THE BOSTON CAMERATA
Daniel Stepner and Jean Lamon, violins
Jane Hershey and Alison Fowle, tenor viols
Laura Jeppesen, bass viol
Sarah Cunningham, violone
Nancy Joyce, recorder and flute
Kenneth Roth, recorder and oboe
Joel Cohen, lute
Aline Parker, harpsichord

Nancy Armstrong, Sallie E. Gordon, Margaret Johnson, Susan Klebanow, Deborah Prince, sopranos
Paul Blanchard, Ken Fitch, Richard Riley, Jane Shaw, countertenors/alto
John Clarke, Bruce Fithian* David Griesinger, Karl Dan Sorensen*, tenors
Mark Baker*, Curt Hayashi, Charles Robert Stephens, basses
(* soloists)

directed by Joel Cohen

Recorded at Emmanuel Church, Boston
Originally released in 1978
Sound engineer: David Griesinger

The words you will be hearing on this recording are sung in Hebrew, a language evolved and first spoken in the Holy Land. Yet the music accompanying these texts is European through and through, recalling the cultural ethos not of the Middle East, but of Venice and Mantua, Avignon and Aix en Provence. Behind this unusual confrontation of differing traditions lies the story of a people and a religion in exile.

Music in the synagogue is traditionally monodic chant, oriental in style and largely ancient in origin. To this day, orthodox Jewish congregations forbid the use of instruments during services; all Jews are considered to be still in mourning for the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. Therefore, the joyful sound of instrumental music is permitted only at weddings.

How surprising, therefore, is the celebratory music of this recording, seen against the background of conservative, even repressive, theological tradition. Yet the Jews of Europe, though restricted in their civil rights and their living space, bound by religious laws intended to keep them a nation apart, still managed to absorb many influences of the dominant Gentile culture. In Renaissance Italy especially, the Jewish community was somewhat freer and less oppressed than in Northern Europe. Renaissance
humanists met to discuss philosphy and theology with learned rabbis, and a number of Jews made their way into society as dancing masters or musicians.

Thus it was with the Rossi family of Mantua, whose most famous offspring, Salamone (ca. 1570 – 1630) , was the most gifted of a whole musical clan (a sister or wife of Salamone, known as Madame Europa, sang the title role in Claudio Monteverdi’s now-mostly-lost opera, Ariana.)

Salamone published thirteen volumes of music: madrigals, dances, sonatas in the nascent baroque style. His secular music was so highly regarded that the Gonzaga prince dispensed him from the obligation of wearing on his clothing the yellow Jewish star. But Salamone’s most unusual and startling effort was a volume of sacred music: the collection “Shirim Asher Li’Shlomo” (“The Songs of Solomon”), published in Venice in 1622, a series of psalms and prayers in the Hebrew language set in the musical idiom of contemporary Italy.

Our selection of works by Rossi includes instrumental music conceived for the Gentile world (Rossi, a violinist, directed an orchestra, composed of Jewish musicians, that performed outside the ghetto), and four sacred vocal works from the 1622 collection. While the instrumental pieces are written in an up-to-date baroque style, the Hebrew prayers are cast in a more conservative, late-Renaissance mold. Rossi’s cautious approach to art music in the synagogue nonetheless met resistance within the Jewish community, which clung to its tradition of unaccompanied monodic chant.

The “Cantata Ebraica” of Carlo Grossi, published in 1681, is the work of a Gentile musician. Like the Provençal composer Saladin, Grossi was evidently commissioned by members of the Jewish community to provide music for a special festive occasion. The “Shomrim Haboker,” or Watchmen of the dawn,” were Jewish fraternal organizations widely implanted in the Mediterranean area during the sevententh century. They held vigils before certain festivals and prayed together for the coming of
the Messiah (a parallel in Christian practice, the vigil mass of Christmas eve, comes immediately to mind). Grossi’s little cantata, written perhaps for the “Shomrim Haboker” of Modena, is a dramatic dialogue between a nocturnal passer-by and a joyful group of celebrants. The choral parts especially seem to be geared to the capacities of amateur musicians, while the graceful recitatives of the soloist recall the operatic style of late Monteverdi and Cavalli.

In the Comtat Venassin of Provence, the Jews were able to enjoy a relatively high degree of freedom and prosperity; once again, an active and flourishing Jewish community has left us an important memento of its musical life. The Canticum Hebraicum, rediscovered in our own days through the efforts of the late Israeli musicologist Israel Adler, celebrates the circumcision of an infant boy. The composer of this sunny, festive work was in all probability a non-Jew, commissioned by a wealthy family of Avignon or Carpentras to provide music for the occasion.

The music is pure Provençal Baroque, and the airs and dances which make their appearances may well have been popular tunes of the day. One can surmise that the proud parents were making efforts to please the Gentile neighbors invited to the ceremony — if the Hebrew text was unfamiliar, the music was certainly comprehensible and appealing. Perhaps an affront to the most intransigent members of both communities, this music transcends barriers, and seems to make a vibrant plea for harmony, friendship, and understanding among neighboring peoples.

