Soundscape Synagogue

Project description: “Soundscape Synagogue” Database

The European Centre for Jewish Music, an institute of Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, is currently setting up the “Soundscape Synagogue” online database. This database will enable users to access material (data, facts, objects and other mediums) in relation to past and present Jewish cantors as well as information on the various traditions of liturgical Jewish music (Minhag Ashkenaz, Minhag Polin, the Sephardic tradition etc.).

The database's scope will be wide-ranging, enabling users to find, for example, biographical data, outlines of individual intellectual and artistic works, information on traditions and regions, as well as digitized photographs and sheet music. In addition, the database will indicate other sources and storage spaces in which similar or related materials are housed, such as archives, libraries or commercial recordings. Another feature will be the possibility to save and to retrieve digitized ethnological sound and film recordings. Last but not least, the database will show the rich musical traditions of different Jewish communities as they are practised today.

Designed for a broad target group, the database not only invites, for example, Jewish communities but also musicians to resuscitate the music samples saved in the knowledge base by putting them into practice again. Furthermore, the biographical data will provide a rich basis for academic research, including an abundance of topics to support the research of students and scholars from numerous disciplines. More broadly, the inclusion of musical components will enable everybody, including school classes and young people in general, to discover Jewish history and Jewish life.

In order to be able to offer as much information, documents and items as possible, the EZJM needs your help. Do you possess tangible or intangible testimonies of liturgical Jewish music / synagogue music or in respect to cantors that you would like to place at our disposal? This includes, for example:

  • Estates
  • Sheet music
  • Correspondence
  • Newspaper articles
  • (historical) audio recordings
  • Photographs
  • Personal memories: do you remember melodies that were sung in your community in bygone days, or do you have recollections of a cantor in your community? We would be very happy if you were willing to share these memories with us.

Or do you have information regarding other people or places who we could contact?
If so, we would be very grateful if you could get into contact with us:

E-Mail: Soundscape Synagoge

Tel.: +49–(0)511–844887–100
Fax: +49–(0)511–844887–105

 

Persons to contact

Prof. Dr. Sarah M. Ross
Director of the EZJM
T. +49-(0)511-3100-7120
E-Mail: Prof. Dr. Sarah M. Ross

Link to the database

Last modified: 2022-03-29

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