Shavua Tov.
Wishing all our Jewish troops, veterans, families, allies, friends, and Canteeners
a peaceful and prosperous week.
Shavua Tov.
Wishing all our Jewish troops, veterans, families, allies, friends, and Canteeners
a peaceful and prosperous week.
Shabbat Shalom, My FRiend.
The Hapsburgs finally let the Jewish community in Vienna open a new synagogue in 1827. Although Reform Judaism is a largely American phenomenon, the roots of it date back to the Enlightenment. The rabbi for the new temple in Vienna was Robert Mannheimer, an avatar of the reform movement. He chose as his cantor a conservative, Solomon Sulzer.
In those days, there were parties in Vienna known as Schubertiades, where Franz would show off his latest songs and piano pieces. During the interludes, Schubert would improvise various German dances at the piano while everyone else danced, and he would later write these down for possible publication. At one gathering, Sulzer chatted with Schubert during a break in the proceedings, and Schubert handed him the hand-written sheet music for “The Wanderer”. Sulzer sight-read and sang it without difficulty. Schubert corrected some of his phrasing while making notes on the original score, and Sulzer sang it again, this time perfectly.
This is what Sulzer sang. At 2:00, we hear the theme Schubert used for his famous Wanderer Fantasie for piano.
Sulzer then hired Schubert to write an a capella Hebrew setting of Psalm 92 for the first service in the new temple. For the next three weeks, Sulzer put Schubert through a crash course in Hebrew. Poetry in Hebrew has neither rhyme nor meter, but is prose with a poetic feel. Then there is the matter of emphasis and accent. It took a bit of coaching, but Schubert rose to the challenge.
This particular video has organ accompaniment, which should have been left out.
