About the Composer In that he has always devoted his gifts to Judaically related and general musical expression with equal emphasis, SAMUEL ADLER (b. 1928)...
About the Composer
In that he has always devoted his gifts to Judaically related and general musical
expression with equal emphasis, SAMUEL ADLER (b. 1928) is a unique phenomenon
among those established mainstream American composers whose Jewish identities
have informed a part of their art. Adler has long been in the forefront of both
worlds, not only artistically as a composer (his primary endeavor), but also
intellectually and academically as a lecturer, educator, and author. Among 20th-century
American Jewish composers, perhaps only the life of Hugo Weisgall (1912-97)
offers some parallels. Both had fathers who were learned émigré
cantors in the Central European mold; both devoted substantial creativity to
Jewish subjects while never circumscribing themselves parochially; both have
been generally perceived as prominent in each field; both served on faculties
of major universities and conservatories; and both established lifelong official
affiliations with major American institutions of higher Jewish learning: Adler
with the Reform movement, through his ongoing association with the School of
Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College, and Weisgall with the Conservative movement
and the Jewish Theological Seminary - as chairman of the faculty of its Cantors
Institute and Seminary College of Jewish Music. But while Weisgall's oeuvre
includes only one full-length synagogue service, Adler has written and continues
to write prolifically for the Hebrew liturgy (in addition to his numerous nonliturgical
Jewish works), and he has been a consistently active participant in the cantorial
and Jewish musical infrastructure in America, especially - though not exclusively
- within the Reform arena.
Adler was born in Mannheim, Germany, in the last years of the optimism and
creative fervor of the Weimar Republic. His father, Chaim [Hugo Ch.] Adler,
was a highly respected cantor at Mannheim's chief Liberale synagogue, where
the orientation was the mainstream German-Jewish synthesis of tradition and
modernity - most closely approximating the American Conservative movement's
path in many respects. Chaim Adler was also an active liturgical composer. Within
a year after the nationally orchestrated pogrom known as Reichskristallnacht,
in 1938, and the realization of doom for German Jewry's future, the family immigrated
to America, where the elder Adler obtained a position as a cantor in Worcester,
Massachusetts. There the young Samuel Adler (originally Hans) displayed his
musical talents at an early age. He became his father's choir director when
he was only thirteen and remained at that post until he began his university
studies. During that early period he began composing liturgical settings, at
first under his father's influence and soon developing his own style. At the
same time, he benefited from exposure to the full gamut of Ashkenazi synagogue
repertoire - particularly the western and Central European schools of the 19th
and 20th centuries.
Adler holds degrees from Boston University (BM.) and Harvard (M.A.). He studied
composition with Aaron Copland, Paul Hindemith, Walter Piston, Hugo Norden,
and Randall Thompson, and studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at the
Berkshire Music Center, Following his discharge from the United States Army,
he was appointed music director of Temple Emanu-EI in Dallas, a position he
held from 1953 until 1966. He established an elaborate musical structure within
that congregation, with five distinct choirs - four children's and youth choirs,
and an adult volunteer chorus that reached a membership of ninety. Under his
direction they performed the works of most of the important American, English,
European, and Israeli synagogue composers. They also premiered works by Fromm,
Freed, Schalit, Helfman, Saminsky, Binder, Jospe, Starer, Avni, Orgad, Haidu,
Alexander, Ben Halm, and Hugo Adler. During this tenure Adler composed three
complete Sabbath services (evening and morning) - B'sha'arei T'filla; Shir
Hadash; and Shiru Ladonai - and companion pieces for the High Holy
Days and the Three Festivals. He was also a professor of composition at the
University of North Texas, and director of the Dallas Lyric Theater for four
years.
After leaving Dallas to become professor of composition (later chairman of
the department) at the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York, Adler
maintained his associations with both Reform and Conservative congregations
throughout the United States, and he continued to devote considerable attention
to composing for the synagogue and for Jewish secular subjects and texts. In
1969 he edited and published a two-volume anthology of music for the High Holy
Days, Yamim Noraim, subsequently revised and expanded to accommodate
new prayerbooks published by the Reform movement. In Rochester he also formed
a fruitful association with Samuel Rosenbaum, the resident cantor Cantor. Rosenbaum's
talent for creating lyrics, libretti, and artfui Yiddish translations resulted
in a number of collaborations with Adler on new cantatas: A Falling of Saints,
Stars in the Dust, Ever Since Babylon, and Flames of Freedom, among
others, in addition to many shorter works based on folk arrangements. Together
with Rosenbaum, Adler also organized a series of monthly Havdala concerts
(Saturday evening programs at the close of the Sabbath), presenting instrumental
as well as vocal Jewish music, and he recorded ten albums of Jewish Holy Day
music for Rochester's FM radio station WXXI that were later broadcast nationally
for many years. During the early 1960s, concerned with cultivating taste among
younger generations, Adler established - together with Rabbi Alexander Schindler
(then executive vice president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations,
the Reform movement's lay organ) - a program of Jewish music study and performance
at a Reform-affiliated summer camp in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.
Adler's catalogue comprises more than 400 works in nearly all media, including
six symphonies, twelve concerti, eight string quartets, five operas, many shorter
orchestral works, pieces for wind ensembles and concert bands, other chamber
music, and dozens of choral settings and songs - all in addition to his liturgical
music. Some of these works are related to biblical and other Jewish historical
subjects, and some deal specifically with Jewish experience, such as his fifth
symphony, or his first cantata, The Vision of Isaiah, which formed his
dissertation at Harvard. Adler has written more than sixty liturgical and Psalm
settings, for a cappella as well as organ and instrumentally accompanied chorus.
