Fwd: Forwarded mail....

[Eliott Kahn <Elkahn...>]

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2000 14:16:04 +0200 (CST)
>From: "D(dot)Katz (at) kunst(dot)uni-frankfurt(dot)de" 
><dkatz (at) trollinger-fe(dot)rz(dot)uni-frankfurt(dot)de>
>To: jewishmusic (at) shamash(dot)org
>
>         A colleague has asked me to comment on last month's discussion
>regarding possible ties between Christian and Jewish chant.
>
>         To begin with, let me introduce myself, for I believe this is my
>First substantive posting to the list. I am an American rabbi, cantor,
>and musicologist (Ph.D., Duke University, 1989) with research interests in
>the fourteenth century and in historical synagogue music, especially in
>the 18th century. Much of my research has involved the Birnbaum
>Collection. I have been living in Germany since 1997 and recently
>had the opportunity to teach an historical survey of Jewish liturgical
>and classical music to German undergraduate and graduate students at the
>university and conservatory in Frankfurt.
>
>         My main articles on Jewish music are:
>
>"Biblische Kantillation und Musik der Synagoge: ein Rueckblick auf die
>aeltesten Quellen," _Musiktheorie_ 15 (2000), pp.57-78
>
>"Il cantore ashkenazita nel suo ambiente rituale," _Rivista
>Internazionale di Musica Sacra_ 20 (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 (1999), pp.175-206.
>
>"A Prolegomenon to the Study of the Performance Practice of Synagogue
>Music Involving M'shor'rim" (The 18th.century synagogue trio), _Journal
>of Synagogue Music_ 24/2 (Dec. 1995), pp.35-79
>-------------
>
>         The issue at hand is complex. Whereas most musicological issues
>center around a more or less specifically defined time and place, this
>question transcends both. It also tends to
>arouse great emotions, and people often argue not from what
>the evidence is, but from what they think it should be.
>
>         Judah Cohen has presented a very cogent statement. While not
>denying the possibility of an influence, he
>
>"assert((s)) that there is not enough evidence to prove anything
>definitive in either direction."
>
>Unfortunately I can only confirm this statement.
>
>         The assumption of Jewish and even pagan influences on early
>Christian music is not unreasonable, given the milieu from which
>Christianity arose and in which early Christians lived. Our problem is
>sources: we have no Christian sources until ca. 800. We have one Jewish
>source (2 folios) in the first half of the 12th century, a handful of
>notations of t'amei ha-miqra ca. 1500-1520, and very little overall
>until the 18th century. Our first surviving corpus of Jewish music is not
>chant sources, but the compositions of Salamone Rossi.
>
>         Even if we had Jewish sources from the ninth century, they would not
>necessarily tell us anything about music between the Second Temple
>period and  ninth century. It is always risky to try to extrapolate
>backwards from later historical sources. Moreover, neither the Gregorian
>nor the synagogal traditions as we know them are unified; we should not
>assume that they were unified in the periods before we know them.
>
>         Oral tradition can not make up for the lack of written sources,
>despite its apparent longevity. Israel Adler and Reinhard Flender, for
>example, have shown that one of the notations transmitted in the 12th
>century is still reflected in the oral tradition of Djerba. This example
>may show an unusual degree of musical continuity within a Jewish
>community,
>but it does not reflect musical exchange with Christianity. Avenery's
>claims for the longevity of oral traditions of cantillation from Bavaria
>and Amsterdam concern a later period (ca. 1520; 1699); these traditions,
>especially the German, already show some degree of change.
>
>A comparison between t'amei ha-miqra and Gregorian neumes shows an
>almost total divergence between Gregorian chant and biblical
>cantillation. Mr. Cohen's discussion of this topic is very similar to
>that in my article "Biblische Kanillation" (citation above); in a table
>with eight points of comparison, the only agreement is that in both
>cases the rhythm is not notated, but supplied by the singer in
>accordance with the natural rhythm of the words.
>
>Given these discrepancies, his conclusion is quite reasonable:
>
> > it makes it seem to me that a
> >comparison to Jewish cantillation symbols exists more because they are
> >*THERE* rather than because they make a convincing comparison.
>
>In this regard I should mention an article by Johanna Spector on "Chant
>and Cantillation" in Musica Judaica 9 (1986-87) pp.1-21, in which she
>surveys, quite
>superficially, the chant notations of numerous, mostly eastern,
>traditions. She points out similarities, such as those of qadma and
>pashta with the accute accent, of sof passuk with the grave, and of
>etnachta with circumflex, and suggests that different cultures,
>partially through the use of chieronomy (hand signals) could easily have
>developed similar written signs independently.
>
>         Nevertheless it sometimes does happen that a specific examples of
>Christian and Jewish music indeed seem to be similar. Eric Werner
>suggests a relationship between Akdamut and Magnificat: G A C
>(reciting-tone on C) D C B C
>In this case, it turns out that the similarities are superficial but the
>possibility of some connection cannot be ruled out (I discuss this in
>detail in the appendix of my article "From Mount Sinai;" a musicologist
>from Glascow will discuss this example further at the International
>Musicological Society Symposium in Budapest in August).
>
>         An example for which Werner convincingly demonstrates a connection
>is Eli Tzion, the piyyut for Tisha B'Av that has become one of the
>seasonal leitmotives. Werner has shown that the same melody exists also
>in
>in the church *in connection with the same time of year.* This
>additional
>link is what makes the argument convincing. (Werner's sketch of the
>details of the transmission of the melody are conjectural.) See
>"Geneologies of Two
>Wandering Hebrew Melodies," _Procedings of the American Academy for
>Jewish
>Research, Jubilee Volume_ vol.46-47 (1980), pp.573-592.
>
>Some additional bibliography:
>
>For a catalogue of early sources of Jewish music, see Israel Adler,
>_Hebrew
>Notated Manuscript Sources_ (1989), = Repertoire Internationale des
>Sources Musicales B ix 1 (ask for RISM in a music research library). For
>help navigating RISM, see my review in Studies in Bibliography and
>Booklore 1993. For an overview of early sources for synagogue chant and
>cantillation, see my article "Biblische Kantillation."
>
>For an attempt to reach some understanding of the nature of synagogue
>music before our earliest musical sources, see the late James McKinnon,
>-"The Question of Psalmody in the Ancient Synagogue," Early Music
>History 6 (1986), 159-191 and a response by Theodore Karp, "Interpreting
>Silence...", Rivista Internazionale di Musica Sacra 20 (1999), 47-110.
>
>I know that the subject cannot be treated comprehensively in a single
>e-mail, but I hope that this may be useful.
>
>Chag kasher v'sameach,
>         Daniel Katz
>
>

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