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AbstractThe past three decades have witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of Arab music among Jewish Israelis. This stands in seeming contradiction with developments in the political arena, which have furthered the epistemic divide between Arab/Palestinian and Jewish/Israeli. This article traces how Israeli national culture invested in projects of nativization, has historically been repeatedly redefined vis-à-vis Arabness in contradictory ways, and in relation to a variety of Arab Others; including different groups of Palestinians and Arab Jews (Mizrahim). A focus on the Jerusalem-based Musrara School, which teaches different classical Eastern music styles, grounds this research ethnographically in the changing formations of (sonic) cultural citizenship among Jewish Israelis. The article shows how these changes lead to the current association of Arab musics with Jewish Mizrahi culture divorced from its conflictual ethnonational registers, and increasingly, also becoming a vector of indigeneity and Jewish exclusivity among the religious settler population in the West Bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "BOOKS RECENTLY PUBLISHED" by James Procell and Matthew Ertz presents a diverse list of music books published in 2023 and 2024, covering a wide range of topics such as music education, cultural history, and music theory. The compilation includes books on various subjects like the lives of musicians, different music genres, and themes like faith and gender in music, offering valuable insights for researchers and music enthusiasts. These publications explore music theory, history, psychology, and cultural practices from different perspectives and cultural contexts, making them valuable resources for those interested in music studies. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the role of music in Jewish thought, specifically its connection to Zionism and messianism. It focuses on the writings of Rav Kook and his belief that music is crucial for understanding the cosmic structure of the present and shaping the future. The article suggests that future works should also include an overview of music in the Sephardic and Mizrahi world, as well as in contemporary European and US Jewish diasporas. Overall, this article provides a theoretical overview of music in Jewish thought and is recommended for academic libraries. The book explores the efforts of the Kennedy administration to promote the concept of "freedom" as a prerequisite for creative achievement, particularly in contrast to the Soviet Union. The author, a cultural historian, examines the influence of figures like Arthur M. Schlesinger and Nicolas Nabokov in shaping this propaganda of freedom. The book delves into the music, composers, and events that were part of the cultural battles of the Cold War era, highlighting the ideological conflicts that mirrored the potential for armed conflict between the US and USSR. [Extracted from the article]

The present article explores the revitalization of the Sephardi selichot (penitential prayers) custom in recent decades in Israel. From melodies that formed part of an early morning synagogue service described in the 1970s as declining in popularity, by the 2020s, Sephardi selichot have established a highly audible place in Jewish-Israeli culture, via large-scale concerts, media broadcasts and popular recordings that define the public Israeli soundscape during the month of Elul and the "days of penitence" between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. These new renditions of selichot have made significant inroads into Israeli public culture, in part through their ability to align the musical-emotional desires of the audience with the artistic and cultural agendas of audiences, musicians, culture brokers and local politicians. The cultural ecology sustaining this transformation embodies deep-rooted processes of change in Israeli society, including the increasing visibility and perceived coolness of Mizrahi culture, and the increasing prominence, since the 1990s, of elements of religious Judaism in Israeli public culture. In this article, we examine how the transformation of the selichot into mainstream auditory culture is articulated through the interweaving of conservative and innovative elements, anchoring a musical-religious repertory in public spaces that resonate both national and religious meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the negotiation of prayer melodies at Or Chadasch, a liberal Jewish synagogue in Vienna, exploring how these melodies represent the community’s balance between tradition and innovation within a progressive Jewish framework. As a “minority within a minority,” Or Chadasch operates on the periphery of Vienna’s Orthodox-dominated Jewish community and global progressive Judaism. The article begins by providing a historical context for progressive Judaism in Austria and by tracing the development of Or Chadasch and its repertoire of prayer melodies. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it explores how the emotional connections of congregants and prayer leaders to specific melodies shape debates on musical tradition, continuity, and communal belonging. Central to this analysis is the concept of minhag (custom), an insider term that serves as a flexible yet deeply rooted foundation in the musical worship practices of the congregation. The article identifies six “modes of minhag”—continuity, habit, authority, potluck, participation, and choice—as distinct approaches through which congregants negotiate persistence and change in prayer melodies. These modes illustrate how minhag functions as both a stabilizing and adaptive force, which accommodates diverse attachments across transnational and transhistorical Jewish musical practices. The study posits that minhag, understood as enacted through multiple modes, transcends a simple binary of tradition versus innovation. Furthermore, the article situates the musical minhag of Or Chadasch within broader ethnomusicological research on minority communities, arguing that this minhag reflects the specific historical, ideological, and sociopolitical positioning of the congregation, thus serving as a living archive of the community’s history.

