority
status within the Jewish community, and tend to develop the same
rigorous adherence to custom vis-a-vis the Ashkenazi community
as the Orthodox Jewish community as a whole does to the outside
world. It is not uncommon at the present time for a deep or even
fanatical attachment to Sephardi tradition to be coupled with laxity
in observance of Jewish law.
MUSIC OF THE SEPHARDIM
From "An Old Faith in the New World, Portrait of
Shearith Israel," by David and Tamar de Sola Pool
Music plays an important part in expressing the reverent spirit
of the synagogue. I n the Temple of old in J erusalem musical instru-
ments were used, but after its destruction, in chastening memory of
that disaster the only instrument heard in the synagogue has been
the ram's horn (shofar) sounded on the penitential days. Its stern,
weird, and commanding tones, the same as those which stirred the
Children of Israel in Biblical days, are all the more dramatic be-
cause they link the present with the centuried past.
The oldest chanting in the synagogue is rooted in the services
held in the Temple in J erusalem twenty centuries ago, which in their
turn were derived from the services chanted in the Temple of Bible
days. This is the cantillation of the Bible reading which is in reality
a development of the varying tones of expressive speech. There are
no punctuation marks in the written scroll of the Torah, and no
division into sentences. The traditional chant expresses meaningful
phrasing, correct grammatical nuances, and fine shades of meaning.
Centuries later, perhaps around the seventh century of the common
era, this chanting, which then had already long been traditional,
was put into written form. Its signs or neumes represent not single
notes but whole musical phrases, and in considerable part follow
forms used in classic representation of musical motifs in ancient
days. In the J ewish tradition the Bible was always read to a chant,
just as among Moslems the Koran, and in the Eastern Church the
gospels are chanted. The varying cantillations of the Pentateuch,
the prophetic portions of the Bible, the Song of Songs, the Book of
Ruth, Lamentations, and the Book of Esther heard in Shearith
Israel are the most ancient elements in the music of the synagogue.
Less familiar than these weekly chants are those used for other
parts of the Bible.
Poetry likewise was always chanted in olden days, the music
intensifying the feeling engendered by the poetic words. The chant
to which the Psalms are sung in the congregation is a cultural
bridge between the East and the West. The motifs are shaped in
the Oriental manner, and have retained the use of a special closing
motif as in Bible cantillation.
In the same spirit, the congregational prayers composed cen-
turies later than the Psalms have always been chanted. Their poetic
49
and often ecstatic mood is heightened by the tones of music. The
dominant emotion of the day in a measure affects the nature of the
chant. The regular Amidah chant has a characteristic modification
on penitential days that is associated only with those days. In the
longer set prayers, such as the Amidah or Yotser, the original free
parlando has become a fixed recitative. Such chants are simple,
within a range of not more than five notes and without melismatic
ornamentation. They are elastic, and marked by repetition or modi-
fication of short musical phrases in adjustment to the rhythmic
stresses and the length of the passage that is being read. Therefore
these traditional Sephardi chants have remained simple enough to
be joined in by all those present, however modestly some may be
gifted vocally. The simplicity of the melody welds the congrega-
tion into a fellowship of worshippers, while more elaborate composi-
tions would sometimes tend to induce the atmosphere of an audience
at a concert of sacred music.
Less old in the music of the services are the melodies to which
hymns and sometimes single verses are sung. Many of these have
been brought down to our day from the communities which flourished
in Spain in the Middle Ages. These melodies have preserved some
of the characteristics of early Peninsular music, whether in the
simpler melodic lines of Northern Spain or in the more ornate char-
acter of Moorish Spain. None of these synagogue melodies was
written down until modern times, so that not a small degree of
variation is found locally between a melody as sung in Shearith
Israel in New York and that same melody as sung in Curacao, or
London, or Amsterdam.
The cumulative effect of the continuous chanting in unison of
simple medieval recitatives, which have retained their modal char-
acter without the expanded polyphony of modern harmony, creates
an exotic atmosphere. To ears attuned to the tonalities of modern
Western music, the effect is often strange, the more so because a
sentence or a paragraph very often comes to an end on the third
instead of on the tonic note, giving the impression of the chant's
being unfinished and never ending. In the story of her visit to the
synagogue in 1841, Lydia Maria Child, the Boston feminist, char-
acterized the singing as "unmusical, consisting of monotonous ups
and downs, which when the whole congregation joined in it, sounded
like a continuous moan of the sea."
Ensign Caleb Clapp, who visited the synagogue on May 4, 1776,
was similarly impressed by the limited range of the chanting and by
the constant participation by the whole congregation both in the
chanting and in the melodies.
'They . . . were engaged very deeply either in reading or singing,
but their discourse being in Hebrew, and their tune so strange to me
that was not able to distinguish between reading and Singing only
as they sometimes raised their voices (then I concluded it was sing-
ing) the whole time of Exercise, they all sang and read with the
Minister."
That little word "with" reflects a problem at times not taken
lightly. The congregational constitution of 1805 imposes a certain
control on musical individualists:
"Every member of this congregation shall previous to the singing
of any psalm or prayer, remain silent until the Hazzan shall signify
the tone or key in which the same is to be sung, and those who are
so inclined may then join therein, with an equal voice, but neither
higher or louder than the Hazzan."
While individuals with loud voices may tend to dominate the
congregational singing in the section of the synagogue where they
are seated, nevertheless the chanting as a whole is notably remi-
niscent of the words spoken by Moses as he came down from Mt.
Sinai, "It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, nor the
voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the sound of them
that sing do I hear."
From time to time modern compositions have been added to
the ancient treasury of the congregation's music. Some of these
were composed by men associated with the congregation, such as
Jonas B. Phillips, Julius J. Lyons, Leon M. Kramer, H. Pereira
Mendes, and D. de Sola Pool. Others are the work of European
composers such as Solomon Sulzer, Samuel Naumbourg, M. Moss,
and D. A. de Sola. In all these melodies, whether modern or old,
or ancient, the worshippers wholeheartedly join. Yet the formal
organization of congregational singing has had a long and a curiously
checkered history. In 1812 the singing at the special service held
on Thanksgiving Day was led by "the class" of the Polonies Talmud
Torah. For the special dedicatory services of the second Mill Street
Synagogue in 1818, the musically gifted J acob Seixas, a son of
Benjamin Mendes Seixas, prepared a congregational chorale of
"fifteen ladies and ten gentlemen" of whom two women and three
men were members of the Seixas family. This trained congregational
singing was strikingly impressive. Seven years later when J acob
51
Seixas was visiting Philadelphia, as "the leader, teacher and princi-
pal performer" he organized a choir which sang at the dedication
of Congregation Mikveh Israel's new synagogue building, with his
sister Miriam leading the women. In the words of Rebecca Gratz,
"all who were there acknowledged that there has never been such
church music performed in Philadelphia."
After the consecration of the Mill Street Synagogue, several
young men of the choral group that had been created and trained by
Jacob Seixas turned to the board of trustees with the suggestion
that they form a singing class to improve the singing. This proposal
anticipated the present Shearith Israel Chorale by 135 years. The
plan of organizing a formal class was not then accepted for reasons
lengthily but at this distance not convincingly given, even though
the idea of training the congregation for harmonious singing was
warmly endorsed.
SOUNDS OF THE SABBATH
Selections from "An/it L'Shabbat"
A new service by Yehezkiel Braun, Israel's
leading composer of synagogue music.
Mah Tovu (Page 2)
How May I Sing, Yosef Zvi Rimmon
Barchu (Page 15)
Ahavat Olam (Page 15)
Sh'ma Yisrael (Page 16)
V'ahavta (Page 16)
Chalfah Al Panai, Thy Breath, God!, Hayim Nachman Bialik
Mi Chamocha (Page 18)
Night is Sublime, J udah Kami
V'Shamru (Page 19)
Mechezyonot N'vi Hasheker, If You Ask Me, Saul Tchernichov-
sky
May the Words (Page 25)
Out of the Depths, Hayim Nachman Bialik
Magen Avot (Page 27)
The Ballad of Rabbi Mendel, Sh. Shalom
Adon Olam (Page 41)
Hazzan Samuel Rosenbaum
HOW MAY I SING
How may I sing of day and night — It is God who begot them.
It is God who molded them. How may I sing of the world and its
How may I sing of heaven and plenitude —
earth— It is God who bade them be.
It is God who founded them. I shall sing to him who fashioned all
How may I sing of mountains and and is exalted above all —
hills — It is to God I must sing.
It is God who planted them. .
How may I sing of seas and deserts — Yosef Zvl Rlmmon
THY BREATH, GOD!
Thy breath, God! flitted by me and I was scorched,
Thy fingertip, one little moment, made by
heartstrings tremulous,
And there I crawled mute, and held in check
the surging of my spirit;
My heart swooned within me, and my inner
music could not billow forth;
Wherewith dare I enter the sanctuary, and
how can my prayer be pure,
While my language, OGod! has become defiled,
is all uncleanliness,
Not a word therein but is besmirched down to
its root,
Not a phrase but filthy lips have befouled,
Not a thought but has been dragged to the
house of shame?
