Chassidic Ecstasy in Music

Chassidic Ecstasy in Music
Author: Shmuel Barzilai
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2009
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9783631584521

Music is of paramount importance in Judaism. On the verse, «Hearken unto the song and the prayer which Your servant prays before You this day» (I Kings 8:28), the Gemarrah states that wherever there is song, there shall be prayer; and indeed, in the Temple, song was an inseparable element of the sacrificial services, thereafter finding its position in the prayers and the Torah reading, with its special melody, in the synagogue. Chassidism employed music as one of its main avenues for serving G-d. Music served to bring the individual to a state of awakening and joy, nullifying sadness which was seen as an element that could only lead to negativity. Joy allowed one to reach ever higher levels in the service of G-d, leaving one's sorrows behind, as explained by the founder of the Modzits Chassidic court, Rabbi Yehezkel of Kozmir, when interpreting the verse, «with joy you shall go forth» (Isaiah 55) to mean that through joy, we shall go forth from all our difficulties. In this book, Shmuel Barzilai takes the reader on a brief and concise tour of the Chassidic courts and their world of music. It explains the wordless melody (Niggun), which is perhaps even more important than songs having words; the importance of dance; the place of honor given to Shabbat songs; and the role of music in Kabbalah. The book provides an overview of the activities of Rabbis who composed and sang at every opportunity, whether in the synagogue or while conducting the traditional Tisch where Chassidic adherents gathered each Shabbat and Festival to hear their Rebbe explain sections of Torah, sing and interpret sayings on music. Barzilai also discusses melodies - niggunim - that became particularly famous, or derived from non-Jewish sources but underwent a process that allowed them to be adopted by the Admoric leaders and integrated into the Chassidic court's repertoire.

Studying Hasidism

Studying Hasidism
Author: Marcin Wodzinski
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2019-08-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 1978804210

Studying Hasidism, edited by internationally recognized historian of Hasidism Marcin Wodziński, introduces previously untapped sources, such as folklore, music, or material culture and shows how they can be employed to answer new questions in the history of Hasidism.

Music in Biblical Life

Music in Biblical Life
Author: Jonathan L. Friedmann
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2013-01-22
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0786474092

Music was integral to the daily life of ancient Israel. It accompanied activities as diverse as manual labor and royal processionals. At key junctures and in core institutions, musical tones were used to deliver messages, convey emotions, strengthen communal bonds and establish human-divine contact. This book explores the intricate and multifaceted nature of biblical music through a detailed look into four major episodes and genres: the Song of the Sea (Exod. 15), King Saul and David's harp (1 Sam. 16), the use of music in prophecy, and the Book of Psalms. This investigation demonstrates how music helped shape and define the self-identity of ancient Israel.

Synagogue Song

Synagogue Song
Author: Jonathan L. Friedmann
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0786491361

Throughout history, music has been a fixture of Jewish religious life. Musical references appear in biblical accounts of the Red Sea crossing and King Solomon's coronation, and music continues to play a central role in virtually every Jewish occasion. Through 100 brief chapters, this volume considers theoretical approaches to the study of Jewish sacred music. Topics include the diversity of Jewish music, the interaction of music and identity, the emotional and spiritual impact of worship music, the text-tone relationship, the musical component of Jewish holidays, and the varied ways prayer-songs are performed. These distillations of complex topics invite a fuller appreciation of synagogue song and an understanding of the ubiquitous presence of music in Jewish worship.

Dance as Third Space

Dance as Third Space
Author: Heike Walz
Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
Total Pages: 421
Release: 2021-12-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3647568546

Dance plays an important role in many religious traditions, in rites of passage, processions, healing rituals or festivals. But it is also controversial, especially in Christianity. Colonial European Christian discourses tend to separate dance from religion(s) and spirituality. This volume explores dance as "Third Space", following Homi Bhabha's postcolonial metaphor. The "Inter-Dance approach" combines interdisciplinary theoretical considerations with case studies. International experts examine dance controversies and discourses from the early church to World Christianity, as well as in Hasidic Judaism, Greek mysteries, Islamic Sufism, West African Togolese religions, and Afro-Brazilian Umbanda. Christian dance theologies are unfolded and the boundary-crossing potential of dance in interreligious and intercultural encounters is explored. The volume breaks new ground in how dance as ephemeral performative art, embodied thought and gendered discourse can transform studies of religion.

