title: Hashkivenu (Let Us Lie Down in Peace)
composer: Bernstein, Leonard
publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
catalogue number: M051467259
voicing: SATB div, T solo
accompaniment: organ
language: Hebrew
text: Friday evening synagogue liturgy
year of composition: 1945
timing: 6:30
recordings: Naxos (Leonard Bernstein: A Jewish Legacy)
level of difficulty: challenging
service: any evening service
description: This early work by Bernstein is a setting of the evening prayer for peace, commissioned by New York’s Park Avenue Synagogue. In ternary form, the outside sections in the Phrygian mode in flowing triple time, stand in sharp contrast with the highly syncopated Lydian middle section.
title: Kaddish (Sanctification)
composer: Rossi, Salamone
publisher: Transcontinental
catalogue number: 982046
voicing: SSATB
accompaniment: a cappella
language: Aramaic
text: liturgy
year of composition: 1622 (published)
timing: 3:00
recordings: Rossi
level of difficulty: moderate
service: Sabbath musaf service (Separdic or Italian rite)
description: Salamone Rossi, a Jewish composer working in the Gonzaga court in Mantua at the beginning of the seventeenth century, composed the only substantial collection of polyphonic music for the synagogue to appear before the nineteenth century. The “Kaddish” (or “doxology”) is set here in the joyous style of the balletto.
title: Kiddush (Sanctification)
composer: Kurt Weill
publisher: European American
catalogue number: EA 399-7
voicing: SATB div
accompaniment: piano (or organ)
language: Hebrew
text: Sabbath liturgy
year of composition: 1946
timing: 3:15
recordings: Jewish Composers in America
level of difficulty: moderate
service: Sabbath evening service
description: A rare liturgical gem from the pen of the great German-American composer. Like many of his works, “Kiddush” blends elements of jazz (the blues scale) with classical formalism. This setting of the blessing over the wine, commissioned by New York’s Park Avenue Synagogue, is dedicated to the composer’s father, Albert Weill, chief cantor in Dessau, Germany until 1919.
title: Kol Nidre (op. 39) ("All Vows" -- Yom Kippur Eve Service)
composer: Arnold Schoenberg
publisher: Boelke-Bomart
catalogue number: 20
voicing: SATB, narrator
accompaniment: large orchestra
language: Aramaic, Hebrew and English
text: Yom Kippur liturgy & Schoenberg
year of composition: 1938
timing: 11:00
recordings: Sony 44571
level of difficulty: moderate
service: Yom Kippur eve
description: This work is much more demanding on the orchestra than the chorus. It is based on the traditional Yom Kippur text and its Ashkenazic melody, but the composer consciously avoided any hint of sentimentality.
title: Ledor Vador (In Every Generaion)
composer: Meir Finkelstein (arranged by Joshua Jacobson)
publisher: Transcontinental
catalogue number: 992074
voicing: SATB (solo S or T)
accompaniment: piano or organ
language: Hebrew (or English)
text: synagogue liturgy
year of composition:
timing: 3:00
recordings: The Songs Live On
level of difficulty: easy to moderate
service: any morning service
description: A very sweet setting of the last paragraph of the Kedushah (Sanctification). The choir supports the cantor and sings the melodious refrain.
title: Mah Tovu (How Good Are Your Dwellings)
composer: Louis Lewandowski
publisher: Broude Brothers
catalogue number: CR-69
voicing: SATB, T (or bar) solo
accompaniment: organ (or piano)
timing: 3:00
language: Hebrew (alternate English)
text: liturgy
year of composition: circa 1882
recording: Majesty of Holiness (HZ-912)
level of difficulty: moderate
service: opening of any service
description: Louis Lewandowski was the first musician to serve the Jewish synagogue as a choirmaster serves a church. In 1864 the building in Berlin of the Oranienburgerstrasse Temple, which was equipped with an organ, offered Lewandowski the opportunity of creating an entire new service with organ accompaniment — a task never before undertaken. The culmination of his career came in 1882 with the publication of his magnum opus, Todah W’Simrah (Thanks and Song), a setting of the entire liturgical cycle for four-part choir, cantor and organ. “Mah Tovu” is the prayer recited upon first entering a synagogue. Its homophonic style, somewhat reminiscent of Mendelssohn, evokes the pomp and formality of worship in nineteenth-century Berlin. An orchestration is available from Transcontinental Publications.
title: Maoz Tsur (Fortress Rock) and Chanukah Candle Blessings
composer: traditional (arranged by Abraham Binder and Joshua Jacobson)
publisher: Transcontinental
catalogue number: 992017
voicing: SATB. Solo (any voice)
accompaniment: piano or organ (optional)
language: Hebrew and English
text: liturgy for Chanukah
year of composition: 1990 (re-arrangement)
timing: 2:05
recordings: Lights
level of difficulty: easy to moderate
service: Chanukah
description: A fairly straightforward setting of the traditional Ashkenazic melody for the three blessings of the Chanukah candles—the choir provides a wordless accompaniment to the soloist. The Maoz Tsur (again in the traditional Ashkenazic melody) is sung in homophony by the full chorus, with some lovely chromatic harmonies.