Where can I remove myself from this smell?
0, where can I hide from this empty tumult?
Where is the Seraph to cleanse my mouth with
his fiery coal?
I will go forth to the birds of the field that
chirp at dawn,
Or arise and go now to the children playing by
the gate;
I will go and mingle with them in their multitude,
will learn their speech and their chatter —
Will be purified by their breath, and wash my
lips with their cleanliness
Hayim Nachman Bialik
NIGHT IS SUBLIME
Night is sublime, its moon-dominated dome
Is so powerful, yet ever so gentle.
Night ripens clusters of stars,
None of them fall, nor are quenched.
Night is heightened and deep, yet serene,
None binds the sacrifice, none is bound.
Night equates elevation with decline,
It is immaculate.
Night articulates for the amazed and perplexed.
Lord! God!
J udah Kami
IF YOU ASK ME
If you ask me concerning God, my God:
"Where is he that we may worship him with
resonant song?"
Here on earth, too, he is: the heavens are
not for him-
But the earth he has given to man.
The beautiful tree, the beautiful plough-land —
therein also the likeness of his image;
Upon every mountainside he plays hide and seek;
Wherever there is an awareness of life in the
flesh and blood,
There he invests himself in the plant, in the clod.
His next of kin — all that is: the doe, the turtle,
The scrawny bush and the dark cloud pregnant with
thunder;
For he is not the God of would-be spirits — he is
the God of the human heart:
That is his name and that is his memorial to all
eternity.
Saul Tchernichovsky
OUT OF THE DEPTHS
Out of the deepest depths of the wells of my soul,
To thee, hiding God! I cry — hearken my prayer:
Demand whatever thou wilt of me, God! Behold
I am ready,
But show me thy face, only show me thy face!
Of what avail the splendor of all the worlds
thou hast planted in my heart?
They are but pallid shadows of thy treasured
light,
Mere vague lineaments of thine own image.
Yet, I thirst to drink from the source of all sources,
I long to steep myself in the light of light —
Thy face, thy face I crave to see.
"Man shall not see my face and live!" — Be it so
Indeed, let me die this very great moment,
Once I have seen thy face, high and exalted God!
Lord, I light up all thy light for me one moment —
And mothlike I will plunge into it, and he
utterly consumed.
Hayim Nachm
THE BALLAD OF RABBI MENDEL
Rabbi Mendel observes them:
Despair, destitution, the shadow of death,
Have completely quenched the light in their eyes —
Their only awareness is death.
Is there still room for the uplifting of their souls?
Rabbi Mendel is sorrowfully silent.
Then suddenly he cries out, as if swooning with thirst:
"A glass of water, J ews, a glass of water!
Half my portion in the world to come
To anyone that takes his life in his hands."
But none stirs, not a man responds —
Doom and hopelessness in all eyes.
"A glass of water," Rabbi Mendel cries. "Isn't
there anyone?"
And ashamed he is to have broken with speech
That silence of desperation and misery
Forever stamped upon them by enslavement.
But look! A prisoner there has broken forth,
Hobbling through the rows of trained gun-barrels.
A mere J ewish tailor he was, a simple pious man,
Running in his chains to the well.
A glass of water he brought, paying in blood.
Rabbi Mendel performed the oblation,
And began the confession to the Creator of
all worlds:
"Amen," the endless spaces responded.
And when the cruel lieutenant gave the order to fire,
Rabbi Mendel smiled to the Highest-
For in the realm of ultimate despair there still was
A J ew sanctifying the name of the Deity,
A J ew loving his fellow, and triumphant,
Even in death, over viciousness and evil.
Sh. Shalom
ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Yehezkiel Braun was born in Israel in 1922, He is a graduate
of the Herzliah High School and the Kibbutzim Teachers College.
During the Second World War he fought at the Italian front, serving
the British Army with the Jewish Brigade. Returning home after
the war he took active part in Israel's War of Independence.
He is a graduate of the Israeli Academy of Music where he
studied composition under the late A. V. Boscovitz. Since his
56
graduation he has been a member of the faculty of the Academy
as a Professor of Music Theory and Composition.
Although highly skilled in the most advanced techniques of
comtemporary music the composer does not adhere to any rigidly
defined school. He strives toward the clarity, straight-forwardness
and depth which are the hallmark of the great masters. He em-
ploys techniques only as a means to an end.
His instrumental works include a concerto for Flute and
Orchestra, Symphony of Dances, a symphonic suite on the Book
of Ruth, a piano and flute sonata, a woodwind quartet as well as
pieces for harp, percussion and piano.
His vocal compositions, mainly choral works, are almost uni-
versally based on Jewish traditional tunes. Mr. Braun has also
composed music for the ballet, theater and films.
About the present work the composer states: "I was consciously
aiming at a general tone of subduing emotions; of a somber, yet
warm, intimate and inward-looking nature. I do not claim this to
be the 'right' way of composing a service, but this is my immediate
reaction to the majestic words of worship which I know from my
childhood."
WORDS ABOUT MUSIC:
WHY SO LITTLE FROM ISRAEL?
I am often asked why so little new sacred music is being created
in Israel. One might expect that the Holy Land, whose Temple's
songs inspired the entire ancient world and provided the roots
for our own sacred music as well as that of the Church, might now
be experiencing a renaissance. Scholars and musicians agree that
the study of and the inspired use of Biblical cantillation modes
could open the way to a new flowering of Jewish sacred music.
There are others that feel that over the centuries J ewish music has
been subject to pollution, assimilation and acculturation. There
can be no revival of J ewish sacred music, they say, until it under-
goes a thorough self-cleaning by knowledgeable scholars.
With these possibilities open both to creative artists and to
J ewish musicologists it is disappointing that so little new sacred or
cleansed music has come out of Israel.
A small number of Israeli composers has shown interest in the
Bible but more for its historical and national relevance than for the
purpose of creating new liturgical music.
67
A few composers have been moved to create new liturgical
music by commissions from this country, but unfortunately there
is no one in Israel to ask or to encourage an Israeli composer to
compose music for Israel's synagogues. Israeli composers are gener-
ally not synagogue-goers; most of them stand aloof from ritual and
prayer.
"Arvit L'Shabbat" is the result of a commission by Hazzan Saul
Meisels and the Temple on the Heights of Cleveland. In spite of
the fact that Braun is not estranged from the synagogue, he would
not have been moved or asked to compose a service for the synagogue
of Israel. That synagogue leadership has shown little inclination to
attract musicians or a music-loving public. Paradoxically, it was
the Socialist kibbutz movement which first encouraged poets and
composers to create new literacy and musical forms for the tradi-
tional Jewish festivals — Pesah, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur,
Sukkot. Here, too, the emphasis was on the cultural and the ethical
precepts of Judaism rather than on its liturgical forms.
The ban on instrumental music, so often interpreted as being
derived from a spirit of national mourning for the ancient Temple
was, in reality, based on the impulses of an art-suspicious period.
The Church, in its early years, banned excessive music because it
was reminiscent of the Jewish practice in King Solomon's Temple.
Islam banned music as a detracting element from the core
of its belief. We Jews found a sentimental reason. But now, with
Jerusalem united and the Temple site once more in Jewish hands,
the time for mourning a two thousand year old catastrophe should
be at an end. Israel should lead the way to returning to the syna-
gogue the deep spiritual meaning and the artful splendour that
were the Temple's in golden age of ancient Israel.
Samuel Rosenbaum
58
SOUNDS OF THE SABBATH
Words and Music from Our Own Time
Out of the Land of Heaven, Leonard Cohen
Adonai Malach, Psalm 97 (Page 7), J ulius Chajes
Thou Shalt Covet, Abraham J . Heschel
Barchu, Ahavat Olam, Sh'ma, ( PPs. 15, 16), Samuel Adler
Psalm IX, A. M. Klein
Mi Chamocha, (Page 18), Lazar Weiner
The Alphabet, Karl Shapiro
Hashkivenu (Page 19), Max Helfman
Psalm XXIV, A. M. Klein
Speak To Me, Levi Ben Amitai
V'sham'ru (Page 20), Heinrich Schalit
The Sound of Silence, Paul Simon
Grant Us Peace, May the Words (P. 23), Herbert Fromm
Stance of the Amidah, A. M. Klein
R'tzei, (Page 23), Herbert Fromm
The 151st Psalm, Karl Shapiro
Adon Olam (Page 41), P. Ben-Haim
Yevarech'cha, P. Ben-Haim
Adam, Anthony Hecht
OUT OF THE LAND OF HEAVEN
Out of the land of heaven
Down comes the warm Sabbath sun
Into the spice-box of earth.
The Queen will make every Jew her
lover.
In a white silk coat
Our rahbi dances up the street,
Wearing our lawns like a green
prayer-shawl,
Brandishing houses like silver flags.
Behind him dance his pupils,
Dancing not so high
And chanting the rabbi's prayer,
But not so sweet.