Joel Cohen (1979-2013)

PROGRAM, WITH TRANSLATIONS OF THE TEXTS

TRACKS ONE THROUGH FOUR Louis Saladin: Canticum Hebraicum

Prélude

Duo: Ashir le’eli

I will sing unto my God, my rock and my redeemer, songs of rejoicing and of praise, of joy and gladness, “in the midst of the assembly, in the heart of the community.”

Air and duo: Nismecha yachad

Let us rejoice together: our God is one, God living for all eternity. You have given us a perpetual law, a covenant marked in our flesh, on the eighth day.

Chorus: Shelach tishbee

Send us the prophet; let him come quickly, by the grace of Your Covenant, to the people of Israel; let him hasten like a gazelle, according to the word of the prophet, to save Your flock from the jaws of the lion.

Bourée and Rigadon

Prélude and air

Chorus: Ya’aleh v’yatsliach

May the child be born under an auspicious sign, may he grow and flourish like a “watered garden,” may he rise up and prosper, may he escape from destruction. Amen, may God have it so!

Gavotte

Chorus: Ya’aleh v’yatsliach (reprise)

TRACK FIVE Carlo Grossi: Cantata in dialogo

(Solo): Brethren and friends, it is well known that this night is consecrated to the glory of God, but your joy is particularly fervent; tell the reason for your praises.

(Choir): Know, passerby, that a “fullness of joys” is joined together; the joy of the Feast (of “Hosa’na Raba”) is mingled with the joy of our celebration : a brotherhood of the “princes of the people,” our glory, bears offerings to the Temple of the Lord.

(Solo): Honorable friends whose glory is lasting, satisfy again “my heart’s desire” and tell me what is the cause of your gifts : is it a voluntary offering or the fulfillment of a vow?

(Choir): In memory of the day when, for the first time, they (the founders of the confraternity) arose at dawn to pour out their prayers before God in order to hasten the Redemption and the coming of the Messiah, every year, now, at the same time, His glory is exalted.

(Solo): Beloved be the friends who assemble together to address themselves to God, fervently each day, and to glorify Him before daybreak ; may they be rewarded by the greatest happiness.

(Choir): Behold, then, how both the one and the other (of these Feasts) bring magnificence and wonder : in the time of gladness, (at the moment) of our rejoicing, comes “Hosa’na raba;” a supplementary merit is added to the day of virtue.

(Solo): Then, at a time of rejoicing thus “redoubled,” instead of suppressing our song, let us intone a chorus in honour of the master of destiny; may He grant all the desires of the brotherhood.

(Choir): Author of splendid and unfathomable works, You whose grace makes the light shine on the just, grant the brotherhood of the “Watchmen of the Dawn” prosperity and peace til the end of time.

TRACKS SIX THROUGH THIRTEEN Salamone Rossi Ebreo: The Songs of Solomon

Sinfonia grave

Barechu et Adonai ham’vorach

Praise be to the Lord, forever and ever.

Sonata à 6

Eftach na sefatai

Let me open my lips and give utterance to song:
Yea, I will sing to the living God, for His Ark stands ever before us.
When God grants us His salvation, then will I declare His praises.
When the Redeemer comes to Zion my throat show call out in joy;
Yea, I will sing to the living God.
Hearken to the prayer of the opressed, let deliverance spring from the earth.
Then shall Israel be saved and the muted tongue shall find song;
Yea, I will sing to the living God.
Scattered, God, be thine enemies; joyous be those who long for Thee
When thy cause is victorious and they return to the holy stronghold.
Yea, I will sing to the living God.
The redeemed shall march on for God their fortress shall conquer, shall prevail.
Yea, I will sing to the living God.
Be Thou our strengths, bannish sorrow and lamentation;
Then we will sing as once we did when His Ark moved on before us.

Sonata in dialogo

Baruch haba b’shem Adonai

Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord;
We bless you out of the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God, and hath given us light;
Order the festival procession with boughs, even unto the horns of the altar.
Thou art my God, I will exalt thee;
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good.
For his mercy endureth forever.

Sinfonia

Adon olam

Lord of the world, the King supreme,
Ere aught was formed, he reigned alone.
When by His will all things were wrought,
Then was His sovereign name made known.

And when in time all things shall cease,
He still shall reign in majesty.
He was, he is, he shall remain
All glorious eternally.

Incomparable, unique is he,
No other can his Oneness share.
Without beginning, without end;
Dominion’s might is His to bear.

He is my living God who saves,
My rock when grief or trials befall,
My Banner and my refuge strong,
My bounteous portion when I call.

My soul I give unto his care,
Asleep, awake, for He is near,
And with my soul, my body, too;
God is with me, I have no fear.