In addition, he has produced several collections of arrangements of Hebrew,
Yiddish, and Ladino songs. His works have been performed by such major symphony
orchestras as Cleveland, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles;
by Europe's and Israel's major orchestras; by many of the most prestigious chamber
groups in the United States and abroad; and by choruses throughout the world.
Since retirement from Eastman (where he remains professor emeritus), Adler
has taught on the faculties of Ithaca College, the University of Cincinnati,
Bowling Green State University, the University of Missouri, and other such institutions,
and he has served on the faculty of The Juilliard School since 1977. He has
received commissions and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; the
Ford, Rockefeller, and Koussevitzky foundations; the city of Jerusalem; the
Pro Arte Quartet; and numerous other symphony orchestras and institutions. He
is the recipient of many awards and prizes, including the Charles Ives Award,
the Lillian Fairchild Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship
for five seasons, the Distinguished Alumni Award from Boston University, and
Eastman's Eisenhart Award for distinguished teaching. In 2001 he was elected
to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also conducted
major orchestras across North America, Europe, the Far East, and Israel.
For more than fifteen years Adler served on the editorial board of Transcontinental
Music Publishers (after it became a nonprofit affiliate of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations) and was its chairman for several years. He continues to
be one of the most commissioned composers by American synagogues, and he has
taught frequently over the past two decades at the School of Sacred Music of
Hebrew Union College, offering numerous residencies and master classes and enjoying
a special relationship with the various musical divisions of the Reform movement.
He has also conducted many instructional sessions and workshops at conventions
of both the Cantors Assembly and the American Conference of Cantors, bringing
choral groups from Eastman to perform for cantorial delegates from around the
world - performances that often included world premieres of Judaic works. Adler
lectures regularly on Jewish and general musical topics at universities and
synagogues throughout America, and he is a frequent scholar-in-residence at
various congregations.
He is the author of three books: Choral Conducting (1971); Sight
Singing (1979, 1997); and The Study of Orchestration (1982, 1989),
reissued in an expanded edition together with CD-ROM format in 2002. He has
published many articles in music journals and entries in reference works and
encyclopedias. His articles on Jewish music have appeared in the Central Conference
of American Rabbis journal; Jewish Music; European Judaism; Musica Judaica;
Diapason; The American Choral Review; and many others.
-Neil W. Levin
Program Notes
FIVE SEPHARDIC CHORUSES
In 1991 Adler and translator/lyricist Cantor Samuel Rosenbaum were commissioned
by a consortium of more than twenty congregations to write a work commemorating
both the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 and 1497 and the
arrival of western Sephardi Jews in North America in 1654. The lengthy work
that emerged was entitled Ever Since Babylon, and a number of choruses
who performed it later asked Adler to extract portions from the oratorio that
could be sung as a suite. There resulting work is Five Sephardic Choruses
(utilizing the Greek form of the word, rather than the Hebrew Sephardi,
although the latter has become more common in recent years). Not all five melodies,
however, are strictly Sephardi – i.e., part of the heritage of Jews whose
ancestry extends to pre-expulsion Spain - as the Sephardi categorization has
sometimes been extended loosely and simply to embrace non-Ashkenazi traditions
of other eastern Mediterranean, western and central Asian, and Arabic Jews.
Yom gila is a Sephardi tune (Yom gila yavo), sung on the
holyday simhat torah, which joyfully celebrates the Torah, or divine
teaching, immediately following the Festival of Sukkot. It is known in several
variants throughout the Sephardi world, and scholars have transcribed some of
those variants from communities such as Jerusalem and Salonika.
Ya ribbon olam is one of the Sabbath z'mirot - hymns traditionally
sung at the table during or after the festive Sabbath meals. The text is by
Israel Najara (c.1555-c.1628), but numerous tunes exist in Ashkenazi, Sephardi,
and other traditions.
The melody of Ein keloheinu in this suite comes from the Amsterdam
- or western - Sephardi tradition. In the form used by Adler here, it is typical
of the dignity and solemnity of many of the hymn tunes of that aggregate community.
ln Ashkenazi ritual, this text, which is attributed to mystical sources, occurs
toward the end of the morning service on Sabbaths and other holy days. According
to several liturgical sources and authorities. it was designated for that place
in the services in order - by virtue of its acrostic - to bring the total number
of b'rakhot (benedictions) in the just-completed amida (the core
set of prayers and b'rakhot said standing) to the daily number of nineteen from
their abbreviated number of seven on Sabbaths and Festivals. According to that
line of reasoning. the acrostic functions as a reference to those missing b'rakhot,
serving as a "substitute." In Yemenite and Sephardi rituals (in which
the text contains some variations), ein keloheinu is also included on
weekdays.
Adon olam is most widely known as a concluding hymn of Sabbath
and other holy day morning services and can also be sung at the conclusion of
those evening services - which some authorities suggest was its original function.
(The same poem is also part of the preliminary morning liturgy in traditional
contexts.) The poem, which gives evidence of Arabic meter that is frequently
found in medieval Spanish-Hebrew poetry, is thought to date to the 11th or 12th
century. It has been attributed to various poets of that period, including Solomon
Ibn Gabirol. Although there is no universal agreement concerning Gabirol's authorship.
those who lean toward that conclusion point to his philosophical poem Keter
malkhut (Royal Crown), where God is addressed in terms similar to the overall
theme of adon olam. The musical version upon which Adler's piece is based
is from Sephardi tradition.