And who waits for him
On a throne at the end of the street
But the Sabbath Queen.
Down go his hands
Into the spice-box of earth,
And there he finds the fragrant sun
For a wedding ring,
And draws her wedding finger
through.
Now back down the street they go,
Dancing higher than the silver flags.
His pupils somewhere have found
wives too,
And all are chanting the rabbi's song
And leaping high in the perfumed air.
Who calls him Rabbi?
Cart-horse and dogs call him Rabbi,
And he tells them:
The Queen makes every Jew her
lover.
And gathering on their green lawns
The people call him Rabbi,
And fill their mouths with good hread
And his happy song.
Leonard Cohen
THOU SHALT COVET
The holiness of the chosen day is not something at which to
stare and from which we must humbly stay away. It is holy not
away from us. It is holy unto us. "Ye shall keep the Sabbath there-
fore, for it is holy unto you" (Exodus 31: 14). "The Sabbath adds
holiness to Israel."
What the Sabbath imparts to man is something real, almost
open to perception, a light, as it were, that shines from within, that
glows out of his face. "God blessed the seventh day" (Genesis 2: 3) :
"He blessed it with the light of a man's face: The light of a man's
face during the week is not the same as it is on the Sabbath." That
is an observation made by Rabbi Shimeon ben Yohai.
But the Sabbath as experienced by man cannot survive in exile,
a lonely stranger among days of profanity. It needs the companion-
ship of all other days. All days of the week must be spiritually con-
sistent with the Day of Days. All our life should be a pilgrimage
to the seventh day; the thought and appreciation of what this day
may bring to us should be ever present in our minds. For the Sab-
bath is the counterpoint of living; the melody sustained throughout
all agitations and vicissitudes which menace our conscience; our
awareness of God's presence in the world.
What we are depends on what the Sabbath is to us. The law
of the Sabbath day is in the life of the spirit what the law of gravita-
tion is in nature.
Nothing is as hard to suppress as the will to be a slave to one's
own pettiness. Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for
inner liberty. Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domina-
tion of things as well as from domination of people. There are many
who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but
only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant prob-
lem-how to live with people and remain free, how to live with
things and remain independent.
In a moment of eternity, while the taste of redemption was still
fresh to the former slaves, the people of Israel was given the Ten
Words, the Ten Commandments. In its beginning and end, the
Decalogue deals with the liberty of man. The first Word — I am
the Lord they God, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage — reminds him that his outer liberty
was given to him by God, and the tenth Word — Thou shalt not
covet! — reminds him that he himself must achieve his inner liberty.
When today we wish to bring a word into special prominence we
either underline it or print it in italics. In ancient literature, empha-
sis is expressed through direct repetition (epizeuxis), by repeating
a word without any intervening words. The Bible, for example, says:
"J ustice, J ustice shalt thou follow" (Deuteronomy 16: 20) ; "Comfort
ye, comfort ye My people" (Isaiah 40: 1). Of all the Ten Command-
ments, only one is proclaimed twice, the last one: 'Thou shalt not
covet . . . Thou shalt not covet." Clearly it was reiterated in
order to stress its extraordinary importance. Man is told not to
covet "thy neighbor's house" "thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-
servant nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing
belonging to thy neighbor."
We know that passion cannot be vanquished by decree. The
tenth injunction would, therefore, be practically futile, were it not
for the "commandment" regarding the Sabbath day to which about
a third of the text of the Decalogue is devoted, and which is an
epitome of all other commandments. We must seek to find a relation
between the two "comandments." Do not covet anything belonging
to thy neighbor; I have given thee something that belongs to Me.
What is that something? A day.
61
J udaism tries to foster the vision of life as a pilgrimage to the
seventh day; the longing for the Sabbath all days of the week which
is a form of longing for the eternal Sabbath all the days of our lives.
It seeks to displace the coveting of things in space for coveting the
things in time, teaching man to covet the seventh day all days of
the week. God himself coveted that day, He called it Hemdat
Yamim, a day to be coveted. It is as if the command: Do not covet
things of space, were correlated with the unspoken word: Do covet
things of time.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
PSALM IX
A psalm, to be preserved against two wicked words:
I am not of the saints, Lord, to wear
The broken shoes of poverty, and dance.
For I am made sick at heart with terrible fear
Seeing the poor man spurned, looked at askance,
Standing, his cap in hand, and speaking low,
And never getting his fellow's heart or ear.
may I never beg my daily bread,
Never efface my pride, like a dirty word;
And never grovel that my little chick be fed.
Preserve me from poverty, Lord.
Preserve me, too, and Thou who knowest hearts,
Know'st this prayer does from the heart arise,
Preserve me from possessions, from the marts,
The mints, the mansions, all the worldly goods,
Debasing even the man of noblest parts.
From too much wealth that warps the very saints,
From power that ambushes the soul by stealth,
From suzerainty that fevers, and then faints:
Preserve me, Lord, from wealth.
But in Thy wisdom Thou canst so ordain
That wealth and poverty be known no more.
Then hadst Thou answered me. again and again.
Answered Thy servant, neither rich nor poor.
A. M. Klein
THE ALPHABET
The letters of the J ews as strict as flames
Or little terrible flowers lean
Subbornly upwards through the perfect ages,
Singing through solid stone the sacred names.
The letters of the J ews are black and clean
And lie in chain-line over Christian pages.
The chosen letters bristle like barbed wire
That hedge the flesh of man,
Twisting and tightening the book that warns.
These words, this burning bush, this flickering pyre
Unsacrifices the bled son of man
Yet plaits his crown of thorns.
Where go the tipsy idols of the Roman
Past synagogues of patient time,
Where go the sisters of the Gothic rose,
Where go the blue eyes of the Polish women
Past the almost natural crime,
Past the still speaking embers of ghettos,
There rise the tinder flowers of the J ews.
The letters of the J ews are dancing knives
That carve the heart of darkness seven ways.
These are the letters that all men refuse
And will refuse until the king arrives
And will refuse until the death of time
And all is rolled back in the book of days.
PSALM XXIV
(Shiggaion of Abraham which he sang unto the Li
incognito god, anonymous lord,
with what name shall I call you? Where shall I
discover the syllable, the mystic word
that shall evoke you from eternity?
Is that sweet sound a heart makes, clocking life,
Your appellation? Is the noise of thunder, it?
Is it the hush of peace, the sound of strife?
1 have no title for your glorious throne,
and for your presence not a golden word, —
only that wanting you, by that alone
I do evoke you, knowing I am heard.
A. M. Klein
SPEAK TO ME
Speak to me! Speak to me!
Thou — From the top of a tree,
You — From the cleft of a stone
Speak to me! From the glint of a star,
I am weary of the sound of man Speak to me!
I have grown indifferent to his uproar l_ ev j b en Amitai
My ears erho with your silence!
Speak to me!
You -
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Hello darkness my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone,
Narrow streets of cobble stone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a nc
That split the night, and touched the sound of s
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more,
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dares disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools!" said I, 'You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed, in the wells of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made,
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming.
And the sign said:
'The words of the prophets are written
on the subway walls and tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds o/ silence.
STANCE OF THE AMIDAH
(0 Lord, open Thou my lips; and my mouth
shall declare Thy praise:)
God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of J acob, who hast bound
to the patriarchs their posterity and has made Thyself manifest in
the longings of men and hast condescended to bestow upon history
a shadow of the shadows of Thy radiance:
Who with the single word hast made the world, hanging before
us the heavens like an unrolled scroll, and the earth old manuscript,
and the murmurous sea, each, all-allusive to Thy glory, so that from
them we might conjecture and surmise and almost know Thee:
Whom only angels know
Who in Thy burning courts
Cry: Holy! Holy! Holy!
While mortal voice below
With seraphim consorts
To murmur: Holy! Holy!
Yet holiness not know.
Favor us, Lord, with understanding, who hast given to the
bee its knowledge and to the ant its foresight, to the sleeping bear
J oseph's prudence, and even to the dead lodestone its instinct for
the star, favor us with understanding of what in the inscrutable
design is for our doomsday-good:
Oh, give us such understanding as makes superfluous second
thought; and at Thy least, give us to understand to repent.
At the beginning of our days Thou dost give — oh, at the end,
forgive!
Deem our affliction worthy of Thy care, and now with a last
redeeming, Redeemer of Israel, redeem!
Over our fevers pass the wind of Thy hand: against our chills,
Thy warmth. great Physician, heal us! and shall we ailing be
healed.
From want deliver us. Yield the earth fruitful. Let rain a
delicate stalk, let dew in the bright seed, sprout ever abundance.
Shelter us behind the four walls of Thy seasons, roof us with justice,
Lord, who settest the sun to labor for our evening dish!
Thyself do utter the Shma! Sound the great horn of our free-
dom, raise up the ensign of freedom, and gather from the four corners
65
of the earth, as we do gather the four fringes to kiss them, Thy
people, Thy folk, rejected Thine elect.
Restore our judges as in former times restore our J udge. Blessed
art Thou, Lord, King, who lovest righteousness and judgment.