This article applies the concept of cultural sustainability to Jewish music pedagogies through a comparative analysis of case studies originating in Germany and Canada. Using an interdisciplinary approach grounded in participation-observation ethnographic fieldwork, I propose new methods to gauge the potential for cultural sustainability afforded by Jewish or Jewish oriented pedagogical practices. The examination of these musical pedagogical initiatives arguably has wider implications concerning how Jewish educational rubrics can be developed with flexibility and futures-oriented goals in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shostakovich's direct quotation from the Odessan street song "Bagels, Buy My Bagels!" (Bubliki, kupite bubliki!) in his Second Cello Concerto Op. 126 (1966) featured an unusual style, even in relation to some of his other compositions referencing popular and Jewish music. The song is widely known as one of the icons of the Odessa underworld. Shostakovich's use of this melody as one of the main leit-themes of the Concerto can be compared to the use by the non-Jewish Andrei Sinyavsky of the Jewish pseudonym Abram Tertz, a bandit from the Odessa underworld—the only locus of freedom to tell the truth in a totalitarian society. The time of Shostakovich's address to this song remarkably coincided with the famous Soviet trial of Andrei Sinyavsky and Yuly Daniel in the fall of 1965 and their final sentencing (February 1966) to years in a Gulag camp. The dramaturgy of Shostakovich's Concerto, written in the same spring of 1966, demonstrates the transformation of the theme of "Bagels" into a tragic image. The totality of circumstantial evidence suggests that this opus could be the composer's hidden tribute to the feats of Russian heroic writers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Sara Levy's World: Gender, Judaism, and the Bach Tradition in Enlightenment Berlin" is a collection of essays that examines the life and contributions of Sara Levy, a wealthy Jewish woman in 18th and 19th century Berlin. The book explores Levy's involvement in the salon culture of Berlin and her role in preserving and performing music by the Bach family. It also delves into the tension between Levy's Jewish faith and her participation in Christian sacred music. The book offers a comprehensive assessment of the role of Jewish salonnières in Berlin's cultural landscape, providing a valuable perspective on the contributions of women, particularly Jewish women, in music and culture during this time period. The review suggests that the book is suitable for graduate seminars, but may also be of interest to advanced undergraduate music majors or students in disciplines like Women's Studies or Jewish Studies. [Extracted from the article]

Surreptitiously collected field recordings of cantors at the pulpit, made in disregard for the rules of synagogue comportment, circulated for decades among a small group of collectors in an underground economy of homemade dubbed cassettes. These secret recordings, referred to as "live davenings," usurp the characteristic ephemerality of prayer to document a twentieth century aesthetic concept of cantorial music as an art form beyond its ritual function. In the past decade, many of these recordings have surfaced on YouTube and file sharing sites, reaching an expanded audience and exposing a new generation to a largely abandoned style of liturgical performance. Through ethnography with field recording makers, internet-savvy collectors, and the artists who use the secrets in the live davening archive to build projects of cantorial revival, this article offers an examination of a body of archival material that has not previously been the topic of any scholarly investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses Tzvi Avni's Second Piano Sonata, Epitaph, a sonic commentary on one of the inner tales in Rabbi Nachman's "The Seven Beggars". Written between 1974 and 1979, Epitaph not only marks the composer's act of translation (from words into music and from a textual tale into a wordless and semantically unmarked piano sonata) but also his very turn to ethnographic sources that defied their negative function in a national territorial culture that vilified otherness while separating art from ethnography. Avni's turn to Rabbi Nachman was part of a bigger shift that saw composers' dialectical returns to Jewish histories and cultures that were previously repressed from a national culture which dehistoricized the Diaspora to the point of rendering the times and cultures of diasporic Jews a single temporality—ahistorical, contextless, and outside the teleological time of Zionism. With the (re)introduction of diasporic temporalities, non-redemptive poetics became an affordance in the music of Avni or Andre Hajdu (who is also discussed here) while steadily muting the territorial tropes that constituted Hebrew culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a sociocultural analytical approach, this article investigates the historical background, evolution, and contemporary relevance of Chgouri music for third-generation Moroccan Jews living in Israel. By examining the interplay between music, identity, and societal position, the article seeks to shed light on the multifaceted impact of Chgouri on the community's cultural landscape and broader social dynamics. This investigation exposes the intricate intersections of Chgouri within the community's cultural narrative, offering a scholarly examination of its resonances. Through meticulous analysis, the study discerns the nuanced harmonies that reverberate in the cultural tapestry, providing an academic lens into the profound heritage and socio-cultural implications for third-generation Moroccan Jews in israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first document, titled "The Soul Seeks Its Melodies: Music in Jewish Thought," discusses the historical evolution of the music motif in Jewish thought and explores the encounters between music, Jewish philosophy, and theology. The author, Dov Schwartz, presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for understanding the connection between Judaism and music. The book covers various trends in Jewish thought, including the changing evaluations of music, the role of music in Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah, and the importance of music in Religious Zionist thought. The second document, titled "Sounds of Apocalypse: Music in Poland under German Occupation," focuses on the exploitation of music in the territories absorbed into the greater German Reich and in the countries occupied during World War II. The author, Katarzyna Naliwajek, examines the role of music as a tool of propaganda, myth, and reality during this period. The book provides a comprehensive exploration of musical life under German occupation and its impact on Polish society. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the book "Punk Revolution!" by David Remnick, which explores the history and relevance of punk music. The book features interviews with individuals who have been involved in punk for decades and reflects on the ambitions, achievements, and failures of the punk movement. It examines the contradictions within punk and its ability to provoke individuals to think for themselves and challenge established authority. The article also mentions another book, "Holding the Note: Profiles in Popular Music" by David Remnick, which focuses on the later periods of artists' careers and their continued innovation and impact in the music industry. [Extracted from the article]

