Re: Can you help locate.....

[Francesco Spagnolo <101716.3115...>]

Here are some hints about Jewish vocal music in Southern France.
The topic should be divided into three different sections:

1. Synagogue Song
Southern France's tradition is to be seen as a part of the Southern
Mediterranean stylistic variant (see  A. Herzog's listing of 5 regional styles
for Jewish cantillation of the Bible, in his article "Masoretic Accents" in the
Encyclopaedia Judaica). Its most representative exemple is that of the
Carpentras community, now preserved only in ethnomusicological recordings.
Together with the synagogue song of Rome, this tradition should be seen as one
of the most ancient ones in the Diaspora, since those communities were
established before 70CE.
Especially in Provence, synagogue song has flourished as well as Jewish life
there, under very special historical condition, similar to those of Italy and
Amsterdam (see below).
Among the specific traditions, that of Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin has been
fully documented in transcriptions, such as those published in 1887 by the
Cremieu brothers.

2. Baroque Music
A peculiarity of Jewish music in this region (as well as in Northern Italy and
Amsterdam) is represented by baroque cantatas, such as that by Louis Saladin,
written for a Circumcision in the 18th century. This music has come out in
print: see I. Adler, 'La pratique musicale savante', 1966.

3. 20th Century
The French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) wrote several works which
recuperated traditional synagogue and folk songs of his native Aix-en-Provence.
All of them are available in print.

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Since this is my first contribution to the List, I would like to take a few
lines to introduce myself.

I'm an Italian philosopher and musicologist, currently working in Paris on
modern Jewish thought (my selected topic is the textual use of quotations in art
and philosophy) with a grant from the University of Milan, Italy. I had a
musical training at the Conservatory of the same city, and I had the chance to
study Jewish music and ethnomusicology with prof. Israel Adler (Jewish Music
Research Center, Hebrew Univ. of Jerusalem).
Since 1995, I also have been coordinating the YUVAL Center for Jewish music in
Paris. My project is to start a Center for the Study of Jewish Music in Italy.
Actually, I am proud to announce that such a project will become a reality very
soon, beginning its activities in January 1997.

Feel free to contact me about the French and the Italian centers.

Francesco Spagnolo Acht
101716(dot)3115 (at) compuserve(dot)com