Transcript Settings of Jewish music in the Temple Era

* Tof: a frame drum
* Contrafaction: In biblical times it was the custom of Levites (the
ecclesiastical caste) to adapt older tunes to newer words. Psalms
were sung to then popular melodies.
* Parody: In postbiblical days, the setting of new texts to already
existing music.
* Melisma: is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving
between several different notes in succession. The exuberant joy of
man bursts forth with unspeakable and unintelligible words, a
nonverbal language of exultation.
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* Final Project thesis statement due today.
* Reading Outline #10 due Tuesday
* Test on Israel Thursday, October 31st
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* King David was the patron of music and psalm singing in the
temple era.
* David’s primary instrument was the Kinnor. It is usually connected
with joyful occasions and seems not to have been used at times
of mourning.
* Some characteristic traits of the Hebrew language include: its
abundance of hard consonents and gutterals, of explosive sounds,
and of doubled letters
* The spiritual achievement of the Jews is the creation of
monotheism.
While Hebrew theory was guided by the search for the eternal
truth, the Greeks searched for the good and the beautiful in life.
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* What instruments do you hear?
* What occasions do you think this style of music
might be played at?
* What time signature?
* Freylekh means festive in Yiddish.
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* Instrumental players known as Klezmorim; made up of
two words: k’ley meaning tools or vessels, and zemer
meaning song.
* At Jewish weddings cross-pollination occurred when
Rom, or people of gypsy background played in the bands.
* Romanian donyas are improvisatory, elaborately
ornamented modal tunes.
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* Purposes of Ancient Jewish music:
* So that pastoral labor might be turned into delights
* In joy and sorrow
* At the feast and in the fields.
* Settings of Jewish music in the Temple Era:
* The psalms
* the song of songs
* the prayers
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* Individually or in pairs fill out a venn diagram
comparing and contrasting the qualities of an
ancient Israeli temple singer, or precantor and
a modern pop star.
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* In 70 AD Jerusalem and her proud temple were destroyed
by Roman Emperor Titus, and the Jews set out on their
wanderings through the world.
* The linking of study and singing served as valuable means
of memorizing as well as interpreting law.
* Notated music poses a threat to spontaneous worship, so
writing songs down was forbidden—it could lead to
mechanical worship.
* Singing in one voice is a manifestation of monotheism,
the central tenant of Judaism.
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* Name three adjectives that describe the mood
of this piece
* What three instruments make up this chamber
ensemble?
* Who has the melody?
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* Schulhoff died in the holocaust.
* He was one of the first generation of classical
composers to find inspiration in the rhythms of jazz
music.
* Dada was born out of negative reaction to the
horrors of World War I. Dada rejected reason and
logic, prizing nonsense, irrationality and intuition.
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* Practice writing hebrew first on your
whiteboards, then in your packets.
* Absolute art is revolution, it requires additional facets for
development, leads to overthrow (coups) in order to open new
paths...and is the most powerful in music....
The idea of revolution in art has evolved for decades, under
whatever sun the creators live, in that for them art is the
commonality of man.
This is particularly true in music, because this art form is the
liveliest, and as a result reflects the revolution most strongly and
deeply–the complete escape from imperialistic tonality and
rhythm, the climb to an ecstatic change for the better.
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* Dramatic Reading from “Night” Eli Wiesel
* It was pitch dark. I could hear only the violin, and it was as though
Juliek's soul were the bow.
He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings-his last hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future.
He played as he would never play again...When I awoke, in the
daylight, I could see Juliek, opposite me, slumped over, dead.
Near him lay his violin, smashed, trampled, a strange overwhelming
little corpse
Q: Imagine you are next to Julieck in the concentration camp. Julieck is
very ill and about to die. Why does he still play his violin despite such
dire circumstances?
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*The breaking of a dish in front of
a bride and groom at their
wedding ceremony seems to have
come from a wish to remind them
in the midst of their merriment of
the destruction of Jerusalem.
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* On a small post-it write down one fact from today’s
class.
* When you have completed this, place it in a larger
category on the board:
* Instrument Facts
* Jewish History
* Song Specifics
* Do a walk by row and write down two additional facts
from the category you chose.
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* Why did notated music poses a threat to spontaneous worship?
* Why was there so much gypsy influence in klezmer music?
* Name two musical influences on Schulhoff’s compositions.
* Name one type of Yiddish to English sentence structure
conversion:
* What is a melisma?
* When is rhythm important in Jewish music?
* Name the big five Broadway composers:
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