My topic is German Jewish liturgical music, and how it was influenced by classical music. My topic was inspired from a record my mom has of her Bas Mitzvah (or Bat in Sephardic places, since Bas is Ashkenazic), from a time when it was the custom in her German synagogue in Chicago to tape record these events. There were several instances of German Jewish liturgical music on it, and these instances sparked my interest in doing a report about a tradition that was all but forgotten by most of the people in the world. German Jewish liturgical music was the music that the Ashkenazi Jews in Europe (especially in Germany) performed in their synagogues. It was unique from the music in the rest of the world except for classical, because Ashkenazi music was very much influenced by classical music.

Imagine this scene:

It is a cold, windy, Friday night in the middle of winter. Drifts of snow are piled high on both sides of the path to the synagogue; it had been shoveled out many times over the course of winter.

The people enter the door and leave the winter scene behind them. They file into the rows and start to whisper with whoever is next to them.

Then the side door opens and the rabbi, cantor, and choir members enter onto the pulpit. Then the choir opens their books, the cantor assumes a singing position, the organist prepares to play the first note, a silence falls over the congregation, and then...



You may have noticed the Ashkenazic pronunciation in this excerpt, which is the mode for German Jewish liturgical music. This particular excerpt from "Ma Tovu", written by Louis Lewandowski, came from a recent concert here in New Jersey. Appropriately, since it is used at the very beginning of a service, it was placed at the beginning of the concert. One can still hear this type of music in a few synagogues today, especially at the High Holidays, but this was what German Jewish people heard every Friday night before World War Two.

The history of German Jewish liturgical music is very interesting, because German Jewish music was always changing, trying to reflect the times. At one point, it was influenced by the classical music in the culture around it.

Jewish culture, in fact, had been changing so much that they had been in a position where their religion was about to be dominated by their nationalism. The philosopher Moses Mendelssohn – the most outstanding figure of the 18th century Jewish Enlightenment -- in 1783 had gotten them to believe that they were Europeans in such a strong fashion that it undermined their Jewish tradition and replaced it with secular belief. Some even converted to Christianity, which totally defeated Moses Mendelssohn's purpose. He wanted Jews to be well liked by the people in the rest of Europe, so that the other religions would think that being Jewish was not a negative religious view.

Concerning music, since the 17th century a few affluent Jews had their children taking classical music lessons. However, in the late 18th century, the start of the Romantic Period which emphasized instrumental music, greater numbers of upper class Jews started having their children take classes to learn how to play instruments and how to sing better. The children started to learn secular music instead of traditional Jewish music. Around the 1800's, Jews in lower social and economic circumstances, the "masses", started to hear this music, and liked it.

In some synagogues, cantors – the men who led the congregation in prayer through song – started being replaced by musical instruments (especially the organ), and the liturgy was being set to tunes used for Protestant hymns. To combat this movement, cantors as a group had to acknowledge this change in musical taste, and thus started to give the people what they wanted: secular music. But they tempered this revolution with a call to a more moderate approach. As Salomon Sulzer said, "…We might find out the original noble forms to which we should anchor ourselves, developing them in an artistic style … Jewish liturgy must satisfy the musical demands while remaining Jewish; and it should not be necessary to sacrifice the Jewish characteristics to artistic forms … The old tunes and singing modes which became national should be improved, selected, and adjusted to the rules of art. But new musical creations should also not be avoided." (Denkscrift, 1876). The cantors started to create their own music to satisfy the people, but since they were cantors, not composers, their early music was very crude. They started to learn how to make the music more complex and interesting. Being soloists, they gave themselves parts that commanded attention. Here, in the next part of the "Ma Tovu," you hear an example:



Some of these cantors/composers of German-Jewish liturgical music became known for their music. One of them was Salomon Sulzer. Sulzer was born March 30, 1804, in a city called Hohenems on the far western tip of Austria, and was singing in the Hohenem's Choir at age 16. He also grew up to be a famous composer within the German Jewish community; he even got the respect of the famous classical music composers Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Franz Liszt. He was the pioneer in creating strong synagogue choirs, which along with the evolution of the complexity of the music itself was "quite an experience" (Encyclopedia Judaica) for the congregations and was considered "both a human and a musical experience" (Encyclopedia Judaica). He wrote many songs, including "Ki Mitzion" and "Adon Olam", pieces featured at the North Jersey Concert, the latter piece which is often used to conclude a service.

Another cantor/composer was Louis Lewandowski. Lewandowski was born on April 3, 1821, and was singing in a Berlin choir by the time he was twelve. He started composing German Jewish liturgical music and wrote many pieces of music including the "Ma Tovu" you heard at the beginning of my talk and "Enosh", which was also featured at the North Jersey concert. His music was greatly influenced by the classical music all around the Ashkenazic part of Europe, especially by Felix Mendelssohn.

The things I think of when I think of this music are that it tends to be loud and deep pitched, and it also seems to be large and proud. It has an air of command hanging over it, as if ordering you to listen to what it was saying. Then, as soon as it is satisfied that you are listening, it starts becoming yet more commanding. German Jewish liturgical music really does seem to reflect- but in a good way- qualities that German culture has possessed for centuries.

I also feel that the music is very rhythmic in an interesting way. It keeps a very steady beat for a section of a song, and a totally different rhythm for another part of the song, as if it were taking many different rhythms and stringing them together. This forms one steady beat that keeps changing in a somewhat predictable fashion, variations on a musical theme.

I would like you to be able to have heard an entire German Jewish piece, so I will now conclude by playing the remaining 30 seconds of "Ma Tovu". In addition to "Ma Tovu", a tape of one other piece by Lewandowski and two pieces by Sulzer will be given to the Peretz Graduation Project Library as additional examples of German Jewish liturgical music.

And now, the conclusion of "Ma Tovu"...