The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen

The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen
Author: Rebecca Margolis
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 237
Release: 2024-02-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1666910880

As a linguistic carrier of a thousand years of European Jewish civilization, the Yiddish language is closely tied to immigrant pasts and sites of Holocaust memory. In The Yiddish Supernatural on Screen, Rebecca Margolis investigates how translated and subtitled Yiddish dialogue reimagines Jewish lore and tells new stories where the supernatural looms over the narrative. The book traces the transformation of the figure of the dybbuk—a soul of the dead possessing the living—from folklore to 1930s Polish Yiddish cinema and on to global contemporary media. Margolis examines the association of spoken Yiddish with spectral elements adapted from Jewish legends within the horror genre. She explores how all-Yiddish prologues to comedy film and television depict magic located in an immigrant or pre-immigrant past that informs the present. Framing spoken Yiddish on screen as an ancestral language associated with trauma and dispossession, Margolis shows how it reconstructs haunted and mystical elements of the Jewish experience.

Hasidism

Hasidism
Author: David Biale
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 890
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 0691202443

A must-read book for understanding this vibrant and influential modern Jewish movement Hasidism originated in southeastern Poland, in mystical circles centered on the figure of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov, but it was only after his death in 1760 that a movement began to spread. Today, Hasidism is witnessing a remarkable renaissance around the world. This book provides the first comprehensive history of the pietistic movement that shaped modern Judaism. Written by an international team of scholars, its unique blend of intellectual, religious, and social history demonstrates that, far from being a throwback to the Middle Ages, Hasidism is a product of modernity that forged its identity as a radical alternative to the secular world.

New York Noise

New York Noise
Author: Tamar Barzel
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2015-01-30
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0253015642

An up-close view of the 1990s music scene that brought us neo-klezmer bands, Tzadik Records, and a new vision of Jewish identity. Coined in 1992 by composer/saxophonist John Zorn, “Radical Jewish Culture,” or RJC, became the banner under which many artists in Zorn’s circle performed, produced, and circulated their music. New York’s downtown music scene, part of the once-grungy Lower East Side, has long been the site of cultural innovation, and it is within this environment that Zorn and his circle sought to combine, as a form of social and cultural critique, the unconventional, uncategorizable nature of downtown music with sounds that were recognizably Jewish. Out of this movement arose bands, like Hasidic New Wave and Hanukkah Bush, whose eclectic styles encompassed neo-klezmer, hardcore and acid rock, neo-Yiddish cabaret, free verse, free jazz, and electronica. Though relatively fleeting in rock history, the “RJC moment” produced a six-year burst of conversations, writing, and music—including festivals, international concerts, and nearly two hundred new recordings. During a decade of research, Tamar Barzel became a frequent visitor at clubs, post-club hangouts, musicians’ dining rooms, coffee shops, and archives. Her book describes the way RJC forged a new vision of Jewish identity in the contemporary world, one that sought to restore the bond between past and present, to interrogate the limits of racial and gender categories, and to display the tensions between secularism and observance, traditional values and contemporary concerns. Includes links to audiovisual content

The Science and Psychology of Music

The Science and Psychology of Music
Author: William Forde Thompson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 447
Release: 2021-01-26
Genre: Music
ISBN:

This book provides a broad introduction to the scientific and psychological study of music, exploring how music is processed by our brains, affects us emotionally, shapes our personal and cultural identities, and can be used in therapeutic and educational contexts. Why are some people tone deaf and others musical savants? What do our musical preferences say about our personality and the culture in which we were raised? Why do certain songs remind us so strongly of particular people, places, or events? How can music be therapeutically used to help those with autism, Parkinson's, and other medical conditions? The Science and Psychology of Music: From Beethoven at the Office to Beyoncé at the Gym answers these and other questions. This book provides a broad and accessible introduction to the fascinating field of music psychology. Despite its name, music psychology includes a number of fields, including neuroscience, psychology, social psychology, sociology, and health. Through a collection of thematically organized chapters, readers will discover how our brains recognize elements of music, how music can affect us and shape our identities, and the many real-world applications for such information.