[HANASHIR:14791] Maoz Tzur

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

On Sun, 29 Jun 2003, Adrian Durlester wrote:

> What's interesting about this melody is that most
> scholars believe it originated from an old German
> folk song that German Jews adopted for use in the
> 15th century, although the earliest known manuscript
> of this melody in a Jewish context only dates from
> the mid 18th century. There is a very similar melody
> that appears in the hymns used by Martin Luther, who
> lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

According to Bathja Bayer, the Ma'oz Tzur melody
corresponds closely to the church melody "Patrem
Omnipotentem," which appeared for the first time in a
ms. dated 1474. So it could well be that the tune was
already used by Jews in the 15th century---we just
don't know. All that we do know is that there isn't
that much notated chazzanut from before 1700.


 Groeten,
 Irwin Oppenheim
 i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl
 ~~~*

 Chazzanut Online:
 http://www.joods.nl/~chazzanut/

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