The Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Music and Identity in Contemporary Jewish Worship

ISBN-13: 9780195161816 / Angielski / Miękka / 2003 / 224 str.

Jeffrey A. Summit; Mark Slobin

Opis

Across the United States, Jews come together every week to sing and pray in a wide variety of worship communities. Through this music, made by and for ordinary folk, these worshippers define and re-define their relationship to the continuity of Jewish tradition and the realities of American life.

Combining oral history with an analysis of recordings, The Lord's Song in a Strange Land examines this tradition incontemporary Jewish worship and explores the diverse links between the music and both spiritual and cultural identities. Alive with detail, the book focuses on metropolitan Boston and covers the full range of Jewish communities there, from Hasidim to Jewish college students in a transdenominational setting. It documents a remarkably fluid musical tradition, where melodies are often shared, where sources can be as diverse as Sufi chant, Christmas carols, rock and roll, and Israeli popular music, and where the meaning of a song can change from one block to the next.

Recenzje

"Using as a motif the mystical-romantic Sabbath eve hymn, Lechah Dodi, Summit traces the evolution of melodies through five Boston congregations. He deftly guides the reader—musician and layperson alike—through the religious and musical history, explaining the subtle yet powerful interdependence of sociology, theology, and music. The result is a religious and musical feast. Required reading for anyone who ever hopes to sing a hymn." —Lawrence Kushner, Rabbi-in-Residence at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York

O autorze

Jeffrey Summit is the Rabbi and Director of the Hillel Foundation at Tufts University, where he also teaches ethnomusicology and Judaic Studies.