Re: borrowed music

[Robert Cohen <rlcm17...>]

Well, the real borrowing here--though this is now a subject of considerable 
dispute among musicologists--is the possible derivation *of* Gregorian chant 
from *us*--from our Second Temple music (which the early Christians were, 
indeed, surely familiar with).

--Robert Cohen



>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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