An Introduction to American Jewish Music
Introducing
the World of American Jewish Music, Milken Archive of American Jewish
Music, Naxos, (2003), $6.98
by Mitchell Bard
The Milken Archive is producing an astounding collection
of American Jewish music – sacred and secular – with the
collaboration of distinguished artists, ensembles and recording producers.
This disc offers highlights of some of the works that appear on the
50 CDs that will initially be available.
Beautifully recorded, this disc contains 19 tracks
with more than 79 minutes of music that begins with Dave Brubeck's jazzy Gates of Justice, a dissonant oratorio that doesn't sound “Jewish,”
but combines texts from the Hebrew Scriptures and the writings of Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. to explore some of the common issues of American
blacks and Jews. It is followed by Leonard Bernstein's recording of Hashkivenu, which is sung in Hebrew. After these two musical
giants, most of the compositions are by less well known musicians and
range from soaring cantorial works to foot-tapping klezmer tunes. There
is beautiful string music, such as Paul Shoenfield's Viola Concerto,
and glass-shattering vocals, such as the Ladino Songs of Love &
Suffering belted out by soprano Lucy Shelton
This is an excellent first choice to get an idea of
what the series is like. Truthfully, some works remind me of nails on
a blackboard, but that's partially my own antipathy toward modern music,
but there is a wide variety of styles and tunes to appeal to any lover
of Jewish music. Beyond the joy of listening to beautiful music, the
Milken Archive is also performing an invaluable service in collecting
and recording the spectrum of American Jewish music.
Like all the CDs in the series, this disc comes with
a marvelous booklet describing the project, offering notes on each recording,
and providing the lyrics of the songs. Information is also available
at the Milken
Archive web site.
We will be reviewing more of the collection in coming
weeks.
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