Favor them, Lord, Thy saints Thy paupers, who do forgo all
other Thy benedictions for the benedictions of Thy name.
Oh, build J erusalem!
Anoint Thy people David!
Our prayers accept, but judge us not through our prayers: grant
them with mercy.
Make us of Thy love a sanctuary, an altar where the heart may
cease from fear, and evil a burnt offering is consumed away, and
good, like the fine dust of spices, an adulation of incense, rises up.
Oh, accept, accept, accept our thanks for the day's three mira-
cles, of dusk, of dawn, of noon, and of the years which with Thy
presence are made felicitous.
Grant us — our last petition — peace, Thine especial blessing,
which is of Thy grace and of the shining and the turning of Thy
Face.
A. M. Klein
THE 151st PSALM
Are You looking for us? We are here.
Have You been gathering flowers, Elohim?
We are Your flowers, we have always been.
When will You leave us alone?
We are in America.
We have been here three hundred years.
And what new altar will You deck us with?
At whose gate do You whimper
In this great Palestine?
Whose wages do You take in this New World?
But Israel shall take what it shall take,
Making us ready for Your hungry Hand!
Immigrant God. You follow me;
You go with me, You are a distant tree:
You are the beast that lows in my hearts gates;
You are the dog that follows at my heel;
You are the table on which I lean;
You are the plate from which I eat.
Shepherd of the flocks of praise,
Youth of all youth, ancient of days,
Follow us.
Karl Shapiro
ADAM
(Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?)
Adam, there will be
Many hard hours,
old poem says,
"Adam, my child, my son,
These very words you hear
Compose the fish and starlight
Of your untroubled dream.
When you awake, my child,
It shall all come true.
Know that it was for you
That all things were begun."
Adam, my child, my son,
Thus spoke Our Father in heavei
To his first, fabled child,
The father of us all.
And I, your father, tell
The words over again
As innumerable men
From ancient times have done.
Tell them again in pain,
And to the empty air.
Where you are men speak
A different mother tongue.
Will you forget our games,
Our hide-and-seek and song?
Child, it will be long
Before I see you again.
Hours of l<
I cannot ease them for you;
They are our common lot.
During them, like as not,
You will dre
n of n
When you are crouched away
In a strange clothes closet
Hiding from one who's "It"
And the dark crowds in,
Do not be afraid-
0, if you can, believe
In a father's love
That you shall know some day.
Think of the summer rain
Or seedpearls of the mist;
Seeing the beaded leaf,
Try to remember me.
From far away
I send my blessing out
To circle the great globe.
It shall reach you yet.
Anthony Hecht
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS:
Julius Chajes is the musical director of the J ewish Center in
Detroit, Michigan. He is a fine pianist besides being an excellent
composer and has appeared as piano soloist in his works all over the
world. His liturgical output has been meager but of the 'highest
quality. The "Adonai Malach" is from a Sabbath Eve service, "Shab-
bat Shalom," published in 1952.
Samuel Adler is the son of the late hazzan-composer, Hugo
Adler. He is at present Professor of Composition at the Eastman
School of Music here in Rochester. Mr. Adler has written many
secular works in all media, and has contributed three complete ser-
vices and a number of smaller liturgical works to the synagogue. The
"Barchu" and "Sh'ma" are from a major Sabbath eve service com-
missioned by Congregation Shaaray Tefila of New York City and
entitled, "Be Shaaray Tefila," (1963). The "Ahavat Olam" is from
"Shiru Ladonai," a solo service for Sabbath eve published in 1965.
67
Lazar Weiner is a gifted and prolific Jewish composer who has
devoted more than a half century to the creation of Yiddish art
songs and music for the synagogue. He has received a number of
outstanding awards and is the composer, with Hazzan Samuel Rosen-
baum, of the oratorio, "The Last Judgment." The "Mi Chamocha"
is from "Shir L'Shabbat," a Sabbath service in the hassidic style.
Max H elf man contributed a great many works to the repertory
of the American synagogue. His "Hashkivenu" from the Sabbath eve
service is an excellent example of his art which was greatly influ-
enced by his Russian background and his thorough knowledge of
traditional hazzanut.
Heinrich Schalit is a most distinguished composer now living in
Colorado who has devoted his life to the music of the synagogue.
Mr. Schalit, who once was organist and musical director at Temple
B'rith Kodesh here in Rochester, has published two complete services
and a great many settings of psalms and of great Jewish poetry.
The "V'sham'ru" to be heard tonight is from Schalit's first major
service for the Sabbath eve originally published in Berlin in the early
thirties.
Herbert Fromm is possibly the best known and also the most
individualistic composer contributing to the modern American Jewish
community. He is the musical director and organist of Temple
Israel in Boston. Dr. Fromm's liturgical works include four complete
services and a great number of shorter works for liturgical use. His
secular works are also quite numerous and have been performed
extensively. The "Grant Us Peace" is from an early and highly
successful service for Sabbath eve, "Adath Israel," (1943). The
"R'tzei" is a new madrigal-like setting of more recent origin (1968).
Paul Ben-Haim is perhaps the best known and most celebrated
Israeli composer of our day. He is well known in this country for
his symphonic works which have been performed a great deal by our
major orchestras. The field of religious art music in Israel is prac-
tically unknown, therefore, we have but a handful of works. The
"Adon Olam" and the "Yevarech'cha" are from a major work, a
new Sabbath eve service for hazzan, chorus and orchestra which
received its premiere performance at Lincoln Center in New York
City last year.
ABOUT THE POETS:
Leonard Cohen was born in Montreal and was graduated from
McGill University in 1955. He is the author of two novels, "The
Favorite Game" and "Beautiful Losers" and of three volumes of
poetry. Twice winner of the Canada Council Award, he has been
much anthologized; his work has appeared in magazines in the United
States and Canada. Cohen now lives on the Island of Hydra in
Greece.
Abraham J oshua Heschel is a poet who insists on writing in
prose style. He is known throughout the world as one of the leading
authorities on J ewish thought and J ewish theology. The range of
his knowledge and the vividness of his writing mark him as one of
the great teachers of our day. He is Professor of J ewish Ethics and
Mysticism at the J ewish Theological Seminary of America. His books
include "Man Is Not Alone," "God in Search of Man," 'The Sab-
bath," 'The Earth is the Lord's," "Man's Quest for God," 'The
Prophets," and a two volume work in Hebrew, 'Theology of Ancient
J udaism."
A. M. Klein was born in Montreal in 1909. A lawyer by pro-
fession, but a novelist and gifted poet by avocation, Klein's verse is
intensely and instinctively J ewish in content, yet universal in feeling.
He has also achieved great success as a translator of modern Hebrew
and Yiddish poetry. Among his books are 'The Second Scroll,"
"Hath Not a Jew," and "Poems."
Paul Simon is one half of the team of Simon and Garfunkel, the
performers who have earned unprecedented popularity with the Now
Generation. Their recordings sell in the millions and their personal
appearances continue to attract sell out crowds. Like the bards of
old they write and compose their own material as well as perform it.
'The Sound of Silence" is one of the earliest statements in the
rock-folk genre of man's alienation from the world as it is. Some say
Paul Simon took his theme from Gross' "Steppenwolf." If not it is
certainly an analgous situation and one which has provided abundant
source, material for rock poets. But never has it been expressed so
succinctly and with such compassion. If religion is that force which
delineates the sacred from the profane, the good from the evil, the
right from the wrong, then 'The Sound of Silence" is a piece of
religious writing in the tradition of Amos and Hosea and J eremiah.
Karl Shapiro was born in Baltimore on November 10, 1913,
attended the University of Virginia and John Hopkins University.
When his first book, "Person, Place and Thing," was published in
1942, Mr. Shapiro was with the army in the South Pacific, where he
remained until 1945. In 1946 he was appointed Consultant in Poetry
at the Library of Congress and then, in 1947, he joined the faculty
of J ohn Hopkins, where he taught writing courses until he resigned
in 1950 to become editor of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. Mr.
Shapiro was appointed Professor of English at the University of
Nebraska in 1957. His second volume of verse, "V-Letter and Other
Poems," was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1945.
Anthony Hecht was born in New York City. He has taught at
Bard College, and is now at the University of Rochester. He was a
Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and has received over the
years many awards and honors for his poetry, including those from
The Guggenheim Foundation, The Ford Foundation and Brandeis
University's Creative Arts Award. His first book of poems, "A Sum-
moning of Stones," was published in 1954.
Levi Ben Amitai is a teacher in Deganya who writes poetry as
an avocation. Most of his other works are concerned with the love
of the land and of labor. He is an older man whose work is not well
knwn even in Israel, however, the poem to be heard tonight is to be
included in a new high holiday prayer book to be published in the
near future by the Rabbinical Assembly. The translation is by Haz-
zan Samuel Rosenbaum.
A SERVICE FOR THANKSGIVING SABBATH
SOUNDS OF THE SABBATH
'The J ew Gives Thanks"
Psalms and prayers of gratitude and appreciation of God's role
in our lives and our world from J ewish tradition.