Zamm'ri li is apparently Yemenite in origin, or by tradition.
Although it does not appear in any diwan (poetry compendium) of the Yemenite
Jews, its text refers to "the joy of Yemen," and the tune is typically
Yemenite in character. Its Yemenite provenance is further supported by the fact
that its text is a paraphrase of another, similarly known Yemenite song,
Sapperi li yona. The first known version appears in an obscure 1932 Palestinian
Hebrew songster, Shirei ha'aretz, published by Menashe Ravina (Rabinovitz).
The refrain, ya'alu na (or, ya'alu ya'alu in some variants) tziyon
mizraha (onward to Zion), has obvious Zionist significance and is therefore
assumed to have been added later to the original two lines. The song, which
gained substantial popularity in Israel, was subsequently published in various
songsters for Israeli schools. Its most recent setting is a choral arrangement
by the Israeli composer Sergiu Shapira, published in Tel Aviv in 1997.
-Neil w. Levin
NUPTIAL SCENE
(Note by Samuel Adler)
Nuptial Scene was commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra in
cooperation with the city of Jerusalem for the celebration of the fourth "Testimonium,"
a festival to preserve Jewish heritage. The work was written in September 1975
and premiered in Jerusalem in February 1976 with the Jerusalem Symphony, Juan
Pablo Izquierdo conducting and Adi Etzion as soloist. It is dedicated to Recha
Freier, the originator and prime mover of the festival.
Nuptial Scene is based on a simple medieval poem of prenuptial instruction.
Part of it is in Catalan and part in Hebrew. The poem originated in Catalonia,
where a highly developed Jewish community existed until the expulsion of 1492.
A mother is instructing her daughter in the ways and strategies of marriage
and rejoicing with a "new song" for a "new bride." When
I initially planned the setting of this lovely poem, I realized that the age
of the daughter would be about twelve, for girls in that historical period were
married at puberty. This set in motion a scheme for the composition, since my
oldest daughter was thirteen at that time, and I used her psyche to give me
direction. When a girl of twelve or thirteen thinks of a wedding, she is completely
captivated by its frills - the dress, the party, the dancing. In her imagination,
the reality of a husband or any kind of domestic responsibility would be nonexistent.
Therefore, during the mother's ardent pleas, instructions, admonitions, and
even innuendos, the daughter's mind wanders and dreams of dancing. Musically,
the rather straight, somber rhythm and melody of the song are interrupted by
an independent, faster dance speed of the bongos and by scattered fragments
of an actual medieval Spanish-Jewish dance. At the point where the mother speaks
of sensuous marital problems, she herself becomes excited, and in a nostalgic,
dreamlike spirit - with the use of improvised melodic lines for which only the
gestural outlines are given - she goes into a kind of rapturous trance. The
daughter, however, seems unmoved, and she falls asleep. The mother calms down,
puts her head on the daughter's shoulder, and quietly muses, then also closes
her eyes.
THE BINDING (excerpt)
An Oratorio in Three Parts
For soli, chorus, and orchestra
[Editor's Note: The term akeda (binding), or akedat yitzhak (the
binding of Isaac [for sacrifice]) refers to the biblical incident (Genesis 22:1-19)
wherein God tests Abraham's faith by instructing him to prepare his son, Isaac,
for ritual sacrifice. This story constitutes one of the central narratives in
Judaism, both because it demonstrates Abraham's worthiness to be the founder
of the Israelite people - through his unquestioning faith in God and His wisdom
- and because its conclusion serves as an unequivocal admonishment against the
practice, under any circumstances, of human sacrifice. At the same time, the
narrative also illustrates Isaac's faith and devotion as the second Jewish patriarch.
The akedat yitzhak is therefore frequently cited in the Hebrew liturgy.
On Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, when this biblical portion is read, the
sounding of the shofar - the ram's horn - is also, among other things, a reminder
of the ram that appeared out of the thicket for sacrifice in place of Isaac.
Many commentaries and interpretations of this story throughout the centuries,
including the Talmud, suggest that the divine request was only "to prepare
Isaac for sacrifice" as a test - hence the binding - but not necessarily
to go through with the deed. -NWL]
(Note by Samuel Adler)
In early 1937, my father, the cantor at Mannheim's Liberale synagogue and a
highly regarded Judaic and liturgical composer in Germany, wrote an oratorio
entitled Akedah. It was to have its premiere in Stuttgart in the spring of 1938.
Its text was based on both the biblical story of the binding of Isaac and on
postbiblical literature related to the subject. In the oratorio's libretto,
there was an emphasis on Isaac as a symbol or metaphor for the entire people
of Israel being persecuted as an "innocent sacrifice." Everyone involved
in the performance was concerned lest the Nazi party officials read the libretto
too carefully and realize its contemporary significance. Indeed, the day before
the dress rehearsal, a group of storm troopers entered the hall and confiscated
all the scores and parts. We saved one piano score and one full score and brought
these with us to the United States when we emigrated as a family. My father
eventually rewrote nearly all the oratorios he had composed in Germany, but
he died before he had a chance to revise this one.