The article delves into the influence of colonial radio in French North Africa, particularly examining the categorization of music programs on Radio-Maroc, Radio-Alger, and Radio-Tunis. These programs were designed to cater to a diverse audience, including urban elites, settlers, and indigenous populations, by offering categories such as musique arabe and musique orientale. By incorporating various musical genres, such as Andalusian music, colonial radio played a significant role in shaping cultural identities, political motivations, and the music scene in French colonial cities. The study underscores the impact of radio programming on promoting cultural diversity and cooperation, as well as its role in fostering national identities and preparing for post-colonial radio initiatives. [Extracted from the article]

The 2023 GCNA Congress took place at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Cohasset, Massachusetts, where the church's impressive carillon, the largest in New England, was a central focus. The congress featured recitals, presentations, and discussions on a range of topics related to carillon music, including the history of women carillonists in Massachusetts, programming diverse repertoire, and Chinese influences in carillon composing and arranging. The event aimed to celebrate and explore the rich traditions and possibilities of carillon music. The text also provides information on carillon maintenance, service companies, and DIY tips, as well as summaries of concerts and presentations on women in the carillon community and the Franco Composition Contest. It offers resources, databases, and websites related to carillon music, profiles of women in the carillon field, and insights from composers on their methods of composing for the carillon. The text also includes information on the GCNA business meeting, new members, awards, and post-congress field trips to carillons in Norwood and Wellesley, Massachusetts. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Mysticism in Jewish and Christian literature" by Enrico Fubini and Laurence Wuidar explores the connections between music and mysticism in texts from both traditions. It delves into mystical visions involving music or song, common to both Jewish and Christian narratives. The authors discuss the ineffable nature of music and mysticism, highlighting the importance of exploring the depths of the soul in mystical encounters with the divine. The text offers a dialogue between specialists on the link between music and mysticism, shedding light on the epistemological nature of music in understanding higher realities. [Extracted from the article]

This memorial to composer and Charming Hostess band founder Jewlia Eisenberg explores the queer erotics of "Agadelkha," a musical setting of a piyut by Abraham ibn Ezra and part of Eisenberg's larger "queer piyut," project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music has played a central role in Indian religious experience for millennia. The origins of Indian music include the recitation of the sacred syllable OM and Sanskrit Mantras in ancient Vedic fire sacrifices. The notion of Sound Absolute, first in the Upanishads as Śabda-Brahman and later as Nāda-Brahman, formed the theological background for music, Sangīta, designed as a vehicle of liberation founded upon the worship of Hindu deities expressed in rāgas, or specific melodic formulas. Nearly all genres of music in India, classical or devotional, share this theoretical and practical understanding, extending to other Indic religions like Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. What is less documented is how rāga music has been adopted by non-Indic communities in South Asia: Judaism (Bene Israel), Christianity (Catholic), and Islam (Chishti Sufi). After briefly outlining the relation between religion and the arts, the Indian aesthetics of Rasa, and the basic notions of sacred sound and music in Hinduism, this essay reveals the presence of rāga music, specifically the structure or melodic pattern of the morning rāga known as Bhairava, in compositions praising the divinity of each non-Indic tradition: Adonai, Jesus, and Allah. As similar tone patterns appear in the religious experiences of these communities, they reveal the phenomenon of "shared religious soundscapes" relevant to the comparative study of religion and music, or Musicology of Religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents a synopsis and detailed program note of composer Ernest Bloch's Hebrew choral music "Avodath Ha-Kodesh: The Sacred Service." Portions of the Sacred Service discussed are exposition of man's love for God and the mighty acts of God, Kedusha sanctification, silent devotion, the Returning the Scroll to the Ark ritual in synagogue practice, and the chanted part declaring brotherhood, final communal recognition of Divine sovereignty and confrontation with death and mourning.

Copyright of Menotyra is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)