‘Manna’ Article

A Mozart symphony has a k number (chronological numbering system devised by Ludwig Kochel), a number given by the composer, a key and often a title to identify the work. Anyone who wants to find out when the piece was written or anything about the work need only look it up in the many books about classical music. When it comes to synagogue music we are not so well served. Apart from the trusty Jewish Music, Its Historical Development by Idelsohn and the Jewish Encyclopedia which has some very interesting entries on Jewish music, finding out who wrote your favourite Adon Olam or Mah Tovu is not so easy. In fact the provenance of much of the music we sing in services and in the home is very interesting and provides another strand to the rich tapestry of the history of the Jews. It would be heartening if people were more interested in the music we sing. Perhaps it’s because we all think it’s ‘traditional’ or ‘sacred’ or ‘folk music’? In the past twenty years there has been a renewed interest in all ethnic music and much scholarship has been and is being done on many areas of Jewish music but it has not yet filtered down to the general public or average congregant. Within the Reform Movement we have many composers of whom to be proud. When West London synagogue first opened its doors in 1840 and the Movement was founded they employed a fine non Jewish musician Charles Garland Verrinder who arranged, edited and indeed composed much of what became the set musical repertoire for the Movement for many, many years. His setting of Essa Einai Psalm 121 is perhaps the best known liturgical song in the whole British Jewish community but has anyone outside of synagogue choirs heard of him? We may have little information available about the music of our services but when it comes to the music we sing in the home we have even less. There are over 1500 tunes to accompany the text of Chad Gadya in the Haggadah and yet we have little information about the history of any of them. Singing the texts from the Haggadah is not compulsory but it is customary to do so according to the example set by the parents. So in some families different tunes abound because they have been handed down unchanged from generation to generation. However in other families their tunes have been lost through an inability to hand them on. Many of our ancestors fled to England from Russia during the 19th century, from Europe during the 20th century and from all around the world for one reason or another. My own family came from Russia during the early 1900s and my aunt had a wealth of Yiddish songs . It never occurred to me to record these melodies and so much music, history and information was lost when she died. Over the years I have become fascinated by the variety of tunes that abound at our communal Sederim. In the past there was a wonderful gentleman from Italy who had a supply of unfamiliar melodies. I had intended to record his tunes but sadly failed to do so before he died. These losses sparked the idea that I should take a Sabbatical, do some serious and far-reaching research and develop an anthology of Seder songs before it was too late. I also decided to dedicate the archive to the memory of my late parents, Nat and Kitty Bellos. Some time later I mentioned my idea to Vicky Joseph, an old time colleague from RSGB days when we shared an office, she as Director of Social Action and me as Music Consultant. She suggested applying for funding, something which would never have occurred to me and then followed 18 months of endless application forms, meetings, quotes from designers, more application forms and finally in January this year an award of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £21,000 from another charitable trust which prefers to remain anonymous. Other small grants have been accrued along the way and now we are ready to begin three years of interviewing, recording, notating, transcribing and publishing our findings. Over the next three years I will visit at least eight Jewish centres; Brighton, Bournemouth, Cardiff, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle and London. I will hold workshops in the synagogues or other venues to introduce the project and identify people who want to share their melodies and stories with me. The team at Clinton Smith Design Consultants have created a terrific flier (below) which will be sent out to communities. We are primarily looking for people who have great stories to accompany the melodies and who know the country of origin of the melodies they sing. There are differences in traditions. Chad Gadya, Echad Mi Yodea and Adir Hu only appear in the Ashkenazi Haggadah and are thought to be based on German folksongs. The melodies for these stanzas, of which there are so many variations, have always been based on popular tunes of the country and era in which they are being sung. So it is that in many families in 21st century Britain, traditional lyrics are sung to contemporary, pop and folk melodies on Seder night. When we have identified the individuals we wish to interview I will visit them either in their homes or at their synagogues and record their stories and songs. I will then notate the songs as sheet music, record the songs onto CD and Vicky will edit and write up the stories. At the end of the three years a set of archives will be created and will be housed around the country, at Alyth, other synagogues, libraries and music and academic institutions. The information will also be available on our web site www.jewishrelections.org Please do visit this site which is already up and running and would benefit from your contributions. We are not only concentrating on Seder melodies. I also have an interest in the songs sung round the table on Shabbat, the Zmirot from Friday night, Shabbat lunch and S’euda Shlishit. These melodies are not so old and many emanate from Israel and America but are nevertheless of interest and their variety and provenance are also worth recording for posterity. This is an enormous project and of course I need help. I am very fortunate to have a wonderful resource group who inspire, inform, restrain and support me in the task. Members of this group include Geraldine Auerbach of the Jewish Music Institute, Alexander Knapp lecturer in Jewish Music at the School for African and Oriental Studies, Victor Tunkel collector of, and lecturer in Jewish music and Simon Appleman Head of Music at JFS. I am also looking for volunteers from the eight communities to help me with the interviewing process or to be a contact for the project within their community. We would dearly love to hear from any readers who have an interest in this project. Whether you have songs and stories to be recorded, friends or family to recommend who have songs and stories, or would like to be a volunteer. It doesn’t matter if you don’t live in or even near one of the centres because I am happy to come to you. Please get in touch with me via email or telephone on viv@jewishreflections.org or 07956 912567. The launch of the final anthologies is planned for 2009 and we will be holding events in each centre to coincide with the final publication. I do hope we will see you all at one of the launches and that you will visit the website often. Return to top