When I was about to leave my professional positions in Dallas, in 1966, Temple
Emanu-EI, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Dallas Chamber Music Society
commissioned me to write a work for performance in May 1967. I chose to use
most of my father's Akedah text and to base my own work on that seminal
story. But I asked my friend Rabbi Albert Freelander - then in residence in
London - to write an English libretto that would also be based on both biblical
and postbiblical sources. It emerged in three parts. The first is devoted to
the Call to Abraham and Abraham's answer. It also includes the drama
of Abraham and Isaac's journey to Mount Moriah, leaving their servants at the
base camp and ascending to the top by themselves. The second part (featured
in this recording) is based on Talmudic and Midrashic sources. Satan appears
to both Abraham and Isaac to challenge the validity of Abraham's commitment.
To differentiate Satan from Abraham and Isaac in musical terms, I have written
his part strictly according to twelve-tone serial technique. This greatly contrasts
the music associated with Satan with that of the other two characters, giving
it a jagged and angular contour. Isaac may be sung by a boy soprano or a young
woman. Throughout this second part, the orchestra, with brass and percussion
juxtaposed against the more mellow sounds of strings and woodwinds, mirrors
the angular parameter as well as the calmer moments. The final part addressed
the fact that though Isaac was spared, our own human proclivity to understand
the word of God only conventionally, according to our own interpretations, will
always lead to the sacrifice of our sons and daughters - until we try humbly
to read God's word in a broader context. This work nonetheless concludes on
a very optimistic note.
SELECTIONS FROM SAMUEL ADLER'S
SYNAGOGUE MUSIC
El melekh yoshev is one of the principal supplications of the
s'lihot, or penitential, liturgy, which is recited throughout Yom Kippur and
daily during the s'lihot period preceding Rosh Hashana and leading up to Yom
Kippur. The text belongs to the oldest portion of s'lihot liturgy, thought to
date to the Babylonian and Talmudic period (and perhaps known then in Palestine
as well). It imagines God as the omnipotent King who sits on a "throne
fashioned out of mercy" - and who thus, by His very nature and essence,
pardons His people according to the "thirteen attributes of God's mercy."
Those are contained within the text as well. Adler wrote this setting as part
of a suite of High Holy Day liturgical pieces, entitled Hinei Yom Hadin
(Behold, the Day of Judgment!). In this one, his aim was to mirror the typical
undertone of communal prayer recitation in orthodox and traditional synagogues.
"I have always been fascinated by the sound of a praying congregation,"
noted the composer, "when everyone prays and recites at his own pace, typically
in a murmuring 'singsong' that can appear to be mumbling. I have tried to simulate
that effect at the beginning of this piece, with the chorus intoning the opening
words at various speeds before the cantor's entrance. This is a very dramatic
text, drawing an awesome picture of God as He judges each individual, yet always
with mercy; therefore, I have tried to create a tension in the music, which
is only partially resolved at the end in the prayer."
The setting here for cantor and organ of the evening prayer Ahavat olam,
which refers to God's everlasting love for the House of Israel and His gift
of laws by which to live, is taken from Adler's complete Sabbath eve service,
Shiru Ladonai, which was written during the 1960s while he was music
director at Temple Emanu-EI in Dallas. The Reform movement was then beginning
to envision the inclusion of women as officially invested cantors (the first
female cantor was invested by the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College
in 1975). But Adler, along with many other composers and choirmasters, was quick
to realize that most cantorial settings - even those without extended virtuoso
tenor cantorial idioms - were more suitable for male voices. In this service,
therefore, Adler paid special attention to writing settings that would be at
least equally appropriate for female and male solo voices.
While ahavat olam is recited at every evening service including weekdays,
this setting is specifically for Sabbath eve. It is therefore based on the particular
Ashkenazi prayer mode for that service, with its formulaic cadence at the conclusion
and the b'rakha (benediction).
The setting here of Sim shalom, the prayer for peace toward the
end of traditional morning and afternoon services, is also from Adler's complete
Sabbath eve service, Shiru Ladonai. Like his Ahavat olam in that
service, this setting was written for either female or male cantor. Adler did
not intend the piece exclusively for Jewish worship services, however. "This
text has a more universal connotation for me," he has written. "it
is intended to be a meditation on peace and on the ecstasy of the vision of
all people living together in harmony."
The liturgical settings Bar'khu, Sh'ma yisra'el, V'ahavta, and
Mi khamokha were commissioned by the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations to celebrate the U.S.A. Bicentennial in 1976 and were premiered
at the UAHC convention that same year.
-Neil W. Levin
SYMPHONY NO.5
(Note by Michael Winesanker)
Symphony No.5, subtitled We Are the Echoes, was begun in Rochester in
October 1974 and completed in Vienna in February 1975. In five movements, the
symphony calls for a large orchestra and soprano soloist. It is based on Jewish
poetry that reflects aspects of Jewish experience throughout history. The first
movement is centered around a German poem, "We Go," by Karl Wolfskehl,
translated by Valhope and Morwitz. It tells of the hunted, hounded, wandering
Jew through the ages. The voice relates the dreadful tale of endless persecution,
with the orchestra lending dramatic urgency by its driving pace in a relentless
perpetual motion. The feared "knock at the door," which has so often
signified death, begins the movement, and reminders of it pervade the entire
symphony.
"Even During War," by the American poet Muriel Rukeyser, serves as
text and inspiration for the music of the second movement. It speaks of hope
and peace in the face of hardship and gloom. In ternary form, the two outer
segments are lyrical and reflective in mood, while the middle portion is in
a contrasting fast tempo.
