Re: cantorial music by/for women

[George Robinson <GRComm...>]

Khaverim --

I just reviewed an absolutely amazing album that sort of falls into this
category.  None of the material is written by women, but the singer, Ruth
Wieder Magan,  is terrific. The review is as follows:

Ruth Wieder Magan: "Songs to the Invisible God" (Sounds True). This is
quite simply one of the most remarkable albums of Jewish music I have ever
heard. Wieder Magan has a haunting voice somewhere between mezzo and
contralto; on this recording she sings a cappella versions of folk and
cantorial settings of various sacred texts in a medieval monastery in Ein
Kerem. The result is haunting, moving, sometimes scary. If you have been
looking for a Jewish recording that would be the equivalent of the various
"Chant" sets that have been all the rage for the past couple of years,
this is it. The closest to a mystical experience I have had listening to
music since the first time I heard Coltrane's "A Love Supreme," the Fauré
Requiem or the choral movement of Beethoven's Ninth. Astonishing. Rating:
5 stars.


I know that sounds, well, hyperbolic, but this is a brilliant recording.
And this is a completely unsolicited testimonial.

Shabbat Shalom,
George Robinson


---------------------- jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org ---------------------+