Passport to Jewish Music: Its History, Traditions, and Culture

Heskes, Irene. Passport to Jewish Music: Its History, Traditionsk and Culture. tara publications, New York, Maryland, Israel, 1994.

“The contents are based upon the author’s lectures and writings, products of several decades of dedicated study and scholarly labors in the field of Jewish music.” From the Preface. My particular line of inquiry asks whether there is anything about music being used for war. Any psychology of music.

“A wide range of subject matter has been treated . . . Part I opens . . . highlighting significant contributions by collectors o f Jewish music . . . important repositories of unique collections. Chapter two details the valuable achievements of two leading figures in Jewish musicological research and publication (Abraham Zvi Idelsohn and Gershon Ephros) . . . The next four chapters . . . cover a substantial range of music directly related to Jewish religious expression. . . Special musical traditions for . . . religious observances . . . life cycle events . . .

“The five chapters in Part III . . . the heritage of Sephardic and Oriental Jewry . . . Then Part IV provides . . Jewish mysticism. . . Yiddish musical expression is the core subject of Part V. . . entertainment artistry . . . Russian nationalism . . . Joel Engel and the St. Petersburg Society for Jewish Folk Music, and the subsequent influences beyond Russia to America and Israel. Part VI is devoted to music reflective of the Holocaust era . . . Richard Wagner . . . Nazism . . . musc as expressive of resistance and survival in the ghettos and concentration camps. References are made to collections of the Holocaust songs and of the topical inspiration to post-war compositions.

“Part VII . . . three centuries of Jewish musical expression in America. . . pre-Colonial years to American Independence; the nineteenth century before and after the Civil War; a roster of Jewish hymnodists, including Alois Kaiser, William Sparger, Max Spicker, Sigmund Schlesinger, Frederick Emil Kitziger, and Edward Stark; American Jewish hymnals and various editions of the Reform Union Hymnal; Yiddish minstrelsy and the particular contributions of song writers . . . and a notable roster of educators, scholars, organizations, and publications.

“The next four chapters as Part VIII are devoted to the musical expression of Zionism and the emergent State of Israel. . . Part IX consists of chapters on several notable composers who happen to have been of Jewish lineage. . . concludes with a roster of biblical text settings by non-Jewish as well as Jewish composers.

“The book is rounded out with Part X, a chapter devoted to a historical view of musical expression on the part of Jewish women, and then concludes with a brief Afterword of summary remarks. . . Index of Personalities.”

All of the above from the Preface.

Many citations, reference notes, and “information regarding other available sources of material on a particular topic (Preface xi).” Irene Heskes also wrote/compiled “The Resource Book of Jewish Music (Greenwod Press, 1985), “an annotated bibliographic compilation of the many publications in this field: reference works, books and monographs, articles, periodicals, pedagogical materials, anthologies, hymnals, and song books (Preface xi).”

“Plato, after all, had urged that the role of music in society be given serious consideration (155).” “Throughout the time of Hitler, parading Nazis sang out such lyrics as: Wenn das Judenblut vom messer spritzt, dann gehts noch mal so gut (Whe Jewish blood flows from the knife, then everything goes so well). Thus, ideology was defined through musical expression (158).”

“Prisoner-ensembles played for the physical exercises ad military drills of the guards as well as for their leisure entertainment. All too frequently, musical performances accompanied the marching off to death of fellow victims. Survivors recall hearing radioi broadcasts over camp loudspeakers, even of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, playing music as men, women, and children were being enslaved, abused, and then murdered (158).”