The source of the third movement is a short poem by James Oppenheimer titled
"The Future." It mirrors the Jews' "mission" in a conversation
between a man and a stranger (the Future) knocking at the door. The demand for
complete dedication is acknowledged by the man's eventual resolve "to follow
unquestioningly the unknown." There are special orchestral effects in winds
and strings, including glissandi, all calculated to capture the weird
sense of mystery as backdrop to the dialogue. The "hard knocks at the door
which constantly summon man" are heard throughout the movement.
The symphony takes its subtitle from the poem on which the fourth movement
is based. "We Are the Echoes" was written by Carol Adler, former wife
of the composer. She writes of the burdens the Jew must bear, of the memory
of his unfortunate past and the dream of a better future. But the problems persist;
the echoes remain; the questions are unresolved. In the music we hear motives
of Hebraic chant introduced in turn by various instruments. At one point there
is a free improvisatory (aleatoric) passage for orchestra, culminating in the
soloist's plea, "Take away your echoes." Yet the traditional echoes
endure.
The text of the finale is an English translation of a Yiddish poem by philosopher
and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972). "God Follows Me Everywhere"
(Got geyt mir nokh umetum) reflects man's personal involvement with God.
Musically, it resembles the second movement - slow and singing at first, then
fast and fiery, at the close calm and quiet, with the words "Now and then,
high above me, I catch a glimpse of the faceless face of God."
(Note by Samuel Adler)
The special Jewish experience - through its centuries of struggle both intellectually
and physically, with its many vicissitudes as well as victories - is reflected
in the thoughts of the chosen poems: the Jewish idea of a personal relationship
between man and his God; the burning conviction or even command that the Jews'
mission on earth is to be "a light unto the nations"; the "nagging
conscience" that never Jets him rest but calls him to continuous service
to all mankind; as well as the ever-present hope and faith that basically man
is good and "will overcome," so that in the end of days all men will
be brothers. With these ideas the text was gathered and the symphony fashioned.
Texts and Translations
FIVE SEPHARDIC CHORUSES
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
YOM GlLA
A day of joy will yet come in our days; blessing and salvation will come in
our time.
YA RIBBON OLAM
God, You are the Master of the world - this and all worlds;
You are the King who reigns over all kings.
You perform powerful and wondrous acts,
and it is beautiful for us to sing and declare Your praise.
I shall organize the singing of praises to You morning and evening,
holy God, who created all life - holy angels as well as mankind,
beasts of the field as well as birds in the sky.
REFRAIN:
God, You are the Master ...
EIN KELOHEINU
There is none like our God;
There is none like our Lord;
There is none like our King;
There is none like our Saviour.
Who is like our God?
Who is like our Lord?
Who is like our King?
Who is like our Saviour?
We will give thanks to our God;
We will give thanks to our Lord;
We will give thanks to our King;
We will give thanks to our Saviour.
Worshiped be our God;
Worshiped be our Lord;
Worshiped be our King;
Worshiped be our Saviour.
You are our God;
You are our Lord;
You are our King;
You are our Saviour.
ADON OLAM
Lord of the world, who reigned even before form was created,
At the time when His will brought everything into existence,
Then His name was proclaimed King.
And even should existence itself come to an end,
He, the Awesome One, would still reign alone
He was, He is, He shall always remain in splendor throughout eternity.
He is "One" - there is no second or other to be compared with Him.
He is without beginning and without end;
All power and dominion are His.
He is my God and my ever living redeemer,
And the rock upon whom I rely in time of distress and sorrow.
He is my banner and my refuge,
The "portion in my cup" - my cup of life
Whenever I call to Him.
I entrust my spirit unto His hand
As I go to sleep and as I awake;
And my body will remain with my spirit.
The Lord is with me: I fear not.
ZAMM'RI LI
Sing to me, innocent and pure dove,
sing to me with the joy of Yemen: Onward to Zion.
NUPTIAL SCENE
Sung in Hebrew and Catalonian
Text: based on a 15th-century Catalan-Hebrew wedding text
A NEW SONG FOR THE BRIDE
Lady, see your husband often,
Serve him well; best of all,
Be he great, or young, or like a child:
"Beloved, sleep between my breasts."
A new song.
If he wishes to choose another wife also,
Clothe yourself seductively and say to him,
"Lord come in here, come in here.
I have made up my bed with finery."
A new song.
Translation: the composer
THE BINDING (excerpt)
A Biblical Oratorio
Sung in English
Texts compiled by Hugo Chaim Adler, based on Genesis 22 and traditional teachings
of the Midrash and Haggada.
English adaptation by Albert Friedlander.
PART II
Dramatis Personae
Narrator: Freda Herseth
Satan: Joseph Evans
Abraham. Raphael Frieder
Isaac: Freda Herseth
NARRATOR
But it was for Satan a source of distress
That the two walked off together in peace.
And he garbed himself in a wanderer's dress
And stood at a byway along which their path lay!
And his whispers reached Abraham through the dark trees.
SATAN
Whence, whence, whence your way, you two?
And why do you press on?
ABRAHAM
We journey onward so we may pray.
Why do you ask, and what is your concern?
SATAN
To pray? How strange. With knife and firestone?
And why this heavy load? Why all that wood?
ABRAHAM
It is a far-off place to which we turn,
where we will raise our hands in prayer.
We may well need it to prepare our food.
SATAN
Ha! Ha! ...Old man, you mock me there.
Look at me, look at me now.
Look and recall: was I not present when you thought
you heard out of God's own mouth that shattering word?
Take now your only son and offer him unto me.