Meditation on Communion With God, J udah Halevi
I Lift Mine Eyes Unto the Hills, Psalm 121, H. Schalit
The Works of God, Moses Ibn Ezra
Mah Tovu, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Havu Ladonai B'nai Aylim, Psalm 29, D. Diamond
Sing Unto the Lord, Psalm 95:1-2, H. Schalit
A Song for the Sabbath, Dunash Ha-Levi Ben Labrat
Shir Hamaalos, Psalm 126, H. C. Adler.
Stance of the Amidah, A. M. Klein
Praised Be Thou, Lord, Prayer Book, J . Berger
Adam, A. Hecht
The Lord Is My Shepherd, Psalm 23, H. Fromm
In Farewell, Berakhot 17A
Praised Be the Lord By Day, Prayer Book, Samuel Adler
MEDITATION ON COMMUNION WITH COD
My thought awaked me with Thy Name,
Upon Thy boundless love to meditate;
Whereby I came
The fullness of the wonder to perceive,
That Thou a soul immortal shouldst create
To be embound with this, my mortal frame.
Then did my mind, elate,
Behold Thee and believe;
As though I stood among
That hushed and awe-swept throng,
And heard the Voice and gazed on Sinai's flame!
I sought Thee whilst I dreamed;
And lo, Thy glory seemed
To pass before me; as, of old, the cloud
Descended in his sight, who heard
The music of Thy spoken word.
Then from my couch I sprang, and cried aloud:
"Blest be Thy glorious Name, Lord!"
PSALM 121
I lift mine eyes unto the hills,
Whence cometh my help?
My help cometh from the Lord
Who made heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to stumble;
Thy guardian doth not slumber.
Behold the Guardian of Israel
He slumb'reth not. and He sleepeth not.
The Lord is thy guardian:
The Lord is thy shield at thy right hand.
The sun shall not smite thee by day
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil;
He will preserve thy soul.
The Lord will watch over thy going out and c
From this time forth and fore'er.
THE WORKS OF GOD
Awesome are the works of God,
Marvels beyond meting-rod.
Him we cannot see, but they
Tell of Him by night and day —
Only in such wonder-tongue
May His praise be fitly sung!
Moses Ibn Ezra
MAH TOVU
How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling
places, Israel. Lord, through Thine abundant kindness
I come into Thy house, and reverently I worship Thee in
Thy holy sanctuary. I love the habitation of Thy house, the
place where Thy glory dwelleth. Here I bow down and
worship Thee, my Lord and Maker. Accept my prayer,
Lord, and answer me with Thy great mercy and with Thy
saving truth. Amen.
HAVIJ LADONAI (Psalm 29)
Ascribe unto the Lord, ye ministering angels,
Ascribe unto the Lord glory and power.
Render unto the Lord the glory due unto His name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
The God of glory thundereth!
The Lord is over the great waters.
The voice of the Lord is mighty;
The voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord maketh the oak trees dance,
And strippeth the forest bare;
While in His Temple everything proclaims His glory.
The Lord was King at the Flood;
The Lord shall remain King forever.
May the Lord give strength unto His people:
May the Lord bless His people with peace.
SUNG UNTO THE LORD
come, let us sing unto the Lord:
Let us make a joyful noise to the Rock of our
Salvation!
Let us come unto His presence with thanksgiving:
Let us make a joyful noise unto Him
With songs of praise!
A SONG FOR THE SABBATH
He will proclaim freedom for all his sons,
And will keep you, as the apple of his eye.
Pleasant is your name, and will not be destroyed.
Repose, relax, on the Sabbath day.
Seek my portals and my home.
Give me a sign of deliverance.
Plant a vine in my vineyard.
Look to my people, hear their laments.
Tread the wine-press in Bozrah,
And in Babylon, that city of might.
Crush my enemies in anger and fury.
On the day when I cry, hear my complaint.
Place, God. in my mountain waste,
Fir and acacia, myrtle and elm.
Give those who teach, and those who obey,
Abundant peace, like the flow of a stream.
Rebel my enemies, zealous God.
Fill their hearts with fear and despair.
Let us open our mouths, let us fill
Our tongues with praise for your power.
Know wisdom, that your soul may live,
And this shall be a diadem for your brow.
Keep the commandment of your Holy One.
Observe your Sabbath, your sacred day.
Dunash Ha-Levi Ben Labrat
SHIR HAMAALOS
Twas like a dream, when by the Lord
From bondage Zion was restored;
Our mouths were filled with mirth and songs
To God, to whom all praise belongs.
The nations owned that God had wrought
Great works, which joy to us had brought;
As southern streams when filled with rain,
He turned our captive state again.
Who sew in tears, with joy shall reap;
Though bearing precious seed they weep
While going forth, yet shall they sing
When, coming back, their sheaves they bring.
STANCE OF THE AMIDAH
See Page 64
PRAISED BE THOU
Praised be Thou, Lord, God of our Fathers,
God of Abraham, Isaac and J acob,
Great, mighty and exalted.
Thou bestowest lovingkindness upon all Thy children.
Thou rememerest the devotion of the fathers,
And in love brought redemption to their descendants
For the sake of Thy name.
Thou are our King and Helper, Savior and Protector.
Praised be Thou, Lord, Shield of Abraham.
Eternal is Thy power, Lord,
Thou art mighty to save.
In lovingkindness Thou sustaineth the living;
In the multitude of thy mercies,
Thou preservest all.
Eternal is Thy power, Lord,
Thou art mighty to save.
Thou upholdest the falling, healest the sick,
Bringest freedoms to the captives
And keepeth faith with Thy children in death as in life.
Who is like unto Thee, Almighty God,
Author of life and death,
Almighty God!
Source of Salvation,
Almighty God!
Praised be Thou Lord
Who hast implanted within us immortal life.
ADAM
See Page 66
THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
The Lord is My Shepherd,
I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
He leadeth me beside the still waters,
He restoreth my soul.
He guideth me in straight paths for His name's sake
Yea, tho' I walk through the valley of death,
I fear no evil for Thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me;
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence
of mine enemies.
Thou hast anointed my head with oil;
My cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
IN FAREWELL
When the masters left the house of Rabbi Ammi — some say
it was the house of Rabbi Hanina — they said to him:
May you find your world in your lifetime,
and your future be realized in the life of the world to come,
your hope throughout the generations.
May your heart meditate in understanding,
your mouth speak wisdom,
your tongue move in songs of jubilation,
your eyelids look straight before you,
your eyes be alight with the light of the Torah,
and your face shine with the glow of the firmament;
may your lips utter knowledge,
and your reins rejoice uprightly,
and your footsteps hasten to hear the words of the Ancient
Berakhot 17a
PRAISED BE THE LORD BY DAY
Praised be the Lord by day, Redeem us, God of truth.
And praised shall He be by night. Heavenly Father, establish Thou Thy
Praised be the Lord when we lie down, kingdom
And praised shall He be when we And reign over us for evermore.
rise up. Praised be the Lord by day,
In His hands are the souls of all the And praised shall He be by night.
living, Praised be the Lord when we lie down,
And the spirits of all flesh. And praised shall He be when we
Unto Him we entrust our being, rise up.
ABOUT THE POETS:
Dunash Ha-Levi Ben Labrat came from a distinguished J ewish
family of the Eastern Caliphate, and was, according to Moses ibn
Ezra, born in Fez, in Morocco, in the first half of the tenth century.
He studied under the great Jewish grammarian and philosopher,
Sa'adia Gaon, in Baghdad, returned to Fez after Sa'adia's death
(942), and later attached himself to the family of Hasdai ibn Shaprut
in Cordoba.
It was Dunash who first demonstrated both in theory and in
practice how Hebrew could be adapted to the writing of poetry in
imitation of Arabic usage. His fame as a grammarian, and as a poet,
quickly spread throughout the J ewish communities of Spain. Only
a few of his poems have survived. The date of his death is unknown.
A. M. Klein was born in Montreal in 1909. A lawyer by pro-
fession, but a novelist and gifted poet by avocation, Klein's verse is
76
intensely and instinctively J ewish in content, yet universal in feel-
ing. He has also achieved great success as a translator of modern
Hebrew and Yiddish poetry. Among his books are 'The Second
Scroll," "Hath Not a Jew," and "Poems."
Anthony Hecht was born in New York City. He has taught at
Bard College, and is now at the University of Rochester. He was a
Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and has received over the
years many awards and honors for his poetry, including those from
The Guggenheim Foundation, The Ford Foundation and Brandeis
University's Creative Arts Award. His first book of poems, "A
Summoning of Stones," was published in 1954.
ABOUT THE COMPOSERS:
Heinrich Schalit is a most distinguished composer now living
in Colorado who has devoted his life to the music of the synagogue.
Mr. Schalit, who once was organist and musical director at Temple
B'rith Kodesh here in Rochester, has published two complete ser-
vices and a great many settings of psalms and of great J ewish poetry.
