borrowed music

[ro <ro...>]

Forgive me if someone mentioned this already in the "if its borrowed,
is it Jewish" and I missed it.

Last night I had the privelge to visit the Rare Book Room at the JTS -
not just the public exhibits.  Rather, Rabbi Jerry Schwartzbart brought
us into the reading room and pulled some items out of the vault.  

One item from the Cairo Genizah was a poem written out in Hebrew.
But there were other marks as well, which I recognized as music
notation.  It turned out to be notation for Gregorian Chant.

At a later date, the Church scholars will consider Hebrew a useful
skill, but this scrap was from the 12th century.  At that time,
Christians knew no Hebrew and Jews knew no Gregorian Chant.

The solution to the mystery lies in the background of the one who
wrote out the poem and its tune.   He was Ovadyah HaGer, who
was born Johannes, the second son of a Norman lord.  Gentile rules
of inhertance at that time gave everything to the eldest son, so
whle his big brother went into battle as a night, Johannes got
shipped of to the monastary to become a priest.

In the midst of the Crusade, in 1102, Johannes became Ovadyah HaGer
when he converted and moved to the area Northern Israel.

There are recordings of his works.

So theres a borrowing story for you!

Shabbat shalom -
roger

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r l reid        ro (at) panix(dot)com

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