Abraham! Abraham! Almost a hundred years have come and gone
in which you flourished like a cedar, proud and tall.
And now you would destroy a young and tender soul?
For a dream of the night in the ban of dark night
reduced to a murderer's role.
ABRAHAM
Be silent! Be silent! I know you, I know your word.
Away from my side. The Holy One, Blessed be He,
who was and who is, and who will be,
in Him I confide!
NARRATOR
Now Satan rushed over to the side of the lad
in the form of a boy of the same age and said:
SATAN
Whither so early along this way?
ISAAC
I go to study great teaching today.
'Tis sweeter than honey, more precious than gold!
SATAN
It is lovely to learn,
but I have been told that death ends a lesson.
Will you learn when you're dead?
ISAAC
Can one learn when you're dead?
I don't understand.
SATAN
Listen my boy! You are holding the hand of that old man there.
He would lead you astray! A fantastic dream has become his way.
An imagined God's word has designed you his prey,
And you are doomed to be slaughtered in the course of this day!
ISAAC
Did you hear, O father?
How heavy a burden for your soul to bear,
How deep a grief for your whitened hair.
ABRAHAM
O son, death is so very close to you and me,
Ready to take us both. But it will be that God
Whose comfort has been my shield
Will comfort us both until we enter death's field.
NARRATOR
But the devil now screamed in the father's face
What he glimpsed through the veil of mystery.
SATAN
Do you think your actions God's call will embrace?
A dirty sheep, a dirty sheep will your sacrifice be.
ABRAHAM
My son, one who has spent his days sowing lies,
May speak the truth once, but though he tries,
No one will hear his cries.
ISAAC
Father.
ABRAHAM
Here I am, my son
ISAAC
Here is the firestone and the wood,
but where is the sleep for the offering?
ABRAHAM
God will provide the sheep for the offering, my son.
CHORUS
Thus did the two week off together.
EL MELEKH YOSHEV
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
God, King, You occupy a throne built on mercy.
Your, deeds, reflect Your loving-kindness.
You forgive Your people' s iniquities -
Putting each aside, one by one.
You expand forgiveness for the sinner, and pardon
for the transgressor.
Your righteousness extends to all creatures of flesh and spirit;
You do not assign a full measure of punishment to those who err.
God, You taught us that when in need of atonement, we are to
recite Your thirteen attributes of mercy.
Thus, today we ask You to remember us for our well-being.
Remember: take note of You covenant with us, which enumerates
those thirteen attributes.
You revealed all this to You humble servant Moses centuries ago,
as is recorded in Scripture:
"And the Lord had descended in a cloud; He stood with Moses there
and proclaimed the Lord’s name. The Lord passed before Moses and said":
ADONAIADONAI
The Lord, the Lord, God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, trusting in loving-kindness
and truth; preserving His grace for thousands, forgivinginiquity and transgression,
and cleaning from sin.
Pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Yow own.
AHAVAT OLAM
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
You have loved the House of Israel, Your people, with an abiding Iove –
teaching us Your Torah and commandments, Your statutes and Judgments. Therefore,
upon our retiring fm the night and upon our arising, we will contemplate Your
teachings and rejoice for all time in the words of Your Torah and its commandments.
For they are the essence of our Iife and the length of our days. We will meditate
on them day and night. May Your love never leave us. You are worshiped, O Lord,
who Ioves His people Israel.
SIM SHALOM
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
Grant peace, goodness, blessing, grace, loving-kindness, and compassion to
us and to all Israel Your people. Bless us, our Father, all of us as one, with
the light of Your presence. For with that light, You gave us a life-giving Torah,
an appreciation of loving-kindness, righteousness, blessing, mercy, life, and
peace. May it be good in Your sight to bless Your people Israel at all times,
at every hour with Your peace. You are worshiped, O Lord, who creates peace.
BAR'KHU
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
Worship the Lord, to whom all worship is due.
Worshiped be the Lord, who is to be worshiped for all eternity.
Amen.
SH'MA YISRA'EL
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
Listen, Israel! The Lord is our God.
The Lord is the only God - His unity is His essence.
Worshiped and honored be the very name of His kingdom forever and ever.
V'AHAVTA and MI KHAMOKHA
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
V'AHAVTA
You shall love the Lord, Your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul
and with all your might. Take to heart these words with which I command and
charge you this day. Teach them to your children. Recite them at home and when
away, when you lie down [to sleep at night] and when you arise. Bind them as
a sign on your hand and to serve as a symbol between your eyes [on your forehead];
inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
In order that you shall remember and observe all my commandments and be holy
before your God. I am the lord your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt
to be your Lord. I, the Lord, am Your God.
MI KHAMOKHA
Who, among all the mighty, can be compared with You, O Lord? Who is like
You, glorious in Your holiness, awesome beyond praise, performing wonders? When
You rescued the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds, splitting the sea in the presence
of Moses, Your children beheld Your majestic power and said: "This is our
God: The Lord will reign for all eternity." It is also said: " Just
as You delivered the people Israel from military power, so also may You redeem
all humanity from oppression." You are worshiped, O Lord, who redeemed
Israel. Amen.
HASHKJVENU
Sung in Hebrew
Translation by Rabbi Morton M. Leifman
Cause us, O Lord, our God, to retire for the evening in peace
and then again to arise unto life, O our King.
and spread Your canopy of peace over us.
Direct us with Your counsel and save us
for the sake of Your name. Be a shield around us.
Remove from our midst all enemies, plague, sword,
violence, Famine, Hunger, and sorrow.
