CANTORIAL and CONCERT FAVORITES CANTOR SIMON SPIRO SINGS TRADITIONAL CANTORIAL and CONCERT FAVORITES: MUSIC for the SABBATH, HIGH HOLY DAYS, WEDDINGS and...
CANTORIAL and CONCERT FAVORITES
CANTOR
SIMON SPIRO SINGS
TRADITIONAL CANTORIAL
and CONCERT FAVORITES:
MUSIC for the
SABBATH, HIGH HOLY DAYS,
WEDDINGS and
other HOLIDAYS
The
release of this recording of cantorial classics for both the synagogue and the
concert stage is an example of the Milken Archive's mission to preserve and
bring to new and broader audiences important aspects of the rich musical
heritage of Jewish life in America. The selections heard here embody
interpretations and extensions of the eastern European Ashkenazi cantorial
tradition that developed in Czarist and Hapsburg Europe from the late 19th
century until World War I. This cultivated tradition, known as hazzanut,
involves highly developed, intricate and often florid vocal idioms based partly
on Hebrew prayer modes, biblical cantillation motifs, and traditional tunes,
with additional influences derived from eastern European folk music. Several
of the works on this CD were written by prominent, emigre cantor-composers and
cantorial choir directors who came to this country from Europe during the
inter-war years, often attaining celebrity status; they include Moishe Oysher,
Samuel Malavsky, Joshua Lind and Zavel Zilberts. Cantor Spiro has arranged
many of these compositions, overlaying contemporary musical sonorities and
sensibilities on a traditional foundation.
The
opening selection on this new CD, Ba'avur David, is a liturgical
piece intended for that portion of the service on Sabbaths, Festivals, or High
Holy Days when the Torah scrolls are returned to the arc following the biblical
readings. One of the most familiar of the virtuoso cantorial "warhorses," this
work represents a kind of composite pastiche not infrequently found in the
liturgical repertoire: much of the piece is based on various motifs that were
gradually embellished and extended by different cantors over time. The last
section, however, beginning with the word "hashivenu," is the
acknowledged work of two composers: Joseph Rumshinsky, who wrote the melody,
and the celebrated cantor, David Roitman, who adapted and popularized the
piece. Rumshinsky, one of the best-known composers of the popular American
Yiddish theater and a powerful force on the Second Avenue scene, nonetheless
maintained a connection to synagogue music. As Milken Archive Artistic
Director Neil Levin points out, "Most early choral arrangements of ba'avur
david have leaned toward pedestrian harmonization, deferring to cantorial
interpolations and improvisations to build musical interest. This new arrangement
by Simon Spiro, commissioned expressly for the Milken Archive, combines a
variety of English, American, and eastern European choral timbres and idioms
with a fresh harmonic approach and extended chord structures." At the same
time, it offers opportunities for expressive improvisation in the great
cantorial tradition.
The
beloved Shalom aleikhem, one of two Sabbath z'mirot or
"table-songs" heard on this disc, is customarily sung at home before the prayer
over the wine at the start of the Friday evening meal, to usher in the Sabbath
peace. The tune heard here, by Rabbi Israel Goldfarb, who was also a cantor
and an influential figure in American Jewish music for half a century, is
ubiquitous among American Jews, and has acquired the status of a folk tune.
The
setting of Haven Yakkir Li Efra'im by Samuel Malavsky is an
example of a liturgical piece that has been transformed into a concert work.
During the "Golden Age" of cantor-composers in the United States (the 1930s,
'40s and '50s), it was not uncommon for religious texts with inherent
emotional, even theatrical qualities to receive musical treatment designed to
appeal to a broad audience for performance on the concert stage. The text of Haven
Yakkir Li, taken from the Book of Jeremiah, comes from the Rosh Hashana
(New Year) liturgy, and refers to God's remembrance of the Jewish people and
His unswerving assurance of compassion. The poetry alludes to a relationship
in which a beloved child, though he has provoked justifiable parental anger, is
nonetheless remembered tenderly by the parent and loved just the same. In the
liturgy, this promise extends to the entire Jewish people. Samuel Malavsky
wrote this work in a theatrical vein expressly for the Malavsky Family Choir,
in which he was joined by his six children; the Simon Spiro version heard on
this CD, while deeply expressive, reveals a more restrained approach.
The
seven wedding benedictions or sheva b'rakhot constitute the final
part of a Jewish marriage ceremony following the groom's formal avowal of the
marriage, the placing of the ring, and the reading of the marriage contract.
Intoned either by the wedding officiant or by several individuals, the
recitation of the sheva b'rakhot has been interpreted as a means of
relating the establishment of a new Jewish home to the Creation and to Israel's history. The first benediction is recited over wine, as a symbol of joy, and the
final one blends the personal and the communal, linking the rejoicing of the
couple with the collective joy of Israel. In traditional wedding ceremonies,
these prayers often provided a vehicle for extended cantorial and choral
expression. The elaborate cantorial-choral setting of the sheva b'rakhot
by Simon Spiro heard on this Milken Archive CD is based on a combination of two
earlier compositions by Sholom Kalib and Meyer Machtenberg. In his new
arrangement, Cantor Spiro has gone far beyond the original versions of both
sources, adding inventive chord structures and progressions and incorporating
other traditional cantorial passages, as well as new material.
Eastern
European Yiddish folklore is the source for the final work on this recording, Strange
Happenings: The Holy Day Calamities of Avremele Melamed. Recounting
examples of his comical misfortunes while feigning commiseration, the song
pokes fun at Avremele, a hapless village Jewish schoolteacher, religious
instructor and born "loser." His luck seems always to be against him at holy
day times: forbidden grains appear in his matza dumplings on Passover, he
arrives too late at the synagogue on Rosh Hashana to hear the shofar, his
rooster dies before he can perform an atonement ritual before Yom Kippur. One
of a number of settings about this hapless bumbler, the dramatic concert
arrangement heard here, with its virtuoso solo cantorial element, is by Maurice
Goldman (d. 1984), a prolific composer of both Hebrew liturgical and
Yiddish choral music
Born in
London, Cantor Simon Spiro drew upon his family heritage of Hassidic and
Yiddish cultures and its earlier cantorial tradition in finding his calling. A
leading interpreter of the cantorial art renowned for his virtuoso abilities,
his varied repertoire ranges from classical renditions of traditional European hazzanut
to popular Yiddish song, and from contemporary Jewish musical styles to popular
entertainment. Cantor Spiro's first pulpit was at the famous orthodox St. John's Wood Synagogue, then the seat of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, and he
has subsequently held positions at major synagogues in Canada and the United States. His concert tours have taken him to Australia, South America, Israel, South Africa, and the Far East--performing both cantorial and more popular music and
appearing with well-known stage personalities. In addition, he is an
accomplished composer and arranger whose arrangements of liturgical music are
in great demand by cantors and choirs throughout the world and can be heard on
several successful recordings.