Below some more remarks by Daniel Katz about Akdamut that might be interesting to others as well.
Irwin ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 05:21:48 -0700 (PDT) From: Daniel Katz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: akdamut I�m sending a list of my articles as an attachment. I�m appending below the description that I gave to my congregation of the version of Akdamut that I used last week. I discuss the piece in part in my Akdamut article. I am going back to the States for two weeks on Sunday and then will be teaching for a week at the Evangelische Akademie Loccum, so I will be on-line only sporadically until mid-July. Paul, you�re correct (�My understanding of our musical tradition is that it's a combination or blending of mode, motif and melody�.) The problem with a book is that it doesn�t explain these three elements and doesn�t help you to understand how the piece is put together. Many lay daveners wind up treating everything like a melody. The growth of Jewish communities in Germany is the result of massive emigration from the former USSR. Most of these people have no serious interest in Judasim. All the best, Daniel Katz The version of Akdamut that will be sung today was written by Isaac Offenbach. Isaac, the father of the famous composer Jacques Offenbach, was Cantor in Cologne and died in 1850. His eleven-minute setting combines traditional Akdamut motives with original compositional material. The piece is in eight movements: Andante, Allegro, Andante, Allegro, Presto, Tempo di Menuetto, Allegro und Marcia. The chazan sings together with two assistants, a soprano and a bass. Following the typical style of 18th-century synagogue music, the three voices sing more frequently one after the other than together. Offenbach follows the tradition that the cantor sings the first two verses, the congregation the next two, the cantor the next two, etc. This is the only extant notated setting of Akdamut with music for the entire portion of the piyut sung by the cantor. I edited the music from Offenbach�s autograph manuscript, which is part of the Offenbach Collection at HUC-JIR in New York. It is possible that that piece is being heard today for the first time in Germany--perhaps for the first time anywhere in its entirety in a liturgical setting--since the death of the composer (I performed the complete version in a concert and an abridged version in a service in New York in 1994). Daniel S. Katz Publications When Kol nidrei is not Kol nidrei: Synagogue Reform in Aarhus, Denmark (1825), Liber Amicorum Isabelle Cazeaux, forthcoming. The Eighth Way in the Maase Efod of Profiat Duran (1403): A Catalonian Grammarians Remarks on Biblical Cantillation, The Past in the Present. Papers Read at the Intercongressional Symposium of the International Musicological Society, Budapest, 23-28 August, 2000 (working title) (Budapest: Liszt Ferenc Music Academy), forthcoming. Seeking the Parameters of Ashkenazi Liturgical Improvisation, Rivista Internazionale di Musica Sacra 21/1 (2000), pp.17-47. Biblische Kantillation und Musik der Synagoge: ein Rckblick auf die ltesten Quellen, Musiktheorie 15 (2000), pp.57-78 Il cantore ashkenazita nel suo ambiente rituale, Rivista Internazionale di Musica Sacra, 20/1 (1999), pp.27-46 From Mount Sinai to the Year 6000: A Study of the Interaction of Oral Tradition and Written Sources in the Transmission of an Ashkenazi Liturgical Chant (Akdamut), Rivista Internazionale di Musica Sacra, 20/1 (1999), pp.175-206 (corrected version: supplement to 20/2 (2000) Review of Israeli Folk Music: Songs of the Early Pioneers, ed. Hans Nathan (Madison: A-R Editions, 1994), Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music, vol. 4, Notes, June 1998, pp. 991-993 A Prolegomenon to the Study of the Performance Practice of Synagogue Music Involving Mshorrim, The Journal of Synagogue Music, vol. 24, no. 2 (Dec. 1995), pp. 35-79 Review of Israel Adler, Hebrew Notated Manuscript Sources up to circa 1840, 2 vols. (Mnchen: G. Henle, 1989), Rpertoire International des Sources Musicales, B IX1, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore 18 (1993), pp. 66-69 Ph.D. Dissertation The Earliest Sources for the Libellus cantus mensurabilis secundum Johannem de Muris (Duke University, 1989) ===== Rabbiner Dr. Daniel Katz J�dische Gemeinde Duisburg-M�lheim-Oberhausen Springwall 16 D-47051 Duisburg, Germany Fax +49 203 298 1264 Tel. +49 203 298 3078 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------+ Hosted by Shamash: The Jewish Network http://shamash.org A service of Hebrew College, which offers online courses and an online MA in Jewish Studies, http://hebrewcollege.edu/online/ * * FREE JEWISH LEARNING * * Shamash invites you to join MyJewishLearning.com, a comprehensive, objective, authoritative and interactive learning resource in all areas of Judaism. Free membership via http://www.myjewishlearning.com/shamash ---------------------- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------