The "V'sham'ru" to be heard tonight is from Schalit's first major
service for the Sabbath eve originally published in Berlin in the
early thirties.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Milan in 1895 and died
in Los Angeles in 1968. By 1914 he had already achieved fame as
one of the leaders of the Young Italian Modem School. Like Bloch
his music cannot escape his deep J ewish connections. Even his so-
called secular works abound in deeply ingrained strains of the
Sephardic prayer modes. An early masterpiece was his great piano
suite, 'The Dance of King David." Written in 1925 it ties the then-
radical harmonics and rhythms of that period with the exciting life
story of King David.
His fame soon spread all over the world, and in 1934 was lured
to Hollywood to write music for the films. While engaged in this
"profane" work he continued to choose Jewish folk and biblical
themes for his serious works. In addition to works for the piano,
cello and an unusual and beautiful Concerto for Guitar, Tedesco wrote
a full Sabbath Morning Service, according to the Reform ritual.
The Mah Tovu is from that service. In 1949 the Cantors Assembly
commissioned Tedesco to write a suite of authentically J ewish wed-
ding music. Four beautiful weddings songs and two exciting proces-
sionals were created as a result. They have been used extensively
77
at weddings in our own congregation in place of the irrelevant and
un-Jewish Mendelsohn and Wagner processionals.
In his final years he produced two major operas on Shakespear-
ean texts, "Macbeth" and "The Merchant of Venice," both of which
were very well received by critics and audiences, alike.
David Diamond — One of the most respected names in Ameri-
can music, David Diamond is a native of Rochester who grew up in
our own congregation. He is a recipient of the coveted Prix de Rome
and the composer of countless major works — symphonies, concerti,
art-songs, chorales, etc. The Psalm 29 heard tonight is from a Sab-
bath Eve Service, commissioned by New York's Park Avenue Syna-
gogue in 1951. Diamond now maintains a residence in Rochester and
has been teaching composition and conducting in this country and
in Europe.
Hugo C. Adler was born in Antwerp in 1894, grew up in Ham-
burg, Germany. After a period of study in Cologne where he pre-
pared for a career in education and music he was appointed Cantor
of the Central Synagogue in Manheim. As a student of Ernest Tech
his creative talents flowered into a number of oratorios, "Job," "To
Zion," "Balak and Bilaam," and "Akedah."
He emigrated to the United States in 1939. After a short period
in New York he became Cantor at Temple Emanuel in Worcester,
Massachusetts, a position he held with great distinction for fifteen
years, until his death in 1955.
He was a prolific composer, and arranger, and has hundreds of
synagogue compositions to his credit. He is the father of Samuel
Adler.
Jean Berger, born in Germany, educated in Paris, he was Pro-
fessor of Musicology at the University of Colorado and now heads
the Music Department of Temple Buell College in Denver. He is the
most prolific composer of liturgical choral music in America and
probably the most performed. "Praised Be Thou" heard tonight is
one of two pieces especially composed for the synagogue.
Herbert Fromm is possibly the best known and also the most
individualistic composer contributing to the modern American Jew-
ish community. He is the musical director and organist of Temple
Israel in Boston. Dr. Fromm's liturgical works include four complete
services and a great number of shorter works for liturgical use.
His secular works are also quite numerous and have been performed
extensively.
II
We have recently introduced a new series of short concerts for
the entire family. Called "Havdalah Concerts", they are of one
hour's duration and begin at the time of Havdaltih on a Sabbath
afternoon. These concerts are most successful in the early winter
months when Havdalah is recited at about five o'clock. Parents find
that a convenient time to bring the family. It does not interfere
with supper, nor with any plans which the family or the parents
might have for the later part of the evening,
HAVDALAH CONCERT
PROGRAM
THE WINE, THE SPICE AND THE LIGHT
Havdalah Concert
I. THE SABBATH EBBS
Only for God Doth My Soul Wait, Psalm 62 F. Picket
Y'did Nefesh, A Sabbath Afternoon Z'mirah Arr. S. Adler
The Eastman Singers
Conducted by Samuel Adler
II. THE SEPARATION
Havdalah; The Wine, The Spice and the Flame
Hazzan Samuel Rosenbaum and Audience
Hamavdil Arr. S. Adler
Ba-olam Haba Arr. S. Adler
Eliyahu Hanavi Arr .H. L. Adler
Shavua Tov Arr. S. Adler
The Eastman Singers
Deborah Adler and Annette Scull, Flutists
III. MUSIC TO EASE SABBATH'S PASSING
Romanza, An American Revolutionary Tune Arr. S. Adler
Cantabile, from a Sonata for Two Flutes W. F. Bach
Deborah Adler and Annette Scull, Flutists
IV. THE SABBATH MEMORIES LINGER
Zol Nokh Zayn Shabes S. Secunda/H. Rosenblatt
Sholesh Seudes V. Chenkin/I. Meisels
Zol Shoyn Kumen Di Geuleh Katerginsky/Belarsky
Hazzan Samuel Rosnebaum
J oseph Werner, Piano
MAY OUR SONG LIGHT UP THE WEEK
Eyleh Chamda Libi Arr. S. Adler
Nigun Bialik Arr. A. W. Binder
Shepherd Me, Lord S. Rosenbaum/G. Kingsley
The Eastman Singers
Deborah Adler and Annette Scull, Flutists
THE WINE, THE SPICE AND THE LIGHT
A HAVDALAH CONCERT
THE SEPARATION
Havdala: The Wine, The Spice and The Light
Hazzan Samuel Rosenbaum and The Audience
Hamavdil Arr. S. Adler
Ba-olam Haba Arr. S. Adler
Shavua Tov Arr. S. Adler
The Eastman Singers
Deborah Adler and Annette Scull, Flutists
Professor Samuel Adler, Conductor
. THE FEAST OF LIGHTS
Hanerot Hallalu Itzhak Edel
"On Zion's Hill"
From the oratorio 'The Redemption" S. Rosenbaum/
A. E listen
E thelyn Enos, Soprano
A Song of Hanukkah Samuel Adler
J udah's Song of Praise Samuel Adler
The Feast of Lights Samuel Adler
Oy, Ir Kleyne Likhtelakh Morris Rosenfeld/Folk
Mi Y'malel Herbert Fromm
Singers and Instrumentalists
I. SOME LAUGHTER-SOME TEARS
Six Songs of J ewish Children S. Rosenbaum/S. Adler
Once I Had a Great-Coat
Gone, Gone Is My Sunshine
The Fiddler
There's A Tree
Turn Balalaika
Come, J oin in Our Dance
The Eastman Singers
J oseph Werner, Accompanist
Professor Samuel Adler, Conductor
V. SO WE SING
A Hanukkah-Sing for Young and Old
Hanukkah, 0, Hanukkah
Hanukkah, Hanukkah, What A Holiday
Maoz Tzur
Finally, a brand new idea which worked well this past fall.
Our congregation chants Selihot beginning at midnight. Over
the years we have provided a number of activities for the congrega-
tion for the two or three hours preceding midnight in order to attract
people to the service. Usually, these activities took the form of lec-
ures or seminars led by the rabbi or by guests, followed by an
elaborate coffee hour reception and Selihot.
This year we decided to replace the lecture or seminar with
a concert of appropriate instructional music. We did not choose a
concert of choral or vocal solo music since the Selihot service con-
tains so much of that.
The Pre-Selihot concert was the result. And may I add, that
the transcriptions of cantorial chant for the oboe by Professor Adler
were highly moving and effective, creating just the right ambiance
for the occasion.
"AN UPLIFT OF SPIRITS"
A Pre-Selihot Musicale
Saturday Evening, September 15th at 9: 30
PROGRAM
Vidui (from Baal Shem Suite) E. Bloch
Lullaby S. Adler
Evan Rothstein, Violin
Acheynu Kol Beyt Yisrael A. Katchko
(Transcribed from a cantorial chant)
Sonata for Violin and Piano A. Copeland
(Transcribed for Oboe)
Second Movement, Lento
Daniel Goldstein, Oboe
81
Evan Rothstein, Violin
L. Saminsky
Daniel Goldstein, Oboe
Rimsky-Korsakoff
Evan Rothstein, Violin
1. Stravinsky
3 (Yom Kippur Liturgy)
H. C. Adler
Meditation
Hebrew Song
Serenade
(Transcribed from a cantorial chant)
Daniel Goldstein, Oboe
J oseph Werner, accompanist
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra
The formats for these concerts have worked but they are not
carved in stone and can be altered to suit a particular congregant's
special needs. What cannot be changed is the high standard of
performance which must be maintained if the programs are to be
effective.
SOME THOUGHTS ON THE
HAZZANIC RECITATIVE
Max Wohlberg
(We were pleased when Hazzan Max Wohlberg, Professor of
Hazzanut at the Cantors Institute of the Jewish Theological Semi-
nary of America, agreed to review Noah Schall's "Hazzanic Thesau-
rus: Sabbath" published this year by the Cantorial Council of
America. We expected a thoroughly workman-like job. However,
in his capable and knowing hands the review blossomed into a
thoughtful and informative piece on the nature of the hazzanic
recitative, a rapidly disappearing form of hazzanic art. We believe
that Hazzan Wohlberg's thoughts on the hazzanic recitative can
stand on their own and we are pleased to publish them along with
his comments on Cantor Schall's work in this form.) S.R.