title: Maoz Tsur/ Fortress Rock
composer: Hugo Weisgall
publisher: Theodore Presser
catalogue number: 342-40014
voicing: SATB
accompaniment: a cappella
language: Hebrew (English alternate available)
text: Modecai Ben Yitzhak (Hanukkah hymn)
year of composition: 1957
timing: 1:05
recordings: Lights
level of difficulty: moderate
service: Chanukah
description: Weisgall’s setting (one of a group of “Three Hebraic Folksongs”) is based on an old Italian Jewish melody. Weisgall’s style is lean, terse, and elegant.
title: May the Words (Yih’yu le’rotzon)
composer: Hugo Weisgall
publisher: T. Presser
catalogue number: 312-40507
voicing: SATB
accompaniment: a cappella
language: Hebrew (English alternative text)
text: Psalm 19:14
year of composition: 1935 (revised 1950)
timing: 2:00
recordings: Naxos 8.559425
level of difficulty: challenging
service: any service
description: A beautifully crafted setting of the verse that ends the silent prayer in the Jewish liturgy. This slow meditation has some difficult but stunning enharmonic key changes.
title: Min Hametsar (From out of the Straits)
composer: Jacques Halévy
publisher: Transcontinental
catalogue number: 982073
voicing: SATB (TBB soli)
accompaniment: a cappella or organ
language: Hebrew
text: Psalm 118
year of composition: ca. 1818
timing: 7:11
recordings: The Majesty of Holiness
level of difficulty: moderate
service: Hallel (Festival Psalms)
description: The great opera composer wrote this setting when he was 18 years old for his father. It is a dramatic setting of the “Hallel” Psalm from the Festival liturgy.
title: Silent Devotion and Response (from "Sacred Service")
composer: Ernest Bloch
publisher: Broude Brothers
catalogue number: BB 179
voicing: SATB
accompaniment: a cappella (optional prelude for organ)
timing: 2:15
language: Hebrew (alternate English)
text: Psalm 19:14
year of composition: 1933
recordings: The entire Sacred Service can be heard on SONY SM2K47533.
level of difficulty: moderate
service: any
description: This octavo is a brief excerpt from Bloch’s magnum opus, “Sacred Service” (“Avodat Hakodesh”), one of the only truly great choral-orchestral settings of the Jewish liturgy. The brief prelude (“silent devotion”) for keyboard (actually a reduction of the orchestration) may easily be omitted. This neo-romantic work gives the chorus the opportunity to show off its blend and its ability to phrase expressively. The tempo is slow, the mood is contemplative and the mode is Dorian.
title: Sim Shalom (Grant Peace)
composer: Max Janowski
publisher: Transcontinental
catalogue number: 986022
voicing: SATB, T solo
accompaniment: organ or piano
language: Hebrew
text: liturgy
year of composition: 1968
timing: 5:00
recordings: The Songs Live On
level of difficulty: moderate
service: any morning service
description: Janowski had a rare gift for melody, and his melodies were modal, invoking the strains of traditional Eastern European synagogue music. The chorus must be able to sustain a long phrase and to sing comfortably in the upper range of their voices. A powerful and dramatic tenor soloist is called for.
title: Song of Praise
composer: Robert Starer
publisher: MMB
catalogue number: MMB 89001
voicing: mostly unison (some two-part), any combination of voices
accompaniment: piano (or harp, violin and cello)
timing: 4:40
language: Hebrew and English
text: from Psalm 92
year of composition: 1988
recordings: Jewish Composers in America
level of difficulty: easy
service: Friday evening
description: Robert Starer belongs to the generation of young Jewish musicians who fled Austria in the 1930s. After spending a decade in Jerusalem, Starer eventually settled in the United States. “Song of Praise” is one of Starer’s many works in which he alternates Hebrew and English lyrics. The writing is basically tonal (or modal), but frequent and unexpected modulations are common. The voicing is flexible enough so that this piece works equally well with all-male, all-female or mixed choirs, large or small. This is the first of four choruses in the Psalm suite, Mizmor L’David.
title: Tefillah (Prayer for the State of Israel)
composer: Burger, David
publisher: Transcontinental
catalogue number: 992018
voicing: SATB div
accompaniment: piano
language: Hebrew
text: liturgy, prayer for the State of Israel
year of composition: 1975
timing: 4:40
recordings: The Songs of Israel
level of difficulty: moderate, somewhat challenging
service: Sabbath morning, Israel Idependence Day
description: Burger’s music reflects his strongly emotion ties to the Jewish people. This prayer for peace in the State of Israel is lyrical, yet powerful. Not too difficult.
title: Tov Lehodos (It Is Good to Give Thanks)
composer: Franz Schubert
publisher: Broude Brothers
catalogue number: CR 43
voicing: SATB, baritone solo and SATB quartet
accompaniment: a cappella (optional organ)
language: Hebrew (alternate English)
text: Psalm 92
year of composition: 1828
timing: 4:15
recordings: Majesty of Holiness
level of difficulty: moderate
service: Friday evening
description: In 1828 Cantor Salomon Sulzer commissioned Schubert to compose a setting in Hebrew of the Sabbath Psalm for his renowned choir. The work, in ABA form, is in the style of the part songs of the early Romantic period.
