VA - Jewish Voices In The New World - Chants and Prayers from the American Colonial Era

"Jewish Voices in the New World " offers a rare and fascinating collection of synagogue melodies and biblical chants as they were sung in the early American Colonial period, throughout the Revolutionary War, and up through the early years of the new republic. When the first practicing Jews arrived in North America, in the 17th century, they brought the treasured western-Sephardi musical tradition that flourished in "New Amsterdam"—the city that was soon renamed New York. This sacred repertoire continues to this day in America's oldest synagogues, Shearith Israel, established in 1654, and Mikve Israel, founded in 1782.

It is well known that the first Jewish community established in North America began with twenty-three Sephardi Jews who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. Part of a group originally from the Netherlands that had established a sizeable community in Recife, Brazil while it was under Dutch rule, they left after the Portuguese took over and the specter of the Inquisition loomed.

What is less widely known is that this group of Western Sephardim (descendants of Sephardi Jews that fled the Iberian Peninsula and settled primarily in Amsterdam and London) took great pains to maintain their distinctive liturgical music. They continuously imported properly trained cantors from Europe to ensure as little variation in practice as was possible. “In no other area of Jewish practice were they so meticulous,” writes Neil W. Levin in his introduction to this volume. “Thus their liturgical music tradition appears to have been a potent—perhaps the primary—vehicle for defining their internal Jewish identity.” (Levin’s introductory essay to this volume is essential for understanding the origins and history of this tradition.)

That music comprises the first part of Jewish Voices in the New World, which looks at Jewish liturgical music in North America from the Colonial era through the early 20th century. Representing the Western Sephardi musical tradition here are biblical cantillations, piyyutim, and kinot from a variety of liturgical contexts. The most significant of these are the collection Chant’s and Elegies for Tisha b’av that commemorate the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem.

To those accustomed to Ashkenazi liturgical music, that of the Western Sephardim can sound quite foreign. It nonetheless constitutes some of the most interesting music in the Milken Archive and, remarkably, continues to this day in some of America's oldest synagogues.

Tracks:

Barukh habra (Psalm 118:26-29)
Shira ḥadasha (Morning liturgy) 

Chants and elegies for Tisha B'av 

From the evening Kinot:

Eikha (Book of Lamentations excerpt: 2:1-5) 
Aleikhem eda k'dosha  

Al heikhali ev'ke 

From the morning kinot: 

Eikha tzon haharega 

G'rushim 

Ev'ke v'al shod z'vulai 

Heikhal Adonai  

Bore ad ana  

Shirat hayyam (Exodus 14:26-31 ; 15:1-10)  

Ahot k'tanna (Rosh Hashanna morning) 

Haftrat t'tzave excerpt (Ezekiel 43:10-15) 

Shabbat. From the Kabbalat shabbat (Welcoming the Sabbath) and Sabbath evening liturgy:

Mizmor l'David (Psalm 29) 

Mizmor shir l'yom hashabbat--tov l'hodot (Psalm 92) 

Hashkivenu 

Kaddish shalem 

Torah readings. Parashat emor (excerpts):

 Leviticus 22:26-33 ; Leviticus 23:33-44 

Ein keloheinu (High Holy Day melody)

VA - Jewish Voices In The New World - Chants and Prayers from the American Colonial Era

(320 kbps, front cover & liner notes included)