Inasmuch as some obvious nonsense, bordering on balderdash,
is currently being concocted regarding Hazzanut under the guise of
scholarship, it may be prudent, before dealing with Noah Schall's
"Hazzanic Thesaurus", to dwell briefly on the hazzanic recitative.
Centuries ago, challenged by an event, affected by circumstances
or inspired by some new insight, hazzanim began to add a few
verses to the traditional "endings" of paragraphs they were to chant.
Some rabbis objected to these "additions", but to the delight of the
worshippers the hazzanic hosafot prevailed. Concurrently, passages
\ntheAmidah assumed an ever-increasing musically involved treat-
ment.
The new music thus introduced consisted in the main of exten-
sions of the prayer modes which, in turn, were influenced by diverse
sources and generous portions of popular, non-liturgical tunes and
musical phrases.
Examining the earliest available musical examples, influences
of ars nova, Baroque, oratorio, opera and folksong may be clearly
observed.
In the latter half of the 19th century the hazzanic recitative
as we know it today, began to assume a fairly rigid pattern. As
may be expected, a considerable difference, both in choice of texts
as well as in the nature of the music itself, appeared between the
Max Wohlberg, Professor of Hazzanut at the Cantors Institute of the
J ewish Theological Seminary of America, has had a long and distinguished
career as hazzan, composer, writer, lecturer and scholar.
83
recitatives of Western and Eastern Europe. (A study by this writer
on the fundamental aspects of the Ashkenazic hazzanic recitative
is scheduled to appear shortly in Israel.)
In the West, (Sanger and Lovy for example) we encounter the
frequent alternation between major and minor in the same vocal
range. An occasional tuneful phrase will also appear.
In the East, after the initial musical statement, a move to the
fourth step usually in minor and sometimes followed by a phrase
in the Ahaoa Raha scale takes place. A bit of coloratura may
precede the coda.
A close study of the existing repertoire will reveal that while
generally adhering to the same formula, significant variations exist
between the great pioneers in this area of creativity. Thus, in the
words of Minkowsky: "Yeruchom pleaded with God, Nisi Belzer
shouted to Him, Shestapnl hoped to Him, while Abras screamed
at Him."
It would lead us too far afield to discuss these and other
exponents of hazzanut in the 19th century. Suffice it to say that
in the first, quarter of this century the hazzanic recitaive acquired
a clearly perceived formula whose physiognomy is best reflected by
the early works of Weisser, Katchko and Alter. Authentic represen-
tation of the East-European tradition is found in the works of
Gerowich, A. B. Bimbaum and Kalechnik.
Since the musical elements of the recitative consist of a limited
number of motifs and their variations (in the various prayer-modes)
it is in their selection, combination and emphasis that the individu-
ality of the composer appears.
Thus, the recitatives of Kwartin are pleading, those of Rosen-
blatt are melodic, Roitman's are intricately plaintive. Subtle poig-
nancy and skillful appogiatura became the hallmark of Steinberg;
Karniol favored extensive coloratura. Zemachson and' Semiatin
ventured into chromatic alterations and modulations. Schnipelisky
and Wassilkowsky opted for lyricism. Pinchik represented a mys-
tical-hassidic trend. Joshua Lind and Todros Greenberg followed
in the mainstream. Others exhibited some originality but it was
Glantz who proved to be the most adventurous and innovative of
all. Needless to add that these examples do not exhaust the list
of representative names in this discipline.
It should be noted that these men did not necessarily indulge
in self-analysis before composing. They wrote and sang as the spirit
moved them. I once suggested to Glantz that perhaps the quality
and production of his voice may have influenced the nature of his
recitatives. He vehemently denied such a likelihood. Understand-
ably, the intrusion of cold analysis is likely to be resented by an
artist. Similarly, in a conversation with Pinchik I told him of
meeting an admirer of his whom I asked if he could pinpoint the
element in Pinchik's singing that he admired most. Pinchik was
patently annoyed with such probing.
And now we finally turn to the "Hazzanic Thesaurus" by Noah
Schall. The volume, handsomely produced and carefully edited,
contains items by Schall, Glantz, Wassilkowsky, Rappaport, Low,
Alter, Ganchoff, Barrash, Rumshinsky, Pinchik, Birnbaum, A. Bloom,
Julius, M. Shapiro, Rabinowitz and Yelsky.
As the readers of this J ournal are familiar with the works of
most of those represented in this list a word or two may be in place
about the others.
Rabinowitz: His Kedushas, Umipne Chatoanu and the Yehi
Rotzon included here were, 50 years ago, quite popular. He was,
to the best of my recollection, the son-in-law of Hazzan Kalmen
Lev. He sang (baritone) in various choirs and conducted a Mach-
tenberg choir when the latter could not conduct one of the choirs
he undertook to conduct in greater New York and vicinity at one
and the same time. Cantor Yelsky published a booklet of recita-
tives which became fairly popular.
Arele Bloom's (or Blum) recitatives were much sought after.
They were expensive and circulated among us clandestinely. They
were imaginative, involved and "busy". They could only be pur-
chased from him accompanied by a solemn vow not to permit
anyone to copy it.
Mendel Shapiro (One of the famous Shapiros. Yosel was
another and the fabulous Abraham, the third. Mordche came later.)
was popular and much admired. (I do wish someone would persuade
my dear and esteemed friend Oscar J ulius to write his memoirs
or at least, a few articles of reminiscences of those — 20's to 70's
days). Shapiro's Mi Shebaradh included in this volume breathes
the air of an age that has, alas, passed but is still cherished in
memory.
Since few of Rappaport's recitatives were published, we came
to know and appreciate them via their performance by Hershman.
Rappaport's efforts are usually rewarding. One expects a novel
turn, a spirited phrase, a surprising interval and one is not dis-
appointed. His Hashkivanu, Mi Sheoso, Hu Eloheinu and others
found here (and particularly the AtoYotzarto) although maintain-
ing too high a tessitura, contain some memorable passages.
The short items of Glantz are "clean" and to the point.
Ganchoff comes off splendidly in his role as composer. His
Ein K'erk'cho, Hu Eloheinu, for example, contain phrases of fine
vintage. Similarly, his Kad'sheinu and Sim Sholom which may be
excessive in their intensity (too well-baked may easily become
burned) contain nonetheless well-executed passages, worthy of study.
Without doubt, the hazzanut of Ganchoff deserves to be preserved.
Incidentally, was not the Ki Lekach Tov, here marked: "Old
Manuscript", composed by Arye Leib Rutman?
My friend, Cantor Murray Simon, and the others who made
their private collections available to Cantor Schall deserve our
gratitude.
If, however, this volume is judged favorably, and it assuredly
is, it is primarily due to the masterful efforts of its editor who
not only prepared the volumes with admirable thoroughness but
providentially supplied more than half of its contents with his own
invariably fine musical settings. These are solid and sensitive; he
is evidently thoroughly at home in this endeavor, His Veshomru,
Ein Komocho, Tikanto, as the other items, are well done. Both in
the grammatical arrangement and accentuation of the text as well
as in the notation of the music, Schall evinced care and competence.
While this book is wholeheartedly recommended some words
should be said about the place and nature of the hazzanic recitative
in the con temporary American synagogue.
It would surely be an exaggeration to state that the recitative
has become obsolete in our day. But it would seem justifiable to
say that the frequent rendition of lengthly recitatives in the average
American synagogue has become an anachronism.
Excepting in some Orthodox and in a few right-wing Conserva-
tive synagogues the singing of lengthy recitatives has become a
rarity. In addition to the indifference and/or impatience of the
worshippers, too few of the younger hazzanim are vocally, temper-
mentally and emotionally equipped to do justice to the type of
recitative cultivated by hazzanim of a previous generation. That is
why in my recent creative efforts I have tried to modify somewhat
the cantorial solos and involve the congregation (now replacing the
choir) in the chant.
Wherever the congregation is receptive and the hazzan capable
of performing the material contained in this Thesaurus I would
urge their use without hesitation. In other places I would suggest
that the hazzan digest and master these items and introduce them
judiciously and sparingly until both he and the congregation grow
to appreciate them fully. A smooth and authentic rendition will,
I am sure, result in wholehearted acceptance.
I hope that we will live to see subsequent volumes in this
decidedly praiseworthy endeavor.
REVIEW OF NEW MUSIC
Miriam Gideon: Shi rat Miriam L'shabbat (A Sabbath Evening Ser-
vice), Cantor mixed chorus, organ. C. F. Peters Corp.,
New York, 64 p.
It is good to see Miriam Gideon's second service, Shi rat Miriam
for Sabbath evening published in this handsome format. A work
of exquisite delicacy and sturdy craft, it adds yet another ornament
to the American synagogue for which we must take pride.
