To read more about Klezmer music by Seth Rogovoy press here Full Article

Here is a useful list of books about Jewish Music recommended by Seth Rogovoy, author of "The Essential Klezmer", the popular guide to Klezmer music (available from us, see under Klezmer) The Book List

2. What is Jewish music? By ALEXANDER KNAPP

What is Jewish music? Is it the same thing as music created by Jewish-born composers? The difficulty in finding a large enough umbrella under which all kinds of Jewish music can be brought together arises because the three main branches of the Jewish people (Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Oriental) have lived and developed their arts in culturally distinct regions; and representatives of each group have migrated to other parts of the world, taking the music of their heritage and environment with them. Acculturation is the result, and it plays havoc with any attempt at making a rigorous definition of Jewish music. In his opening lecture to the First International Congress of Jewish Music in Paris in 1957, the eminent ethnomusicologist Curt Sachs defined Jewish music quite simply as "that music which is made by Jews, for Jews, as Jews". This statement has many implications. Does each of the three conditions have to be satisfied in each case? Does the definition apply to art music as well as to liturgical and folk music? Would it be true to say that anything composed not by Jews, not for Jews, not as Jews, is ipso facto not Jewish music?

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3. Cantorial Song - introductions by ALEXANDER KNAPP

The many processes of acculturation are reflected, to a greater or lesser degree, in the music of all ethnic groups, except those that have remained isolated from the outside world. But the Jewish people has been a "nation among the nations" for the best part of two millennia, and so it is hardly surprising that Jewish music should be so highly prone to acculturation that its very existence has sometimes been brought into question.

Of the five main categories of music in society - liturgical, semi-religious, folk, popular/com-mercial, and art - it is the first that has generally resisted acculturation most successfully. The reason for this is that most communities regard their religion and its appurtenances as their most precious corporate possession, and are therefore keen to preserve this sacred component in their tradition against external intrusion.

To read about Cantorial music by ALEXANDER KNAPP click here Cantorial (Ashkenazi and Sephardic)

These two introductions were taken with permission from The Blackwell Companion to Jewish Culture edited by Glenda Abramson, published by Blackwell in Oxford 1989, and with support from the Jewish Music Institute. This book will be published again in 2004 and will be available from us on this website.