List of Figures

1. ``te'amim'' Passage of the Tanach with accentuation and markings for the cantillation.
2. Comparative markings for vowels and cantillations
3. Pronunciation changes according to the vowels pointings
4. All ten te'amim and the vocal shake symbol (far right)
5. Nigun by Walter Spitzer
6. Coins from the Bar-Kochba revolt period.
7. Lyres on coins from the bar Kochba revolt.
8. ``Praise Him with melodic cymbals, praise Him with clanging cymbals'' - Psalm 150:5
9. Biblical Harp: Nebel reproduced on coins from the bar Kochba revolt period
10. Words related to the root ``song''. For more information see: http://www.musicofthebible.com/ssmm.htm
11. Words derived from the root ``zmr''. For more information see: http://www.musicofthebible.com/zmr.htm
12. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
13. Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786)
14. Jacques-François-Fromental-Élie Halévy (May 27, 1799 - March 17, 1862)
15. Orchestration sample from La Juive with the use of two different kind of horns in parallel
16. Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864)
17. Ernest Bloch (1880-1959)
18. Georges Gershwin (1898-1937)
19. Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
20. Max Bruch (1838-1920)
21. Kol Nidrei prayer
22. Introduction from Kol Nidrei by Max Bruch
23. Kol Nidrei, piano arrangement
24. The second theme of Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei
25. Male chorus arrangement of Kol Nidrei
26. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
27. S. Prokofieff, Overture sur des Thèmes Juifs, beginning
28. Main theme on clarinet, a typical Klezmer setting accentuated with the violins
29. A very middle-eastern sounding passage
30. The Babi Yar monument and its Menorah
31. Public announcement
32. Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
33. Tzadik: those form the ``other'' side.

Abstract:

The very wide subject of Jewish music will be examined in this study from the point of view of the contemporary composer.

I will try here to spotlight some key musical elements like modes, rhythms, maqams, timbre etc., show there usage in actual compositions by Jewish and non-Jewish composers like in Prokofieff's Overture sur des Thèmes Juifs^0.1 or in the 13th. Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich ``Babi Yar''.

Musical form, prosody, timbre and other aspects of the tgraditional Jewish religious music types Piyyut, Zemirot, Nigun, Pizmonim, Baqashot will be shortly examined from a composer's point of view because the author believes they possess a high ``inspirational potential''.

This essay will first briefly present known archaeological information about the Jewish music in pre-Biblical and Biblical times. It will attempt to collect the most reliable information on the music as it was performed in the Temple of Solomon.

Medieval Judaic musical practices will be searched in the Michna and the Talmud, those together with the musical score data collected by various researchers like Idelsohn^0.2[4] or the Russian Society for Jewish Music^0.3 and presently available in ethno-musicological archives in Israel^0.4 and elsewhere will be used in an attempt to describe a ``generic Jewish music vocabulary'' with its most characteristic rhythms, modes and musical timbres.

Some contemporary Jewish composers and their music, musical language and backgrounds will be presented.

It is hoped that this material can be of interest to composers, presenting them with resources crystallized from joy, sorrow, despair, horror, dream and faith.