Ovadiah ha-Ger

[judithc <judithc...>]

hi, from kalamazoo (Medieval interdisciplinary conference, lots about Jews, 
Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages, little about Jewish music....lots of 
Franciscans and Cistercians roaming around...I'm here to present a workshop on  
the 13th century Marian cantigas of Alphonso the Learned King, though I WILL 
mention the Jewish musicians in his court...) Anyway, re the discussion on 
Ovadiah; Joel has already pointed interested people tp the earlier discussion 
on this list. Tamar and I sing it on our new CD, and the booklet gives a 
summary of the musicological problems. Joel also asks whether (I forget whose) 
comments below are accurate:

"I don't believe that the (Benedictine) neumes Ovadiah used are the same 
thing as the notation used for Gregorian chant. These pieces have been 
bewildering scholars for a long time. The recordings are conjectural, 
but/and interesting.

>At that time,

(early 12th Century)

>Christians knew no Hebrew and Jews knew no Gregorian Chant."


The term "Gregorian chant" is confusing and usually used inaccurately. There 
were many types of plainchant (the better term) and each had its own notational 
system; these also developed over years. The main reason the pieces beweilder 
us is that the interprwtation of the clef (dalet) is uncertain, and how one 
interpretsthe clef determines the node, and so the whole musical character of 
the song. Also, there are some bits issing from the manuscript. As for 
Christians knowing no Hebrew and Jews knowiung no plainchant, that's not the 
case; many Christians knew Hebrew ; and it is likely that knowledge of 
plainchant was not limited to Christians, though offhand I wouldn't know how to 
substantiate this. In any case, general statements about the Middle Ages (or 
any other time) such as "knew no...." are almost inevitably inaccurate. Out of 
interest, my room-mate here is y old friend Sharan Newman, whose medieval 
mystery series features Catherine of 12th-century Paris, who is a Christian 
form a still-Judaizing family in Paris; her cousin Solomon continually resists 
her attempts to convert him, and they are going to send her niece to Heloise to 
learn Hebrew!! and Sharan is a trained medieval historian, she does her 
homework....Cheers from K'zoo (the 'Zoo),Judith

This seems a pretty broad statement. Can any other listers weigh in on 
whether this were indeed the case?

Shabbat shalom,



Dr/a Judith R Cohen
751 Euclid Ave., Toronto, Canada M6G 2V3
Tel: 1-416-5332666/949-0312
http://www.yorku.ca/judithc
4-30 abril 2001; 25-6 - 21-8 2001: (34) 606261683

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