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April 05, 1974 - Image 46

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1974-04-05

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

46—Friday, April 5, 1974

III•11

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

=I I= MI OW IIIIIII NMI ME Eli MIN 111111 NM MN Mil OM Mil • NM 50 nil

Holiday G reetings

The Walter Carroll Company

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537-4466 I

B est W ishes
For A Jo y ous and Happy Passover

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Fred Rapoport David Fealk — Albert Borkin

7900 Dix Ave., Detroit, Mich. 48209

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Jewish Background of Christian Music

By GERSHON FREIDLIN

(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)
(Editor's note: Gershon Freidlin
is a composer, fiction writer and
'Yiddish-Ilebrew translator.)

Over 500 spectators packed
the auditorium of the Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Insti-
tute of Religion in New York
on a recent. freezing Sunday
afternoon for a concert call-
ed "Two Medieval Faces: .
Sacred and Secular." It con-
sisted of "Sephardic and 12th
Century, synagogue chants,
juxtaposed to troubadour
melodies, Gregorian chant
and Spanish cantigas."
Among works featured was
"The Binding of Isaac," a
liturgical drama compiled
from traditional Sephardic
-Music and texts by Dr.
Judith Eisenstein, noted com-
poser and musicologist. Per-
formers were members of
New World Consort, William
Mount was the director and

- __,4 Jlappy and ogoyoui Pa33over

I and will include -music by
Ernest Bloch, Igor Stravin-
the performance was by a the program will consist of sky, A. W. Binder and
quartet of mixed voices and works. inspired by the Bible Harold Beebe.
medieval instruments. Dr.
Jack Gottlieb, faculty mem-
II iNhing 411 Our Friends (Intl Cositnners
Ii
ber of the Hebrew Union
Passoir- Greetings
College School of Sacred
Music, was coordinator of
SUSSMAN'S PRINT SHOP
the event, first in this year's
Quality Printing Since 1919
five-concert Musica Hebraica
TO 8-2909
1
1
826
Dexter
Series.
A word about the type of
music heard. Troubadours
were medieval poets and
singers who flourished in a
region 'in southern France
then called Provence. They
sang - of courtly love and
Best Wishes to All Our
valor in war. Spanish can-
tigas, often written in honor
Friends and Patrons
of Mary, mother of Jesus,
were popular at the same
for a
time as the troubadour songs
and showed similarity in
Happy, Healthy
style.
Gregorian chant, generally
Passover
acknowledged to be derived
from synagogue scripture
cantillation, has • served, for
more than 1,200 years as a
basis for Roman Catholic
liturgy. Although at first a
single melody line sung in
free rhythm by solo or choir,
the chant later also served as
the foundation for more com-
plex compositions both with-
in and outside the mass, for
example, the various forms
of the motet.
The first concert of the
1974 Musica Hebraica Series
— the use of Latin is itself
worthy of reflection — was
designed to show some
known connections between
Jewish and Christian music,
and to arouse inquiry about
18135 Livemo
those yet unknown. "Which
cane first," Dr. Gottlieb
cited some thinkers as ask
ing,. "the Christian egg or
the Jewish chicken?" Dr.
Gottlieb himself does not con-
sider the problem too criti-
cal: suffice it that "a gen-
uine sacred bridge" exists
between the two cultures,
The mutual influences are
not generally known. Of the
many listeners who have
heard some Gregorian chant,
how many are aware, for
example, that Obadiah and
Proselyte compbsed Grego-
rian melodies to Hebrew
texts. Obadiah, a 12th Cen-
tury convert to Judaism, had
previously been a monk and
lived in Normandy. Two of
his works, "Mi al har
khorev" and - "Baruch hag-
ever" were included in the
concert. Few would associate
the free rhythmic, dreamy
other-worldly sounds of the
chant with what one usually
We extend hearty greetings,
hears in Jewish music. The
chants are not composed in
for a Happy Passover
major or minor scales fami-
liar to most Western listen-
to our family, friends,
ers but in the church modes.
co-workers and the
At the second concert in
the Musica Hebraica series,
entire community.
featuring chamber music by
Bloch, Gershwin, Copland
and other Jewish composers,
Dr. Gottlieb as coordinator
raised an issue for that con-
cert too: "If a composer is
of. Jewish birth, can any
musical creation of his be
called Jewish?"
The answer to that may,
perhaps, be discovered by
the April 28 concert that will
honor Israel's Independence
Day featuring Israeli Psalm
settings and folk songs by
26555 Evergreen, Suite 515
Paul Ben-Haim, Yehezkiel
Braun, Marc Lavry, Tzvi
Travelers Tower, Southfield., Mich. 48076
Avni and Chaim Alexander.
Also featured will be works
353:2300
by Dr. Gottlieb, Max Janow-
ski and Leonard Bernstein.
On May 19, the last concert,

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