Re: Dutch Cantorial Music/Prewar Media

[I. Oppenheim <i.oppenheim...>]

On Thu, 7 Mar 2002 SamWeiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net wrote:

> Thanks for this information.  I was going by my
> London recording of Hans Bloemendal and the chorus of
> the Main Synagogue in Amsterdam, which has the normal
> Ashkenazic Ayins.

Bloemendal indeed often leaves the ngayins out. He
doesn't like them. Accidentally, the choir on the
recording was not the chorus of the Main Synagogue in
Amsterdam, but a professional non-Jewish choir hired by
the record company.

> The English of the Pirates of the sea (as rendered in
> the movies, at least)  seems to have that vowel (aye
> aye maties) and the vowel has an Irish ring to it as
> well.

Bloemendal, however, does pronounce the tseireh
according to the Dutch traditions.

> >These six pieces are still sung regularly in their
> >entirety. Why do you think this is noteworthy?

> Because notated solo collections such as Katz's
> usually represent one cantor's improvisation of a
> nusach tradition (the equivalent of a home tape
> recording of a later era) which rarely has a direct
> influence on the regular repertoire of other cantors,
> let alone shape an oral tradition.

I think it was the other way round. Because there
existed an oral tradition of several pieces attributed
to Katz, chazzanim endeavoured to study the Katz
manuscript to know how the pieces were composed
originally. Then they copied the pieces they liked in
their private notebooks. I've seen several of such
notebooks, including the one Bloemendal is using for
his services.

I agree that Katz's "Retseih Vimnuchateinu" and his
"'Av Harachamim" could be regarded as "improvisation of
a nusach tradition." But his "Kidush Leshabat II,"
"Kedushat Musaf III," "Birkat Kohanim" and his "Yir'u
'Eineinu" are all composed "art music" for cantor and
accompanying choir. I would even say that Katz's
kedushah has more in common with a dramatic Aria than
with a traditional free-flowing synagogue recitative.

The Kiddush, Kedushah and Birkat Kohanim have been
recorded by Bloemendal, while his colleague Moskovits
recorded Yir'u 'Eineinu. All of the recordings of Hans
Bloemendal have been reissued on a 3-CD set published
by Universal Music on the label "Philips Classics."

> Simply due to the favoring of metrical melodies in
> the Western Sephardic tradition as opposed to
> =traditional= Ashkenazic liturgical practice B.C.E.
> (before the Carlebach era).

Accidentally, the only Carlebach piece in regular use
in Amsterdam is his "Mimekomekha" for the Kedushat
Shacharit of Shabbat.

Irwin

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