Jewish voices in the New World : Chants and prayers from the american colonial era

The CD Old Voices in the New World (with American Jewish songs from the 17th century to about 1830) obviously serves the self-awareness of American Jews. But the CD also offers beautiful points of view regarding the 400-year relationship between our country and Morocco. The synagogues from pre-republic America followed the Western Sephardic traditions as developed especially in Amsterdam (but also… London). Complex cross-pollinations took place in the Mokum of the Low Countries. Out of the need for a kind of 'back to the source', people turned to import hazzanim (liturgical singers) from North Africa, such as Rabbi Isaac Uziel from Fez, Morocco. However, it was inevitable that these overly melismatic chants were sharpened by a more Western sense of metric. The art music and folk melodies of that time will also have left their mark on the synagogue chants. Via Amsterdam, these liturgical practices ended up with sister communities elsewhere, such as in New York. The present CD was made possible in part thanks to the Milken Foundation, founded in 1982 by the brothers Lowell and Michael Milken. Thanks to this foundation, a number of CDs with Jewish-American music were released by Naxos. (HJ) with Jewish-American music. (HJ) with Jewish-American music. (HJ)more