Leib Glantz – The Man Who Spoke To God, Jerry Glantz, ed., , 2008
Among the more characteristic traits of conversations with Max Wohlberg that I recall was his ten... more Among the more characteristic traits of conversations with Max Wohlberg that I recall was his tendency to fondly summon up nostalgia-laden memories of Cantors Assembly conventions of days gone by. These recollections frequently portrayed gatherings in one of the borsht-belt hotels of the Catskills for days of recharging, camaraderie, and frolicking. Clearly, joke-telling and sweating in the sauna were not the only activities. The volumes of conference proceedings from the 1950s and 1960s reveal a dynamic scene covering a wide spectrum of professional and scholarly concerns. The level of involvement and passion in these discussions is remarkable. But more important, perhaps, these documents provide a rare window into the perceptions, self-perceptions, and worldviews of the participants.
The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory f... more The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory for many centuries. For most of its history this tradition has been transmitted orally, and to a significant degree it still is. This liturgical performance is characterized by extemporization or improvisation, but the practitioner's freedom to improvise has been regulated by what we may reasonably suggest are implicit guidelines that provide a set of parameters for creating this music. Even with the appearance of written music, mainly in the nineteenth century, we find no documentation of how, in addition to the music itself, a convention that governs the semi-improvised aspect of this discipline has been transmitted. The underlying premise of this discussion is that this convention can be conceptualized and articulated by "translating" its implicit guidelines into a model of music theory. Moreover, viewing this discipline in music-theory terms is the key to unpacking it, a...
L'A. propose quelques observations et commentaires sur la pratique contemporaine du nusach en... more L'A. propose quelques observations et commentaires sur la pratique contemporaine du nusach en Amerique du Nord, afin, notamment, de contribuer a une meilleure comprehension de ce terme dans le cadre de la musique liturgique et de priere juive. Utilisant la notion de steiger - en reference au systeme d'echelle tonale -, l'A. suggere notamment que le nusach peut etre considere comme un cadre modal (Cohen), qui est en meme temps unique et specifique, et qui consiste en un amalgame caracteristique de traits orientaux et occidentaux. Apres un bref examen de l'apprentissage et de l'enseignement du nusach en Amerique du Nord, l'A. discute successivement l'influence est-europeenne et polonaise-lithuanienne ; les pratiques des congregations ; l'influence hassidique ; l'utilisation de melodies congregationnelles comme substitution ou simplification du nusach. Selon l'A., au dela des evolutions de la pratique musicale et liturgique, le nusach constitue u...
Perhaps the best way to begin is by addressing some comments received following a presentation of... more Perhaps the best way to begin is by addressing some comments received following a presentation of an earlier version of this paper. 1 One person made the observation that the project discussed here is equivalent to “analyzing Gregorian chant.” Another commenter restated this notion and suggested that this seeming equivalency raises questions about the purpose and significance of the project. Although this point of view might seem peculiar to those who are very familiar with the traditional music discipline under investigation, I see it as emblematic of the need to explain precisely the purpose of the present discussion, and more important, to outline some of the considerations involved in the overall endeavor—uncovering the music theory behind Ashkenazi liturgical practice—to which this paper contributes. The aforementioned remarks about the relationship between the study of Gregorian chant and the study of Ashkenazi liturgical music betray a commonly encountered ignorance or misund...
The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition raises some interesting methodolo... more The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition raises some interesting methodological issues with respect to music theory. Ashkenazi practice may be understood as an applied version of a music theory that has yet to be conceptualized and articulated. Foundations for the modern endeavor to formulate a theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music, one based on the concept of modes or scales, were laid by the work of pioneering ethnomusicologist A. Z. Idelsohn. Although his ideas still exercise a profound influence on the field, Idelsohn’s ideological and methodological preconceptions about the Magen Avot prayer mode have introduced a variety of stumbling blocks that have impeded progress in understanding the music-theory underpinnings of Ashkenazi liturgical music.