And also remove evil temptation from all around us.
sheltering us in the shadow of Your protecting wings.
For indeed You are a gracious and compassionate King.
Guard our going and coming for life and in peace,
from now on and always. Spread over us
the sheltering canopy of Your peace.
You are worshiped, O Lord (He is worshiped, and His name is worshiped),
who spreads the canopy of peace over us
and over all Your people Israel, and over all Jerusalem. Amen.
SYMPHONY NO.5 We Are the Echoes
Sung in English
I. WE GO
Poem: Karl Wolfskehl (1869-1948)
Translation from the German by Carol North Valhope and|
Earnest Morwitz
Do not ask: where?
We go.
We have been told to go
From the days of our fathers, fathers.
Abram went, Jacob went,
They all had to go,
Go to a land, go from a land,
All of them bent
Over the path of the farer,
Of those who never spared themselves.
All of them went, staff in the road-hard hand,
Promise in their hearts, eyes filled with Him,
Our God who bade us go on and on,
Turned to the one and only goal.
A hounded rest when He called a halt,
Strange farings from Nile to Rhine.
Long farings in dread
Until wells brim,
Meager wells
For wavering. restless rest -
My roots reached down before those rotted
Who hunt me now, but I was a guest
In the land of others - always a guest.
Unthinkably long I rested there.
But never knew a rest that gives repose.
Our rest was drowned in tears and sweat and blood.
A sudden lightning and it cracked
In a cry:
Gone by, gone by!
In the full flare of sun -
We go.
Again He drives us,
Again He dooms us
To His eternal law:
To go on,
To go on!
II. EVEN DURING WAR
Poem: Muriel Rukeyser
Source: Rukeyser 1944
Even during war, moments of delicate peace
Arrive; ceaseless the water ripples, love
Speaks through the river in its human voices.
Through every power to affirm and heal
The unknown world suggests the air and golden
Familiar flowers, and the brief glitter of waves,
And dreams, and leads me always to the real.
Even among these calendars of fire.
Sings: There is so much to fear, but not our power.
The stars turn over us, let us not fear the many.
All mortal intricacies tremble upon this flower.
Let us not fear the hidden. Or each other.
We are aiive in an hour whose burning face
Looks into our death, death of our dear wish.
And time that will be eating away our flesh
Gives us a moment when blue settles on rose
And evening suddenly seems limitless silver.
The cold wind streaming over the cold hill-grasses
Remembers and remembers.
Mountains lift into night.
And I am remembering the face of peace.
I have seen a ship lying upon the water
Rise like a great bird, like a lifted promise.
III. THE FUTURE
Poem: James Oppenheimer
Source: Ausubel 1957
I arose swiftly that night, for I heard a knock at my door.
"Who's that?" I asked.
And there answered one on the outside,
"The Future."
"What do you want?" I asked.
"Your life, your service, your agonies
of toiling ...
I demand all."
" And what is the pay?" I asked.
"Death ..."
We two were silent: the snow fell in the streets:
The night was still,
"And is that all?" l asked.
"Yes, that is all… "
"And who shall gain by my travail?"
He did not answer: I started out.
IV. WE ARE THE ECHOES
Poem: Carol Adle
Source: Adler, 1975
We are the echoes
the refugees of echoes
gingerly we pick among the shards
pretending to search
searching for what
for we are fooling no one
there is no one to fool
even the ghetto is a hideous dream
and the nation so long
we have longed for
is finally a young heifer
growing into its own
yet where have we gone
and what is our promise
we who sit here praying not for prayers
but for miracles
we who call to the Unknown
only to mock It when It comes
or is the mockery only despair
the shawl we wrap around us
because we must
take away you, echoes
we say
talking to you as if you were listening
find another place for them
another time
put them back in their boxes
bury them
or carry them so high we will never hear them
even when they fall
they fall from us
stillborn
they rise before us
standing on the mountains
like statues
standing on the mountains
and calling
V. GOD FOLLOWS ME EVERYWHERE
Poem: Abraham Joshua Heschel
Translation from Yiddish by Samuel Rosenbaum
God follows me everywhere
Weaving a web of visions around me
Blinding my sightless spine like a sun.
God follows me like an enveloping forest
And continuously astonishes my lips into
awesome silence
Like a child lost in an ancient sanctuary.
God follows within me like a tremor.
I want to rest; He demands, Come -
See how visions are scattered aimlessly in the streets.
I wander deep in my own fantasies, like a secret,
Down a long corridor through the world.
Now and then, high above me, I catch a glimpse
of the faceless face of God.
About the Performers
CANTOR ROSLYN JHUNEVER BARAK has served Congregation Emanu-EI in San
Francisco since 1987, a year after her graduation and investiture from the School
of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. She
received her vocal training at the Manhattan School of Music in her native New
York City and has been the recipient of a number of awards. Before entering
the cantorate, she was a concert and opera soprano, performing in the United
States and in Israel, where she lived for three years and sang with the Israel
National Opera.
CANTOR RICHARD BOTTON was born to Sephardi parents in the Bronx, New
York. His mother had come to America from Istanbul and his father from Salonica,
Greece. As a child, he was immersed in the music and language of Ladino folksong,
and he later pursued cantorial studies at the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew
Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion. He served Temple Emanu-EI of Long
Beach, New York, from 1955 through 1974. After that, until his retirement in
1998, he was cantor and music director of Central Synagogue in New York City.
