PaRDeS.
Journal of the Association of Jewish Studies
Vol. 20 (2014)

‘Ein Gebet ohne Gesang ist wie ein Körper ohne Seele.’
 ‘A prayer without a chant is like a body without a soul.’
 Aspects of synagogal music

Published by Rebekka Denz, Dorothea M. Salzer and the European Centre for Jewish Music on behalf of the Association of Jewish Studies in collaboration with the Department of Jewish Studies at the University of Potsdam.

From the Editorial:
‘Ein Gebet ohne Gesang ist wie ein Körper ohne Seele.’ - ‘A prayer without a chant is like a body without a soul.’, it says in the preface of Aron Friedmann’s “Der synagogale Gesang”, written in 1904 (p. 2). For a period of more than 40 years, Aron Friedmann (1855–1936) worked not only as a cantor in Berlin, but was also engaged in sacred Jewish music as a composer and researcher. His study “Der synagogale Gesang” is one of the first works of modern research into the music of the synagogue as it was performed by Ashkenazi Jews. The synagogal chant, i. e. “the chanted prayer” Friedmann is talking about is at the heart of the Jewish musical tradition, and it constitutes the focal point of this year’s PaRDeS edition, which is thereby making a new contribution both to this field of musicology and to Jewish Studies.

From the Table of contents:
Academic articles on the key issue
Architektur und musikalisch-liturgische Praxis: Orgelsynagogen zwischen Klassizismus und Früher Moderne
by Katrin Keßler, Ulrich Knufinke und Mirko Przystawik
Von Budapest nach Straßburg – Der Kantor Marcel Lorand (1912–1988)
by Martha Stellmacher
Ein jüdischer Synagogenmusiker im Berlin der 1930er Jahre: Jakob Dymont und seine Freitagabendliturgie
by Jascha Nemtsov
Ein erster Blick auf ein geschmackvolles altes Kastanienstück: Transkription einer vergessenen Komposition von Kantor Salomon (1781–1829), genannt Kaschtan (d. h. „Kastanie“)
by Daniel S. Katz
Das Jahreskaddisch in der Frankfurter Melodiengestaltung
by Isidoro Abramowicz
Competing Musical Traditions in the Holy Land in the 20th Century and How They Found Their Way into the Synagogue of Belgrade
by Jasmina Huber
In addition, you will find academic articles on further topics as well as a number of book reviews and a choice of recent publications.