The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory f... more The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory for many centuries. For most of its history this tradition has been transmitted orally, and to a significant degree it still is. This liturgical performance is characterized by extemporization or improvisation, but the practitioner’s freedom to improvise has been regulated by what we may reasonably suggest are implicit guidelines that provide a set of parameters for creating this music. Even with the appearance of written music, mainly in the nineteenth century, we find no documentation of how, in addition to the music itself, a convention that governs the semi-improvised aspect of this discipline has been transmitted. The underlying premise of this discussion is that this convention can be conceptualized and articulated by “translating” its implicit guidelines into a model of music theory. Moreover, viewing this discipline in music-theory terms is the key to unpacking it, and to understanding its inner workings. Over the last 150 years some sporadic attempts were made, primarily by insider practitioners, to create such a theory. All of those endeavors incorporated a traditional nineteenth-century concept of “modes” as chiefly scales or modal scales. I argue that a theory befitting the phenomenology of this practice has to adopt a different paradigm that does not necessarily identify scalar structure as the primary defining feature of this system. The new paradigm must also take into account the interconnections among different musical variables as well as integrating a variety of built-in extra-musical factors that govern performance. Above all, the new paradigm must recognize that all of these constituents operate within a variety of degrees of freedom. The primary basic building blocks of this musical tradition, therefore, comprise a more flexible set of constituents—motif-types—that likewise accommodate these degrees of freedom. To illustrate how a new paradigm might better enable us to describe and explicate Ashkenazi liturgical music, I examine one of the traditional “prayer modes,” “Adonai Malach.” The paper does not encompass all of the variables that determine a particular performance that utilizes this mode. Rather, it focuses on motif-types and the degrees of freedom in which they express themselves, their interconnections with textual elements and the structure they create, norms of performance, time factors, and the liturgical calendar.
The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition
raises some interesting methodolo... more The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition raises some interesting methodological issues with respect to music theory. Ashkenazi practice may be understood as an applied version of a music theory that has yet to be conceptualized and articulated. Foundations for the modern endeavor to formulate a theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music, one based on the concept of modes or scales, were laid by the work of pioneering ethnomusicologist A. Z. Idelsohn. Although his ideas still exercise a profound influence on the field, Idelsohn’s ideological and methodological preconceptions about the Magen Avot prayer mode have introduced a variety of stumbling blocks that have impeded progress in understanding the music-theory underpinnings of Ashkenazi liturgical music.
Leib Glantz – The Man Who Spoke To God, Jerry Glantz, ed., , 2008
Among the more characteristic traits of conversations with Max Wohlberg that I recall was his ten... more Among the more characteristic traits of conversations with Max Wohlberg that I recall was his tendency to fondly summon up nostalgia-laden memories of Cantors Assembly conventions of days gone by. These recollections frequently portrayed gatherings in one of the borsht-belt hotels of the Catskills for days of recharging, camaraderie, and frolicking. Clearly, joke-telling and sweating in the sauna were not the only activities. The volumes of conference proceedings from the 1950s and 1960s reveal a dynamic scene covering a wide spectrum of professional and scholarly concerns. The level of involvement and passion in these discussions is remarkable. But more important, perhaps, these documents provide a rare window into the perceptions, self-perceptions, and worldviews of the participants.
The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory f... more The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory for many centuries. For most of its history this tradition has been transmitted orally, and to a significant degree it still is. This liturgical performance is characterized by extemporization or improvisation, but the practitioner's freedom to improvise has been regulated by what we may reasonably suggest are implicit guidelines that provide a set of parameters for creating this music. Even with the appearance of written music, mainly in the nineteenth century, we find no documentation of how, in addition to the music itself, a convention that governs the semi-improvised aspect of this discipline has been transmitted. The underlying premise of this discussion is that this convention can be conceptualized and articulated by "translating" its implicit guidelines into a model of music theory. Moreover, viewing this discipline in music-theory terms is the key to unpacking it, a...
L'A. propose quelques observations et commentaires sur la pratique contemporaine du nusach en... more L'A. propose quelques observations et commentaires sur la pratique contemporaine du nusach en Amerique du Nord, afin, notamment, de contribuer a une meilleure comprehension de ce terme dans le cadre de la musique liturgique et de priere juive. Utilisant la notion de steiger - en reference au systeme d'echelle tonale -, l'A. suggere notamment que le nusach peut etre considere comme un cadre modal (Cohen), qui est en meme temps unique et specifique, et qui consiste en un amalgame caracteristique de traits orientaux et occidentaux. Apres un bref examen de l'apprentissage et de l'enseignement du nusach en Amerique du Nord, l'A. discute successivement l'influence est-europeenne et polonaise-lithuanienne ; les pratiques des congregations ; l'influence hassidique ; l'utilisation de melodies congregationnelles comme substitution ou simplification du nusach. Selon l'A., au dela des evolutions de la pratique musicale et liturgique, le nusach constitue u...
Perhaps the best way to begin is by addressing some comments received following a presentation of... more Perhaps the best way to begin is by addressing some comments received following a presentation of an earlier version of this paper. 1 One person made the observation that the project discussed here is equivalent to “analyzing Gregorian chant.” Another commenter restated this notion and suggested that this seeming equivalency raises questions about the purpose and significance of the project. Although this point of view might seem peculiar to those who are very familiar with the traditional music discipline under investigation, I see it as emblematic of the need to explain precisely the purpose of the present discussion, and more important, to outline some of the considerations involved in the overall endeavor—uncovering the music theory behind Ashkenazi liturgical practice—to which this paper contributes. The aforementioned remarks about the relationship between the study of Gregorian chant and the study of Ashkenazi liturgical music betray a commonly encountered ignorance or misund...