Cantor Botton has also appeared in concert with the Robert Shaw Chorale, the
Bach Aria Group, the Brooklyn Philharmonia under Lukas Foss, the Paul Whiteman
Orchestra on Arthur Godfrey's television show, the Fort Worth Symphony, and
on numerous opera stages.
He sang in the premiere of Bernstein's Dybbuk.
Soprano PHYLLIS BRYN-JULSON was born in Bowdon, North Dakota, and trained
as a pianist at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Encouraged by Gunther
Schuller, she undertook vocal study at Tanglewood, later studying at Syracuse
University. In 1966 she made an acclaimed debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
in Berg's Lulu Suite. This success was followed by engagements with major
orchestras throughout the United States, including the New York Philharmonic
under Pierre Boulez. Although she has sung a wide repertoire, the purity of
her voice, a three-octave range, and perfect pitch have made her internationally
renowned as an interpreter of 20th-century music. She has sung the premieres
of works - many written for her - by such composers as Leonard Bernstein, David
Del Tredici, Ned Rorem, Phillip Rhodes, Charles Wuorinen, Krzysztof Penderecki,
Heinz Holliger, and Boulez. In 1976 she made her stage debut under Sarah Caldwell
in Boston as Malinche in the American premiere of Roger Sessions's opera Montezuma.
She made a critically acclaimed debut at the Proms in London the following year
and has also appeared in opera at Covent Garden. She has toured throughout the
world with the Ensemble Intercontemporain under Boulez and given recitals at
the Salzburg and Warsaw festivals, as well as elsewhere in Europe, Israel, and
North America. Bryn-Julson has also taught in many venues, including the Britten-Pears
School and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and she is professor of voice at the
Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1988 she became the first American
ever to give a master class at the Moscow Conservatory.
Soprano MARY ELLEN CALLAHAN was born in California and studied at California
State University, Hayward, and at the Manhattan School of Music, where she earned
her M.M. degree in 1992. As a concert soloist, her repertoire ranges from Renaissance
to contemporary, including many works by Bach and Handel. She has performed
with such organizations as the San Antonio Symphony, the Choral Arts Society
of Washington, the Washington Bach Consort (with which she toured Germany),
the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Hartford and Kansas City symphony orchestras,
the Carmel Bach Festival, the Dessoff Choirs, AmorArtis, and Musica Sacra, and
she is familiar to New York audiences as a soloist with the Collegiate Chorale,
the Riverside Choral Society, and the Central City Chorus.
Baritone TED CHRISTOPHER studied at the Curtis Institute and The Juilliard
School, where his teachers included Marlena Malas, Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, and
Beverly Rinaldi. He was first introduced to Jewish music as a chorister and
soloist in the professional male chorus Schola Hebraeica, with whom he sang
and toured the United States and England during his student years and at the
beginning of his solo career. With companies including the San Francisco Opera
Center, the Vancouver Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, and the Skylight
Opera, Milwaukee, he has appeared as Mozart's Figaro, Guglielmo, and Don Giovanni,
as well as Rossini's Figaro, Belcore in L'Elisir d'Amore, and Marcello
in La Bohème. His concert engagements have taken him to Carnegie
Hal, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C, and Davies Symphony Hall in San
Francisco. In a special celebration of Ned Rorem's seventieth birthday, in 1993,
Christopher sang War Scenes with the composer at the piano.
Originally from Mississippi, JOSEPH EVANS studied music at the University of
North Texas. He has sung leading tenor roles at the New York City Opera, as
well as in guest appearances with companies including those of Houston, Seattle,
Boston, and Cleveland. In 2000 he created the role of Camp in Carlisle Floyd's
Cold Sassy Tree at the Houston Grand Opera, and he sang the role of Captain
Vere in Britten's Billy Budd in Seattle and Tel Aviv.
RAPHAEL FRIEDER was born in Israel and studied singing and choral conducting
at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel Aviv. He has performed with the New Israeli
Opera as well as with all of Israel's major orchestras, under such prominent
conductors as Zubin Mehta, Gary Bertini, and Roger Norrington. Leonard Bernstein
invited him to sing in the world premiere of his Arias and Barcarolles
(version for two voices and piano) in 1989 in Tel Aviv. In Europe, Frieder has
appeared at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and
t
5 Sephardic Choruses (more info)
-
I. Yom Gila - 1:43
-
II. Ya Ribbon Olam - 1:11
-
III. Ein Keloheinu - 2:16
-
IV. Adon Olam - 2:09
-
V. Zamm'ri Li - 1:14
Nuptial Scene (more info)
-
Nuptial Scene - 8:59
The Binding (more info)
-
The Binding (excerpt) - 8:57
El Melekh Yoshev (more info)
-
El Melekh Yoshev - 2:59
Ahavat Olam (more info)
-
Ahavat Olam - 1:56
Sim Shalom (more info)
-
Sim Shalom - 2:02
Bar'khu (more info)
-
Bar'khu - 1:13
Sh'ma Yisra'el (more info)
-
Sh'ma Yisra'el - 1:34
V'ahavta and Mi Khamokha (more info)
-
V'ahavta and Mi Khamokha - 3:36
Hashkivenu (more info)
-
Hashkivenu - 4:46
Symphony No. 5, "We are the Echoes" (more info)
-
I. We Go - 3:41
-
II. Even During War - 4:52
-
III. The Future - 4:57
-
IV. We Are the Echoes - 6:39
-
V. God Follows Me Everywhere - 5:11
Narrow your search
Classical Music