Miss Gideon is a singular voice in whatever area she functions.
Widely admired in contemporary American music for the high seri-
ousness, extraordinary power and uncanny sensitivity of her chamber
works and song settings, she brings to the synagogue a musical
personality ideally suited to instill freshness and independence into
its quarters. Too often one has heard of late from composers, musi-
cians and discerning listeners whose critical acumen one must re-
spect, that they detect a deadly flat, inbred sameness of sound and
stylistic inertness in many services of recent years.
Although it is primarily from the Second Viennese School, and
especially its Alban Berg hub, that Miss Gideon has derived her
individual manner, there has always been in her musical personality
an inquisitiveness and a spikey and restless will that made her move
in whatever directions her natural gifts could find invention and
renewal.
It should therefore not surprise Miss Gideon's followers that
there is not a trace of Expressionism or atonal devises in Shi rat
Miriam. Instead we have a work totally at ease with itself, with a
genuine sweetness and lyricism and of such deceptive simplicity —
not innocence — that only a master hand could have fashioned it —
a hand entirely acquainted, that is, with the most advanced con-
temporary techniques. Thus, this service's melodic lines are always
direct and clearly laid out. Free and imaginative use is made of
such Jewish traditional materials as cantillation, prayer modes and
folk songs. Textures which in the main are homophonic, are silken
and airy. I know of no other work for the synagogue which has
used quartal harmony with such imagination and richness, and I
would advise every aspiring Jewish composer to study that ravishing
three measure cadence at the end of "Ma Tovu."
Structurally, too, Miss Gideon has chosen to organize her
service in a rather unconventional fashion. Each section is an indi-
vidual unit, with no recurring motifs. But as a unifying tactic she
has composed a prelude and three interludes for organ, all based on
recognizable Palestinian shepherd songs. Thus, psychologically, the
work takes on both Israeli and bucolic associations.
Although intimacy and conciseness of utterance are the overall
qualities of this work, the most extended section of Shirat Miriam
is the "Hashkivenu." It is also, externally, probably the most emo-
tionally stirring in the entire service and closest to traditional
Ashkenazic song. One must admire how movingly Miss Gideon has
set the utterances of supplication for the Cantor and the contrasting
dramatic bass solos with their striking melismas. It might be noticed
that the words Hashkivenu and V'hagen Ba-adeinu use the same
melodic outline, though in different tonal centers. And with what
imagination and sense of imagery she uses the melodic interval of
the minor seventh in setting the words L'chayim, V'hoshienu,
V'cherev and Yerusholayim. Here, too, her choral mastery comes
into full view with its polyphonic and antiphonal procedures. One is
also startled how powerfully her unisons can sound.
Shirat Miriam L'Shabbat was commissioned by Cantor David
Putterman and the Park Avenue Synagogue, New York, and given
its first performance in 1974. One clearly remembers that special
Friday evening when a wide variety of composers of the avant-garde,
middle of the roaders, minimalists, neo-Classicists, proto-Romanti-
cists and what you will gathered in separate clusters to hear Miss
Gideon's work. What was astonishing was almost total agreement
that what they had heard was moving and engendered a living reli-
gious experience.
There is little doubt in my mind that this service is the closest
thing to a genuinely populist work that Miriam Gideon has achieved.
It should be widely performed and cherished.
Albert Weisser
Simon A. Sargon: An'im Z'emirot for high voice and organ. Trans-
continental Music Publications, New York
Simon Sargon has written a very lovely, effective and unpre-
tentious vocal composition set to An'im Z'emirot from the "Shir
Hakavod" attributed to Rabbi Judah of Regensburg, philosopher,
poet and mystic who died in 1217. Mr. Sargon has captured the
mystical quality of this exquisite poem both melodically and har-
monically. He has created a delightfully simple melody, written in
barely over an octave range, which does not impose itself rhymically
on the text. Text and melody are most compatibly mated. The
liberal use of open fourths and fifths in the harmonization heightens
the mystical and ancient character of the poem. The melodic figure
in the organ accompaniment which flows out of the vocal line is
very effective writing.
This reviewer's only regret is that the piece is so short. Sargon
has set only the first three verses and the final verse of the text.
However, it is so well written that one can easily add three more
verses. My attempt to do so has met with gratifying results. J ust
a few minor rhythmic adjustments are necessary. One must remem-
ber to add the final verse to the added three verses if one chooses
to do it in this manner.
The composer has wisely added organ registration which should
be very helpful to organists for a proper interpretation of this delight-
ful composition. Although it is written for high voice, it could easily
be transposed for lower voices. We hope Mr. Sargon will continue
to favor us with his compositions.
Michael Isaacson: "B'ni" for medium voice and harp with alternate
guitar chording. Transcontinental Music Publications, New
York
Michael Isaacson, who has written some very fine works for
the synagogue, has come up with a wonderful idea. He has written
a composition which can be used for two important occasions in
the life of a family, a Bar Mitzvah celebration and the naming of a
son. Initially this was composed for the naming of the composer's
son, Ari J oel. The text is taken from the third chapter of the Book
of Proverbs, verses one through six, beginning with "B'ni torati al
tishkach". Mr. Isaacson employs the Torah trope as a basis for
his melodic theme. This serves him quite effectively for the first
few verses.
I n the last few verses, however, when he repeats the first theme
with some variations, the composition does not quite measure up
to earlier expectations. He falls victim to his own melodic and
rhythmic patterns established earlier in the piece. This does not
quite come off so well due to the fact that the text of the last verses
do not have the same rhythmic flow as the earlier verses. This
reviewer finds the phrasing in the final verses of the composition
quite awkward and cumbersome. There are, however, some fine
ideas expressed in this work which are worthy of consideration.
Ben W. Belfer
Max Helfman: Music for a Mourners' Service, transcribed by Charles
Davidson for solo (tenor or baritone) SATB, piano or
organ, Transcontinental Music Publications, New York
We thank Charles Davidson and Transcontinental Music
for making available to us an additional work by Max Helfman.
This Memorial Service, printed posthmously, is beautfiful, mean-
ingful, and appropriately in good taste. It can be used as a total
miniature cantata, or even singly (e.g. "Eulogy — When I Am
Dead"). The service contains four compositions.
The first one is entitled "Hasten the Day" with words by
Norman Corwin. The mood is set with this composition for solo
and choir; a mood of tranquility and retrospection. It has universal
appeal. The choral parts, those without words, give a feeling of
woe and sighing. The opening selection is probably the weakest
of the entire work.
"Eulogy", the second piece, is a setting of the famous poem
by Chayim N. Bialik (Acharei Moti) in a translation by Max Helf-
man (When I Am Dead). This composition is the best. It is tight,
with interesting and innovative harmonies. The English text of the
poem is set well in a declamatory style.
The "El Ma/a Rachamin" has a good cantorial line, with the
chorus humming in a traditional manner. It can be used at any
memorial service throughout the year.
The final selection, "Blessed Are They That Mourn" is an
adaptation of Psalm 126. It becomes a little theatrical or early
20th century American folksy. Its saving factor is that it is written
in canon form, which gives it some interest and cohesiveness.
Max Heifman had such ability, inspiration, and devotion that
even a "non-masterpiece" has meaning and beauty. The "Mourner's
Service" is a practical and good addition to any repertoire.
Since the publication of the new Reform Prayer Book for the
High Holidays, "Shaarei Teshuva" which includes many more tra-
ditional texts, Transcontinental Music Publications has published
four new settings for these texts.
All the World — Herbert Fromm for solo, SATB, organ. The
poem is an adaptation from the Hebrew by Israel Zangwill, and
the musical setting Fromm calls an anthem. It is a little gem in
the style of 17th century (Handel) but in a contemporary way, with
interesting harmonies.
EH Tziyon- Herbert Fromm for SATB, organ. The text is
from the Tisha B'av liturgy — the Reform Machzor includes it in
the High Holidays. The melody is the traditional SCarbove tune.
The tune becomes a kind of cantus firmus, with each section getting
a turn at it.
Areshet Sefateinu — Stephen Richards for Cantor, SATB, or-
gan. The tune is traditional, as notated by Israel Alter. The setting
by Richards is excellent and has a hassidic flavor. It is lively and
captures the mood of the tune and style. It can be used in tradi-
tional services not only Reform. There is pleasure in performing it
and listening to it.
"B'yonm Din" —Herbert Fromm for Cantor, SATB, organ. This
traditional piyut is set in a very personal and individualistic manner.
It is antiphonal in style between Cantor and choir. The solo part
tries to capture the recitative style of hazzanut, while the harmony
is contemporary, almost serial.
It is worthy to note that the Reform movement is becoming
more aware of tradition and the Jewish past. Zikaron — memory
is an important element, in the Jewish way of life. While there must
be progress, modernity must not destroy history. With the publi-
cation of the new (old material) prayer books, there is room for the
creative arts to get involved. These four settings (among many
new publications) are an example of what can be done to make the
synagogue a place for beauty, esthetics, spiritualism, and meaning,
on a high level.
Morton Kula
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