The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition raises some interesting methodolo... more The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition raises some interesting methodological issues with respect to music theory. Ashkenazi practice may be understood as an applied version of a music theory that has yet to be conceptualized and articulated. Foundations for the modern endeavor to formulate a theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music, one based on the concept of modes or scales, were laid by the work of pioneering ethnomusicologist A. Z. Idelsohn. Although his ideas still exercise a profound influence on the field, Idelsohn’s ideological and methodological preconceptions about the Magen Avot prayer mode have introduced a variety of stumbling blocks that have impeded progress in understanding the music-theory underpinnings of Ashkenazi liturgical music.
The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory f... more The liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition has remained a practice without a theory for many centuries. For most of its history this tradition has been transmitted orally, and to a significant degree it still is. This liturgical performance is characterized by extemporization or improvisation, but the practitioner’s freedom to improvise has been regulated by what we may reasonably suggest are implicit guidelines that provide a set of parameters for creating this music. Even with the appearance of written music, mainly in the nineteenth century, we find no documentation of how, in addition to the music itself, a convention that governs the semi-improvised aspect of this discipline has been transmitted. The underlying premise of this discussion is that this convention can be conceptualized and articulated by “translating” its implicit guidelines into a model of music theory. Moreover, viewing this discipline in music-theory terms is the key to unpacking it, and to understanding its inner workings. Over the last 150 years some sporadic attempts were made, primarily by insider practitioners, to create such a theory. All of those endeavors incorporated a traditional nineteenth-century concept of “modes” as chiefly scales or modal scales. I argue that a theory befitting the phenomenology of this practice has to adopt a different paradigm that does not necessarily identify scalar structure as the primary defining feature of this system. The new paradigm must also take into account the interconnections among different musical variables as well as integrating a variety of built-in extra-musical factors that govern performance. Above all, the new paradigm must recognize that all of these constituents operate within a variety of degrees of freedom. The primary basic building blocks of this musical tradition, therefore, comprise a more flexible set of constituents—motif-types—that likewise accommodate these degrees of freedom. To illustrate how a new paradigm might better enable us to describe and explicate Ashkenazi liturgical music, I examine one of the traditional “prayer modes,” “Adonai Malach.” The paper does not encompass all of the variables that determine a particular performance that utilizes this mode. Rather, it focuses on motif-types and the degrees of freedom in which they express themselves, their interconnections with textual elements and the structure they create, norms of performance, time factors, and the liturgical calendar.
The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition
raises some interesting methodolo... more The study of liturgical music of the Jewish Ashkenazi tradition raises some interesting methodological issues with respect to music theory. Ashkenazi practice may be understood as an applied version of a music theory that has yet to be conceptualized and articulated. Foundations for the modern endeavor to formulate a theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music, one based on the concept of modes or scales, were laid by the work of pioneering ethnomusicologist A. Z. Idelsohn. Although his ideas still exercise a profound influence on the field, Idelsohn’s ideological and methodological preconceptions about the Magen Avot prayer mode have introduced a variety of stumbling blocks that have impeded progress in understanding the music-theory underpinnings of Ashkenazi liturgical music.
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Papers by Boaz Tarsi
raises some interesting methodological issues with respect to
music theory. Ashkenazi practice may be understood as an
applied version of a music theory that has yet to be conceptualized and articulated. Foundations for the modern endeavor to
formulate a theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music, one based on
the concept of modes or scales, were laid by the work of pioneering ethnomusicologist A. Z. Idelsohn. Although his ideas still
exercise a profound influence on the field, Idelsohn’s ideological
and methodological preconceptions about the Magen Avot
prayer mode have introduced a variety of stumbling blocks that
have impeded progress in understanding the music-theory
underpinnings of Ashkenazi liturgical music.
raises some interesting methodological issues with respect to
music theory. Ashkenazi practice may be understood as an
applied version of a music theory that has yet to be conceptualized and articulated. Foundations for the modern endeavor to
formulate a theory of Ashkenazi liturgical music, one based on
the concept of modes or scales, were laid by the work of pioneering ethnomusicologist A. Z. Idelsohn. Although his ideas still
exercise a profound influence on the field, Idelsohn’s ideological
and methodological preconceptions about the Magen Avot
prayer mode have introduced a variety of stumbling blocks that
have impeded progress in understanding the music-theory
underpinnings of Ashkenazi liturgical music.