Volume 16, Number 2 - Cantors Assembly

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34 negligeable degree of freedom from slavish subjection to the forma! structure of the piyyut. The non-congruence of the musical and poetic forms is a phenomenon already well-known in earlier periods, as in the Spanish villancico, the French virelaiand the Italian ballata. H. Avenary has pointed out similar phenomena in the repertoire of piyyutim preserved in the Jewish oral tradition.36 But in the present case, the effect is not one of setting one structure - the poetic - against a different one - the musical - but that of a melody acting in an improvisatory way within its own structure. IV. Conclusion In summing up the historical aspects of our study we may say that the melody was composed, to all appearances, by a German Jew, some time before it was recorded in writing by a Christian humanist scholar, from the mouth of an anonymous Jewish informant, at the beginning of the sixteenth century in South Germany. The special importance of the document is that it represents one of the earliest known notations of the music sung by Jews in the Diaspora, and the first of its kind in Europe. It is a concrete illustration, comparatively early, of the adoption of the musical language of the surrounding culture for religious Jewish songs, a phenomenon known from earlier and later literary sources, but lacking comprehensive musical documentation before the second half of the eighteenth century. Sabbath zemirot were not written down in notation, as far as is known, before the nineteenthcentury.37 This diversified body of songs is in fact the most wide spread musical repertoire known in Jewish homes 36. Hebrew Hymn Tunes, Q. 30. 37. Prof. Avenary drew my attention to the notation offabl6m’al@em, published by lssac Nathan in his Musurgia vocalis (London. 1823; 2nd cd.. 1836). pp. 102-103. NO earlier notation of any of the zemirot for Sabbath. whether in manuscript (including those of the Birnbaum collection) or in print is known to me; the melodies for Sabbath in E.H. Kirchhan’s simhar ban-nqfei(Fiirth, 1726-1727) are printed without text-underlay and are associated with Yiddish poems. I tend to agree with Neil Levin’s statement (Z’mirof Anthology. Q. xix) that "it was nor until the publication of Baer’s monumental collection, Baal T'fillah (I 873). that there was any systematic inclusion of z’miror... Only much later, when an interest in collecting Jewish folksongs developed, were some z’miror collections published - such as rhose quoted throughout this study. This scarcity of z’miror in manuscripts and [printed?] collections further underscores the fact of their oral transmission... . . � *
throughout the Diaspora. Dozens of notations of melodies of “& mis’kll6 akalnz?” have been collected in recent years. The National Sound Archives in Jerusalem possess an impressive range of recordings of this piyyut as it is sung by Oriental and Western Jewish communities, more extensive even than the already rich representation in print and manuscript. Thanks to the curiosity and the lively mind of Johannes Renhart, or another scholar of his circle, this document has safeguarded for Jewish musical tradition a historical perspective that we had not hoped to see illustrated in concrete form. 35
Page 1 and 2: � Cantors Assembly � December 1
Page 3 and 4: FROM THE EDITOR With this issue we
Page 5 and 6: Another category of reports will be
Page 7 and 8: The entire book is prefaced by a ch
Page 9 and 10: On the spur of the moment I telepho
Page 11 and 12: language; and in a deeper sense, pe
Page 13 and 14: the cantor will not be satisfied wi
Page 15 and 16: cantorate to forget all differences
Page 17 and 18: THE EARLIEST NOTATION OF A SABBATH
Page 19 and 20: manuscripts containing Hebrew music
Page 21 and 22: The anonymous text (see Appendix) c
Page 23 and 24: the strophes are given at the begin
Page 26 and 27: 26 niggfinim mis-sinar~.2~ But apar
Page 28 and 29: Transcription II In this transcript
Page 30 and 31: 30 Poetic Pattern Melodic Pattern 1
Page 32 and 33: 32 preceding strophes; the change b
Page 36 and 37: 36 Appendix The text given below fo
Page 38 and 39: 38 ISRAEL GOLDFARB’S “SHALOM AL
Page 40: 40 RABBI ISRAEL QOLDFARB - D.H.L. 2
Page 43 and 44: FRIDAY EVENING MELODlES Sholom Alec
Page 45: h&Lo - do& bo - ruch hu FRIDAY EVEN
Page 48 and 49: 48 To begin with, the verse "Der Re
Page 50 and 51: 50 been well summarized by Gavin de
Page 52 and 53: 52 THE 1984-1985 AMERICAN JEWISH CO
Page 54 and 55: phase of the project. Armed with ne
Page 56 and 57: 56 of Milwaukee. As a result, I per
Page 58 and 59: will inform me of their activities
Page 60 and 61: 60 But all was not smooth sailing f
Page 62 and 63: 62 Alas, the United Jewish Choral S
Page 64 and 65: In his introductory remarks Dr. Sch
Page 66 and 67: 66 arranged. It must be left raw in

Volume 16, Number 2 - Cantors Assembly

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